The Guild: Blackjack Dungeon Crawl (Upgrade Kit)

UPGRADE ONLY: This Kit Includes only the Unique 4 Color Playing Card Set, Dice, Tokens, Clips, and Chips that are not included in the Apprentice Edition. If you already own the Guildmaster Edition then YOU DO NOT NEED THIS KIT!!

The entire premise behind 'The Guild' is to be able to compact a basic party-based RPG experience into a fairly portable and easily set up package. While the players are racing against one another to become the Guildmaster, they will need to work together to defeat an evil Overlord--behind hordes of Minions.

The game itself consists primarily of a number of "Encounter Cards" sorted into Blue for Basic and Red for Elite (to ensure balanced story progression). A Boss is selected for the bottom of the deck, then a number of Reds are placed on top at random, with the additional Blues on top of that. As the players work through the deck they may encounter Monsters, Traps, and/or Events which they must resolve before returning to town.

Combat consists of players each taking turns either placing a card from their hand or drawing one at random towards a shared collection of suits and values. Each Monsters' Defenses prescribes a minimum numerical total their opponent must obtain in order to deal damage. Careful, however, not to exceed 21! Any player who goes over allows their enemy to swing on them--unless they can generate enough Defense to make up the difference!

Certain Suits allow players to make use of various abilities... but they might also affect how an enemy interacts with them. This can lead to some pretty interesting strategies as players quickly work together to tackle opponents that their current build is most suited for (no pun intended). For Example: Diamonds represent "Discipline & Determination," making them critical for taking advantage of heavy armor and/or resisting things like Fear. Meanwhile a Warlock's abilities and spell books can't really shine without a Club... which represents "Cunning and Intellect."

To help keep people from over-analyzing the game (and to ensure a good bit of chance is involved) Players are not allowed to discuss the specifics of cards they have in hand. They may only discuss the Suit(s) they have and whether they're "Low," "Medium," or "High" in value. The deck is also shuffled between Encounters and since players may not search the discard pile--it can be pretty common to forget if both Jokers have been played, or just one... (do you feel lucky, punk?)

Each class can be equipped in a variety of ways that can really change their game-play experience. Since you may activate any/all abilities you meet the listed requirements for (i.e. they are not 'spent') focusing heavily on one suit may seem like a good idea. However, if the party exhausts all of that suit early in the Encounter you'll wind up fairly helpless for several rounds. (That said, if you spread things out and you'll rarely have a hailstorm of fury.)