Leaning slightly to the complex side, but still capable of being a family game, Puerto Rico has risen to be one of the most popular board games of the past few years.

In 2002, it won first place at SpielePreis and was a finalist in the Spiel des Jahres. (See GamerDad Unplugged #2.) Games Magazine ranked it as the best advanced strategy game of 2003, and it is currently the top ranked game at www.boardgamegeek.com.

Each player is a plantation owner in Puerto Rico in colonial days. The object of the game is to acquire the most victory points by producing goods and shipping them back to Spain. Everyone begins with a small amount of cash and a production building. One player is chosen as the Governor and begins a round of play. The governor takes her turn by selecting a role: the mayor, builder, captain, settler, craftsman, trader, or prospector. Whichever role is picked, ALL players then perform the activities of that role. Once everyone has participated, if they can, play proceeds to the Governor’s left and the next player must choose a new role that everyone will participate in. Since all players get to participate in any role that is chosen, it is as important to select the worst role possible for your opponents as it is to select the best role for oneself. Once everyone has been able to select a role, all unselected roles are given 1 coin to make them more attractive. The prospector card does not appear in three player games, and appears twice in the five player game. Since there are always three more roles than players, three roles will get a coin added at the end of every round. After coins have been added to the unused roles, the used roles are made available. The player to the left of the current Governor becomes the new Governor and a new round of play is begun. The roles, and their effects, drive the game forward. Choosing the settler card to become the settler allows each player to add a new plantation to their section of island. Becoming the builder allows all players to build production buildings or violet-colored buildings which allow a player to break the rules of the game in minor ways. Choosing the mayor card distributes colonists to each player, which must be present in any building or plantation in order for it to perform its duty. The craftsman causes all qualified plantations to produce a good. The captain forces everyone to ship their goods back to Spain for victory points while becoming the trader allows players to sell their goods for coins. In four player games, the prospector card is present and becoming the prospector gives you one extra coin, while the other players receive nothing. Five player games have two prospectors. As is seen by the prospector role, selecting a role always gives a slight benefit to whoever selected it. Becoming the settler allows a player first choice of the available plantations, but also allows taking a quarry instead of a plantation. A working quarry reduces the cost of any building by one coin. The builder gets first choice of all the buildings, and may build her building for one less coin than the listed price. Since there are only two of each of the violet buildings, getting the one you want can be important. The mayor gets an extra colonist and often a second extra colonist if there are an uneven number of colonists available for distribution. The craftsman gets to produce an extra good of any that he already produces. The trader sells can sell a good for an extra coin, while the captain gets an extra victory point for shipping off his goods. Each role interacts with the others giving the game a kingdom-building sort of feel. Buildings and plantations only work when they’re occupied with colonists from the mayor phase. Plantations usually only produce if there is an associated occupied production building. The craftsman phase is only useful if you have your plantations and production buildings occupied. The captain phase can come along and force you to ship off your goods for victory points when you wanted to save some of them to sell during the trader phase. As the game progresses, there is a small snowball effect as the game changes from an ongoing effort to acquire money to a race to obtain as many victory points as possible before the game ends. The game ends when there are no more colonists left to put on the board, or when one player manages to fill up their city with buildings. (There are twelve building spaces but some violet buildings take up two spaces.) What elevates Puerto Rico to a great game is the sheer variety of ways in which to try to win the game. Of the five kinds of goods that can be produced on plantations, only corn needs no production building. So anyone who specializes in producing corn can save their settlers and coins for violet buildings. Produce early and often and try to ship as much corn as possible. The high end plantation goods, like coffee and tobacco, require very expensive production buildings to be built, but those goods can also be sold for a very handsome price during the trader phase, while corn can only be sold for zero coins. A player who has managed to save enough to build up a nice working coffee or tobacco operation will often become fairly cash-rich and can then build some of the most expensive buildings. Since buildings also give victory points, building a lot of pricey buildings is another possible winning strategy. The most expensive, two-slot buildings actually give bonus victory points for certain conditions. A player with an overabundance of colonists may want the building that gives extra victory points based on the number of colonists a player has at the end of the game. Puerto Rico takes about ten minutes to set up, about twenty to thirty minutes to explain to a newcomer, and just under one to two hours to play once everyone knows the rules. It maintains some of the best qualities of "friendly" or non-aggressive games. Nothing a player builds can be ever taken away by another player, and everyone has something to do almost all the time. It’s not a game of direct conflict, but of tactical decision making and longer term planning. Becoming the builder when other players have few coins to spend or producing goods when everyone else has unpopulated plantations are great examples of choosing the right role to give oneself an edge. With a wide variety of ways to win, and a steady stream of decisions to make, keeping everyone in the game, Puerto Rico’s accolades are all well-deserved. There is little to be offended about. Puerto Rico puts a premium on decision making and planning skills. The non-confrontational nature of the game makes it excellent for family games among siblings of unequal ages. Poor decisions will sometimes favor one opponent over others, but will rarely entirely ruin the decision-maker. Middle school is just about the right age for this title, a fairly bright 10 year old should be able to play without much of a problem.