Alias: Travel
Alias: Travel Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
Score pad (game sheet), pencil, hourglass, and 50 double-sided word cards.
Object of the Game
Explain words using descriptions, synonyms and antonyms. The goal is to help the other player or team guess the largest number of words correctly before the sand in the hourglass has fully run through. Fields on the game sheet are crossed off according to the number of correctly guessed words. The team that first reaches the finish wins the game!
Game Flow
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Shuffle the word cards and lay them out in stacks. Players divide into teams, each with at least two players. The teams agree on the order in which they will play. Each team takes its own sheet from the score pad and crosses out the first field on it.
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The players of the team that will explain words first agree which of them will explain and which will guess. Choose which side of the cards you will explain words from. The explaining player takes the stack of cards in hand. The number of the word to be explained is determined by the number of the field that was crossed off last on the team's route. The hourglass is turned over and the player begins explaining the word (see "Explaining Words"). When the team gives the correct answer, the explaining player puts the used card on the table and moves on to the word with the same number on the next card. Words must be guessed in exactly the form in which they appear on the card. For example, if the word on the card is the verb "to go" (Russian "идти"), the answer "to walk" (Russian "ходить") does not count. If the word is the plural "oars" (Russian "вёсла"), the answer "oar" (Russian "весло") does not count either.
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When all the sand has run down through the hourglass, the other teams shout "Beep!" (in the original, "Пиип!"). If the explanation of the last word has not yet been completed at that moment, all teams may take part in guessing. The team that guesses the last word fastest gets one point and crosses off one field on its route.
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After the last word has been guessed, the team's correctly guessed words are counted. Mistakes and skipped cards are also counted. For each of these the team receives one penalty point (see "Penalty Points").
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Now it is the next team's turn. Used cards are placed face down in their stacks.
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The explaining player changes in each round of the game.
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The team that first crosses off the finish field wins the game. The other teams, of course, still have a chance to catch up on their turn!
Explaining Words
Cards may contain any words: nouns, verbs, adjectives and so on. Which words a team receives depends only on luck, since the same number on a card corresponds to words of different levels of difficulty. When explaining, you may not use parts of the word being guessed, nor words from the same root.
For example, when explaining the word "bus" (Russian "автобус"), you may not say "a type of motor vehicle". You may say that it is a "route transport vehicle" (Russian "маршрутное транспортное средство"). When explaining the word "aeroplane" (Russian "самолёт"), you may not say that it is a "flying means of travel", because "flying" (Russian "летающее") and "aeroplane" share the same root.
If in tasks such as "remote control" (Russian "дистанционное управление") the guessing player says the word "control" (Russian "управление"), the explaining player may then use that word in the explanation.
Synonyms and antonyms may also be used. For example, the word "big" (Russian "большой") may be explained as the antonym of "small" (Russian "маленький").
Words may not be explained in a foreign language unless the players have agreed on this in advance.
Penalty Points
During another team's turn, the other teams must not lose vigilance! If the explaining player accidentally names the word being guessed, or a word with the same root, the explaining team receives one penalty point.
If a particularly difficult word comes up, the explaining player may choose not to explain it and move on to another card, but this also costs one penalty point. Sometimes it is worth doing this, because an explanation may take too much time!
Cards for which the team received penalty points are put in a separate stack. This helps when counting points. If a team correctly guessed 7 words, made 1 mistake in an explanation and skipped 2 cards, the team moves forward on the game board by 4 spaces (7 – 1 – 2 = 4).
The Right to "Stealing"
When a team crosses off a field on its route that has a black number, then on the next turn all teams may take part in guessing words. They gain the right to "stealing". This applies even if the team did not stop on the "stealing" field but simply passed it. The other teams must make sure that the "stealing" is carried out.
"Stealing" is played without the hourglass. On its turn the team takes 5 cards from which it guesses the words that match the number of the field on which the team is standing. The team that is first to shout the correct answer during the "stealing" wins the card and the right to move one step forward.
The right to "stealing" also arises on any turn when the allotted time has run out and the last word has still not been guessed.