Faraway rules: how to play and how to score

Faraway quick rules

The goal

You explore a mysterious continent over eight turns. Each turn, you play a Region card to the right of the previous one, building a row of eight cards. At the bottom of each Region, an inhabitant offers a quest that earns fame at the end. The key idea: at the end, you score the cards backward, from the last one played to the first.

Reading a Region card

At the top, a big number from 1 to 68, each unique, shows the exploration duration. Each Region is blue, red, green or yellow, and a moon around the number marks a night exploration. Some show wonders (uddu stone, chimera, thistle), others a Clue, which helps you find Sanctuaries. The quest is at the very bottom.

Playing a Region

You always have three Region cards in hand. At the start of the turn, everyone secretly picks a card and places it face down, then all are revealed at once. Play your card to the right of the ones you’ve already played.

Finding a Sanctuary

Compare your new card with the Region you played last turn: if its number is higher, you find a Sanctuary. You get one Sanctuary card, plus one per Clue in your tableau, and keep only one. A Sanctuary can bring wonders, a Clue, a night exploration, and sometimes its own quest. Nobody finds one on the first turn.

The display

The display shows one more Region than the number of players. Players visit it one at a time, from the lowest number played this turn to the highest: take a Region to get back to three cards, then place your Sanctuary if you found one. A low number picks first, a high number finds Sanctuaries. On the eighth turn, nobody takes a Region.

The quests

A quest earns fixed fame, or points per element: each wonder, each card of a color, each night exploration, each Clue or each set of the four colors. Some have a condition, wonders drawn above the points: if it isn’t met at scoring, the quest scores zero. One wonder can count for several quests.

Scoring

After the eighth turn, flip your Regions face down, leaving your Sanctuaries face up. Reveal them one by one starting from the last one played, on the far right: each quest counts what’s visible at that moment, itself, the Regions already revealed and all your Sanctuaries. Then add your Sanctuary quests. On a tie, the lowest-numbered Region wins.

Beginner traps

Playing a greedy quest too late: at the end of the row, it will see almost nothing. Comparing your new card with your biggest card to find a Sanctuary: you only compare with last turn’s Region. And forgetting your Sanctuaries at scoring: they count for every quest.

How to score Faraway

Region 8

Your last Region played, on the far right: it’s scored first and sees only itself and your Sanctuaries.

Regions 7 to 2

Score them one by one, from right to left: each sees the Regions already revealed to its right, plus your Sanctuaries.

Region 1

Your first Region played, on the far left: scored last, it sees all 8 of your Regions.

Sanctuaries

The quests on your Sanctuaries, scored once all the Regions are revealed.

Tie-breaker

On a tie, the player with the lowest-numbered Region wins.

Worked example

Emma reveals her Regions from 8 to 1: 0, 3, 4, 0, 6, 8, 5 and 10 fame, so 36. Her Sanctuaries score 7: 36 + 7 = 43 fame.

Common mistakes

• Scoring Regions from left to right: each quest only sees what’s already revealed to its right.
• Forgetting Sanctuaries, visible to every quest, including the last Region’s.
• Scoring a quest whose condition isn’t met: it’s worth zero.
• Thinking a wonder counts only once: it counts for every quest that sees it.

How to set up Faraway

Setup takes about 2 minutes. For your first game, play without the advanced variant.