Jeff Collins
United States
Portage
Michigan
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I have read several comments regarding playing to the left of newer players being a problem in the game. I was thinking that you might be able to mitigate this issue by biddding for the govorner card. My variant would be: after all players have selected their roles and the govorner card is passed to the left, a bidding phase occurs.
First, All players, except the new person holding the govorner card, secretly select the number of coins they will bid to take the govorner card. Once the winner is revealed, tie goes to the first person from the left, the person who currently holds the govorner card has the choice to hand over the card or outbid the highest bid by one coin. Play would then resume with govorner card winner starting the new round.
I have not tried it, and unfortunately dont get lot of chances to play with more than two people. If you have thoughts about it or have a chance to try it, i would be interested to hear your thoughts.
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Andy Leber
Canada
Orillia
ON
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Not sure if I'm missing something. What does the governor have to do with it? You'll still have a noob on your right. I guess you'll stop the "noob" from choosing his action before you... but he can still "mess up" the way he performs all the actions that round, and will still be performing all subsequent actions before you.
And aside from that, I like the strategy of knowing where the governor is going, and when you'll get it, and picking your actions accordingly.
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Tadeu Zubaran
Germany
Berlin
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If the skills are missmatched the game will suck and will be decided by the worst player.
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Laurence Parsons
United Kingdom
Bristol
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From a standard pack of playing cards, remove a 2,3,4 and 5. When the Governor moves round, deal a random card to each other player. Turn order is thus not dependant on seating position.
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Sue
United States
Pennsylvania
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freduk wrote: From a standard pack of playing cards, remove a 2,3,4 and 5. When the Governor moves round, deal a random card to each other player. Turn order is thus not dependant on seating position.
I think that would just make all new problems. Part of the game is figuring out what other people are likely or not likely to do on their turn (what role are they likely to pick, what's the chances your goods will ship/rot, what's the chance you/they can buy a critical building in a certain round, etc, etc.). Randomizing player order every round basically flushes that.
If you are playing with someone new, you have to accept the game will essentially be a learning game for them.
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Greg Jones
United States
Washington
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It's an interesting idea, but I don't think it would solve the problem you're expecting it to solve.
If a noob is to your right, you would pay doubloons not to be the governor. You play immediately after the noob except when you're governor. The advantage is playing after the noob, primarily when they Craft and set you up for a lucrative Trade or the ability to control what goods go on what ships.
Except of course when the noob goes last in the round and has just done a particularly noobish thing. Then the bidding for the governor will be hot.
It could be an interesting alternative way to play for experienced players, but I think the game is better as it is. The game is normally pretty snappy. I think throwing in a bidding phase would slow it down significantly.
Plus I wouldn't go with secret bidding. Secret bidding has an aspect that's sort of like randomness, and Puerto Rico is low on randomness, so I think people who like Puerto Rico probably don't like secret bidding. Just go with round-robin bidding. You might say it will take even longer that way, but I'm not sure. With secret bidding you have to figure out your ideal bid and also guess other players' ideal bids. The mechanics of bidding will go quickly but taking time to strategize will go slowly. Round robin bidding should go pretty quickly even if people raise only 1 at a time. Usually the bid wouldn't go higher than 3 or 4.
It will also change the game by making cash more significant, and in particular create more of a situation where the rich get richer. For example if you have the most doubloons, and go last in a round, you can probably Craft and count on being able to outbid the others for governor, then Trade immediately in the next round for a handy profit. So you probably want to keep a reserve of doubloons so that even if someone has more than you, they would have to pay more than it's worth for any kick-ass play. It's not a broken game by any means, but it would be quite different.
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