Guild Master
Playtime: 60-120 Minutes
2-4 Players
Fantasy fans are familiar with guilds, but most haven’t gotten the opportunity to manage a guild of their own. Guild Master is here to remedy that, giving players the opportunity to recruit adventurers, complete contracts, and become the most famous guild ever.
How To Play
Guild Master is played over the course of nine rounds. During each round, players will work through a series of five phases as they compete to complete contracts and objectives. The first phase simply starts the round. Events are announced and players sometimes draw private contracts, which are unknown to other players. The next phase is the Plot Phase. It acts as a transitional phase where certain adventurer abilities are activated. Players announce their guild’s gold totals during this phase.
After the first two phases are wrapped up, the meaty parts of Guild Master appear. The Order Phase requires players to use screens so that they can secretly issue orders to their adventurers. During the Order Phase, players will assign orders to their Adventurer Teams. The orders are based on the objectives present on the board and how many Order Spaces the players have access to. The orders are decided in a specified manner, meaning players are programming their future actions.

The Action Phase starts with players moving their screens to reveal their orders. Everything is carried out simultaneously. A dream scenario for a player involves carrying out tasks that no other player goes for. A conflict arises if multiple players attempt the same order. These conflicts are resolved in various ways depending on the order. This usually involves skill checks, though bribery and deals can be worked out among players too.
The final phase acts as a cleanup phase. After the ninth round, the player with the most points (Acquired through tasks, coins, and other conditions) wins. There’s a lot more that goes on during a game of Guild Master, so those who are interested in learning more will want to check out the game’s rulebook.
Pacing and Interactivity
For those who love interactivity in their games, Guild Master is a fantastic experience. Players will often find themselves competing for orders, and will need to find ways to work it out. Players can also intentionally ruin the strategies of other players, allowing them to play catch up with other tasks. The negative interactions will turn some groups away. Still, competitive players will likely feel engaged through an entire game. Even the rewards for completing orders can negatively affect other guilds. There are plenty of ways to ruin other guilds, making this a rather aggressive game.
Guild Master can take up to two hours to play, which is on the longer side for most players. While it is a longer game, Guild Master doesn’t feel like one. The constant engagement and planning make the game fly by. Since there aren’t turns, there is rarely a dull moment with downtime.
Replayability
Replayability is one of the areas that makes Guild Master shine. There are many objectives and ways to approach them. There are plenty of adventurers to choose from for your guild. All these elements come together to create a game that’s fun to explore and play many times.
Groups of players that consistently enjoy Guild Master together will get tons of mileage from the game. Learning how to play the game is only part of the experience for groups that repeatedly play together. Players need to predict how other players will move during the Order Phase. If players intimately know each other’s playstyles and tendencies, the game becomes an intricate chess match.
Guild Master even has long term appeal for small groups. While the game isn’t as interactive between just two players, it’s still a strategic affair. It’s much more aggressive since there aren’t too many ways to interact with the other player besides a blatant attack. In larger groups, there is a lot of diversity in ways to play, making Guild Master a delight.
Theme and Components
The first thing that players will likely notice is how pretty this game is. Guild Master has tons of components, with colorful cardboard pieces filling the box. The art by Andrew Bosley, Yama Orce, and Aleksandar Mihajlovic is fantastic. The cards have wonderfully drawn and colored characters to represent the various adventurers. The rest of the components are organized in a way that makes the flow of the game easy to follow for all skill levels.
The cards and the rest of the components are of great quality. There is a lot in the box, giving the player tons of value for their money. Guild Master doesn’t feel like a game where any corners were cut, which is easy to appreciate.
Guild Master Is Great For Fans Of…
Fans of games where they need to build engines and outsmart their opponents will find plenty to love in Guild Master. Guild Master takes a bunch of mechanisms and uses them in just the right amount, so it’s hard to find any game like it. If you like aggressive, strategic, and wonderfully thematic games, this is a must-play.
Guild Master
8.7
Like It
Guild Master is a deep and engaging game that challenges players to outwit their opponents.
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Gameplay
8.5
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Presentation
9.5
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Enjoyment
8
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