[This review was originally written in 2004 -- Brian]

Given my obsession with Puerto Rico, nobody should be surprised that I picked up San Juan. I saw several versions being playtested in early 2003, but didn't play. I knew the central mechanism of the game: the cards serve as money, goods and VPs. Twenty games later, I know that San Juan pulls it off well.

Cards played are buildings; cards in hand are gold (or potential buildings). Each building costs 1-6 gold, paid for by discarding cards. A nice touch is that the discard pile is face down, making it tough to track cards. The basic mechanism is the same as Puerto Rico, one player selects a role; all players act, but the person making the selection gets a bonus (called the privilege). The roles are

* Builder -- Everyone builds (Privilege: 1 discount)
* Prospector -- Nothing (Privilege: 1 card)
* Producer -- Everyone produces one good (Privilege: extra good)
* Trader -- Everyone trades one good (Privilege: Extra good)
* Counciller -- Everyone draws two cards, keeps one (Privilege: Draw three extra, still only keep one)

Some buildings are production buildings. During the Producer phase, each player takes a card from the deck and (without looking) places it on a production building to symbolize a good. When the trader is selected, one of five "sale price" tiles is revealed which determines the going prices for each good. Unlike Puerto Rico, the trader will take all offered goods, not just one of each. After the round is done, the first player moves and you do it again. Unlike Puerto Rico, no bonus doubloons (cards) are placed on the unselected roles.

San Juan has 29 different building types. Apart from the five production buildings, there are 24 violet buildings. There are two or three copies of each (as well as 8-10 of each production building), so players will usually see the majority of buildings each game; but nothing is guaranteed. The 6-cost buildings are equivalent of the big buildings in Puerto Rico, and provide bonus victory points. All of the other buildings provide discounts, cards, or extra abilities in some measure. There are a couple of powerful buildings, and a few dogs, but since buildings are also money, you can always toss away your least favorite draws to pay for what you like.

Twenty-odd games into this and I think the game is well balanced. (There are a couple of tweaks that could improve the game, but I'm certainly willing to play without them). More importantly, San Juan plays quickly and holds my interest. After a few startup games, our group can finish this in twenty to twenty-five minutes, making this one of the best filler games in recent memory. The two player game is the weakest (but even faster); with three and four the game flows nicely. Interesting, the value of some buildings varies drastically with the number of players.

Quick game play, enough buildings so that you can argue about them when not playing, and vexing enough to keep me awake at night. What more could you ask for? Highly Recommended.

[Update 2005] -- I've played over 250 games at BSW, and rather like the 2 player game now.