Ticket To Ride: Legends of the West will make the classic new again

Pandemic LegacyWhen it was released in 2015, the game turned many heads. Not the least among them being the head of Alan R. Moon. The award-winning video game Tickets To Ride, launched in 2004, quickly became one of the hobby’s vanguard titles, widely touted as a gateway into the marvelous (if ever so slightly intimidating) world of modern board gaming. Why not make a heritage version of Tickets To Ride? His phone began to ring pretty soon.

“I actually had some other offers from people over the years,” Moon told Polygon in a recent interview. “‘We should do a Tickets To Ride legacy game!’ Well, You can also find out more about us on our website. know, maybe. But I’m not sure youWho would I choose? Why wouldn’t I go with the two main guys? […] That was really the first step for me.”

The “two main guys,” of course, are themselves award-winning game designers — Rob Daviau, the creator of the legacy genre of board games, and Matt Leacock, the creator of Pandemic. In 2016, Moon finally got everyone in the same email. Three of the Spiel des Jahres Winners created something new when they came together. Legends of the West: Ticket to Ride.

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“Matt and I just spoke once,” Daviau recalled, trying to piece together the making of a game that stretches well before the COVID-19 lockdowns. “I’m like, ‘We’re doing this, right?’ And he’s like, ‘How are we not doing this? There’s no reason to not do this.’ It was an immediate ‘Yes.’”

There are many reasons why Tickets To Ride has earned such a global following — with dozens of variants, expansions, and even collectible editions of the now two-decade-old game — is because of its simplicity. Players draw cards from a shared pool, then use the cards they’ve collected to play suits of matching cards to the table. After being played, the cards transform into permanent lines of train that run across the board.

But there’s a strategic layer to the game as well. Players score the most points by securing railway lines between certain cities on the map; and blocking other players’ routes is all part of the fun. This competitive element adds an enjoyable layer to a product that is already easy to understand. It also ensures even younger and less experienced players will have a level playing field from the start.

In the end, it turned out to be quite a task adding a new layer of gameplay.

“In my arrogance,” Moon said, candidly, “I thought, ‘I can do this by myself.’ I’m so glad I didn’t try that, because I would have been really frustrated.”

Every time you play a legacy game, it changes. First game of its kind Risk LegacyThese changes include novel powers and abilities added to each faction. This is a great way to get started. Pandemic Legacy, In the legacy version of Fable III, the team decided to apply scars to characters to limit their capabilities or make them more fragile. Working together on the Legacy version of The Ticket To Ride, Daviau and Leacock racked their brains for a long while, trying to find the right way to express the legacy formula within Moon’s iconic design.

“Some of the great things about The Ticket To Ride are, it’s really accessible,” Leacock said. “It’s got great tension. […] We didn’t want to mess with any of that stuff. It needed to feel, at its core, like you’re playing a Tickets To RideYou can play with your friends by clicking here. plus.”

“We [still] wanted to poke and prod a little bit of the core system,” Daviau added.

“That’s one of the wonderful things about designing a legacy game on an existing title,” Leacock concluded. “Players who’ve already played games in that line can kind of slide in and make themselves comfortable.”

The team decided that they would explore fables and tall stories instead of using hard historical themes.

“If we’re looking at trains, you’re looking at the 19th century,” Daviau said. “I don’t think Instagram had started in the 19th century, but the world certainly wasn’t immediate [in terms of news delivery]. Things happen over there, which just came through — and things always seemed a little larger than life. By the time you get over there and see what’s there, it may not match what you heard. So it’s fables, and tales, and fireside conversations [on the frontier] in Oklahoma or Texas.”

Since legacy games are known for having huge spoilers, the trio is still reticent about what’s inside the box, but we can still share the most basic details about Legends of the West today. Players will take on the role of 19th-century pioneers, meeting challenges and unlocking new frontiers — and rules — as they go. It’s a competitive game, not a cooperative one like Pandemic. This game is designed for two to five participants and comes with a variety of train cars in plastic as well as newspaper clippings and event cards. Then there’s Moon’s favorite part: An overarching story that ties together all 12 of its 20- to 90-minute episodes.

“I think Rob really came through and wrote a great story for the game,” Moon said. “That really became our focus, […]The changes are also added. [to the game] were within that story.”

Furthermore, diehard fans of the Ticket To Ride franchise — of which there are more than a few, Moon notes — will likewise have plenty of new content to savor.

“We didn’t just take the existing expansions and slice and dice them and put them [in the box],” Daviau said. “It’s new material.”

Listen to the news for more information Legends of the West: Ticket to Ride As we near the Nov. 3 launch date. Asmodee will sell the final product for $119.99. It is available at local stores and directly through Asmodee.