| Players | 1–8 |
|---|---|
| Age range | 5–adult |
| Setup time | 1 minute |
| Playing time | 30 minutes |
| Random chance | Low |
| Skill(s) required | Planning |
Rivers, Roads & Rails is a matching game similar to dominoes, but with 140 square tiles and in some respects similar to Bendomino. The game was created by Ken Garland and Associates and first published in 1969. Since 1970 it has been produced by Ravensburger, first in an abstract form, and since 1984 under the current theme with artwork by Josef Loflath. It has also been known under the names Connect and Contact.
Contents |
A large area like a tabletop or the floor is used. The tiles are turned face down and all players randomly draw ten tiles and place them face up in front of them. The youngest player is the first player to start. The starting player randomly chooses a face-down tile, and turns it face up in the center of the play area.
Beginning with the starting player, each player on their turn draws a face-down tile (while there are ones remaining). Each tile has at least one of the river, road or rail on it. The player chooses one of his or her tiles and places it so that it matches up with river, road and/or rail on the tiles that have already been played. If that player cannot play a tile, then they must pass. Play then proceeds to the next player (rules don't specify which direction) until all of the tiles of one player have been played, or no one can play a tile.
The winner is the person who first plays all of their tiles. If no more tiles can be played, then the winner is the person with the fewest tiles remaining.