Faraway has you explore regions and then score them in reverse order.
Also, Sanctuaries.
Welcome to Alula, a mysterious continent with ever-changing geography, shaped after the rhythm of the seasons. Beyond the Sea of Mists lies the mysterious continent of Alula. Roam across the land in search of its secrets, meet its inhabitants, and list its wonders in order to gain more fame than your opponents.
Faraway Game Overview
Quick Rules Summary
Each player is dealt three Region cards face down and several are placed face up on the table.
The game is played over eight rounds of 3 phases: Exploring a Region, Gaining Sanctuaries, and the end of exploration.
Exploring a Region – Each player picks one Region card from their hand, places it face down, then all reveal simultaneously. You add your chosen card to your tableau to the right of your previous ones.
Finding Sanctuaries – If the exploration duration of the played card is higher than the last one you played you draw a Sanctuary card, plus one extra for each Clue symbol in your play area.
End of Exploration Phase – In ascending order of exploration card played, take a new Region from the centre. Then pick one Santuary card to keep form those you gained this round and discard the rest.
How do you win?
After eight rounds, each player has eight Region cards.
Flip all your Region cards face down and keep your Sanctuaries face up.
Reveal your Region cards one by one, right to left. When you reveal a Region card, you check if it meets its scoring requirements using only the symbols you can see face up in your tableau at the time.
Once all Region cards have been scored, you score the Sanctuaries you have. Sum up all fame points. The player with the highest fame wins.
Main Mechanisms
Faraway combines card drafting (choosing from shared options) and tableau building (laying out your Regions in order).
USP
The reverse scoring where you score from your last played back to your first—is the unique mechanic that forces forward planning and interaction between cards.
Theme
It’s an interesting theme as you explore a mystical continent, discovering resources, meeting people, and then going back home.
Setup
Shuffle the Region deck and deal three to each player (face down). Reveal a river of Region cards (players +1). Shuffle the Sanctuary deck. That’s it.
Components & Artwork
The Region cards are vivid and well illustrated with clear symbols. Sanctuary cards are neatly designed too. The art adds character and helps you engage with the world, even though the gameplay is more abstract.
Ease of Teaching
Teaching Faraway is not too difficult.
The hard part is helping new players wrap their heads around the reverse scoring logic.
Similar Games
A tableau building and set collection game. You can compare (loosley) to Race for the Galaxy or Wyrmspan.
These give you cards that build toward meeting requirements and scoring based on combinations.
Faraway Review
Positives
The backward scoring is fun and fresh and makes you plan ahead more than in many tableau games.
You need to think carefully about placement order and how cards support each other later on.
You need to play the best card, but you also need to plan ahead to position your self in the end of round draft for a new region card.
The artwork is interesting and gives the game more visual appeal than if it were purely abstract.
Negatives
If the cards you draw don’t fit your plan, luck can play a large role.
Teaching is tough because backward scoring is counterintuitive and needs plenty of explanation for new players, maybe even a second game.
Summary
A very fun and unique card game I’ll play any time.
Jesta ThaRogue