The game Glass Road celebrates the 700-year-old tradition of glass-making in the Bavarian Forest. (Today, the "Glass Road" is a path through the Bavarian forest that takes visitors to many of the old glass houses and museums of that region.) You must skillfully manage your glass and brick production in order to construct the right structures that help you keep your business flowing. Cut the forest to keep the fires burning in the ovens, and spread and remove pits, ponds, and groves to supply yourself with the items you need. Fifteen specialists are there at your side to execute your orders...

In more detail, the game is comprised of four building periods. Every player has an identical set of fifteen specialist cards, and each specialist comes with two abilities. At the start of each building period, you choose a hand of five specialists. If during this building period, you play a specialist that no other player has in hand, you can use both abilities on that card; if two or more players play the same specialist, each of them may use only one of the two abilities. Exploiting the abilities of these specialists allows you to collect resources, lay out new landscape tiles (e.g., ponds and pits), and build a variety of buildings, which come in three types:

• Processing buildings
• "Immediate" buildings with a one-time effect
• Buildings that give bonus points at the end of the game for various accomplishments

Mastering the balance of knowing the best specialist card to play and being flexible about when you play it — along with assembling a clever combination of buildings — is the key to this game.

The 2021 edition of Glass Road comes with previously released promotional material: the Oktoberfest and Adventskalender tiles and the Harlekin card for use in the solitaire version of the game.