San Juan

The Basics
Description: A card game based on Puerto Rico. The pack of 110 cards consists of production buildings (indigo, sugar, tobacco, coffee, and silver) and "violet" buildings that grant special powers or extra victory points. Cards from the hand can be either built or used as money to build something else. Cards from the deck are used to represent goods produced by the production buildings, in which case they are left face-down. A seven-card hand limit is enforced once per round.

In each round or governorship, each player in turn selects from one of the available roles, triggering an event that usually affects all players, such as producing goods or building. The person who picks the role gets a privilege, such as producing more goods or building more cheaply.

Though similar in concept to Puerto Rico, the game has many different mechanics. In particular, there are no colonists and no shipping of goods; goods production and trading are normally limited to one card per phase; and trades cannot be blocked.

Victory points are gained exclusively by building, and the game ends as soon as one player has put up 12 buildings.

How to Play

• Spielezeit Official Video) (Web Guide) (Power Point)
• Audio Rules (MP3)
  
• Rio Grande Games (Official Rulebook)

Where to Play Online

• Brett Spiel Welt (Free - Registration Required) (real-time)
• Compound Eye (Free) (Strong Computer AI)
• PC Version 1 (Free) (Zipped Version on the Geek)
• PC Version 2 (Free) (Zipped Version on the Geek)
  
• Underdogs (Free) (Zipped)

Cheat Sheets (from the Geek)

• Player Aid (Downloads a Pdf)
• Quick Reference (Downloads a Word doc)

Game Hints

• Basic Strategy: Thread on the Geek
• My Tips: Coming Soon

Views

• Opinion: I love this game. A great way to spend some time. A must if you love Puerto Rico.
  
• Online: Works fine online or as a PC game.
• Work: Should be fine for lunch time play.
• Home: Solid card game for families. Card management and role selection aren't hard to pick up.
  

Other Info

• Plays best with: Works fine with 2-4 players, best with 3 (but fine with 2 or 4).
• Gateway Suitability: Fairly easy to learn, might take two games to grasp what to buy and what to discard.
• Spouse Suitability: Chrissy hasn't played this yet.
• Re-playability: Very high for gamers.
  
• Real Life Setup: A few minutes of pulling the Indigo card for each player, then shuffle cards and sort out other pieces.
• Real Life Time/Length: 30-45 minutes.
• Geek Link: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8217