Tom Rosen
United States Arlington Virginia
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I know there is already a link to this within the Variant Forum for Puerto Rico, but I didn't see the body of these rules posted anywhere in this forum, and I wanted to both have easy access to them for future reference and preserve them in case www.morethangames.com ever goes down. I know there are legitimate debates over how many player boards to use and how many roles to select each turn, but here are the rules to the official Alea variant, whether you care to modify them or not.
Available at: http://www.morethangames.com/article.php?story=2003061610483... ( http://tinyurl.com/ly8y6)
ChiefElf wrote: Puerto Rico: 2-player Variant Official Alea/Ravensburger Rules This version is translated by Frank Hamrick from the Aleaspiele.de website Copyright: (c) 2001 Ravensburger Spieleverlag
Introduction The author and publishing house had two compelling conditions when we developed the following variant for 2 players: 1) we wanted to make no new material (e.g. new violet buildings), and 2) we wanted to retain the original rules so far as possible so that the transposition of the multi-player game to the 2-player game would not be too novel. We would love to hear your feedback on this variant. Which buildings are especially strong, which weak? What would you change- why? What would you do differently? Send your questions to info@aleaspiele.de. Variations from the multi-player game follow.
Game Preparation
* Per Player: 1 player board, 3 Doubloons, 1 Indigo (for governor); 1 corn (for 2nd player)
* Remaining Plantations: Remove 3 of each type of plantation from the game. Uncover 3 plantations(one more than the number of players)
* Quarries: Remove 3 Quarries from the game (use 5 quarry tiles).
* Buildings: Use 2 of each Production building, and 1 of each Violet building.
* Victory Points: 65 total Victory Points
* Colonists: 40 (in supply) + 2 on the colonist ship (minimum = number of players)
* Goods: Remove 2 of each type of good from the game
* Cargo Ships: Use the 4 and 6 capacity cargo ships
* Trading House: No change
* Role Cards: Remove 1 prospector from the game
Game Sequence The Governor begins and selects a role. Subsequently the players alternate selecting roles until both players have selected 3 roles. Place one Doubloon on the remaining role card. The Governor then changes to the second player and the above sequences is repeated. All further rules are the same as in the Multiplayer game.
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Todd Goff
United States Aiken South Carolina
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Has anyone played this varient much? How was it?
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James Fehr
Canada Edmonton Alberta
BGG.CON 2011 was awesome! Great to meet many of you! Follow my gaming exploits on Twitter (fehrmeister)
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My wife and I have played this variant quite a bit and really enjoy it. When I first read the rules, I wasn't so sure and thought I'd probably like managing two separate boards each better instead. But this variant actually works VERY well, to the point where I almost prefer a 2-player game over any other number. With almost every role picked each round there's a lot of action, but timing is everything, and the decisions are every bit as hard as with more players. Definitely give this a shot - the people at Alea who came up with these rules knew what they were doing!
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Fraser
Australia Melbourne
Yep that was 12 Power Grid maps back to back over two days. Worth doing, but possibly not in such a concentrated burst.
Ooh yes, now a little to the left - my nose is itchy. No, no the other left! Now what colour is 12 supporter badge going to be I wonder?
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Thommy8 wrote: I know there is already a link to this within the Variant Forum for Puerto Rico, but I didn't see the body of these rules posted anywhere in this forum
It's hidden in the files section. I say hidden because it is one of the oldest files for Puerto Rico, having been there over four years now and is way down the end, so you have to page through the more recent additions.
Here's the link straight to it http://www.boardgamegeek.com/fileinfo.php?fileid=1583
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Tom Rosen
United States Arlington Virginia
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Thanks for the link Fraser
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Sure.
Netherlands Rijen Noord Brabant
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Sir Loin o Beef wrote: Has anyone played this varient much? How was it?

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Michael Jordal
United States Austin Minnesota
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My wife and I really like it too.
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Roderick Schertler
United States Charlottesville Virginia
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When I read the rules of this variant I was turned off that every other round you'd get to pick 2 roles in a row (just as you became governor). This seemed completely antithetical to how Puerto Rico was supposed to work!
You could craftsman and then immediately trade or captain -- craftsman fear would be gone. I didn't play it for a long time because of this.
One day I saw somebody saying how much they liked the 2 player version, so we gave it a shot. It does work very well. I just had to embrace the 2-roles-in-a-row instead of being turned off by them.
Recently I've been thinking to try to remove this feature by dropping the prospector. There would be 6 roles instead of 7, and 5 would be chosen every time. Nobody would get 2 choices in a row. I haven't tried this out yet, though.
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Neil Cook
United Kingdom Burton on Trent Staffs
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Another
here. My wife and I play this quite often and really enjoy it.
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Sean Franco
United States Hammond Louisiana
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I like how many men and their wives play this two player.
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Werner Bär
Germany Karlsruhe Baden
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nelciara wrote: I dont get this. Isnt it played like in standard PR, you take a role and then the next player takes a role and then you take a role. That isn't standard PR. That is 2 player San Juan.
Quote: Is it really true that one should take 2 roles before swapping player? No, both players choose 3 roles out of the 7 available. Then the governor changes, and the new governor - the player who just picked the last role - gets to choose first in the new round.
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Roderick Schertler
United States Charlottesville Virginia
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Yes, as Werner was explaining, the mechanics cause one person to have 2 picks in a row every round. Say player A is governor. 6 of the 7 roles are picked in alternating turns: A B A B A B. Then the governor changes and all the roles are put back. Now they're picked: B A B A B A. Notice how at the start of the round B got to choose 2 roles in a row (and just when there was a full complement of 7 to choose from!)? A is about to get his 2 in a row at the start of the next round, when he becomes governor.
The game works even with this mechanic, but since it basically removes craftsman-fear (which I consider central to the PR experience) I wish they'd done it a different way. I haven't had a chance to play 2-player PR in a while, but next time I do I'm going to try my idea (dropping the prospector, choosing 5 out of 6 roles every round).
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Tom Hancock
United States Charleston West Virginia
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great variant!!!!
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Cameron McKenzie
United States Atlanta Georgia
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I play this 2-player version with some slight changes.
I prefer to take out one prospector (so there are 7 roles) and let each player pick two roles each round. I prefer this more than 3 for each with 7 roles because almost every role gets picked each round, so things like mayor get picked far more often then they should simply because there are few alternatives at the end of a round. This results in having more colonists than you really need and I feel sort of trivializes that element of the game...
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"...but since it basically removes craftsman-fear..."
I'm not very experienced, but it seems to me that it is not always easy to take Craftsman, even when you know you must, when the other player has the Wharf, and/or if they have a strong trading position (Office, Markets)
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Bruce H
United States Unspecified
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I have played PR many times and with two players I set up the game as advised by the "offical alea variant" with the following exceptions:
A. 3-5-7 number ships (use 4 space ship with extra colony chit) B. 3 space trading post (again use extra colony chit to block space) C. All small violet buildings 12 from regular set and 12 from expansion set are placed in a bag and 12 are drawn and placed in spaces on board in order by cost value. Forest/Hacienda & Trading Post/Office cannot be combined on same board only one can be used from each combo. The seven large buildings are shuffled and the first 5 dealt are used. If you don't have the expansion set place all 24 small violet buildings in bag and draw 12. Some may double and some may not even come into play. D. Starting player gets a sugar plantation and second player gets an indigo. E. Turns are taken as usual with the Governor drawing three and the second drawing two per round. The left over two have 1 coin added after each round.
Play and winning is as the rules state. We have found that using these extra variants provide a greater balance to the game with two players.
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My wife and I play it often as well. I really enjoy it, but I do prefer the multi version.
MY wife didn't fare so well in the multi version after cutting her teeth on the 2 player variant.
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Bruce H
United States Unspecified
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fernori wrote: I have played PR many times and with two players I set up the game as advised by the "offical alea variant" with the following exceptions: A. 3-5-7 number ships (use 4 space ship with extra colony chit) B. 3 space trading post (again use extra colony chit to block space) C. All small violet buildings 12 from regular set and 12 from expansion set are placed in a bag and 12 are drawn and placed in spaces on board in order by cost value. Forest/Hacienda & Trading Post/Office cannot be combined on same board only one can be used from each combo. The seven large buildings are shuffled and the first 5 dealt are used. If you don't have the expansion set place all 24 small violet buildings in bag and draw 12. Some may double and some may not even come into play. D. Starting player gets a sugar plantation and second player gets an indigo. E. Turns are taken as usual with the Governor drawing three and the second drawing two per round. The left over two have 1 coin added after each round.
Play and winning is as the rules state. We have found that using these extra variants provide a greater balance to the game with two players. Some more changes we recently made with playing with the expansion set was not to combine Factory and Specialized Factory on the same board and to raise the Library cost points to ten. See my post in the PR Expansion forum under "Variants" for reasons why.
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Bruce H
United States Unspecified
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Here are the following rules that my gaming group has finalized for a two player mode. We play elimination tournaments to a final two for a championship round. This has been play-tested over 100 times.
A. 3-5-7 number ships (use a 4 space ship with an extra colony chit) B. 3 space trading post (again use extra colony chit to block space) C. All small violet buildings 12 from regular set and 12 from expansion set are placed in a bag and 12 are drawn and placed in spaces on board in order by cost value. Forest/Hacienda & Trading Post/Office & Factory/Specialized Factory cannot be combined on same board only one can be used from each combo if picked. The seven large buildings are shuffled and the first 5 dealt are used. If you don't have the expansion set place all 24 small violet buildings in bag and draw 12. Some may double and some may not even come into play. D. Library cost the same but can only be used once per round. E. Starting player gets an indigo plantation and 2nd player gets a corn. F. Turns are taken as usual with the Governor drawing three and the second drawing two per round. The left over two have 1 coin added after each round. G. 70 V.P. Points. H. 40 colonists with extra two on ship = 42 total.
Play and winning is as the rules state.
ENJOY! 
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Seth Jaffee
United States Tucson Arizona
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MasterDinadan wrote: I play this 2-player version with some slight changes. I prefer to take out one prospector (so there are 7 roles) and let each player pick two roles each round. I prefer this more than 3 for each with 7 roles because almost every role gets picked each round, so things like mayor get picked far more often then they should simply because there are few alternatives at the end of a round. This results in having more colonists than you really need and I feel sort of trivializes that element of the game... I haven't played the "official" version yet, but the other day my friend and I tried a 2p game and we made up rules - which turned out to be almost exactly like the official ones.
I suspect I'll agree with you, I really liked taking 2 roles each (which is what we did) and taking 3 is sorta lame. We tried to mirror a 4p game as much as we could, while reducing the VPs and Colonists (we used 50 and 35+2 respectively).
I'll try the official variant and see how it goes.
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I originally posted this in the 2-player "Fernori Variant" thread (also detailed a few posts up), but it actually pertains more to my problems with the official 2-player variant, so I'll re-post here.
My wife and I play this a lot, and we've noticed two problem areas: 1) The dubloon crunch, and 2) The wharf.
1) Dubloon crunch: The Trading House is almost useless. Since there are only two players, the game can go half the game or more before there is enough diversity in occupied plantations to clear the trading house. This is especially dependent on which plantation tiles are turned over. A side effect is that the offices are not useful buildings, and the trading bonus of the library is often wasted.
Compounding this issue is this cycle: Less diversity in goods produced (due to player number) --> less trading --> less cash --> fewer production buildings purchased --> less diversity in goods produced.
Furthermore, at the end of each round, only one card gets a dubloon. So money is only "created" at 1 dubloon/round (2 if the prospector is picked).
2) Wharf: The Wharf (even the Small Wharf that we use) is way too powerful. The player only needs to block both ships as often as possible, and ease into victory as the only one with a working, unblockable ship. The fact that the Small Wharf only gives 0.5 VP/barrel doesn't matter when four times as many barrels are being shipped by the SW owner. You can still win without the wharf, but it's dependent on your opponent screwing something up.
Now, you should be able to counter the wharf strategy by using a building strategy, and get VPs that way. However, the above-mentioned dubloon crunch makes it extremely difficult to afford enough buildings to beat the wharf that way.
So, we're going to be trying the Fernori variant and see how that plays out, since it allows for more rapid clearing of the trading house.
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Seth Jaffee
United States Tucson Arizona
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Makita wrote: 1) Dubloon crunch: The Trading House is almost useless. Since there are only two players, the game can go half the game or more before there is enough diversity in occupied plantations to clear the trading house. This is especially dependent on which plantation tiles are turned over. A side effect is that the offices are not useful buildings, and the trading bonus of the library is often wasted. You don't find it useful to diversify so you can sell again?
Quote: Compounding this issue is this cycle: Less diversity in goods produced (due to player number) --> less trading --> less cash --> fewer production buildings purchased --> less diversity in goods produced. To me this sounds like a self fulfilling prophecy. So why not buy another production building, then produce another good and sell it (or ship it, locking up a boat!)?
Quote: Furthermore, at the end of each round, only one card gets a dubloon. So money is only "created" at 1 dubloon/round (2 if the prospector is picked). This is the complaint I have, but not for the money reason (though that IS a good point). Someone else mentioned that you'll often not really need to do the third role based on what's left, so there will end up being 'extra' settle or mayor phases, which shouldn't really happen - it's artificial. In all other player counts there are 3 unused roles, there should be three in 2p as well... right?
Quote: 2) Wharf: The Wharf (even the Small Wharf that we use) is way too powerful. The player only needs to block both ships as often as possible, and ease into victory as the only one with a working, unblockable ship. The fact that the Small Wharf only gives 0.5 VP/barrel doesn't matter when four times as many barrels are being shipped by the SW owner. You can still win without the wharf, but it's dependent on your opponent screwing something up. Again, self fulfilling prophecy.
I'll check out your other thread and see what that other variant is about...
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Thanks for responding, Seth. Since this is our favorite game right now (when I can get her to play a board game), I'd like to see what other player's comments are regarding what we feel are weak spots.
sedjtroll wrote: You don't find it useful to diversify so you can sell again?
Well, that's kind of my point. I feel like it is too difficult (too expensive) to diversify quickly enough. The players start with corn or indigo, so that means that at least one person must buy a tobacco storage or coffee roaster, which are quite pricey at the start of the game.
If someone does start producing sugar, tobacco, or coffee, why would the other person help them move those high-priced goods through the trading house by producing and trading the other goods? They wouldn't, so the player who is using the trading house ends up having to buy 3 or 4 production buildings and relying on the right plantation tiles to come up (in our last game, sugar didn't come up until the end of the game).
EDIT: After reading over this last part, it's important to point out that since the other player knows an active trading house will be more beneficial to you, they aren't trading either (if they can). That means that no one has very much money, which is my biggest complaint...a universal lack of buying power. It leads to heavy reliance on shipping (and hence, the wharf).
sedjtroll wrote: To me this sounds like a self fulfilling prophecy. So why not buy another production building, then produce another good and sell it (or ship it, locking up a boat!)?
Well, you have to buy multiple production building types in order to clear out all four trading house spaces. By the time you can accomplish this goal, the game is usually just about over.
It's also true that you and your opponent have equal ability of locking up boats, but for the money you spent on production buildings, your opponent has purchased the small wharf, and maybe another building. If they play it right they can prevent you from putting goods on a ship (probably by filling it), but you can never block them, because the small wharf is unlimited in its capacity.
The key to my argument is that it's all about timing. A diversified goods strategy is simply too slow. It can't generate the money it needs to fast enough....and that is 100% because the trading house can't be cleared fast enough by one person.
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We play with two offices to get around the trading house clearing issue, a bit rule breaking, but it at least ensures that we are not caught for $
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Seth Jaffee
United States Tucson Arizona
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Makita wrote: I feel like it is too difficult (too expensive) to diversify quickly enough. The players start with corn or indigo, so that means that at least one person must buy a tobacco storage or coffee roaster, which are quite pricey at the start of the game. ... Or a Sugar Mill... or an Office...
Quote: If someone does start producing sugar, tobacco, or coffee, why would the other person help them move those high-priced goods through the trading house by producing and trading the other goods? They wouldn't, so the player who is using the trading house ends up having to buy 3 or 4 production buildings and relying on the right plantation tiles to come up This sounds like groupthink (and poor strategy) to me. If one player buys sugar (and SOMEONE should, to get money), then the other can buy Tobacco, to get even more money. Why would player 2 get that tobacco, and help player 1 sell their sugar? Well, duh... so they can sell more tobacco!
If one player ignores the trading house for fear of clearing it for the other player, they're playing poorly. If you did that to me, I'd sell my sugar and then either buy an Office with the money, or a Tobacco Storage (if the tile mix offered tobacco) and keep on selling. You lock me out of boats? Even if successful, I guess I'll just build buildings instead. The game is balanced pretty well, such that building can compete with shipping. If one player ignores the trading house they will probably be neglecting building almost altogether. Meanwhile a builder will still be able to ship for a few points here or there, and should be able to get multiple Big Buildings.
Quote: EDIT: After reading over this last part, it's important to point out that since the other player knows an active trading house will be more beneficial to you, they aren't trading either (if they can). That means that no one has very much money, which is my biggest complaint...a universal lack of buying power. It leads to heavy reliance on shipping (and hence, the wharf). As I said, that's not a product of the game design, it's a product of your groups play. I'd suggest that's bad play.
I do think the 2p variant shouldn't use 3 roles per player, but only 2... then 3 of the roles would have $s on them, adding more money to the game - that would help your concern a little. But I basically think you're playing wrong. Try trading anyway, even if it means your opponent will be able to trade again later. Buy Markets if you like to make sure you're getting as much as they are off of the trade. If your opponent lets you have the trading house to yourself, then take advantage of it!
Quote: sedjtroll wrote: To me this sounds like a self fulfilling prophecy. So why not buy another production building, then produce another good and sell it (or ship it, locking up a boat!)? Well, you have to buy multiple production building types in order to clear out all four trading house spaces. By the time you can accomplish this goal, the game is usually just about over. I disagree with that statement, but it doesn't matter because clearing the house isn't important, you can get money from selling your first tobacco, even if you sold sugar already and the house hasn't cleared. Also, you don't need the house to clear if you buy an Office.
Quote: It's also true that you and your opponent have equal ability of locking up boats, but for the money you spent on production buildings, your opponent has purchased the small wharf, and maybe another building. If they play it right they can prevent you from putting goods on a ship (probably by filling it), but you can never block them, because the small wharf is unlimited in its capacity. So they're shipping more than you are. Build more than them.
Quote: The key to my argument is that it's all about timing. A diversified goods strategy is simply too slow. It can't generate the money it needs to fast enough....and that is 100% because the trading house can't be cleared fast enough by one person. I disagree with this assessment 100%!
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