San Juan

To set up the game, each player starts with one Indigo Plant building card face-up in their playing area. The remaining cards are shuffled to form the main draw deck. All five role cards (Builder, Prospector, Producer, Councillor, Trader) are placed face-up in the center of the playing area. Each player then draws four cards from the main draw deck to form their starting hand. The player who is chosen as the Governor will be the first to select a role.

The primary objective of San Juan is to accumulate the most victory points by the end of the game. Players achieve this by strategically constructing various buildings, which have victory point values indicated on them. Managing resources effectively to build these structures and utilizing the special abilities of certain buildings are key to maximizing your score.

During a round, the Governor chooses one of the available role cards. The Governor performs both the action and the privilege associated with that role. After the Governor, each other player, in clockwise order, performs only the action of the chosen role. Once all players have acted, the next player in clockwise order becomes the new Governor and chooses a role from the remaining available options. This continues until all players have had a chance to choose a role, or until all roles have been selected.

Victory points are primarily awarded for the buildings constructed by each player. Each building card has a victory point value indicated in a red hexagon at the bottom. Some city buildings may also grant additional victory points based on specific conditions, such as having certain other buildings in your tableau. Any goods (represented by face-down cards on production buildings) that a player possesses at the end of the game do not directly count for points but can serve as a tie-breaker if multiple players have the same total victory points.

The game immediately ends at the conclusion of the round in which any player constructs their twelfth building. Once the game ends, players calculate their total victory points from all their constructed buildings, including any bonus points from special building conditions. The player with the highest total victory points wins. In case of a tie, the player with the most goods (face-down cards on production buildings) breaks the tie.