What Guildes Is

You are trying to win control of the city of Portyl by gaining support from its guilds. The game lasts 3 election rounds. After each round, players score votes from the guild cards they have played. Whoever has the most total votes after round 3 wins.

Basic Flow

Each round has three main steps:

1. Draft guild cards
2. Play some of those cards
3. Score votes

Cards you play stay in front of you for future scoring rounds. That is important: your guild influence builds up over the game.

Setup

Shuffle the Guild cards and deal each player cards each round:

Also reveal one Event card just to show the draft passing direction. For the basic game, ignore the Event card’s special text.

Drafting

Everyone looks at their hand, chooses one card to keep, and passes the rest left or right according to the Event card.

Repeat until all cards have been selected.

So if you were dealt 9 cards, you eventually draft 9 cards into your personal hand.

Playing Cards

You do not play all drafted cards.

Each turn, everyone chooses one card face down, then all reveal at the same time. Keep played cards face up in front of you, sorted by guild.

Repeat until each player has played the required number of cards for that player count. Any unplayed drafted cards are discarded.

Scoring

Each guild is scored separately. The printed values on the guild card/scoring card tell you how many votes are available in each round.

The election gets broader each round:

• Round 1: only the player with the most cards in a guild scores.
• Round 2: first and second place in each guild score.
• Round 3: first, second, and third place in each guild score.

You must have at least one card of a guild to score that guild.

Ties

Ties split the vote values for the ranks they occupy, rounded down.

Example: In round 2, if two players tie for first in a guild worth 7 / 4, they split both first and second place votes:

7 + 4 = 11, divided by 2 = 5 each, rounded down.

No one gets second place because the tied players occupied both first and second.

In round 3, if two players tie for first in a guild worth 7 / 4 / 1, they split first and second:

7 + 4 = 11, divided by 2 = 5 each.

Then the next player can still get third place, worth 1.

Special Guilds

• Milice: each Milice card scores 3 votes every scoring round. They do not use majority ranking.
• Pecheurs and Bourgeois: in round 3, they still only score like round 2. There is no third-place score.
• Alchimistes: in round 3, they score down to fourth place, not just third.

End Of Game

After scoring round 3, highest total votes wins.

Tie-breaker:

1. Most Milice cards.
2. If still tied, shared victory.

Events Variant

Once you know the game, use Event card text too. Each round’s Event changes the rules. Examples include:

• Play one fewer card.
• Tied players are ignored for scoring instead of splitting.
• Cards are played one player at a time instead of simultaneously.
• Everyone discards one card, then discarded cards are shuffled and redistributed.
• Players alternate playing 1 card, then 2 cards, then 1 card, etc.
• Cards are played face down and revealed one turn later.

Dirty Trick Variant

This adds a fourth phase:

1. Draft cards
2. Play Guild cards
3. Play Dirty Trick cards
4. Score

Each round, each player gets one Dirty Trick card face up. After normal card play, players may activate their Dirty Trick cards in letter order A to I. Then unplayed guild cards are discarded and scoring happens.

Dirty Tricks can do things like:

• Swap cards between two players.
• Sacrifice one of your stronger guild cards to remove any card in play.
• Draw two cards from the discard pile and play one.
• Swap a card from your hand with one already in front of you.
• Protect yourself from other Dirty Tricks.
• Virtually add or subtract one card from a guild for scoring.

Main Strategy

This is a drafting/majority game. You are not just collecting points; you are trying to place enough cards in the right guilds to win ranks during scoring. Early cards matter because they keep scoring in later rounds. Milice are steady points, while guild majorities can swing hard depending on ties.