Reply To: The Incomplete Guide to Nice Little Card Games

This one’s not actually for everyone; it’s a
bit too much on the advanced side for that.

San Juan (2nd edition)
2-4p / 10^ / 45m

Each card in this game represents a building in your town,
worth a number of points and usually having a useful effect
during the game or a way to score more points at the end.
To play a card from your hand into your town, you must pay
its cost by discarding other cards from your hand – to make
use of any opportunity, you will have to give up others.
Once any player builds their 12th building, the game ends,
and the player with the most points wins.

In each round, 5 actions are available, and players will choose one
on their turn. Each can only be chosen once, but in most cases, all
of the players take the chosen action, with the player who chose it
getting to do it in a better way. Once each player has taken a turn,
the round ends and a new one begins. The 5 actions are as follows:

1. Draw a card. (The other players do nothing.)
2. Each player draws some cards and chooses one of them to keep.
The player who chose this action draws 5 cards, the others, only 2.
3. Each player can build 1 card from their hand by paying its cost.
The player who chose this action pays one card less than the cost.
4. Each player can produce a good on 1 of their production buildings
(see below). The player who chose this action can produce 2 goods.
5. Each player can sell a good from 1 of their production buildings.
The player who chose this action can sell 2 goods.

What’s this production and selling business? It’s a way of refilling
your hand. Some buildings are production buildings. When you
produce with one, you place a card from the deck on it to show
that you have a good there (limit 1 per building). When you sell a
good, that card is removed and you draw a number of cards from
the deck. The number of cards drawn depends on the building;
buildings that produce more valuable goods cost more to build.
There’s actually just a little more to goods values than that, but
that’s all you need to know unless you’re actually about to play.

At the end of the round in which any player builds their 12th
building, the game ends (players start with a building that
produces a 1-card good). And that’s pretty much the game –
or is it? What are all these buildings about? A few examples:

Various production buildings – Produce goods (no additional effect).
Office building – At the start of each round, you can discard up to 2
of your cards, then draw that many cards.
Tower – You can hold 12 cards at the end of a round (usually, it’s 6).
Aqueduct – You can produce 1 more good each time action 4 is chosen.
Trading post – You can sell 1 more good each time action 5 is chosen.
Quarry – Non-production buildings cost you 1 card less to build.
Harbor – 1 point at the end of the game for each time action 5 was
chosen and you sold 1 or more goods (track this by placing a card
underneath the Harbor card each time that happens).
Guild hall – 1 point at the end of the game for each production building
you have and for each type of production building you have.
Monument – 5 points at the end of the game (no additional effect).
Palace – 1 more point for every 4 points you have at the game’s end.