Designer: Andreas Seyfarth

San Juan is a trading game game, where players attempt to manufacture and trade goods in order to build a larger and larger trade value. Players will choose roles, and then use the cards in their hands to produce goods, sell those goods, build buildings, and other actions in order to build a Caribbean trading empire.

Interesting Mechanic: Player Roles, Actions and Privileges. Each player chooses an player role, which comes with an action and a privilege. Other players also get to perform the action, but not to perform the privilege. An example is that the everyone can build when the Builder builds, but only the Builder gets a discount for doing so.

San Juan was designed by the creator of Puerto Rico, and it shows. An elegant, simple trading game that is easy to teach but difficult to master. In many ways, it is similar to Race for the Galaxy, which may have more depth, but San Juan gets the edge on being easier to parse and teach.

(Photo Credit: Board Game Geek)