Mundus Novus

About this board game

Mundus Novus is a trading and set-collection game for 2–6 players, played in about 60 minutes. Set in 16th-century Spain, it casts players as powerful ship owners seeking wealth in the recently discovered New World.

Each round, players gather resources, negotiate trades, and use their goods to expand their business empire. The game features resource cards representing ten different goods, along with development cards that provide special benefits to their owners.

• Event: A random event may affect every player.
• Supply: Players receive five random resource cards, plus one resource for each caravel they own.
• Trade: Players offer two, three, or four resource cards, depending on the Trade Master. The player offering the highest-value resources becomes the new Trade Master and begins choosing cards from other players or exchanging with the three-card market.
• Progression: Players exchange matching sets for developments and sets of different goods for doubloons.

Sets of three or more identical resources can be exchanged for a development. Larger combinations and rarer resources provide more choice among the five developments on offer. Meanwhile, sets of three or more different goods earn doubloons, with larger combinations bringing greater rewards.

Victory can come in several ways. A player who assembles ten different cards—one of each resource—wins immediately, as does a player who reaches 75 doubloons. If the development deck runs out first, the player with the most doubloons wins.

With negotiation, hand management, set collection, and changing development opportunities, Mundus Novus makes every round a contest between sharing just enough and securing the most valuable goods for yourself.