Photo: BCD Jeux, partner shopCard games
It’s a Wonderful World
La Boîte de JeuFrédéric Guérard2019
- players
- 1–5
- minutes
- 45
- years
- 14+
In the box
It’s a Wonderful World box
Official rules (PDF, publisher's site)
Box details
- Designer
- Frédéric Guérard
- Artwork
- Anthony Wolff
- Publisher
- La Boîte de Jeu
- Mechanics
- DraftingHand ManagementIncomeSet CollectionSimultaneous Action Selection
- Expansions
- It's a Wonderful World: Corruption & Ascension · 2020
- It's a Wonderful World: War or Peace · 2020
- It's a Wonderful World: Leisure & Decadence · 2020
Where to buy it
Near you and online
In a shop
Within 50 km.
Online
BCD Jeuxin stock (affiliate link, opens in a new tab)Philibertsearch for the game (affiliate link, opens in a new tab)
Affiliate link: Marquoir may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
The basics
Over four rounds, each player grows their empire to finish with the most victory points. Each round, draft seven cards, put them under construction or recycle them into resources, then produce, resource by resource, cubes that complete the cards under construction, which in turn produce. At the end of the fourth round, add up the points of your empire, and the highest total wins.
Checked against the official rules · October 2026
The rules, step by step
Setup
1 Empire card each, Same side for all, Development deck
- 1 to 5 players, aged 14 and up. The rules describe the 3- to 5-player game; the two-player and solo games change a few points (see the notes).
- Assemble the board and put one krystallium cube on the first-round space.
- The shuffled Development cards form the draw pile; the resource cubes and the characters, generals and financiers, go to their reserves.
- Each player receives an Empire card, everyone using the same side: A for your first games, B afterwards. Its production counts from the very first round.
- In front of you, leave room for a draft area, a construction area and your empire, where built cards are tucked under the Empire card so that their production stays visible.
How to play
Draft, Planning, Production
- The game lasts four rounds, each in three phases that everyone plays at the same time: draft, planning, production.
- Draft: each player receives 7 cards, picks one and places it face down, then passes the rest; the chosen cards are revealed together, and you carry on with the hand you receive until you have 7. Hands pass to the left in rounds 1 and 3, to the right in rounds 2 and 4.
- Planning: each drafted card is either put under construction or recycled. Recycling a card means discarding it and taking the resource of its recycling bonus, to be placed at once on a card under construction or in the transformation area of your Empire card.
- Production: the five resources are produced one after another, in the order Materials, Energy, Science, Gold, Exploration. Only the icons in your empire count, Empire card included, never those on cards under construction; some icons produce one resource per card of a given type in your empire.
- Supremacy: at each step, the player who produces strictly more than every other player immediately takes the character shown on the board, general or financier; for Science, they choose which.
- Produced cubes are placed at once on your cards under construction or in your transformation area. Once placed, a cube never moves, and no cube can be kept for later.
- As soon as all its spaces are filled, a card is built: its cubes and characters go back to the reserve, you receive its construction bonus if it has one (characters or krystallium), and it joins your empire, where it produces from the next step on.
- Each time your transformation area holds 5 cubes, they turn into one krystallium, which can be kept indefinitely and replaces any resource, but never a character.
- Spaces that require a krystallium or a character can be filled whenever you like; cards under construction and their cubes stay from one round to the next.
Scoring
Raw points, Combos, Generals and financiers
- At the end of the fourth round, each player adds up the victory points of their empire, in four lines as on the score pad.
- Raw points: those printed on the cards of your empire that depend neither on characters nor on card types.
- Combos: the points that multiply by the number of cards of a type you own.
- Generals: 1 point each, plus the points some cards add per general.
- Financiers: 1 point each, plus the points some cards add per financier.
- Krystallium scores nothing, nor do cards still under construction.
- In Marquoir, you can enter the four lines one after another: the counter adds them up.
End of the game
After the 4th round, Highest total
- The game ends at the end of the fourth round, after the Exploration step.
- The highest victory point total wins.
- In case of a tie, the player with the most cards in their empire wins, then the one with the most characters; otherwise the victory is shared.
House rules and pitfalls
With two players, each player receives 10 cards instead of 7…
- With two players, each player receives 10 cards instead of 7, and the draft stops when 3 cards are left in hand: they are discarded without taking their recycling bonus, so everyone still drafts 7 cards.
- In the solo game there is no draft: prepare 8 face-down piles of 5 cards, and each round the planning phase is played twice, each time with a pile taken at random. You may discard 2 cards from your hand to draw 5, keep one and discard the other 4, as often as you like.
- In the solo game, supremacy is only gained by producing at least 5 resources of that type.
- A card under construction may be discarded at any time: its recycling bonus goes to the transformation area, and whatever was placed on it is lost. It is hardly useful except to make krystallium from a card you will not be able to finish.
- The cubes in the transformation area can only be used to make krystallium: you cannot take them back for a construction.
- If recycling a card completes another card, that card is built at once and produces from this round.
Going further
Frequently asked questions · Rules on video · In the same family
Frequently asked questions
How do you score in It’s a Wonderful World?
Add up the points printed on the cards of your empire, the combo points, which depend on the number of cards of a type, then the generals and financiers: 1 point each, plus the bonuses from the cards that reward them. Krystallium is worth nothing.
Which way do the cards pass in the draft?
To the left in rounds 1 and 3, to the right in rounds 2 and 4.
Can you keep resources for the next round?
No: every cube produced or recycled is placed at once on a card under construction or in the transformation area. Only krystallium can be kept; cubes already placed on a card under construction stay there until it is completed.
Does a completed card produce in the same round?
Yes, at every production step that follows its completion, including those of the same round.
What happens if production is tied?
Supremacy requires a production strictly higher than every other player’s: if the lead is tied, nobody takes the character.
Rules on video
- Rules video 1 · Es-Tu Game?
- Rules video 2 · Videoregles.net
- Rules video 3 · Je vous explique les règles
Videos in French, hosted on YouTube.