San Juan (Second Edition)

About this board game

San Juan (Second Edition) is a strategic card game for 2–4 players, with games lasting about 60 minutes. Based on Puerto Rico, it challenges players to develop a city by constructing production buildings and special violet buildings.

The deck contains 110 cards. Indigo, sugar, tobacco, coffee, and silver buildings produce goods, while violet buildings provide special powers or extra victory points. Cards in your hand can be built or spent as money to construct something else, and cards from the deck represent goods by remaining face-down.

Each round, or governorship, players take turns selecting from the available roles. The chosen role triggers an event that usually affects everyone, such as producing goods or constructing buildings. The player who selects the role receives a privilege, including the ability to produce more goods or build at a lower cost.

• Build production and violet buildings to develop your city.
• Use cards as either buildings or currency.
• Produce and trade goods, normally limited to one card per phase.
• Gain victory points exclusively through building.

San Juan uses several mechanisms that distinguish it from Puerto Rico. There are no colonists, goods are not shipped, trades cannot be blocked, and a seven-card hand limit is enforced once per round. The game ends immediately when a player has built twelve buildings.

This 2014 second edition includes all cards from the original game and the additional building cards from the alea Treasure Chest, but not that expansion’s event cards. It also introduces The Hut, which grants a card when nothing is sold during the trader phase, adding another consideration to each round.