''San Juan'' is a

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card g ...

Andreas Seyfarth Andreas Seyfarth (born 6 November 1962) is a German-style board game designer, who is most famous for creating ''Puerto Rico'', which is highly ranked on BoardGameGeek. In 2002, the game was awarded first place for the prestigious Deutscher Spi ...

and published in 2004 by Alea in German and by

Rio Grande Games Rio Grande Games is a board game publisher based in Placitas, New Mexico. The company primarily imports and localizes foreign language German-style board games. History In 1995, Jay Tummelson began working for Mayfair Games. At that time, M ...

in English. The game is derived from the board game ''

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

'', and takes its name from

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

, capital of

. The game uses a unique deck of 110 cards and props for two to four players. The object of the game is to compile the maximum number of victory points by creating buildings and producing commodities. The structure of the game strongly mirrors that of ''Puerto Rico'', in that players attempt to accumulate victory points by constructing buildings, each of which provides a special ability, and producing and selling goods. Players take turns by selecting one of several roles to fulfill, which triggers the specific action for that role, and gives a special advantage to the person who chose it. For instance, if a player were to choose Builder as their role, everyone would be given a chance to build a building, and the player who selected Builder would receive a discount. Many elements of ''Puerto Rico'' were changed, simplified, or removed for purposes of shortening the game, and allowing for only cards rather than additional wooden tokens. Most notably: *Goods can only be sold for money, not shipped for victory points. Hence, there is no Captain role. *There are no colonists in the game. Hence, there is no Mayor role. *There is no exclusivity when selling goods: Multiple players may sell the same good without restriction. *Unselected roles do not receive bonus pay. *There is an additional role, Councillor, which is geared more towards the card play. The cards, each of which depict a building and describe its ability, serve multiple purposes: A card in a player's hand is, at the same time, both money used for building, and a potential building to be built. Additionally, the cards are used to represent goods produced in any Production building. As each building provides a number of victory points, players attempt to gain the highest score before the end of the game. There is no direct player interaction; Players affect each other by selecting roles at moments less opportune for their opponents.

External links

* {{bgg, 8217, ''San Juan'' Card games introduced in 2004 Dedicated deck card games Andreas Seyfarth games Alea games Rio Grande Games games

See also

External links