Silk Road

1247. The wars that closed the silk road for a generation are over.

You take a ruined caravanserai, a hundred and eighty ducats and two camels, and try to turn it into a house whose mark is honoured from Tabriz to the Jade Gate.

Buy cheap at home, carry it a long way, sell dear. The further the road, the more a load fetches — and the more can go wrong on the way. Bandits, murrain, a river in flood, a customs man who has heard of you.

Three places to begin. Samarkand at the crossroads, Trebizond on the Black Sea where Genoese money is waiting, or Tabriz under Mongol law. Each has its own roads, its own goods, and its own rivals.

What you build: a fleet worked up one beast at a time, from a pack mule to a great wagon. Properties that earn while you sleep. Staff who may, in time, be brought into the household. A marriage into one of fifteen merchant houses, each bringing a road, a trade, or credit that buys you a few more turns before the creditors move.

What you're up against: three rival houses working the same roads, draining the same markets, and occasionally outbidding you for a contract. Seasons that shut the mountain passes in winter and hold the Gulf fleet until the monsoon turns. A reputation that opens roads and a debt that closes them.

A game runs about 40 turns. It saves as you play, exports to text so you can carry a house between devices, and works offline once loaded.

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