Ticket to Ride: Ghost Train Announced

Days of Wonder has announced a new "chilling" installment of their popular Ticket to Ride board game series. Ticket to Ride: Ghost Train is a new kid-friendly version of Ticket to Ride, the popular train-themed game in which players race to complete tracks between various locations. In Ghost Train, players will instead build out parade routes between places like the Witch's Cauldron and the Circus of Dread. Players can also earn bonus perks by connecting specific regions together. For instance, players receive a bonus ticket (used to win the game) for completing a route between the Seashore and Dark Forest, and they can collect extra "float" cards (which replace the colored carriage cards in the normal version) when the connect the Town Hall to other regions in the map. 

The Ticket to Ride franchise started in 2004 with the Euro-style Ticket to Ride game, which originally featured a map of the United States. Players draw cards every turn and then trade sets of the same color card to claim a track between two destinations. As the tracks start to fill out, players will need to get strategic as they try to complete routes between two cities. The game ends when a player has two or less track pieces remaining, with players scoring points for each route they completed and scoring bonus points if they have the longest routes. Days of Wonder has built out the franchise around releasing different maps that players can build tracks on, with only a few variations in rules. Depending on the map, players might be required to build tunnels, ferries, or water routes, but the core premise of Ticket to Ride has remained relatively unchanged after nearly 20 years. 

Ticket to Ride: Ghost Train will have a retail price of $34.99 and will be released in September.