Game Review: San Juan

Rio Grande Games, $24.95

Have you ever wanted to play a strategy game, but didn’t have hours to set up and play? San Juan may be the game for you.

The theme of the game is building the city of San Juan, and it contains a couple of cool (in my opinion) features. This game is the “little brother” of Puerto Rico, winner of several international game awards. After playing San Juan several times, I can hardly wait to try its “big brother.”

The goal of the game is simply to have the most points at the end of the game. Each building is worth a certain number of points, and the game ends when a player has built 12 buildings. There are many different buildings, but two main types. Production buildings produce trade goods, and “violet buildings” (so called because – you guessed it – the cards have a violet background) offer various benefits or privileges to the player who builds them or simply add to your victory points.

The first unique feature of this game is the roles. The player who goes first takes the governor chip and selects one of five game roles: builder, producer, trader, prospector, and counselor. Each player takes a turn at that role, and then the next player chooses one of the remaining roles, and all players take a turn at that role. Once all players have had a turn at selecting a role, the governor marker is passed to the next player, and the cycle continues.

There is always a benefit for the player that picks a given role. For instance, if you pick “builder,” buildings costs one less for that turn; if you pick the producer or trader role you can produce or sell one extra good, respectively. In the counselor role, you draw several cards (more for the person who chose it) and get to keep one of your choice. The prospector role allows you to draw one card – the other players get nothing unless they have built a gold mine.

The other unique feature of the game is that the cards are used as buildings, goods and money. You start with four cards in your hand and must spend from them to build any card from your hand. If you produce goods, you take cards (face down) from the draw pile and put them on the producing building. When you sell trade goods, you are paid with new cards for your hand. You always have to decide what cards to build and which ones to spend. The trade good cards are always kept face down, so in any given game, there may be cards that never come into play, because they were used as trade goods. This helps make the game different each time.

The box contains the deck of 120 cards, thick cardboard markers for the governor and the five roles, and six thick cardboard markers indicating prices for trade goods for use during the trading phase. There are also instructions, score pads, and a pencil – another game that is playable right out of the box. Everything is well made and attractive, while I’ve seen better, these seem just right for this game.

Game play is relatively quick and easy. While a good strategy is important, this is a game anyone can play and enjoy, and even a casual player can win. Last time we played, our son (who is below the recommended age) seemed to be playing foolishly. It seemed that even in the game his money was “burning a hole in his pocket.” You can probably guess who won the game – he did! This game probably won’t make my top 10 list, but it’s a comfortable game that can be played in a fairly short time, and that, I think, will make it one we keep going back to.