Billionaires & Guillotines
A board game for 2-5 aspiring plutocrats... or their class enemies
by Max Haiven
Finally, it’s the billionaire simulator you and your friends have been waiting for!
In the board game Billionaires & Guillotines, 2-5 players will take on the roles of rival plutocrats, competing to accumulate the wealth of the world before their actions trigger a revolution and they all lose… a lot more than their assets.
Will you play the media baron or the property speculator? The aristocrat or the tech overlord? Whoever you play, the aim is to acquire five extravagant assets prized by the super-rich (a mega yacht, a celebrity spouse, art masterpieces and more!) and prevent your opponents from achieving their dreams.
But watch out! As you gobble up ever more resources, crises cascade out of control: wildfires and floods, pandemics and doomsday cults… Will you collaborate to put down the rebellions, or escape into your luxury bunker?
Played in under 90-minutes, the game is fun for all sorts of players, even those who usually don’t like board games. Why not make it a gift for the game-lover or billionaire-loather in your life?
And why not buy it alongside the first expansion, Reform or Revolution?, available now.
Billionaires & Guillotines is designed by Max Haiven with art by Amanda Priebe and published by London’s Pluto Press.
Available for order worldwide in January 2026!
Billionaires & Guillotines is currently shipping to our distribution hubs!
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Do you need a demo version of the game?
If you’re a journalist, a reviewer, a retailer or someone else who needs a copy of the game, please get in touch:
billionairesandguillotines at pm.me
Events
Billionaires & Guillotines game night
22 December 2025
The People's Letters (LONDON)
How is it played?
Billionaires & Guillotines is designed to be fun for lots of different kinds of players.
It starts with a simple set of rules that you can learn in 15 minutes. When you’re ready, you can move up a level and add more complexity.
At it’s easiest, Billionaires & Guillotines can be played with inbred aristocrats! At it’s most advanced, Billionaires & Guillotines will satisfy even the most pedantic and tiresome of board games fanatics.
The game advances in five levels!
Grab the Assets, Crush your Opponents!
In the first level, select your billionaire (aristocrat, media baron, property speculatory, tech overlord, or war profiteer). Each billionaire needs to collect five assets to win, so head to the market using cards you draw to your hand to try and buy the treasures you cherish (eg. a private zoo, a mega yacht, a tabloid empire and more!). Sprint for victory, but if the odds aren’t in your favour why not get your more successful opponents audited by the tax authorities, run a scam or game the markets?
But there's a revolution brewing...
The second level is where things really get challenging. As the billionaire’s competition heats up, their greed begins to have its consequences: political and ecological crises start to randomly cascade out of control, including floods, collapsing infrastructure and doomsday cults. With each crisis rebellions break out and if they grow too large a revolution will end the game for everyone. On the brink of disaster, you’ll have one chance only to put aside your differences and cooperate to undermine the revolution, and then may the best (or worst) billionaire win!
It's time for the advanced tactics
Can’t I just run away to my disaster bunker? Yes, of course! In the third level of Billionaires & Guillotines! Additionally, each billionaire will get a special secret role that offers special powers. Maybe you’ll be the banker who gets to cheat, the gangster who gets to steal, or the celebrity who is so popular they win when all their competitors succumb to the revolution.
When all else fails, bribe the government!
Why not simply pay the government to put down the rebellions, favour your investments, or sabotage your opponents? We’ve heard you! In level four you’ll be stuffing envelopes full of cash to ensure the democratic process goes your way.
Expansion: Reform or Revoltion
With the Reform or Revolution? expansion pack, players can add two new elements to the game, and add a sixth player, too. With the Space Program add-on, the billionaires can collectively contribute to the glorious enterprise of sending humanity to the stars... the richest 0.00001% of humanity to be precise. But there are dire risks, and not enough penthouses on the rocket for everyone... With the Troublemakers add-on, one player will put aside their quest for wealth and power and, instead, throw in their lot with the people. But are they, as they claim, a well-meaning reformist whose goal is to fix the crises the billionaires are creating? Or are they secretly a nefarious revolutionary trying to bring down the tyranny of the super-rich? Only they know!
Read the Manual
Watch a tutorial
This tutorial is slightly out of date. We’re working on a new one.
