The quick version
On your clockwise turn take exactly one action: play a merchant, acquire a merchant, rest, or claim a point card. A played merchant stays face up in your used area. A production card gives its pictured cubes.
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Prepare the table
Use the standalone Spice Road base game. Reveal five point cards and six merchant cards in rows with their decks at the right. Put twice the player count in gold coins over the leftmost point card and the same number of silver coins over the second. Sort cubes into yellow, red, green and brown supplies, in that upgrade order.
Each player begins with Create 2 and Upgrade 2 in hand and a caravan. Randomly distribute the caravans including the first-player symbol. In clockwise order give the first player three yellow cubes, the second and third four yellow, and the fourth and fifth three yellow plus one red.
Play a turn
On your clockwise turn take exactly one action: play a merchant, acquire a merchant, rest, or claim a point card. A played merchant stays face up in your used area. A production card gives its pictured cubes. An upgrade card lets you improve that many cube levels, split among cubes or applied repeatedly to one. A trade card may perform its exact pictured exchange multiple times in that action if you can pay each time.
To acquire, place one cube of your choice on every merchant to the left of the one you want; the leftmost is free. Take the chosen card into your hand and any cubes already on it. Slide cards left and refill on the right. To rest, retrieve all your played cards into your hand.
To claim, return the exact pictured cubes for one point card and keep it face down. Take a coin if one remains above that position. Slide cards left and refill. When the last gold is taken, move remaining silver coins over the leftmost position. At the end of every turn keep at most ten cubes; return excess of your choice. Cube supplies are unlimited: use recorded substitutes if necessary.
Finish and score
A player taking their sixth point card with two or three players, or fifth with four or five, triggers the finish. Complete that round so everyone has equal turns. Sum point cards, three per gold coin, one per silver, and one per remaining non-yellow cube. Highest total wins; tied players favor the one who acted later in turn order.
Host the first game
Demonstrate a trade repeated twice and the difference between upgrading and trading. A Reddit Century trilogy discussion describes Spice Road as a useful quick introduction; start with this standalone loop before adding anything from another box.
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Ideas & Twists
Choose a variation together before you start.
Century: Spice Road · See main rules
Original STUDplay house twistOpen contracts
Keep claimed point cards face up instead of face down, so everyone can compare scores and judge whether to speed up the finish.
Century: Spice Road · See main rules
Original STUDplay house twistLarger caravan
Increase everyone's end-of-turn cube limit to twelve. The extra storage makes bulk exchanges easier but still requires a rest action to recover cards.
Century: Spice Road · See main rules
Original STUDplay house twistMerchant preview
Keep the top card of the merchant deck face up beside it. When the market refills use that card, then reveal the next preview.
Century: Spice Road · See main rules
Original STUDplay house twistOne market refresh
Give everyone one paper token. Once, immediately before their normal action, they may discard it to remove the rightmost merchant from the game, return any cubes on it to their supplies, and replace that card from the deck. Use this only while the deck has a replacement. The token is worth no points.
Century: Spice Road · See main rules
Original STUDplay house twistScarce upgrades
A played upgrade card must use its upgrades on different cubes: no cube may rise more than one level during that action. Unused upgrades may be declined. Trade cards retain their normal repeated exchanges.
About this guide
Requires the named physical game and its supplied components. Rules are paraphrased teaching guidance; keep the box's cards and reference diagrams beside the table. Original STUDplay house twists are optional, untested suggestions rather than publisher rules. Agree one before setup; unchanged rules still apply.
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