Siberia has a reputation for being a land of vast resources, and players are going to do their best to exploit those resources and convert them into as much loot as possible.

To set up the game, place two different resources at random on each area in Siberia, place the remaining resources on their supply spaces, draw four of the 20 investment tiles from the bag and lay them on the game board, give each player his own playing panel and workers/salesmen, then place all the action counters in the bag.

„Siberia” lasts an unspecified number of rounds. Each round consists of two phases: (1) drawing and placing action counters and (2) performing actions. In the first phase, all players draw six action counters from the bag, then place them on their individual playing panels. Most action counters show both a resource (five types possible) and a person (four types), while managers are on counters of their own. Each playing panel has columns for the five types of resources and the five types of workers, with space for two counters in each column. Players can also allocate counters to the „research facility” below their panel.

In the second phase, players take actions one at a time until everyone has no actions remaining or passes. A resource or worker action can be taken only if both spaces are filled in the appropriate column; when a player takes an action, he removes all action counters in the column, returns them to the bag, then takes the action.