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Game Info
Year
2014
Collection
Ratings
Creator Score
Expansions & Family
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Mechanic profile
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Description
San Juan is a card game based on Puerto Rico. The deck of 110 cards consists of production buildings (indigo, sugar, tobacco, coffee, and silver) and "violet" buildings that grant special powers or extra victory points. Cards from the hand can be either built or used as money to build something else; cards from the deck are used to represent goods produced by the production buildings, in which case they are left face-down. A seven-card hand limit is enforced once per round.
In each round (or governorship), each player in turn selects from one of the available roles, triggering an event that usually affects all players, such as producing goods or constructing buildings. The person who picks the role gets a privilege, such as producing more goods or building more cheaply.
Though similar in concept to Puerto Rico, the game has many different mechanisms. In particular, the game includes no colonists and no shipping of goods; goods production and trading are normally limited to one card per phase; and trades cannot be blocked. Victory points are gained exclusively by building, and the game ends as soon as one player has put up twelve buildings.
This second edition of San Juan includes all the cards of the original game as well as the additional building cards from the alea Treasure Chest but not the event cards from that expansion. This edition also contains a new building card not previously available: "The Hut," a building that grants a card when nothing is sold in the trader phase.
Puerto Rico Family
(3 games)
Part of the Puerto Rico family — see Puerto Rico for the combined view.
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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 3
This page: 3
Sentiment:
pos 3 ·
mix 0 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–3 of 3
Video XbDEop9wGMU
The Broken Meeple Top List sentiment: positive
video_pk 7448 · mention_pk 22056
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Elegant and streamlined gameplay
- Quick to play (45 minutes)
- Simple but deep strategic decision-making
- Everything is one deck of cards (no unnecessary components)
- Better than Race for the Galaxy and Puerto Rico alternatives
- Good player interaction through role timing
Cons
- Light gameplay may not appeal to heavy gamers
- Limited depth compared to heavier euros
Thematic elements
- Trading
- Caribbean
- Building
Comparison games
- Race for the Galaxy
- Puerto Rico
- Age of the Galaxy
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- these are my top 100 games not necessarily the top 100 games
- the lower end of my top 100 is still games I rank 8-9 out of ten if there are no sevens on this list
- everything on here is the creme de la creme as far as I'm concerned
- it hurt a lot
- this can really destroy friendships if you're not careful
- I have played through the whole game and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface
- there is such a thing as too much for a game
- I really want to play this but maybe not quite every single week
- I am serious and don't call me Shirley
- there's a lot of new content to throw in there
- I do love a good sandbox game
- these are my top 100 games not necessarily the top 100 games although i do argue that some of them probably should be in that category
- the lower end of my top 100 is still games i rank an 8-9 out of ten
- there are going to be reasons why some of them have dropped some of them have risen etc and even when you get to the top 10 there's going to be flaws with those games you know no game is ever perfect
- it really is that card system that sells liz bower for me
- this one does have you shouting a lot because you're really mindful of the fact that you want to play this particular card but you can't rule out the fact that other players may have played that card and it scares you to heaven and back
- this is a game that you cannot like get wrong at any point during the game if something goes wrong for you you're not going to recover very well
- it gets ridiculously tight particularly at four players
- i have to treat this kind of as an event game one that i'm gonna say look in advance okay we're gonna play western legends with all the bells and whistles okay do not play or have a rough idea right well i better make certain i know all the rules off my heart oh this is going to take a while
- i do love a good sandbox game this is something you will notice with games i like give me the freedom to do what i want to do in order to in like start my thematic experience don't pop me on a linear path because that another's keynote
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video XbDEop9wGMU
The Broken Meeple Top List sentiment: positive
video_pk 7448 · mention_pk 384013
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Elegant and streamlined gameplay
- Quick to play (45 minutes)
- Simple but deep strategic decision-making
- Everything is one deck of cards (no unnecessary components)
- Better than Race for the Galaxy and Puerto Rico alternatives
- Good player interaction through role timing
Cons
- Light gameplay may not appeal to heavy gamers
- Limited depth compared to heavier euros
Thematic elements
- Trading
- Caribbean
- Building
Comparison games
- Race for the Galaxy
- Puerto Rico
- Age of the Galaxy
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Drafting
- Hidden Roles
- Role selection
- Set Collection
- Timing
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- these are my top 100 games not necessarily the top 100 games
- the lower end of my top 100 is still games I rank 8-9 out of ten if there are no sevens on this list
- everything on here is the creme de la creme as far as I'm concerned
- it hurt a lot
- this can really destroy friendships if you're not careful
- I have played through the whole game and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface
- there is such a thing as too much for a game
- I really want to play this but maybe not quite every single week
- I am serious and don't call me Shirley
- there's a lot of new content to throw in there
- I do love a good sandbox game
- these are my top 100 games not necessarily the top 100 games although i do argue that some of them probably should be in that category
- the lower end of my top 100 is still games i rank an 8-9 out of ten
- there are going to be reasons why some of them have dropped some of them have risen etc and even when you get to the top 10 there's going to be flaws with those games you know no game is ever perfect
- it really is that card system that sells liz bower for me
- this one does have you shouting a lot because you're really mindful of the fact that you want to play this particular card but you can't rule out the fact that other players may have played that card and it scares you to heaven and back
- this is a game that you cannot like get wrong at any point during the game if something goes wrong for you you're not going to recover very well
- it gets ridiculously tight particularly at four players
- i have to treat this kind of as an event game one that i'm gonna say look in advance okay we're gonna play western legends with all the bells and whistles okay do not play or have a rough idea right well i better make certain i know all the rules off my heart oh this is going to take a while
- i do love a good sandbox game this is something you will notice with games i like give me the freedom to do what i want to do in order to in like start my thematic experience don't pop me on a linear path because that another's keynote
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video XbDEop9wGMU
The Broken Meeple Top List at 17:54 sentiment: positive
video_pk 7448 · mention_pk 424642
Click to watch at 17:54 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Lighter, quicker, more elegant than similar games
- Clever use of a single deck for multiple functions
- Engaging role selection timing
- Quick playtime
- Second edition adds variety
Cons
- Still not a top 50 game for the reviewer
Thematic elements
- Building buildings and producing goods
- Colonial period, island of Puerto Rico
Comparison games
- Race for the Galaxy
- Puerto Rico
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Crafting — Using cards as currency to pay for building costs.
- Role selection — Players select roles, gaining a bonus for their choice, while others also get the basic action.
- Set Collection — Collecting specific building types for scoring.
- Tableau Building — Constructing a city of buildings.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- these are my top 100 games not necessarily the top 100 games
- the lower end of my top 100 is still games I rank 8-9 out of ten if there are no sevens on this list
- everything on here is the creme de la creme as far as I'm concerned
- it hurt a lot
- this can really destroy friendships if you're not careful
- I have played through the whole game and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface
- there is such a thing as too much for a game
- I really want to play this but maybe not quite every single week
- I am serious and don't call me Shirley
- there's a lot of new content to throw in there
- I do love a good sandbox game
- these are my top 100 games not necessarily the top 100 games although i do argue that some of them probably should be in that category
- the lower end of my top 100 is still games i rank an 8-9 out of ten
- there are going to be reasons why some of them have dropped some of them have risen etc and even when you get to the top 10 there's going to be flaws with those games you know no game is ever perfect
- it really is that card system that sells liz bower for me
- this one does have you shouting a lot because you're really mindful of the fact that you want to play this particular card but you can't rule out the fact that other players may have played that card and it scares you to heaven and back
- this is a game that you cannot like get wrong at any point during the game if something goes wrong for you you're not going to recover very well
- it gets ridiculously tight particularly at four players
- i have to treat this kind of as an event game one that i'm gonna say look in advance okay we're gonna play western legends with all the bells and whistles okay do not play or have a rough idea right well i better make certain i know all the rules off my heart oh this is going to take a while
- i do love a good sandbox game this is something you will notice with games i like give me the freedom to do what i want to do in order to in like start my thematic experience don't pop me on a linear path because that another's keynote
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–3 of 3