Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
In Pilgrim, players are abbots and abbesses of their own provincial 14th century abbey, each seeking to: Build the best pilgrim routes to distant sites via strategic shrines Ordain serfs to become acolytes Give alms to the poor Build essential annexes Be the most devout and pious A unique twist on a mancala-movement mechanism distributes a player's acolytes across eight duties and the capital city to determine each turn's action. 18xx-style tile development on the map board builds trade routes for revenue and pilgrim trails for endgame points.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Tile Placement
Place tiles to build a shared or personal spatial arrangement.
Worker Placement
Commit limited workers to action spaces before opponents occupy them.
Mancala
Move groups of pieces by distributing them one at a time across spaces.
End Game Bonuses
Earn additional points for meeting conditions evaluated when the game ends.
Track Movement
Advance pieces along a defined linear or branching track.
Read the full game description
In Pilgrim, players are abbots and abbesses of their own provincial 14th century abbey, each seeking to: Build the best pilgrim routes to distant sites via strategic shrines Ordain serfs to become acolytes Give alms to the poor Build essential annexes Be the most devout and pious A unique twist on a mancala-movement mechanism distributes a player's acolytes across eight duties and the capital city to determine each turn's action. 18xx-style tile development on the map board builds trade routes for revenue and pilgrim trails for endgame points. Common serfs need to be ordained to ensure that the abbey is adequately serviced and your acolyte numbers will need to be carefully balanced across ever changing duties and vocational tasks. Pilgrim is a game played over 26 rounds with perfect information, zero randomness (once the game starts), and one hundred and sixty sextillion possible starting set-ups. Player interaction is intense and constant. The meek might inherit the earth, but you will need to be made of stronger stuff to become the next cardinal and win the game. —description from the designer