Goal

Be the player with the most victory points at the end of the game by collecting:

• victory points earned for buildings
• victory point tokens earned at the captain phase
• conditional victory points earned at the end of the game for occupied large buildings

In case of a tie, the player owning the most doubloons and goods is the winner.

Rules summary

The game is played over several rounds. At the start of a round, the governor selects a role, then each player in turn selects a role. At the end of the round, the governor token moves to the next player.

When a role has been chosen, each player in turn plays the action for this role. Only the player who selected the role can use the role privilege.

Available roles are the following:

• Mayor: colonists set foot in the new world ! Privilege : the mayor can get one more colonist from the supply. Action : in turn, begining with the mayor, players get one colonist from the ship, until it is empty. Then players have to set colonists on their buildings and plantations.
• Craftsman: goods are produced. Privilege : the craftsman can produce one more good of his choice. Action : produce goods for your occupied buildings and plantations.
• Trader: goods are sold to the trading house. Privilege : the trader earns 1 extra doubloon if he sells. Action : sell one good the trading house doesn't have yet.
• Settler : plantations settlement. Privilege : the settler can get a quarry instead of a plantation. Action : get a plantation chosen among those available.
• Builder : buildings are bought and built. Privilege : the builder can get a building for 1 doubloon less than the regular price. Action : get a building chosen among those available.
• Captain : victory points are won by shipping goods to the old world. Privilege : the captain earns one extra victory points if he ships some goods. Action : select a type of good to load on a cargo ship; 1 victory point is earned for each barrel of this type of good loaded on the ship.
• Prospector : gold rush brings money ! Privilege : the prospector gets one doubloon from the bank. Action : none.

Please also note that occupied violet buildings have modifier effects for role actions.

End of game happens at the end of the round for which one of the following events comes to pass :

• there is not enough colonists in the supply to refill the colonist ship at the end of the mayor phase
• the last victory point token has been earned during the captain phase
• at least one of the players built on his 12th and last free space in the city.

Playing online

Choosing a role : click on the role of your choice in the list on the right of your game board.

• Mayor role : accept or refuse to get an extra colonist from the supply. Colonists are then automatically recruited by players. Click on a building or a plantation to setup a colonist on it. Click on a colonist to send it back to San Juan (the counter for colonists in San Juan is situated in your player panel on the right of the page).

• Craftsman role : goods production is automated (counters for goods owned are in the player panel on the right of the page). Then, choose one extra good that you can produce as your privilege.

• Trader role : choose a good that you want to sell by clicking on the appropriate counter in your player panel.

• Settler role : click on the plantation (or quarry) that you want. Placement on your board is automated.

• Builder role : click on the building that you want to buy. Placement on your board is automated.

• Captain role : click on the cargo boat on which you want to ship some goods. Then choose the type of good that you want to ship by clicking on the appropriate counter in your player panel. At the end of the captain phase, if you have some goods to store (warehouse or windrose), click on the corresponding counter. Stored goods will be highlighted by a red frame.

• Prospector role : doubloon is earned immediately.

Tooltips are available to give information on roles and buildings by hovering over game elements with the mouse.

'Balanced game' variant

This variant implements two game balance fixes giving each player an equal chance of winning as listed in the Puerto Rico (board game) Wikipedia page.

• The prices of the Factory and University buildings are swapped so that the Factory costs 8 doubloons and the University costs 7 doubloons
• Any player that starts with a corn plantation starts with 1 doubloon less than the players that start with an indigo plantation.

Two players variant

Craftsman Angst : if this variant is selected, players alternate selecting a role as usual, until the Governor has selected three roles and the opponent has selected two roles (instead of three in a classic two players game), then the governor token goes to the opponent and a new round starts. This variant avoids the consecutive selection of two roles by the same player which happens on a change of round with the classic two player game rules.

This variant is described on Board Game Geek.

Have a good game !