Puerto Rico

Description

--- "Puerto Rico" is a role-selection board game where colonial governors build plantations, ship goods, and construct buildings to amass victory points through strategic role choices and resource management. Key mechanics include: - *Role selection* Players choose roles (e.g., Trader, Builder); all perform the action, selector gains privilege like discounts or bonuses. - *Variable phase order* Governor token passes clockwise, determining who starts each round's role selection. - *Resource cycle* Plantations produce crops manned by colonists; exchange for points, doubloons, or ship for VP; doubloons buy buildings enhancing production/abilities. - *Shared components* Three ships, trading house, resource supply, doubloons; personal boards track buildings, plantations, resources. - *Scoring and hidden info* VP from buildings, shipping (face-down chips in 1/5 denominations), manned large buildings; goods/doubloons visible. - *Role incentives* Unused roles accumulate doubloon bonuses for next selector, encouraging comprehensive role use. Puerto Rico is a strategic board game for 3-5 players (some editions 2-5 with variants) where participants act as colonial governors competing to accumulate victory points primarily by shipping goods to Europe or constructing buildings. Each player manages a personal board for city buildings, plantations, and resources, while shared elements include three ships, a trading house, resource supplies, and doubloons. The core resource cycle involves growing crops on manned plantations, exchanging them for points or doubloons via shipping or trading, and using doubloons to purchase buildings that boost production or provide special abilities—all requiring colonists to activate. Gameplay proceeds in rounds where players sequentially select from available role cards (e.g., Trader for selling goods, Builder for construction); upon selection, every player executes the corresponding action, but the chooser receives a privilege, such as a building discount or first choice. Unused roles accrue doubloon bonuses, incentivizing their eventual selection to optimize turns. A variable phase order is enforced by passing a "governor" token clockwise after each round, with its holder initiating the next by choosing the first role. Victory points derive from owned buildings, shipped goods (tracked via hidden face-down chips in 1 or 5 denominations to obscure exact scores), and manned "large buildings." As the game progresses toward endgame triggers like empty supply or full ships, the uncertainty of opponents' shipping totals demands cautious role choices, with visible goods and doubloons allowing partial score assessment. Expansions like New Buildings and The Nobles are noted in later editions but excluded from this base game entry. ---