In Glass Road, you take on the role of a master glassmaker in the Bavarian Forest, a region boasting a 700-year tradition of glass production. Your mission is to skillfully manage glass and brick production to erect the right structures and keep your business thriving. Get ready to clear forests to fuel your kilns, and strategically create or remove ponds, pits, and groves to secure the necessary raw materials. Fifteen specialists are at your command to execute your orders, and how you deploy them is at the core of the game.

The game unfolds over four building periods. Each player starts with an identical set of fifteen specialist cards, each featuring two distinct abilities. At the beginning of each period, you select five of these specialists for your hand. The brilliant twist lies in simultaneous action selection: if you play a specialist that no other player has chosen, you get to use both abilities on that card. However, if two or more players choose the same specialist, each of them can only use one of the two abilities. This interaction is what makes Glass Road so strategic and full of tension.

Specialist abilities allow you to gather resources, reshape the landscape with new terrain tiles (like ponds and pits), and construct a variety of buildings. There are three main types of buildings: processing buildings, which transform resources; immediate effect buildings, offering a one-time benefit; and end-game bonus buildings, which grant points based on various accomplishments. Mastering the balance of knowing the optimal specialist card to play, being flexible about when to play it, and cleverly combining buildings is the key to success in this game. The 2021 edition also includes previously released promotional material, such as the Oktoberfest and Adventskalender tiles, and the Harlekin card for the solo version.