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Inspired by the Jules Verne novel, players are following in Phileas Fogg and Passepartout's footsteps, attempting to travel around the world in 80 days on a map with Victorian-era decorations.
On a player's turn, he chooses one of the face-up travel cards. Each card comes with an extra (getting to be first player in the next round, for example). Then he decides whether to travel to the next city. Does he want to wait until the next round in hopes of better cards, or will he make his journey now? If so, he must have and play the required travel cards. The two transportation types are trains and ships. For example, 2 ship cards are required to travel from Suez to Bombay, so 2 ship cards must be played; train cards won't help in this instance. Time is spent each step of the way in the form of days, and (while meeting certain other requirements) the winner is the player who spends the fewest number of days getting around the world. The number of days depends on the travel cards used, plus help from special cards, hindrance from the meandering detective, and so on.
- Tactical money management and route planning
- Strong thematic flavor with a quirky race premise
- Heavy reliance on financial management may slow pace for some players
- Rules nuances around rumors and winning conditions can be fiddly
- Race across the globe using money as propulsion
- Global race from London around the world back to London with limited funds
- Tabletop race narrative with quirky constraints (rumor cards, budget, theft)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card-based status effects — Rumor cards drive risk and movement constraints; you start with three rumor cards.
- checkpoint scoring with partial rewards — Movement and progress are tied to a mix of scoring via routes and resources; you can win with restrictions on rumors and cash.
- money-based movement — Move forward by paying money; the more you pay, the more you advance (exponentially).
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- you start the race with three rumor cards and you can only win the race if you get back to London with no rumor cards and less than £10
- you win by not losing
- you balance the low risk low reward and the high-risk High reward cards at the right time
- it's post-apocalyptic what do you expect
- you play cards to move around the track
- early copies of the game were misprinted badly
- Wacky Races the board game is based on the classic 1968 cartoon
- it has drafting Corner management and engine management
References (from this video)
- Unique mechanism with rulers
- Interesting resource management
- Not a game they'd seek out
- Can't measure up card before buying
- Race around the world.
- Traveling the world.
- Patchwork
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Drafting — Players draft cards that act as rulers.
- Resource Management — Managing money and time.
- Roll and Write — Described as a draft and write game.
- Route Building — Players travel the world using trains, ships, or balloons.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- You can keep it just because like I would justify this box I won't call it even a box, like the size of the game, it's a wallet game.
- It's a challenge adventure so it's going to be oh you randomly got killed by a bear.
- Morii is, I thought it was a clever trick taker because you the cards that you're most likely to win the trick with the higher values have negative points on them and the lower values have plus points basically on them.
- This was really fun I really like this you have, you play cards to put out different units on the map.
- This is not the worst roll and right I have played.
- The thing about this game, which we also saw another game recently did the same thing, is that you're spending a lot of brain power on the things that are not fun.
- Horrible game, let's get rid of it and never talk about it again.
- I really enjoy that, it's kind of going to be weird to not have it on the shelf because it's always been here.