Has anyone here played Puerto Rico with Victory Point totals open instead of hidden?
When I first learned to play my friends were incorrectly playing that way, and I thought the game was something of a drag with everyone counting and recounting each other's points every couple of turns. Our gameslasted longer than the advertised limit, and when I heard games online finished in 30 minutes or less I was amazed!
When we found out that holdings were supposed to be secret, and started playing that way, our games went a lot faster.
Has anyone else had this experience? Does anyone like the game better with perfect information? Has anyone gone through the trouble (or been bothered to think about) keeping track of how much everyone ships?
I know one friend upon hearing the VPs were supposed to be hidden thought it was silly. He said "If the VPs are face down, I can still keep track what everyone has. It's obnoxious, but I'll do it." It turns out that when we played, he never bothered to keep track.
A similar thing happened with Princes of Florence (different group)... they tought me how to play but used open holdings so you could see everyone's money situation. The game is a lot different if you don't know how much money everyone has.
- Seth
So the reason it matters is this:
If the VPs in PR are open, then it's silly not to keep track of people's score or check it before doing certain actions. If it's hidden, then you can't. In PR it's not easily obvious how many points you have, since you have to add up all the buildings and all the VP chits each time. And if you forget, or if they change, then you have to do it again. Then you have to do it 5 times each time you are interested.
If VPs are hidden then it's much quicker to simply see if they have a big stack or not, and maybe if you paid attention, remember how many might be 5's. It doesn't take nearly as long.
Also, in PR knowing VPs exactly means that almost every game there is a distinct Kingmaker aspect. With hidden VPs there is still this aspect, but at least you don't know who you're crowning king.
We would help each other. It's not like I have a running total of my points in a game of PR, weather I add it up or an oppoennt does, it takes time and effort that (evidently) the designer of the game didn't intend. I say he didn't intend it because he hid the VPs. I contend that he did so for a reason, and that reason was either to quell the kingmaker thing, or put a cap on analysis, or both.
I don't know anyone that does this.
I don't know what game you're playing, but in Puerto Rico you don't declare victory to end the gae, you wait until the game ends then you count your points and declare victory.
Right, hence this thread. I'm trying to see what other people think about this particular topic. Clearly we were playing by a 'house rule' (weather we knew it or not) with open VP info. Since then we have been playing without that house rule, by the 'standard' rules. As it turns out, the 'standard' rule is more fun (for everyone I know).
The actual point was entirely different... that hiding the VPs makes a big difference in the game, even though it's trackable information.
- Seth