1 x Guild Hall (C10) [] (1 VP/small prod; 2 VP/large prod)
0 x Residence (C10) [] (VPs for plantations)
1 x Customs House (C10) [] (1 VP/4 VPs)
1 x Fortress (C10) [] (1 VP/3 colonists)
Victory Points: 8 Goods: 7 x Corn; 8 x Indigo; 3 x Sugar; 1 x Tobacco; 5 x Coffee Colonists (Supply): 10 Colonists (Ship): 0 Trading Post: [C] [T] [I] [] Old-World Ships:
[C] [C] [C] [C] (C = Coffee, G = Grain, following DR's convention)
[S] [S] [S] [S] [S]
[T] [T] [T] [T] [T] [T]
Quarries: 2 Roles (D = Doubloons):
Settler (D4)
Builder (D0)
Mayor (D2)
Craftsman(D0)
Trader (D0) -CH
Captain (D0)
Plantation tiles CH has signed the set of plantation tiles. In fact, I've signed <plantation type>-<random word>. CH has a list of the signature-plantation mappings (although it is distant from him until Sunday evening - he forgot to email it to himself...) - when needed, the other players choose signatures; CH will then reveal the text he signed. The signatures are in "alphabetical" order.
Assuming that the purpose here is to deal tiles which are revealed to all players when dealt, a possible alternative that might cause less workload to set up and not involve CH being aware of the undersides of the shuffled tiles could be to list the names of all N tiles here in plaintext, remove tiles from the list as they are dealt and do a dice roll every time one is required to select one from the remaining N. Another alternative could be for a dealer who is not themselves playing to sign an entire shuffled list, and reveal each successive tile as it is required; once the entire set has been dealt everyone can verify it has been dealt correctly. I would be willing to do this for future games. Another alternative could be for me to write a server-side "shuffle this list of things, then reveal strings from it, one per request, until none are left" script. - MoonShadow
Yes, those are also options. Both have a disadvantage in that you have to trust whoever it was that "rolled the die" or shuffled the list to report the actual outcomes (a third party may be necessary). --CH
The dice roll server keeps a log, so you know that they rolled what they said they rolled, and also that they didn't keep rerolling until they got a nice result. - MoonShadow
My method doesn't require anyone outside the game, but is a bit of work - especially if we go through the tiles and have to restart, in which case I'll need to replace all the random words. Do note that, while I know the undersides of the tiles, so does everyone else (by a process of elimination); since I'm not picking which blank sides get turned over, I don't see this as being a problem. In the long run, though, it may prove that one of your methods is better. --CH
Oh, players don't pick their own tiles? How are they chosen? - MoonShadow, ignorant of the game rules.
4 random tiles get turned face up, and then players choose from the face-up tiles; a little bit like in ElfenLand. --Rachael
Question: what's to stop me (either accidentally or deliberately) signing 20 VP chips if I only have 15? Would open VP chips be better for this reason? --Rachael
Right. We know how many VP chips there are, total; the only way we can use more than that is in the final round. Therefore, at the end of the game, we know exactly how many VP's should be distributed betwen the three of us (assuming everyone updates the pool correctly). Hence any discrepancy would show up. Mind you, it only shows up as a discrepancy - we'd have no way of knowing who it was that got it wrong... --CH
Everyone make sure you keep notes of all the VP signatures you used for the whole game. Then you can do section diffs between the start and end of each Captain phase ([example]), and confirm that the VPs noted that round match the pair of signatures... --AlexChurchill, thinking open VPs would make this rather easier :)
Have been thinking about ways to keep the game moving quickly. Suggestions: 0) Say what you're doing! In detail in the section at the bottom, and put in the edit summary (at least) any actions you have taken for other players (due to previously-stated preferences, or game rules forcing). 1) Remember to skip players who have no legal action (e.g. 0 doubloons and no quarries in the Builder phase, no (legal) goods in the Trader phase) 2) Players can list 'no brainers'. E.g: 'Always sell my most expensive legal good in the Trader phase'. 3) The chooser of the Craftsman role should, I think, be able to do everyone's production - is this right? 4) Actions in the Captain phase are often completely forced. As many steps as are actually forced should be carried out. 5) The last person to act in each role should perform any completion steps (eg, empty trade house, old-world ships). There are two exceptions to this:
If CH is the last to act in a Settler, the second-last must pick the signatures
If the last to act in the Mayor phase would prefer not to see the ship refilled, they don't have to. Other players can then "remember" if they so desire.
Comments? Other ideas? --SC Agree with 1 and 3. Not sure about 2, as there are always exceptions. However, in individual rounds, people could write things like "I'll build a sugar mill - and I'll settle for a quarry on my next turn regardless of what X builds." Then X can build his own building and settle your quarry for you. We could also ship other people's goods for them in Captain phase in the cases where it's predetermined (an extension of your idea 1), and also play out of turn in cases where order doesn't matter (like I just did in that Mayor phase, where technically Chris should have gone first.) --Rachael Mostly agree. Have added notes on the Captain phase, generic last-player-in-phase, and a catch-all to ensure nothing happens that shouldn't, and then goes missed. I'd suggest taking the "Null decision" for a player who isn't around for a while (eg, SC would choose not to build at the moment) - but that won't actually help us here, as he needs to take the next role as well. --CH
Quite some time ago now, qqzm was working on a little proggy for playing PR. It has a GUI client, but can easily be adapted to be used via a web page. It was very nearly finished when I got bored of it. I really should dig it out and finish it off. (and put back the comment, naughty me).
It's now in a vaguely useful state (although only supports 1 game at a time at the moment),see Qqzm/PuertoRicoOnline. --qqzm
Round 15 - Governor: SC SC takes Captain and ships 4 Tobacco for 5 VP in the large ship CH ships one coffee on the small ship for 2VP (update VP sig) RL ships one sugar on the medium for 2VP (VP sig updated) SC wharfs one sugar for 1VP. VP sig updated.
SC has subtracted everyone's VPs from supply
CH takes the Craftsman, and produces 2+1 Coffee, 3 Sugar and 1 Indigo. RL produces 1 Indigo, 1 Sugar and 2 Tobacco. SC produces 3 x Corn, 1 x Indigo, 1 x Sugar, 2 x Tobacco.
RL chooses Builder, taking 1 doubloon, and builds City Hall for 6 + Builder + 3 Quarries. SC passes (forced) CH declines to build.
Round 16 - Governor: CH (with distinct feelings of losing coming on) CH takes the Trader, taking a doubloon, and sells a Coffee for 4 + 1 + 1. You've put your Sugar into a coffee ship instead of into the trading house. I'd move it, but I thought I'd let you do it in case the trading house being empty affects your choice of what to trade. --Rachael Hmm, oops. --CH RL trades Tobacco for 3 + Market = 4. SC trades Indigo for 1
RL takes Mayor (You too? I thought it was just me) She takes 1 + 1 colonists, puts them in Residence and City Hall, and moves a colonist from Quarry to Small Warehouse.
Further colonist placement irrelevant
SC takes Captain, and ships 2 Tobacco for 3VP CH ships 3 Coffee and 2 Sugar (forced)= 7VP total RL ships 1 Sugar (forced) = 2VP (Harbour) SC ships 1 Sugar for 1VP SC wharfs 3 Corn for 3VP: total = 7VP Game ends on VP chips.
SC reveals VP sig: 27-coffee + 7 VPs this round + 13 VPs for buildings = 47 VPs total (1 doubloon)
Meep! I thought I'd end the game next round on buildings, and had failed to keep track of declining VP chips. Sorry, missed your harbour, Rachael. You made the right choice of role in any case: if you hadn't mayored you'd have 10 less VPs. --SC
Yeah, I know - it was more "meep" generic surprise than "meep" I wish I'd done something different.
RL reveals VP sig to be a measly: 11-eleven + 2 VPs this round + 20 intrinsic Building VPs + 6 on City Hall + 4 on Residence = 43 VPs total (10 doubloons, 2 goods)
CH reveals his VP sig to be 21, but the code is at work. I'll pick it up tomorrow + 2 VPs last round + 7 VPs this round + 13 VPs for buildings = 43 VPs total (9 doubloons, 1 good)
Result: SC wins by 4 VPs from RL, who edges out CH by 2 tie-breakers!
Wow, cool! Congrats, Stephen :) (I don't think I've ever seen tie-breakers actually used before.) --Rachael
Good game: I expected it to be fairly close, and it was. --SC Oh dear. If you add up the VPs for last round, they total 59..... --SC
Ah well. Shows that my assumption that we could keep it together was flawed. I aslo can't find my 21-point signature, for which I apologise; I can reveal that the previous sig I used (onto which 10 VPs were added to get to the current situation) was 11-tigger