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For San Francisco, the first half of the 20th century is an era of dynamic growth and new opportunities. It's also a chance for you — junior urban planner — to take part in a contest for the most amazing reconstruction plan of the city. Sit down with your sketchbook and create a project that will make you stand out from the competition. Design a beautiful city in this game by Reiner Knizia, world-famous board game designer.
In the board game San Francisco, you become an urban planner whose goal is to create the greatest redevelopment plan of the famous city in California. Design districts in each of the five types, racing against all the other planners. Choose the right moment to take on new projects — but be careful, if you take on too many projects it'll be harder to gain more. Earn more prestige by cleverly designing a system of cable car connections. Lay foundations and carefully design the nearby landscape, allowing you to build new skyscrapers. Create a new vision of San Francisco that will gain the most rewards, and win through fame and recognition.
- Unique drafting with contracts and stock adds depth
- Non-traditional yet approachable for a compact city-building game
- Skyscrapers are visually appealing and thematic
- Points come from strategic majorities and networks rather than a big pile of points
- Not intuitive at first; learning curve
- Endgame can be abrupt and early, causing potentially unsatisfying conclusions
- Niche appeal; may not be for everyone
- Four-player setups can be more predictable
- urban development with cable cars, skyscrapers, and network scoring
- San Francisco city-building theme
- strategic drafting and spatial placement in a city-building context
- Meadows
- Rainforest
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- build from a column — On your turn, you can take all cards from a chosen column and build them into your city, respecting color order from left to right.
- cable car network scoring — Many cards feature cable car icons; connecting to depots scores points via tokens.
- color order constraint — Colors must be built left-to-right; black can go in any color.
- contracts (drafting) — Taking a card or a column grants a contract, which restricts future column-taking options and shapes the draft.
- depot foundation adjacency — Foundations require seven workers orthogonally adjacent to score skyscrapers.
- drafting — Taking a card or a column grants a contract, which restricts future column-taking options and shapes the draft.
- draw and place card into a column — On your turn, draw a card and place it in one of three columns, with the option to add to an existing column or create a new one.
- End conditions — The game ends either when foundation tiles run out or when a grid is completely filled.
- skyscraper foundations — Foundations enable constructing three-dimensional skyscrapers, each worth a point.
- stock — Stock is a special mechanic that adds a further layer of strategic consideration beyond drafting.
- Stock holding — Stock is a special mechanic that adds a further layer of strategic consideration beyond drafting.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's very cute
- it's a deceptively simple game
- not a very intuitive game
- the game ends immediately
- it's not a big Point salad like a lot of the games
- it's pretty niche
- overall I like it
References (from this video)
- urban planning theme
- engaging spatial decisions
- map complexity varies by edition
- city-building and infrastructure
- urban planning in San Francisco
- Ticket to Ride
- Carcassonne
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- set collection / route-building — Assembling routes and infrastructure yields points.
- tile placement — Players place buildings on a city map to optimize layout and scoring.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Halloween's fun so now you're good with dressing up.
- the wind is the enemy.
- Quality over quantity.
- we will be at BGG Con in Dallas.
- I love playing at The Family Table right here at home.
- Recto Verso and it's kind of, you know, Co-op playing games putting blocks together.
- we're excited about San Francisco and the Poland map expansion.