La Cosa Nostra

About this board game

La Cosa Nostra is a mafia game for 3–5 players, played across four rounds in approximately 90 minutes. Each player takes the role of a mafia boss, beginning with a crew of gangsters and a couple of businesses.

Hire new gangsters to handle dirty work and collect money, then invest your earnings in new opportunities. You can pursue control of drug dealing, moneylending, or prostitution, while also bribing politicians and cops or investing in night clubs, casinos, and waste management.

Gangster cards can be used to earn money or attack other players. Actions are planned secretly and placed face down before being revealed and played in turn. Many jobs require specific business cards, so negotiation becomes essential when you do not own the necessary business yourself.

• Secret planning: Set your actions face down before they are played.
• Negotiation: Bargain with rival families to make deals and complete profitable jobs.
• Deception: Spy, threaten, cooperate, and prepare for betrayal.
• Growing power: New action cards arrive each round, while gangsters, opportunities, and attacks increase.

Cooperation can help secure the biggest deals, but alliances are never dependable. Other families may take the first opportunity to stab you in the back, making pre-emptive betrayal a tempting choice.

As the game progresses, jobs become more profitable and attacks become more powerful. In La Cosa Nostra, cooperation becomes increasingly attractive, treason increasingly alluring, and ultimately money is the only thing that counts.