travel

From the Spine of the World Mountains to the bustling fishing villages of Earthquake Fish Bay flows a river where fortunes can be made and lowly traders can brush shoulders with Rokugan's elite. Will your clan become the dominant force along this River of Gold?

In River of Gold, players take on the role of river merchants allied with legendary samurai clans, each vying to exploit the river to earn wealth, glory, and wisdom. Will you invest in developing ports, markets, shrines, and more along the banks of the busy river? Or will you rely upon sailing the river of gold, growing your wealth and influence through delivery contracts, visiting the nobility, and garnering a bit of divine favor during tough times?

River of Gold features a stunning embossed metallic gold game board illustrated by master fantasy cartographer Francesca Baerald. In addition to looking beautiful, the gameplay is fast and clever, with minimal downtime and a playtime of just one hour. Fans of Eurogames will enjoy this mid-weight game, and with easy-to-learn, intuitive rules, you’ll be able to get River of Gold to your table quickly.

—description from the designer

Despite covering less than 1% of the ocean floor, coral reefs are estimated to be home to about 25% of all marine species. Unfortunately, these vibrant underwater cities are dying. Climate change and its effect of rising sea temperatures is devastating the colorful algae that give coral reefs their brilliant hues, resulting in coral bleaching. Furthermore, other threats like pollution—in its various insidious forms—and overfishing are disrupting the delicate balance of reef ecosystems.

And so, scientists from various fields, along with the researchers studying the ecological complexity and significance of the reefs, are collaborating to address the myriad challenges facing these ecosystems. Your assignment is to take command of a scientific vessel and embark on a journey of reef conservation. Hire the best crew, clean the ocean, and restore the reefs to their former glory.

During the game, players take on the role of researchers and saviors of the oceans. You will sail the seas, hire crew, explore the coral reef, clean the ocean sectors of any pollution, and try to accomplish as many missions as possible.

On their turn players may choose to RECHARGE or TRAVEL. If they RECHARGE, they gain the rewards from the VP track. If they TRAVEL, they may deploy Reef Balls, move their Ship, play Mission cards, and perform various actions. The game is played for a variable number of rounds. When a player has crossed the 45 VP threshold, the end of the game is triggered. After an additional round the final scoring takes place and the player with the most victory points is the winner.

—description from the publisher

The land you live in has been at war for as long as any of you have been alive.
The Queen has decided to undertake a long and perilous journey to broker an alliance with a distant power.
The Queen has chosen you, and only you, to be her retinue, and accompany her on this journey.
She chose you because she knows that you love her.

For the Queen is a card-based story-building game that you and up to five other players can begin playing in minutes. Choose your queen from among fourteen gorgeously varied illustrations—or start from scratch—and use the prompt cards to collaboratively tell a story of love, betrayal, doubt, and devotion.

—description from the publisher

This game also has an entry on RPGGeek: For the Queen

In Let's Go! To Japan, you are a traveler planning, then experiencing your own dream vacation to Japan.

The game consists of thirteen rounds in which players draw activity cards illustrated by Japan-based artists and strategically place them in different days in their week-long itinerary. These can't-miss tourist attractions will have you bouncing between Tokyo and Kyoto as you try to puzzle out the optimal activities to maximize your experience while balancing your resources. The game ends with a final round in which you ultimately go on your planned trip, activating each of your cards in order along the way.

The player who collects the most points by the end of their trip wins!

-description from designer

When all you can identify in the horizon for many long days is the line that detaches the sea from the sky, the glimpse of a distant shore appearing before you will make you shiver at the understanding that the adventure is about to begin.

You find yourself astonished, landing on the shore that will be the origin of an extensive exploration through the Galapagos, a magic place of inconceivable beauty and endless biodiversity. There, you will gather repertoires and expand your knowledge of the natural sciences. Your eyes will learn how to detect the hidden species in the tropical forest, gazing at the countless colors and textures of nature. After inspiring hours spent studying and getting to enlightening conclusions, you will rest under a sparkling sky, admiring the stunning complexity of the animal realm.

Darwin's Journey is a worker-placement Eurogame in which players recall Charles Darwin's memories of his adventure through the Galapagos islands, which contributed to the development of his theory of evolution.

With the game's innovative worker progression system, each worker will have to study the disciplines that are a prerequisite to perform several actions in the game, such as exploration, correspondence, gathering, and dispatch of repertoires found on the island to museums in order to contribute to the human knowledge of biology. The game lasts five rounds, and thanks to several short- and long-term objectives, every action you take will grant victory points in different ways.