Inspired by Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is a medium-weight trading game, featuring innovative loan-taking and auction mechanics combined with elegant hand and resource management. Players play Merchants of Venice, using their connections to buy and sell goods and ship them around the Mediterranean for profit. However, to invest in goods and ships they need to take loans from the moneylender Shylock, and the penalty for not repaying a loan can be heavy indeed.