Tranquility: The Descent

Introduction

Tranquility: The Descent is a standalone game in the acclaimed Tranquility series. Only through careful cooperation and by correctly anticipating the actions of your fellow explorers will you be able to descend into the depths of the earth in your continued search for Tranquility.

In The Descent 1-5 players will take turns placing cards to pave the way for their teammates. Journey together through glittering caverns and underground glades in this 30- to 40-minute exploration of the earth. Like all games in the Tranquility series, The Descent is played in silence. Deep underground you will need to find new ways to cooperate in order to overcome the perils that lurk beneath the surface.

Designed and illustrated by James Emmerson and Tristam Rossin, respectively, Tranquility: The Descent marks the first time a Tranquility game will be self-published. Wayfarer Games, founded in March of 2024, consists of James, Tris, and Executive Producer Hock. Fresh off the back of the successful campaign for A Wayfarer’s Tale: The Journey Begins, the team are beyond excited to return to their roots and bring you their own vision of Tranquility ... all the way from concept to fulfillment.

How to Play

THE GOAL OF THE GAME: Complete the full grid of 40 cards. Starting at the surface players must descend through 5 layers of 8 underground caverns in order to complete The Descent.

COMPETE ROWS: Rows are completed in order and cards may be freely played anywhere within the row you are working on (referred to as the "current" row). Each row must be completed with numbers ascending from left to right before a new row can be started. 

THE TWIST: In The Descent everyone holds their cards in ascending order. So every time your fellow cavers play a card you will learn which cards in their hand could be higher in value and which could be lower.

Cards are numbered between 1 and 21 in four different suits or Elements (colours) and each card is double-sided - you see the numbered side but your teammates can only see the backs. As such, your teammates will always know the colour of the cards you hold ... but they cannot see the values of those cards. 

CHANNEL THE MINDS OF YOUR FELLOW PLAYERS: Use your intuition and your powers of deduction to work out what your teammates may be holding! Make clever plays to set your team up for the win.

Playing Cards

A card can be played in two ways ...

1. Play an Element card to set up yourself or a teammate. Every card can be played facedown as an Element.  Elements pave the way for matching coloured Number cards to be played on top ... thereby furthering your descent .

 2. Play a Number card (Over an Element) to help complete the Descent. Numbers can only be played onto the elements your team has prepared. Your played Number card must match the colour of the Element it is played on and must adhere to the ascending number restrictions.

REMEMBER: Each card is only in the game once and if it's used as an element it won't be available for use as a number. 

Special Cards

Descent cards, Wild Statues and Wild Elements will all help you get out of a pinch. Each type of special card has its own rules on how it can be played. Use them wisely to navigate the toughest moments in your journey.

Limited Communication

Tranquility: The Descent is a game of limited communication but there are still opportunities to get messages to your teammates through the timely use of special Canary Tokens. You only have 5 tokens throughout the entire game, use them wisely ...

Included Expansions

Included in every copy of Tranquility: The Descent are THREE expansions. Play them separately or in combination for a truly challenging descent.

Surface Objectives

Add any combination of the included surface objectives - 8 additional special win conditions - to create a fresh challenge each time you play. Your team is going to need to really connect your minds if you hope to navigate this advanced level play of The Descent.

Mine Carts

These special cards will allow you to push cards horizontally during your descent. Take a stack of cards and push them either left or right until they rest over the top of another stack of cards. If used at the proper moment these carts can really help you open up space during your journey. Be warned, they are deceptively challenging as you cannot win the game whilst there is still a minecart held in a player's hand.

Rabbits and Foxes

These beautiful bespoke bunny rabbit meeples will constantly pop up during your journey as rabbit cards come into play. Take care though as our little fluffy friends will multiply every time a row is completed. If you have no rabbits left in the Warren to play then you will severely restrict which cards can be used in The Descent. Manage your bunnies through the clever use of cunning fox cards to scare the bunnyies back to their Warren for future use.

(Don’t worry, no bunnies were harmed in the making of this game ...)

Solo Play

What's In the Box?

Pledge Levels

Add-Ons

Great! How Do I Add On?

This special holiday 2025 (yes, this year!) add-on offer is available to backers in the US, Canada, UK, and EU (based on the location of available stock). Once you've selected your Tranquility backer tier (DEEP or DEEPER), Kickstarter will ask you which add-ons you wish to add to your pledge.

• STEP 1: Simply select the add-on that matches your location.
• STEP 2: Check out! That's it for now! You will not be charged for shipping, taxes or other charges at this time. Subsidized shipping will be calculated later in the HIVE Pledge Manager as part of the post-campaign process. See the Shipping section of this campaign for details.

After the Kickstarter campaign ends we will follow-up with you, directly, with instructions regarding how to arrange for shipment of your copy of Journey.  And, YES, you will have the opportunity at that time to add the laminated map pack and/or extra paper map pads, not to worry! The Tranquility campaign discount will carry forward in that case and you'll pay only the difference.

A large playmat, like the one we are offering, is a funky thing to package and ship. Because of its long, skinny shape it has a tendency not to play well with other items for shipping efficiencies. Mats can be folded but the best way to ship them is rolled up, and that is how we designed our campaign. The DEEPER tier (game + playmat) is going to be pre-bundled at the factory and its long, skinny package will ship separately. As such, adding even a single game to the DEEPER tier creates another box to ship. So here's our solve.

We’ve opted to add two simple add-ons described below.  We’re able to offer them at a significant discount with the knowledge that you’re not going to see the shipping efficiencies we would have liked.  So, in effect we are building a shipping subsidy into a significantly reduced add-on cost.  Your choices are:

AND/OR ...

In either case, the additional shipping cost for add-ons (charged later in the PM) may be approximately equal to what is listed for your region for that tier. Again, the shipping subsidy is built into the add-on pricing, which is why it is so low.

Q: Can I add either of these (or multiple) onto my existing pledge level (DEEP OR DEEPER).
A: Yes, either of these add-ons can be added to whichever tier you are backing at.

Q: Do you offer an option to add JUST a playmat to my existing tier?
A: No, we can’t offer that option due to the pre-pack described above.

FINAL-WEEK ADD-ON EXCLUSIVE: Special LIMITED EDITION art print set, individually signed and numbered (max 50) by the illustrator third of our trio, Tristam Rossin. This set includes:

• Four 8x10" biome illustrations, individually singed and numbered.
• Four BONUS dual-image artwork illustrations based on the original Tranquility series.
• Each is a high-quality, professionally produced print suitable for framing.

Stretch Goals

Playthroughs & Reviews

The Art of Tranquility

Shipping

* Shipment costs are estimates. We feel these estimates (which we partially subsidize) are accurate based on our projections for fulfillment in mid-2026, but please be advised that your actual fulfillment charges could vary. It is our goal to keep your actual post-campaign costs as close to the above estimates as possible and we have a track record of doing this successfully. 

* Shipping costs for the "DOUBLE" Add-Ons (see above) are explained in the Add-On section above.

Which Shipping Region Am I In?

Please locate your country in the lists below and match the bolded shipment zone with the identical row in the shipping table above:

EUROPE A: Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden

EUROPE B: Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Italy 

EUROPE C: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland

ASIA EXTENDED: Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam

CANADA (Shipping Costs Reduced!): Canadian base pledges are currently planned to be fulfilled via VFI Asia's consolidation service. Through VFI we are able to offer a greatly reduced shipping rate from the one that we had originally posted when the campaign launched. The Journey add-on will ship separately from our US fulfillment warehouse. Because Journey is an entirely separate shipment (early, in December) from your rewards fulfillment, there are no economies to find there. None-the-less, we are subsidizing that cost some and wanted to leave this option open for our Canadian backers.

Australia / New Zealand (Shipping Costs Reduced!): See Canada, above, regarding reduced shipping costs (from those originally posted). Regrettably, the Journey add-on is not available in this region.

CANNOT SHIP: For this campaign we do not have the capability to ship to the following regions.  Afghanistan, Africa, Andorra, Belarus, Brazil, Congo, Crimea, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen

Using the Pledge Manager (Post Campaign)

Hive Interactive ("Hive") will again be our Pledge Manager (PM) partner given the success we've had with Hive in the past. Hive helps us to efficiently manage multiple shipping hubs around to world and with the collection of taxes, tariffs, and fulfillment costs specific to your pledge and to your region.

We'll be in touch after the campaign ends to confirm your pledge and to open the pledge manager. At that time you'll have the opportunity to add any additional items you would like! The final step in the PM process will be for you to pay any regional taxes that are due (for example VAT tax) as well as the final shipping cost specific to your region.

Shipping Estimates and Regional Tariffs

Subsidized Shipping Estimates: In order to make shipping as cost-effective as possible Wayfarer Games has partnered with regional fulfillment houses and will be partially subsidizing the cost of shipping.

Tariffs: Tariffs (especially in the United States) are something we are all hearing a lot about recently. Closer to the time of reward fulfillment we will analyze the tariff burden for your region and incorporate that into the final PM charges that are required for check-out. At the current time (as of campaign launch) the US tariff rate on imported goods from China is 30%. US and Canadian backers (we currently anticipate fulfilling Canada from our US hub) should expect a small upcharge on their shipping rate of a dollar or two on a USD $45 pledge, for example.

Regional Taxes

If taxes are charged in your region (for example VAT in the UK and Europe) you will cover those taxes are part of your check-out process in the pledge manager after the campaign. We offer "VAT Friendly" shipping in many regions of the word which means that all of these taxes are paid one-time, up-front as part of the check-out process and you will not receive any request for additional payment at the time of delivery of your rewards. Please see further information below which varies from region to region:

US Backers: Our campaign is USA-friendly! We are a US-base company. Sales tax may be applied to your pledge, in compliance with state and local laws, based on the shipping address you provide in the pledge manager.

Canadian Backers: Our campaign is Canada-friendly! This means that Canadian backers will not be required to pay any import taxes or duties when they receive their pledges. Shipping from our US-based fulfillment center is DDP, and is included in the amount charged for shipping in the pledge manager.

UK and EU Backers: Our campaign is UK/EU-friendly!  This means that VAT will be charged to you post-campaign in the pledge manager. Therefore VAT has been covered prior to dispatch and there will be no additional customs charges prior to arrival of your package. NOTE: VAT amount varies by country and we do not control it. It will be calculated automatically in the pledge manager, after the campaign, based on your shipment address.

APAC Backers: Our campaign is APAC-friendly! We have partnered with VFI Asia to provide backer-friendly delivery in this region.  VAT and customs charges are already covered in our shipment estimate above. VFI uses a hub-and-spoke shipment model which means that, outside of China and Hong Kong, shipments to other Asian destinations are consolidated to a local shipment point in the destination country and then shipped from there.  This results in the most cost-effective shipping method for backers but may mean that total shipment time will vary by destination.  VFI provides tracking which will keep you apprised of your package status along the way.

Australian and New Zealand Backers: Our campaign is AU/NZ friendly! This means that the GST tax will be absorbed by Wayfarer Games and is already included in the shipment estimate above.

All Other Worldwide Shippable Destinations: Local duties and/or taxes may be applied after the campaign, in the pledge manager, according to your region.

Meet the Team

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