Theme: Tropical

Puerto Rico 1897 takes place the year after Puerto Rico achieved political autonomy and separated itself from the colonial Spanish government. In the game, you take on the role of an independent Puerto Rican farmer in this new era and compete against others to hire workers to grow, sell, and trade valuable crops. You will also be in charge of resurrecting parts of the country as you attempt to build vital city infrastructure. Your goal throughout the game is to acquire more wealth and prestige than your opponents and become the most prosperous farmer across the country.

Each player has their own small board with spaces for city buildings, plantations, and resources. Shared between the players are three ships, a trading house, and a supply of resources and doubloons.

The resource cycle of the game is that players grow crops that they exchange for points or doubloons. Doubloons can then be used to buy buildings, which allow players to produce more crops or give them other abilities. Buildings and plantations do not function unless they are staffed by workers.

During each round, players take turns selecting a role card from those on the table (such as "Trader" or "Builder"). When a role is chosen, every player gets to take the action associated with that role. The player who selected the role also receives a small privilege for doing so; for example, choosing the "Builder" role allows all players to construct a building, but the player who chose the role may do so at a discount on that turn. Unused roles gain a doubloon bonus at the end of each turn, and the next player who chooses that role gets to keep any doubloon bonus associated with it. This encourages players to make use of all the roles throughout a typical course of a game.

Puerto Rico 1897 uses a variable phase order mechanism in which a token is passed clockwise to the next player at the conclusion of a turn. The player with the token begins the round by choosing a role and taking the first action.

Players earn victory points for owning buildings, for shipping goods, and for occupied "large buildings". Each player's accumulated shipping chips are kept face down and come in denominations of one or five. This prevents other players from being able to determine the exact score of another player. Goods and doubloons are placed in clear view of other players, and the totals of each can always be requested by a player. As the game enters its later stages, the unknown quantity of shipping tokens and its denominations require players to consider their options before choosing a role that can end the game.

Hidden somewhere along the tropical coastline, you'll find a charming little beach town called Twin Palms. Here you'll see dolphins jumping, lovers holding hands, and children playing in the sand...always in pairs.

Twin Palms is a beach-themed escape from your traditional trick-taking card game. At the start of each of the game's 5-8 rounds, you bid the number of tricks (0-5) you think you'll claim with the ten cards in your hand. Wait, ten cards = five tricks? Yes, because each time you play to a trick, you play two cards at once!

You play the game with 1-3 suits of cards depending on your desired level of difficulty and the number of players at the table; each suit has cards numbered 0-10 and a wild, with each card appearing twice. The strongest play is a pair of cards that are the same number, with high numbers beating low ones, and with palm trees beating dolphins, which beat sunglasses, which beat pairs that are of different suits. If no one plays a pair, then whoever played the highest single card wins the trick. After five tricks, you score points if you've met your bid exactly. (If you bid a non-zero number of tricks but missed, you still score 1 point per trick taken.)

What's more, if you want to play risky, you can place bets on your bids, giving you an additional way to win (or lose) points. Whoever has the most points after the designated number of rounds wins!

Barges, freight and profits are what it's all about in Manila, a speculative contest for 3-5 players. Goods shipments, intended for transport along sea routes, are in danger of gathering dust in the warehouses or being lost at sea in a storm. While the players speculate about success and failure, the ultimate fate of the ships will be determined by the dice.

There are four shipments that need to get to Manila - jade, ginseng, silk and nutmeg. A round begins with an initial auction to become harbour master. If you win, you'll be allowed to buy a share of one of the shipments, choose which three shipments you'd like to take down river and how likely they are to make it to their destination in the harbour. If they make it to Manila, their share price will increase. The aim of the game is to bet on the outcome of these shipments, with dice ultimately determining their fate. How many of the three boats will make it and which ones? Would you like to provide insurance against possible failed ships or perhaps you think pirates will snatch a chance to take control? Manila is a fun family game that takes minutes to learn and brings the river boats of the Philippines to life!

Tikal is a game of exploration within the Central American jungles in search of lost temples and the treasures within. Players send their team of explorers into the jungle, exposing more and more of the terrain. Along the way, you find temples that require further uncovering and treasures. Players attempt to score points for occupying temples and holding onto treasure.

Tikal is the first game of the Mask Trilogy.

Sequel:

Tikal II: The Lost Temple