The Glorious Guilds of Buttonville review – Who will you invite to your town?

The Glorious Guilds of Buttonville released in 2025 with little fanfare; in fact, when I saw the game and got a quick demo at Canada Plays 2026 by the Ravensburger team, I was intrigued by the gameplay and frankly, shocked I had not seen the game before.

During the convention, Ravensburger shared that they were doing a new push of the game at retail, and so I gave it a shot. While my initial hope was that The Glorious Guilds of Buttonville was like Dominion, the actual experience was so much different.

What are you doing in Buttonville?

In The Glorious Guilds of Buttonville, players will be drafting cards from a market on their turn, and optionally playing a set of the same cards in front of themselves. When a set is played, there is a possibility that some type of effect might come into play. These effects are either instant, when the set is played, ongoing each turn, or have game-end scoring abilities. 

Some cards let you collect buttons from the supply, and every two buttons are worth a point at the end of the game. Other cards let you spend buttons or even steal buttons from another player. There are cards that let you take extra turns, and cards that provide endgame points if you have a 1-card set, a 2-card set, and a 3-card set at the finale of the game.

Either way, your ultimate goal is to have the most points, and the majority of these come from playing large sets of cards. A 7-card set, for example, is worth 17 points. At the end of the game, players calculate their scores, and the highest score wins.

Ease of play makes this an attractive game night pick

The Glorious Guilds of Buttonville is rated for players ages 8 and over, and the game lasts about 30 minutes. This is a fantastic pick for families and for new players coming into the hobby. With limited scoring options, the game is very direct, making it an easy game to teach and an easier game to play.

Ultimately, you want large sets of cards that will score you points. This specific scoring mechanism will drive your gameplay, including what cards you take from the market each turn, and what cards you play in front of you.

Ease and simplicity don’t make this any less appealing, though. With over 20 different cards in the box, you’ll only play with a handful of them each game. While the rulebook does provide a few suggestions on combinations that it thinks work well, you can create your own combination of characters, which really adds to the replayability of the experience. Want a game that heavily relies on collecting and spending buttons? You can definitely do it.

Why it could not be for you

While I really enjoyed my time with the game, it probably ends up being a bit too basic of an experience for me. Although I praised the game for its simplicity – which makes it a great go-to game night pick for casual board game fans – I’m personally looking for a bit more in my board game experiences. If you are like me and prefer a lot more depth and strategic thinking, this probably isn’t going to be something you enjoy; and even if you enjoy a round or two, it might not be something you want to own.

That said, this is a strong, well thought out experience with fantastic mechanics that work really well. This just won’t be for everyone.

What you might want to know

Authored by Adam Roffel

Adam has been writing about video games since 2014 and board games since 2018. If he's not rooting for the Toronto Maple Leafs or Toronto FC, he definitely has a controller in his hand - probably playing on a Nintendo platform - or is sitting at a table playing a board game. Adam also has firm opinions on a few key topics: there are much better board games than Settlers of Catan, and Nintendo doesn't need to compete with Sony and Microsoft.

Full Bio Adam Roffel