Guild Master
BGG rank
BGG #6,408
BGG rating
7.2

Guild Master

2020

Rules assistance for Guild Master

Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

  • 2–4 players
  • 60–120 min
  • 13+
  • Complexity 3.0/5

For 2 players

Rules assistant for Guild Master

What would you like to know?

Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.

Guild Master is a board game released in 2020 for 2–4 players, 60–120 minutes per game, and ages 13 and up. It was designed by Chris Antony and its main mechanics are Variable Player Powers, Hand Management, and Take That.

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About the game

Guild Master is a fantasy tabletop game for 2-4 players. Players manage an adventuring guild, competing with each other to become the most famous guild as an escalating series of events threaten the land. In each of the nine rounds, players simultaneously and secretly program orders to send teams of adventurers out to do the following: Recruit more adventurers. Attempt increasingly difficult contracts to gain money, fame and other rewards. Hire builders to upgrade their guild to increase their capacity to do all of that more. All players then sequentially resolve their planned orders, starting with each players' 1st order, then 2nd order and so on, and in the order they appear on the board (builders, then adventurers A-F then contracts 1-6). Players plan and program orders carefully around other players' likely moves, various strategies, risks, and rewards. They manage their guilds' growth and optimize combinations between their adventurer abilities and contract rewards to achieve their goals. As the game advances, guilds become more powerful and must rise to meet an increasing number of game state changing threats. Recruiting increasingly powerful adventurers and upgrading your guild capacity are both key to victory. There are various ways to exert control over the board, your dice rolls, and your chances to get what you want. Most orders are resolved by paying coin or rolling dice based on your adventurers' skills. Sometimes players resolve these orders alone, and sometimes cooperating with, or in conflict with, other guild's adventuring teams attempting the same thing at the same time. When players' orders overlap, coins and negotiated prisoners' dilemma cooperate/conflict skill checks resolve the contest. Negotiation over shared goals, contract bonuses and reward splits is encouraged and rewarding, but not absolutely required to win. Everything you do earns you fame (victory points) and other rewards. At the end of nine rounds, any remaining coins are converted to fame at a rate of 5 coins = 1 fame. Then any special prestige upgrade fame is added. The most famous guild is then declared the winner.

Questions and answers

Guild Master supports 2–4 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.