Puerto Rico 1897: Special Edition Deluxe

If you have spent any serious time around the tabletop hobby, you'll know that Puerto Rico is widely regarded as one of the true royalty titles of modern euro design. For years, though, the older editions had a reputation for drab brown cardboard and functional artwork that didn't quite match the sheer brilliance of the design.

This Special Edition from Awaken Realms and Ravensburger changes that entirely. They have taken Andreas Seyfarth's legendary role-selection gameplay and given it the full collector treatment without messing with the engine that makes it tick. Every round, players take turns drafting central roles like the Builder, Craftsman, Trader, or Captain. When you pick a role, you gain a unique privilege, but everyone else at the table gets to follow that action. That shared tempo keeps downtime practically nonexistent and forces you to watch your opponents like a hawk: timing a Captain action to load your coffee onto the final cargo space just as your neighbour gets stuck with rotting sugar never stops feeling intensely satisfying.

This Special Edition bundle packs the core game alongside the Deluxe Components upgrade, giving you detailed 3D cargo ship miniatures, custom worker sculpts, and dual-layer boards, plus the unlocked Stretch Goals box featuring the dedicated solo automa mode, rebalanced game modules, and historical expansion buildings. It is the definitive version of an undisputed classic.