Description

To begin players, choose which of the Lodge Officers they wish to play as, Inner Guard, Junior Warden, Senior Warden or Director of Ceremonies? All Officers are equal and enter the Lodge, at The Tyler’s Step, in the 1st degree. Linear Progress around the lodge is achieved by dice roll (D12), Using the "On The Square" step Officers may choose to enter the checker Board and take a more direct route. To aid progress through the lodge, Officers collect Gavels (An important Freemasonry device). These can be used to change the result of a dice roll by 1 step each - 1 more or 1 less, up to 3 Gavels can be used each turn, but Officers must have 3 Gavels at the end of the game.

Officers also collect the Tools of each degree, 3 in each degree. Completing a Toolset allows Officers to progress to higher or lower degrees throughout the game. Officers also need to sit in each of the Principal Officers seats, in turn: Inner Guard, Junior Deacon, Senior Deacon, Junior Warden, Senior Warden & Worshipful Master. Achieving each seat also creates more opportunities to move between degrees. Landing on the Worshipful Master at any time also allows for movement between the 3 degrees. Throughout the Officers journey around the Lodge, there are several steps which provide additional help, or sometimes hindrances to progress. The Secretaries, Charity Stewards and Treasures issue summonses, by way of card selection. All of which must be obeyed. Grand Lodge also offers advice by card selection which must be obeyed.

Special moves: During gameplay, landing on the Junior or Senior Deacons steps allows officers to swap corners, from one step to the other. Landing on the Immediate Past Master step (IPM) Officers, not on the step are able to double their collections of Gavels or Tools while the IPM step is occupied. As a thank, you for the IPM's help, the officer on this step can forgo their dice roll and choose any step to Progress to instead. Land on either of the Visitors steps and officers can get further instruction by rolling the Visitors dice (D20) and referring to the Visitors book for the corresponding instruction. When landing "on the Square" Officers can elect (Before rolling the dice) to enter the checkerboard and move directly towards any step they wish. There is also an opportunity to aid a Candidate throughout their journey if an Officer lands on the Candidate step, you collect your Candidate and each of your dice rolls can be repeated with your Candidates steps. You lose your Candidate when passing the Tyler step. Combining "On The Square" with a Candidate allows you to potentially keep your Candidate much longer.

When an Officer has progressed through each degree, collected all 9 tools and has sat in each Officer's seat, collecting all 6 along with having a minimum of 3 gavels, that Officer can win the game by being the first to sit in their own seat. They can then win the game and claim to be Master of their Lodge.