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.

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

Has anyone played this varient much? How was it?

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.

Is it really true that one should take 2 roles before swapping player?

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.

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...

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.

You don't find it useful to diversify so you can sell again?

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!)?

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

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).

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.