Now that it’s playing out, UNLOCK is definitely overpowered - with two Hops either side of a weekend, a player can end the game without much impediment in four days (with a confederate moving freely to Mornington Crescent within moments of its unlocking, and passing the mantle of victory back to the unlocker). The current ruleset just doesn’t have enough complexity to block the Trail, or to limit who can take advantage of an unlock (“I could unlock Mornington Crescent but my opponents may get there first” is interesting, “I could unlock Mornington Crescent and tell my friend to move there immediately from anywhere on the board” is less so).

I have some ideas for improving the complexity, but don’t want to present them as the only possible solutions, or anything. This is just to see if we agree on “the game should not be winnable in four days”, for now - we can take this clause back out later, when unlocking is less unstoppable.