Century: Golem Edition swaps the Spice Road for crystals in fantasy spin-off

Century: Spice Road has quickly proved itself to be a fantastic Splendor-like card game about building up a satisfying spice-trading engine as you trade cubes and build your deck of merchants and caravan leaders – you can read our full thoughts in this month’s issue of Tabletop Gaming.

The engrossing gameplay hasn’t stopped some players from grousing about the rather dry theme of publisher Plan B’s debut title, though.

Now, Plan B has stepped in with a brand new version of the game, rethemed to please those who prefer a splash of fantasy to the original’s historical framing.

Century: Golem Edition plays exactly like its predecessor, but has been visually overhauled with a fantasy theme, swapping the wooden spice cubes for plastic crystals and replacing the 15th century setting with golems, magic-casters and more from the land of Caravania. The delightfully clinky metal coins remain untouched, we're glad to say.

The realistic illustrations of the Spice Road version have similarly been overhauled with ‘manga-inspired’ artwork to reflect the different tone.

You’ll only be able to get your hands on the alternate version at conventions or through Plan B’s online store, where it will also sell a custom playmat that matches the new edition’s art. It’ll cost $40 (£31), the same price as the regular Century: Spice Road set.

Although Spice Road is envisioned as the first part of a planned Century trilogy, featuring three games set in different time periods that share similar mechanics and can even be combined, Plan B has said that it has “absolutely no plans” to develop a sequel or expansion to Century: Golem Edition, confirming: “This will be a standalone game.”