Where's My Ride? Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Object
• Setup
• Playing a Round
• Variants

Components

• Rating Board
• 10 Rating Tiles (6 checkmarks, 4 broken stars)
• 30 Emoji Tokens
• Guess Marker
• 30-card Location Deck
• 160-card Text Deck
• Not shown: Driver Screen, Emoji Bag

Object

The goal of this game is to figure out where your ride is with very limited information. One player will be the Driver, who knows the location but can only communicate via emojis. The other players will be the Riders, trying to guess the location from the scant clues they receive.

This is a cooperative game - the players win or lose together. If the Riders guess the location, the players win. However, if the players get to a 1-star rating, the game ends and the players lose!

To get the most fun out of this game, it is important to communicate only in the ways specified in this rulebook! In particular, the Driver should take care to avoid giving away information, verbally or nonverbally.

Setup

1. Put the Rating Board in the center of the table. (You start the game with a 5-star rating!)
2. Shuffle the 10 Rating Tiles and put them in a stack near the Rating Board with their clock sides showing.
3. Shuffle the Text Deck and the Location Deck separately.
4. Put all Emoji Tokens into the bag and shuffle them.
5. Select one player to be the Driver. That player takes the Driver Screen, the Emoji Bag and the Location Deck.
6. The Driver secretly draws 5 Emoji Tokens from the bag and puts them behind the Driver Screen so that the other players can't see them.
7. The Driver secretly draws 1 Location Card from the Location Deck. This is the location that the Riders will attempt to guess.
8. The Driver draws 8 more cards from the Location Deck, shuffles all 9 locations together, then places them face up on the table. In this way, the Riders will know the 9 possible locations, but will not know which of them is the one they must guess.

Playing a Round

During a round, the Riders will send texts to the Driver. The Driver will assign one or more emojis, then the players may guess the location if they wish. Rounds continue until the Riders correctly guess the location or the players lose due to a 1-star rating.

Important: during the first part of each round, players may not communicate with each other at all! This includes both the Driver and the Riders.

1. Determine which Riders are sending texts this round. In the first round, they are the two Riders to the left of the Driver. In later rounds, they are the two Riders to the left of the texters from last round.
2. Each texter draws 2 cards from the Text Deck and discards one of them face down. The texters may not consult with each other during this process!
3. The texters each simultaneously reveal the text that they kept.
4. The Driver places one or more Emoji Tokens on one or more texts that were played this round. Each Emoji Token must be unambiguously placed on a single text card. The Driver may play as many of their Emoji Tokens as they like, but they must place at least one.
5. When the Driver is finished playing emojis, they say "Done" and refill to 5 Emoji Tokens behind their Driver Screen. The texts and emojis played remain in view for the rest of the game.
6. At this point, the Riders may converse freely, but the Driver must continue to avoid all verbal and non-verbal communication. The Riders discuss what the Driver may have meant with their emojis, and whether or not they should try to guess the location.
7. If the Riders decide to guess a location, they indicate the one they are guessing by physically placing the Guess Marker onto the Location Card. If they guess correctly, the game ends and the players win! If they guess incorrectly, flip that Location Card over. The Riders may guess at most once per round.
8. If the Riders decided not to make a guess this round, they reveal one Rating Tile. If they guessed incorrectly, they reveal two Rating Tiles instead. If any of the revealed tiles are broken stars, then you have lost stars from your rating! Place any revealed broken stars on the Rating Board, starting from the right. If you place the fourth broken star tile, then the app cancels your ride and the players lose!

Variants

Two Player: In a 2-player game, there is one Driver and one Rider. Each round, the Rider will draw 4 cards from the Text Deck, discard 2 and reveal the other 2. Since there are no other Riders, players do not communicate in this variant, but it's more fun if the Rider thinks out loud!

Difficulty: If you want a tougher challenge, try removing one or two of the green checkmarks from the Rating Tiles!

Triple Text: In the Triple Text variant, each round has three texters rather than two. As usual, the group of Riders that sends texts rotates from round to round. Each texter draws two cards from the Text Deck and discards one. This variant is particularly useful in games with higher player counts.