Once Upon a Path 2026

Once Upon a Path is a woodland word-adventure game where players build a magical forest from hexagonal tiles, collect letter tokens, trade with animal sentries and race to reach classical fabled storybook destinations.

Components

66 Forest Tiles 10 Destination Tiles 15 Sentry Gates 10 Word Length Tokens 30 Reward Tokens 10 Secret Destination Cards 40 Letter Tokens with Items 6 Meeples

Setup

Place the Forest Clearing tile first (the one with six paths). This is where all players begin and where they must return to win. Build the forest outward by randomly adding hex path tiles, making sure the paths connect through the middle of each hex side. Mix in at least ten Sentry Gate tiles as the forest grows, but do not place gates directly beside each other.

Set aside the reward tokens.

Decide if letter tokens will be secret (face down).

Connect the 10 destination tiles around the outside edges of the forest. Each destination should have one path leading in and no path leading out. Scatter letter tokens face up or down (as initially decided) on the forest paths, with especially useful vowels placed at Sentry Gates. Each player chooses a meeple and receives a secret destination card.

How to Play

On your turn, move your token one connected tile along the forest paths. If you land on a tile with a letter token, you may collect it, up to your hand limit of five. If you land at a Sentry Gate, you may trade the item that animal wants to collect the guarded token.

Game Play

Players travel through the forest collecting letters (with items). To complete your secret destination, reach that destination and spell a word using your collected letter tokens. The word must meet the destinations's minimum point requirement. Vowels are worth 1 point, common consonants are worth 2 points, and rare letters are worth 3 points.

When you complete a destination, collect one reward token, return the used letters to empty forest paths, and draw a new secret destination card.

The first player to collect 3 reward tokens and return to the Forest Clearing wins.

Modes

Play competitively as a race to complete three destinations, or cooperatively as a team trying to complete all destinations together.

Deluxe Version

The Deluxe version of the game includes a gameboard composed of nine large magnetic forest tiles. This allows for rapid setup, instead of connecting 40 tiles, but eliminates the ability to customize the forest floor.

-description from designer