In Word Traveler, you and your friends are tourists who are checking out the sights of a new city. Each player has their own secret map of locations that they want to visit, and they'll need help from the other players to reach them.

Taking turns playing the traveler and the locals, you all work together to visit as many of these locations as possible, ideally collecting all of the golden souvenirs that you find. You know only a few words of the local language, however, so the locals — that is, the other players — will do their best to interpret your clues to help get you where you want to go...without getting lost in translation.