In Glasgow, players travel the city (in an abstract manner) to gather resources, take special actions, and most important of all construct buildings. Construct a factory, and you'll receive more goods from it when other buildings are constructed in the right areas in relation to it; build a train station, and you may or may not score from it depending on what else you build; build a monument, and you'll merely receive a lot of points — and in the end, points are what matters.

In more detail, to set up the game, lay out a ring of town figures randomly, with two of them being removed from play each game. Whoever is farther behind in the circle around town takes the next turn, moving to whichever town figure they want to visit. Most of them give you resources — brick, steel, or money — and you have a limit on how many resources of each type you can have. Some figures have two random building plans at them, and if you visit one with the proper resources, you can pay them, then build something. If you pay extra, you can then build something else, as well!

The first building is placed anywhere in the middle of play, then each subsequent building is placed adjacent to something already built, with the buildings eventually filling in a 4x4 grid of the players' own creation. As soon as the 16th building is constructed, the game ends and players score points for what they built. Who has given more to the current state of Glasgow?