Prompt Refinery · broke & free · PLY

The Traveler

Every card is a place you could go, and the money you spend to get there. Work the streets, chase the wonders, and keep enough for the flight home.

2–4 players · 25 min · ages 8+ · 52 cards

Play / simulate Print the 9-up sheet Read the rules Play / simulate All shareable games Back to Make

Thesis: This game is about the backpacker's hustle, felt as broke and free, decided by when you stop earning and go, and by who else is in your region when you do.

What the crude pitch was:GTA, but backpacking — open world, freelance gigs (photo, food delivery, tour guiding, street performing), gear upgrades, languages, reputation, combat with rival freelancers, Tokyo/Paris/Yellowstone. That is a video-game pitch wearing a backpack. The refinery killed the open world and kept the verbs: work, travel, spend what's in your bag, take a cut.

Other Table Press games

One pasteable hub for every gated intro: https://game-design-pi.vercel.app/shareable-demo/

MathMasters — Say the same number in more than one way — words, a picture, times, a match to 13 — and climb, or pass.
Nonstop — Time only goes forward. Play the next card, or pass. Same kind, next number: say And then. Last to play writes the round.
LONG BEFORE — No years. Build a line, left earliest. Swap a rumor, ask which came first, or shout the name of the game. First true line wins.
BY THIS — Same things. New key. File a thing that still fits the current order, or recast the cabinet and shout the name of the game.
TECH EMPIRE — Deals hit the valley. Match the Need, buy it with Funds, or ride along. You are always rich in the wrong currency.
THE TOLL — The stack is one road. Own a stretch. Everyone who passes pays. Lock two doors and you are the target.
RUNWAY — Four kinds of capital. Four sectors. Pitch the right kind, ride when you cannot win, and lock a sector before the market cools.
LIFE 2.0 — Draw paychecks, pay bills, bid on careers and life milestones. Highest net worth after eight years wins.
UPTIME — Turn raw silicon into servers, wire your servers into a network, and win the contracts that pay for it — before the supply chain runs dry.

Would you play this game?