The end goal is to accumulate more victory points than your rivals. Once you grow crops in your colony, you can exchange them for doubloons, which allow you to buy buildings. Players accumulate points for owning buildings, shipping goods back to Europe, and for manning large buildings. Each player has an individual colony board and all players share three ships, a trading house, and a supply of resources. Think Settlers of Catan with less chaos and more strategy, Puerto Rico is the board game for those of us bored by the rest.