San Juan plays over several rounds. Each round, each player selects one of the five different roles and then each player gets to perform an action associated with that role(except for the prospector).

The roles are similiar to those in Puerto Rico, such as the mayor, craftsman, builder etc.

Players generate victory points by building.

The game takes place over several (most likely 11-14) rounds. Each round, each player selects a different role.
That player then performs the action of that role, plus a bonus privilege. Subsequently the other players may then carry out that action. Once each player selects a role, the round ends.

With 2 players, the start player of the round selects two rolls, selecting the 2nd after the other player has made a selection (a-b-a)

Baumeister(Builder):

The player who selects this role can construct a building by clicking on the corresponding hand card below to the left. They then pay the building costs indicated on the card buy clicking on additional hand cards(=Gold). Its player choosing the builder role has a privilege that permits them to pay one less than the building cost.

A player may construct as many production buildings in the game as they wish. Each violet building may only be built once.

Aufseher(Craftsman):

The player who selects this role begins with the goods production. They click on two of their production buildings. Each production building can store a maximum of one good. The other players follow accordingly and produce one good.

Händler(Trader):

Through this action, a Trading House-Tile is displayed. Then the player clicks on the 2 goods they would like to sell (the Trading house tile shows the current prices). The other players follow and sell a good. There are 5 trading house tiles. The order of the 5 tiles, does not change during the game.

Ratsherr(Mayor):

The player who selects this role gets 5 cards, from which they may select one. The remaining players get 2 cards from which they select one.

Goldsucher(Prospector):

The player that selects this role receives one card.

The game ends when a player builds their 12th building.

The Player with the most VP wins. In case of a tie for VPs, the player with the most cards wins.

For a description of the violet buildings click here.