There are 37 virtues that can be connected by a variety of paths across the game board. Each colored path represents one of the virtues associated with a Virtue card. Players try to score as many points as possible during the game by placing their colored gems between the virtues specified on their path cards.
Gems of virtues is a lightly themed route/network building game aided by path cards depicting routes that earn extra points and virtue cards that allow the player to build certain colored paths. Each player starts with 45 gems and attempts to link "virtues" such as Happiness and Beauty.
Gameplay ends when one player has less than 3 gems left at the end of their turn. Any remaining points are tallied, and the points on path cards that still exist in any player's hands are subtracted from their total.