Thanks for the reminder. I was going to, but forgot.
The following can substitute for the official rules. What was referred to is probably
what follows the heading "A possible order of explanation," or perhaps "Nutshell."
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(Setup is not covered here.)
Ticket to Ride's board consists of named points - "cities" - connected by lines of spaces - "routes."
At the start of the game, players are dealt a number of Destination Tickets and must choose some
(or all) to keep. These are a potential source of points, but also a risk. Tickets show 2 cities.
At the end of the game, if a player can trace a connection between those cities using only their
own trains, they score the Ticket's value in points. If not, however, they lose its value in points!
Your Tickets (and if you have completed them) are kept secret during the game, as is your hand of cards.
On your turn, choose 1 of these 3 actions (details to follow):
1) Play cards to claim a route.
2) Draw cards.
3) Draw Destination Tickets.
After you have done one of these, it is the next player's turn.
1) Play cards to claim a route (a connection between 2 cities).
The cards played must match the route you want to claim in color and amount - for example, to
claim a 3-space red route, you must play 3 cards, each of which must be red or wild (Locomotive).
If a route is colorless, it can be claimed using cards of any one color (and/or wilds).
The played cards go into a shared discard pile. Place one of your trains on each space
of the claimed route. That route can no longer be claimed by any other player.
When you claim a route, you score a number of points according to its length - see the
chart on the board. This is likely to be where a majority of your points come from. Your
points are tracked by a marker in your color on the track around the outside of the board.
Double routes: Some connections have 2 routes in parallel. A single player can never claim both sides
of such a connection. Whether both routes can be used by different players depends on the player count;
I think it's only allowed with 4 and 5. Otherwise, once one is claimed, the other can no longer be claimed.
2) Draw cards.
You draw 2 cards, each of which can be the top card of the deck or a non-wild card in the display of 5
(you decide for each one as you go). You may instead draw one face-up wild card from the display of 5.
(You can still take a second card if you happen to draw a wild card off the deck as your first card.)
Additional card-drawing rules:
Each card drawn from the display is immediately replaced (your 2nd draw can be the replacement for your 1st).
If there are ever 3 wild cards in the display, including after a player draws their first card,
immediately discard all 5 cards in the display into the shared discard pile and lay out 5 new
cards (if a player was drawing, they then draw their second card).
Whenever the train card deck is emptied, shuffle the shared discard pile to form a new deck.
3) Draw Destination Tickets.
Pick up the top 3 cards of the Destination Ticket deck (all at once).
You must choose at least one of them to keep, and you may keep 2 or all 3.
Any Tickets that you don't keep are put underneath the deck.
Additional Ticket-drawing rules:
You don't have to have completed your original Tickets before drawing more.
It's OK if you have already completed a Ticket that you draw from the deck.
End of the game:
If after their turn, a player has 2 or fewer trains remaining, each player gets one more
turn (the normal turn order continues, and that player's next turn will be the last turn).
This should be announced; players need to know that this turn is their last one.
After that, each player reveals their Destination Tickets for positive/negative scoring.
Additionally, the player who can trace the single longest line of their trains along the map
(without using any routes twice) gets a 10-point bonus. The player with the most points wins.
Tip: Before final scoring, you should probably count the points each player is supposed
to have from their claimed routes. It might not match where their point tracker is!
People will near-inevitably forget to take points and/or score incorrect amounts.
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Optional rule (imported from Ticket to Ride: Europe) - Stations. You can use this if
players are having a hard time with getting blocked out of finishing their Tickets.
During setup, give each player 3 tokens in their color (or otherwise identifiable
with them). The tokens should be small enough to fit onto a city on the board.
Players now have a 4th option on their turns: Placing one of their tokens on a city that doesn't
already have a token on it. This costs 1 card the first time you do it, 2 cards of a single
color (or wild) the second time, and 3 cards of a single color (or wild) the third time.
At the end of the game, each placed token allows you to count one connection into its
city that belongs to another player as if it were your own for the purpose of completing
Destination Tickets (but not for the longest-route bonus). Note - it's not one connection
per Ticket, but one connection per token, usable for any number of Tickets.
Additionally, each token you did not place gives you 4 points.
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A possible order of explanation:
Destination Tickets - You want to connect these cities with your trains.
You get the ticket's point value for doing this and lose it if you don't.
>
How do you put your trains out? One of the things you can do with your turn is claim
a route in such-and-such a manner. This is also where many of your points come from.
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You only start with a few cards - how do you get more?
That's another thing you can do with your turn - get cards.
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Suppose you've finished all your Tickets or know you won't be able to
finish them? Another thing you can do with your turn is get more Tickets.
>
Recap: The 3 things you can do with a turn are: Claim a Route / Get cards / Get tickets.
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The game ends after a player gets down to 2 or less trains;
each player will then get one more turn.
>
Final scoring - Reveal your tickets and score them.
Also, the player with the longest line of trains gets 10 points.
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Nutshell - On your turn, do one of these:
Claim - Discard a set of cards matching a route. Place trains, get points.
Draw - A face-up wild or 2 cards from the display and/or deck. (Always replace. Wipe if 3 wild.)
Tickets - Draw 3, keep at least 1 (the rest go underneath).
Game end: 2 trains or less triggers final round. Score tickets and longest line.
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