One photo of the Ticket to Ride box gets you tonight’s rules
One photo of the Ticket to Ride box gets you tonight’s rules.
Free ChatGPT on your phone, no account.
Box image: Days of Wonder
Everyone's at the table, the Ticket to Ride box is open, and the rulebook is gone. Take one photo of the box, and free ChatGPT on your phone tells you which version of the game you have, then gives you the rules for it. Here, ChatGPT names the box Days of Wonder sells today, from twenty twenty-five. The setup deals each player four ticket cards, and that matches the rulebook from Days of Wonder, the company that makes the game. You don't even have to log in.
Take one clear photo of the box
Take one clear photo of the box with the name showing.
Box image: Days of Wonder
Step one. Put the box on the table in good light, lid up. Hold your phone over it so the name and the picture both fit, and take one photo. This picture of the current box comes from Days of Wonder.
Open chatgpt.com in your phone’s browser
Open chatgpt.com in your phone’s browser.
Step two. On your phone, go to ChatGPT dot com, the way you'd open any website. It costs nothing, and you don't need an account. Skip the Log in button in the top corner.
Add the box photo with the plus sign
Add the box photo with the plus sign.
The plus sign is labeled “Add files and more”.
Step three. Tap the plus sign at the left end of the Ask ChatGPT bar. Then tap Photos, and pick your picture of the box. A small copy of the picture shows up in the Ask ChatGPT bar, ready to send.
Type this
Type this under the photo, then tap send.
Step four. Copy this card word for word. You can screenshot it. This is the game we're playing tonight. First, tell me which game and edition this box is. Then find the publisher's official rulebook for that exact edition and give me the rules from it as a short numbered list: setup, what you can do on your turn, how the game ends, and how scoring works. No tables, I'm on my phone. The edition is which version of the box you have. The card asks ChatGPT to name it first, so you can check it. Then the card sends ChatGPT to the rulebook from Days of Wonder for that exact version. That line gets you the rules for the box on your table. Then tap the arrow to send.
Check the first line and the ticket deal
Check the first line and the ticket deal, then read it out.
The 2025 rulebook deals 4 ticket cards, keep at least 2.
Step five. ChatGPT's first line names the box it thinks you have. In one of our six tries with this card, the first line named a two thousand fourteen anniversary box instead. If the first line doesn't sound like your box, start a new chat and send the photo and the card again. Next, tap the rulebook link under that first line. Find the setup page, and check how many ticket cards each player gets. The twenty twenty-five rulebook deals four ticket cards to each player, and each player keeps at least two. When the list matches, read it out loud to the table.
The rules ChatGPT gave for the 2025 box
ChatGPT’s list for the 2025 box matches the Days of Wonder rulebook.
Here's the whole answer from that same chat. For setup, each player takes forty-five plastic trains and four train cards, and five more train cards go face up. Each player also gets four ticket cards and keeps at least two. A ticket card names two cities, and you score its points if your own trains connect those cities. On your turn, you do exactly one thing. You draw two train cards, or you claim one route, or you draw three more ticket cards and keep at least one. A route is a row of spaces between two neighboring cities on the board. You claim a route by playing train cards that match its color and length, then you put your trains on it. A one-train route scores one point, and a six-train route scores fifteen points. The game ends when a player has two or fewer trains left. Then everyone, that player included, gets one last turn. Finished ticket cards add their points, and unfinished ones take their points away. The longest unbroken line of trains wins ten bonus points. We checked every line of this list against the twenty twenty-five rulebook from Days of Wonder, and every line matched.
Without the rulebook line, the old setup
Without the rulebook line, ChatGPT gave the 2025 box the old setup.
Four tries out of four, same box photo.
The card asks for the rulebook because Days of Wonder changed one rule in twenty twenty-five. Rulebooks for the older box deal three ticket cards to each player. The new box deals four. ChatGPT reads which box you have from the photo, and then it looks the rules up on the web. Every answer we got listed the web pages ChatGPT used. We also sent the same box photo with a plainer card that had no rulebook line. All four times, ChatGPT dealt three ticket cards, the setup for the older box. With the rulebook line, ChatGPT dealt four ticket cards in all six tries. Five of those six answers got every rule right. The sixth named the wrong box on its first line, and that first line is the check from step five.
Try this tonight
Try this tonight with the box on your shelf.
Box image: Days of Wonder
Pull the game off the shelf and take one photo of the box. Open ChatGPT dot com, add the photo, and type the card. Check the first line, then check the ticket deal against the rulebook link. Then shuffle the train cards and deal.
