You know how book lovers have that growing TBR pile of books they will eventually read? That is sometimes me, but with games. In this case, the game Puerto Rico by Rio Grande Games. This game was popular, at least among my friends and co-workers. It was released back in 2002. Hearing such high praises about the game and many retellings of the glories of my friends winning the game, it sounded like a game I definitely wanted to play. So, I bought a copy. And, it sat in my TBP pile of games for around two decades!

Puerto Rico is a city building and resources game. Players earn points by constructing buildings and shipping goods. Money, in doubloons, is needed to purchase buildings. Goods need to be produced to sell to the market to earn money. Plantations need to be established to acquire the goods. And, both buildings and plantations need to be populated by colonists in order function. There are seven types of rolls that help facilitate all these moving pieces, and players change rolls throughout the game. It may seem confusing or overwhelming, but once players understand the roles, it makes much more sense and is very straight forward. Why did it take me so long to learn to play it? Well…

Over those years, I would come across it in the game cabinet and think, “Oh yeah! I really need to break this out and learn how to play it!” Two problems delayed this. The first problem, I needed to be in the right mindset to learn how to play it. Every once in a while, I would open the box, become overwhelmed by all the pieces and the 12 page instruction booklet, then place it back into the game cabinet to learn how to play another time. The second problem, I needed the right number of players. Puerto Rico requires three to five players. Somewhere along the way, I did find and print the two-player variant rules. Still, I needed other people in the right mindset to learn how to play, too.

Flash forward (or…lather, rinse, repeat these aborted attempts every few years) to this past holiday season. Shortly after the 2024 New Year, my daughter and I finally sat down and learned how to play the game (after a few minutes of choking on the dust brushed off the box). With the family free and at home for the holidays, I thought it would be a good chance to have three or four people available to finally play it. My wife suggested my daughter and I sit down, figure out the rules, and try it out first, then we could explain it to everyone else. And, that is exactly what we did.

Because the game requires three to five players, we imagined playing a game with four players. At first, we explored each of the roles to understand their function. Once we learned how the roles worked, it became more like a two player game as it would have been played with more players. We did this for a several rounds, getting a better understanding of how the roles and turns worked. A standard game can take one to two hours. At some point, since we were not really playing an actual game, we pretended one of the end game states triggered, played one final round, and figured out who “won” the trial game. Counting up our points (as you would in a normal game), the scores were very close, but I “won” by a couple of points.

Okay. Cool. We learned to play Puerto Rico…finally.

Unfortunately, once again, there were scheduling issues, and we could not round up at least a third person to try playing an actual game while the holidays lasted.

A couple days passed, and my daughter and I were itching to play the game, again. This time, we tried out the two-player variant rules. The game played much better than our trial attempt. That afternoon, we ended up playing through two complete games, each winning one of the games. In one of the games, because some of the points gathered are covert until the tallying, I was sure I had enough points to win. When it was my turn to select a role, I picked the Mayor which would have depleted the number of colonists to keep the game going for at least another round. She asked if I was sure I wanted to end the game, and I smugly said I did. I misjudged, and she won the game by a considerable margin of those covert points. Curses!

A few nights ago, we went to our friend’s house for dinner and games, and finally played Puerto Rico with the requested number of players for a normal game. Our friends’ son agreed to also play the game, so we actually played with the maximum number of five players. The game was a much different experience when there are five players, each with their own, varying strategies. The game took a little longer, because there were four players still learning the game, and me, the person who needed a rules referee to correct me on some of the rules. Still, it was a fantastic night of gaming, and our friends’ son ended up winning the game, while the person to introduce it everyone else to the game came in last. (*sad trombone*)

One final set of thoughts on this game. After finally learning to play, I instantly understood the appeal why so many friends praised this game. At first, it did seem a bit overwhelming with all the moving pieces. There seems to be a growing trend with many of the new games (especially the more expensive ones) including an overwhelming number of pieces. As I write this, I wonder if this is any different than Monopoly or Risk? With all those moving pieces, it makes me more excited to bring my Peggy Game Engine to life. In a virtual setting, I can create a game with any number of pieces, and as long as the instructions are straight forward (as they are in this game), I know people will be willing to play.

I’m not sure if Puerto Rico is in print any more, but if you ever have a chance to play it, take that chance.