Comment by sanj

If you're playing this game without the "Penny Rule", you're missing out.

SoC suffers from a bit of a compound interest effect: a few bad (non-producing) rolls at the beginning can screw you for the entire game.

To make up for this:

Anytime there is a roll on which a given player doesn't get any resources (and not because of the thief), they are given a penny.

During trading, a player can buy a resource from the bank using pennies for the cost of number of victory points showing.

This dramatically reduces run-away-winner syndrome.