Objetive of the game

In Ars Universalis, each player will follow

the development of arts and sciences from
the early Middle Ages to the beginning of
the 20th Century. Throughout every century, the player shall select which artists
or scientists theyll help on their path to
glory, obtaining Artistic Prestige Points
by completing different puzzles. At the
end of the game, whoever has achieved
the highest number of Artistic Prestige
Points will get to be the winner.
Prestige points are earned throught character cards, great development cards and
paradigm shift tokens.

chitecture and Painting puzzles. The back

of the card contains the game pieces for
the Music and Literature puzzles. Before
draw any number or cards shuffle and cut
the cards.

A game board that contains the squares to

mark each players Prestige Points, Great
Development status and current epoch.

Getting the game ready

Place the 3 decks of epoch cards upside
down in the center of the table, after they
have been shuffled.
Put the game board on the table; each
player shall take the game pieces in their
color and a paradigm shift marker. First
player if the last one that visited a museum. In case of a tie, choose a first player
randomly. The first player takes the main
player token.

45 Coins tokens which come in 3 formats:

Coins of value 10, Coins of value 5 and
Coins of value 1.

Components

Players should put one of their markers

in the first place of the Middle Ages in the
game board and also one marker in each
one of the art types also in the board.

In Ars Universalis, players must use the

following components:
63 character cards (21 Middle Ages characters, 21 Early Modern epoch characters
and 21 Late Modern epoch characters),
which represent different artists and
scientists and their puzzles (works):

One main player game token that indicates which player must open the round.
6 Great Development cards.

Shuffle the materials deck and put it on

the table.
Each player must receive a total of 35
coins, two random materials from the
deck and a character card from the Middle
Ages deck, also randomly. This character
must not be multitalented (he/she cannot
have more than one puzzle).

4 paradigm shift game tokens, which any

player may return to perform a Paradigm
Change.

100 materials cards wich have two sides:

On the first side we can see the game pieces necessary for solving the Science, Ar-

40 game markers to use in the game

board and to mark completed characters
puzzles.

Game progress

Each one of the game rounds have the

following three phases:
I Auction phase
II Trading phase
III Puzzle solving phase
Main player acts first in each round fo-

llowed by the next players clockwise.

their epoch deck.

I Auction Phase

Character and materials limits

The main player begins the Auction Phase, by turning around as many characters
from the current epoch deck as there are
players.
Main player opens the auction by bidding
for one of the characters, being the minimum bid as indicated next to the Coin
icon in the character card. If he/she decides not to bid for any of the characters,
the auction phase has finished for him
and the next player clockwise shall take
the role of director of the auction, bidding
for a character.
Once the bid has been made, the next
player might increase the bid for that
character or pass. The bids for a character
continue, increasing the value of the previous bid for said character, until there is
only one player, which must pay as many
Coins as he/she has bid and shall take the
character, drawing also as many Materials
cards from the deck as is indicated by the
Materials icon on the characters card.
The auction is repeated, directed by the
first player who has not acquired a character, until there arent any more characters to auction or all players have retired
from the auction.
A player can take only one character in
each auction phase. When a player purchases a character he/she retires from
that auction phase.
The characters that have not been acquired in the bid will return to the bottom of

In no case shall a player have more than

3 active characters. If a player bids for a
new character when they already have 3,
if they get to buy it, they must retire a character from those they already had.
The maximum number of materials cards
for a player is of 6 in the Middle Ages, 7
in the Early Modern Age and 8 in the Late
Modern Age. If by getting a new character
a player receives cards that put him above
the maximum allowed, he must decide
between drawing less materials from the
deck or to return to the deck as many
materials as neccessary to keep him in the
limit.

II Trading phase
Once the auction is finished the Trading
phase begins. Each player, beginning
with the Main Player, can make only one
purchase of Materials. Each Material has a
cost of 2 Coins, and it is allowed to buy as
many as necessary, provided that the total
of Materials in the reserve is equal or less
than the maximum allowed per epoch.
The players may also sell Materials before buying. Each Material sold provides 1
coin for the player and they are returned
to the deck.

III Puzzle solving phase

The last phase is the puzzle solving. When

this phase starts, the first thing to do is to

extract the cards that will create the reserve of materials. This reserve is formed
with 3 random material cards and must
be renovated with new cards every time a
new phase of Solution of Projects begins.
Player may exchange, in their solving
turn, up to one of their Materials cards
for one of those that they have in that moment in the reserve of materials
In this phase, every player (starting with
the Main Player) can solve the puzzles
from their characters using all the Materials that they have. Every Material can
only be used in one puzzle at a time.
If a player cant solve anymore puzzles or
if they decide not to do it, then its turn for
the next player clockwise.

Completing a puzzle
When a player completes a puzzle, they
must return all material cards used in it to
the deck. In this moment
1) The player will win as many Artistic
Prestige Points and as many Coins as is
indicated by the work that has been completed.
2) If the completed puzzle is from a character of the current epoch the player progress one step in the epoch track.
3) The player progress in the art track
depending on the puzzle (e. g: A painting
puzzle allow to advance one step in the
painting track). See great developments below.

Then one of the following things will happen:

1) The character doesnt have any more
works (puzzles): In this case, the character is retired as completed and is kept in
his player zone but will not count as an
active character.
If this character had multiple works, by
completing the last one the player shall
win as many Artistic Prestige Points and
Coins as is indicated inside the characters
star. For instance, when completing a character with this star, the player would win
2 additional Artistic Prestige Points and 2
Coins when they complete all its works.
2) The character has more works. In this
case, the character will not be retired so
that the player can keep completing the
rest of its works.

End of the round

At the end of the round, once all players
have completed his puzzle solving phase materials from the materials reserve
should be put back on the materials deck.
The main player token should be passed
to the next player clockwise.

How to solve puzzles

There are five kinds of puzzles in Ars
Universalis each one related to an art or
to science.
To solving a puzzle requires a certain
combination of material cards that match
some pattern.

Puzzles get harder along the epochs.

We can also get the colors separately if we

cant link all the cards.

Shown below are the solving methods

for every kind of puzzle included in Ars
Universalis.

In the next example, we can see how in

the top row we get the colors green and
red (blue + yellow and red + red) and in
the bottom row the color orange (red +
yellow) that we needed to complete the
puzzle.

Painting puzzles
To complete a painting puzzle, player
must obtain a certain sequence of colors
using the paint drops in the borders of the
cards. If two drops of the same color are
linked, the player will obtain a piece for
the puzzle of that same color. If two drops
of different colors are mixed, the resulting
color is the one obtained from the mix.

Players may link more cards to those already linked, as long as the order of the
colors needed to solve the puzzle is maintained. Keep in mind that linked cards
can be read from right to left or from left
to right up to players convenience in order to solve a puzzle.
For example, lets solve the Rembrandt
puzzle:

Literature Puzzle

Here is a summary table of the possible

color mixes, and the resulting colors:
The Materials cards must be linked in a
way such that the paint drop is well formed. Please observe that in the correct
disposition, the numbers are oriented in
the same direction:

One of the combinations that would consume the least amount of Materials would
be the next one, as we have managed to
link all the cards to get the necessary colors.

This puzzle can also be solved using more

cards if the player cant obtain more than
one letter from each card. For example,
in the following combination 3 cards are
used.

Bear in mind that you cannot use letters from the previous material when
arranging the letters to solve a Literature
puzzle:

To solve the literature puzzle, players

must get a certain combination of letters
that are obtained from the Materials
cards. From each card as many letters as
necessary can be extracted, but those letters cant be placed after those achieved
from the next Materials card used.
For example, lets solve Descartes puzzle.

Music Puzzle
With these links we get the color green
(blue + yellow), red (red + red) and orange (red + yellow).

A combination that uses the minimum

number of cards could be the next one:

To solve the music puzzles, players must

use the musical notes included in the Materials cards.
The notes must form the same combina-

tion as those in the puzzle, and they may

be linked one after another to complete it.

For example, to solve the Miguel Angel

puzzle, the following combinations may
be used:

Vertical sliding of the notes is allowed,

as long as the lines of the pentagram are
linked.
To solve the puzzle, the remaining notes
left or right of the notes used may not be
taken into account, as long as the score is
well formed by the central notes.

However, the next one is not a valid solution, as the resulting composition is not
equal to the puzzle that must be solved.
In the previous example we can see how
its possible to rotate the cards 180 to put
the connectors in place. The result of linking these cards is Sphere Cube Sphere, thus solving the puzzle.

For example, to solve the Hndel puzzle,

the following combinations may be used:

The solution isnt correct because the

marked note is inside the composition,
and only those remaining notes left or
right to the composition can be discarded.
One of the combinations that uses the
least possible amount of Materials cards
in the next one:

As we can see, the last card has been slid

upwards to form the score that corresponds to this puzzle.
Another way of solving this puzzle would
be the following one, where we check that
we can discard the remaining note in this
case by the left.

For example, to solve Newtons puzzle,

the following options are possible:

The next one would be a valid combination that would require more cards:

Sculpture Puzzle
To solve a sculpture puzzle, players must
achieve the figures represented in the
puzzle by linking the cards by means of
the connectors (the small triangles in the
sides of the cards). Each card represents
one figure (the one printed in it). The figures must be in order, but it doesnt matter
if there are other figures amongst them.
The Materials cards can be rotated 180 to
look for the best possible combination.

A combination that would solve the

puzzle with the least possible amount of
Materials would be the next one:

The solution is valid because, despite adding extra elements that enable the link
among the cards, the order Sphere Cube
Sphere is maintained.

Another way to solve the puzzle, using

more Materials cards, would be the following one:

Science Puzzle
To solve the sciences puzzles, players
must achieve a number given by means
of the numbers recorded in the Materials
cards, being allowed to use all the basic
operations. The pieces values can be
added, subtracted, multiplied or divided
(as long as the division is an exact one)
amongst them however the player decides. To successfully complete the puzzle,
the result of all the operations must be
equal to its objective.

Epochs of the works

For the purpose of this game, the characters are divided in three Historical epochs: Middle Ages, Early Modern Age and
Late Modern Age.
The epoch of each character is specified
on the back of their card and in the text
box with their biographic information.
To perform a work from a specific age,

players must have completed at least one

work of a character from the previous
age. That is, in order to be allowed to undertake a puzzle of a character from the
Early Modern Age, the player must have
completed at least one work of a character from the Middle Ages, and to begin
a work from the Late Modern Age they
must have completed one from the Early
Modern Age.

Second, the current epoch moves forward:

from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Age, and from the Modern Age to
the Late Modern Age. Therefore, from
that moment on auctions will use the
deck corresponding to the game epoch.
In the first auction made with the new
epoch deck, every player shall receive 5
Coins.
Finally, characters from previous epochs
still in game can be completed by their
players. However, their works are now
anachronistic and will only grant half the
usual amount of Artistic Prestige Points
and Coins, rounding down.

Middle Ages works grant between 2 and

5 Artistic Prestige Points, Early Modern
Age works between 6 and 10, and Late
Modern Age works more than 10.
Some secundary works of a multitalented
character may grant less points than those corresponding to their epoch, but their
difficulty is also smaller!

Epoch transition
When a player completes for the first time
three puzzles from a specific epoch, they
cause a epoch transition. This has several
effects:
First, the player wins 5 Artistic Prestige
Points, which are inmediately noted. Any
player that completes that epoch during
the rest of the Round will also recieve 5
Artistic Prestige Points (until a new Main
Player is chosen).

Paradigm shift
Players can use their paradigm change
coin once during their turn. Players begin
with the paradigm change with the 3 side
up. When they use it for the first time they
put the 1 side up. Players can use a second
time the paradigm change but they have
to return the coin back to the game box
then.
When a paradigm change is use the player can choose one of these options:
1) Earn 5 coins.
2) Swap all of his/her material cards with
new ones from the deck. The old cards
should be returned to the materials deck
after the new ones are drawn.
At the end of the game, players will sum
the upside side of their paradigm shift
token (if they still own them) to their final
score.

Great developments
During the game, players can obtain
6 distinctions for great developments.
Distinctions are marked by means of
special cards of points that are added to
the players total while they are in their
possesion.

On the one hand, the cards of Great

Development of Science, Sculpture,
Music, Painting and Literature are each
rewarded with 7 Artistic Prestige Points.
These cards are achieved when a player
has completed at least 3 works from that
specific type.
For instance, to achieve the card of Great
Development of Sculpture, a player
must have completed at least 3 sculpture
puzzles. However, not even the greatest
should rest on their laurels: if any player
overcomes the number of works of a specific type, they have the right to claim the
distinction from the player that holds it.
In the previous case, if any player manages to complete 4 sculpture works they
would achieve the card of Great Development of Sculpture. The first owner of
the Great Development should substract
then 7 points of the card he has just lost.

On the other hand, the distinction of

Great Development of Arts and Sciences, awarded with 10 Artistic Prestige
Points, is awarded only once per game to
the first player that completes one work
in every category: Science, Sculpture,
Painting, Literature and Music.

End of the game

The moment the round finishes and any
of the players has 75 points or more, the
game will be finished. The players then
add as many points to their score as the
number showed in their paradigm change
coin. In the event of a tie in Artistic Prestige Points, whoever has the most Coins in
their possession shall be the winner.
The game will also finish at the end of
a round in which nobody buys any characters; then, the player with the most Artistic Prestige Points shall be the winner.