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Get ready to step into the mysterious world of Alula, a land so ever-shifting and elusive that maps become meaningless. The only way to truly understand Alula is by exploring its wild terrains yourself. Buckle up—your adventure is about to begin!
👥 2-6 players, ages 10+
⌛ Playing time: 15-30 minutes
📝 Designers: Johannes Goupy & Corentin Lebrat
🎨 Artwork: Maxime Morin
🏢 Publisher: White Goblin Games (Dutch version, review copy provided) Originally published by Catch Up Games.
Gameplay Overview
In Faraway, you and your fellow players take on the roles of explorers, braving the enigmatic continent of Alula. The game unfolds over eight rounds, where you will journey through eight region cards, discovering shrines and meeting the native inhabitants who will challenge you with quests along the way.
Each turn, players simultaneously choose a card from their hand and reveal it, placing it in their personal tableau. These cards come in different colors and feature a variety of symbols like chimera heads, rocks, thistles, and treasure maps, each with unique values. If the card you play has a higher value than the one before it, you collect shrine cards based on the number of treasure maps in your card row, which can grant additional rewards.
Once everyone has played their card, players then pick a new card from the display in turn order, based on the values they’ve just revealed. But be strategic: after choosing a new card, you’ll also decide which shrine card to place in your personal area, while discarding the others. The shrines can provide powerful bonuses and are essential to victory!
When the eighth round is complete, the scoring begins. The twist here is that you score your region cards in reverse order, starting with the last one played and working your way back to the first. During scoring, only the symbols on cards that are face-up at the time matter, which means timing is everything—early cards can make or break your final score. After all region and shrine cards are scored, the player with the most points wins and claims the title of Alula’s most famed explorer!
Game Info
Faraway is designed by Johannes Goupy and Corentin Lebrat, a duo known for their creative approach to accessible yet strategic games. You might have come across Pixies, a small-box game with a lot of heart, or Draftosaurus, a charming dino-drafting game. These designers know how to create games that are easy to pick up but packed with depth, and Faraway is no exception. Originally published by Catch Up Games, the Dutch version comes from White Goblin Games. This compact yet thoughtful card game accommodates 2-6 players, with a recommended age of 10+, and fits neatly into a 15-30 minute window. It blends open drafting with set collection, all wrapped up in a clever, backward-scoring mechanic that will leave you scratching your head—in a good way!
Components and Artwork
Visually, Faraway is a treat. Maxime Morin’s artwork brings a splash of vibrancy to the game, giving life to the mystical land of Alula. Though the mechanics lean more on the abstract side, the artwork helps ground the theme, making the experience feel more immersive. Plus, the bold color choices aren’t just aesthetically pleasing—they’re also considerate of players with color vision deficiencies, using distinct patterns to differentiate between card types. As for the components, they hold up well: sturdy cards, clean iconography, and a rulebook that gets to the point without any fuss. Everything feels polished, from the design to the production quality, which is always a plus for those who appreciate a game that’s as nice to look at as it is to play.
Gameplay and Strategy
Now, let’s talk about the gameplay. On the surface, Faraway seems simple, but don’t be fooled—it’s a brain-burner in disguise. The core of the game lies in its backward-scoring system. You place cards left to right during the game, but when it’s time to score, you do it in reverse. This means that cards placed early in the game will have the most information available to fulfill their conditions, while later cards will only score based on what’s already revealed. It’s like planning a trip, but realizing halfway through that you packed the wrong socks!
There’s a little bit of luck involved, sure—you’re drawing from a limited hand of three cards each turn—but it’s balanced by strategic drafting. When it’s time to pick new cards, the value of the card you played determines the order of selection. If you’ve got your eye on a particular card, you might want to play a low-value one to secure it. On the other hand, higher-value cards let you nab powerful Shrine cards, which can be game-changers in the scoring phase. It’s all about finding the right balance: do you aim for drafting priority or grab those shrines while you can?
Flexibility is key here. You’ll need to adapt to the cards available and adjust your strategy on the fly. It might take a few rounds to grasp the backward-scoring system fully, but once you do, you’ll appreciate the way it forces you to think a few steps ahead. Whether you’re playing with two players or six, the simultaneous card selection keeps things moving quickly, even as your brain works overtime.
Final Thoughts
We love Faraway for its deceptive simplicity—while the rules are easy to pick up, the puzzle of maximizing your score is an enjoyable challenge. The backward scoring mechanic can catch you off guard if you don’t plan ahead, leading to those “Oh no!” moments when you realize you’ve miscalculated. But that’s also part of the charm. It’s a game that gets under your skin and makes you want to immediately try again, especially once you grasp how scoring works.
The simultaneous play means there’s very little downtime, which makes it great for groups. You’ll find yourself finishing a game in under 30 minutes, but don’t be surprised if you end up playing multiple rounds back-to-back. It’s the kind of game where just one playthrough is never quite enough—you’ll always want another shot at cracking that tricky scoring puzzle.
📝 We received a copy of the game from the publisher, White Goblin Games.
