The mechanic that makes this game so interesting is that there are 7 different "roles" that you can take during the game, each of which allows you to perform different actions.
At the start of the game, one player is selected to be the governor. That person chooses one of the 7 roles, and takes the actions associated with that action. This player also gets a special privilege that goes with the role.
Once the person who picked the role takes the action of it, each player in turn also gets to take the action for that role, but does not get the special privilege associated with it.
The next player then gets to select a role from the ones remaining, taking the action of the role and allowing everyone else to also take the action.
Once the turn gets back to the governor, it is considered over. The players place a dubloon on each role that was not chosen this time around, to make that role more inviting the next time around. Then, all roles go back into the pile, the governor player switches to the left, and everyone goes again.
The roles that can be taking during the game are:
- Settler: Everyone gets to choose a new plantation from a randomly selected list. If you are the player that chose the Settler role, you may instead take a Quarry instead of a plantation (A quarry provides you a discount when you buy a new building).
- Mayor: Starting with the governor and going around clockwise, everyone takes a single colonist from the colonist ship, until there are none left. If you are the player that chose the Mayor role, you may take an extra settler from the settler supply after all of the settlers are taken.
- Builder: Everyone gets to build one building, provided they have the money to pay for it. The person who chose the builder role gets a 1 dubloon discount to whatever he buys (in addition to other discounts from Quarries).
- Craftsman: Every player gets to craft goods. Goods are: Corn, Sugar, Indigo, Tobacco and Coffee. To craft any particular good, you must have a plantation of the proper type, and also a production building for that type, both of which must be manned by a colonist. If you are the player that chose the Craftsman role, you may take 1 extra good of any type you can craft (and which is still left) after everyone else has taken their goods.
- Trader: Every player potentially gets a chance to sell a single good for money. Starting with the player that picked the trader and going around, each person gets a chance to sell. However, the trading house only has room for 4 items, and none of them can be duplicated. So if sugar is already being traded, you are not allowed to trade it yourself. If you are the player that picked the Trader role, you get one extra dubloon for what you sell.
- Captain: Every player ships goods for points. Each player will get 1 point for each good he ships. If you are the player that chose the Captain role, you get one additional point for shipping.
- Prospector: The prospector is a special role in that only the person who takes the role gets to perform the action. The action is to receive one free gold from the bank.
That's the quick list of things that can happen.
The general idea of the game to have the most points at the end of the game. Points are obtained by shipping goods, and also for the buildings that you have built throughout the game.
The game ends at the end of the round when:
- Someone has chosen the mayor and, after everyone has taken and placed their colonists, there are not enough colonists left to fill up the colonist ship
- After someone has no space left to build any buildings.
- The supply of victory point chips has been used up.
