Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
More strategic control
How it plays
How does it play?
Lead a Renaissance university, recruit masters and students, publish valuable books, and turn academic prestige into lasting fame.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Closed Drafting
Choose from hidden cards or items before passing or revealing the remainder.
Hand Management
Time and sequence a limited hand of cards to preserve future options.
Worker Placement
Commit limited workers to action spaces before opponents occupy them.
Tile Placement
Place tiles to build a shared or personal spatial arrangement.
End Game Bonuses
Earn additional points for meeting conditions evaluated when the game ends.
Read the full game description
Alma Mater is a substantial worker-placement game about building the most prestigious university of the fifteenth century. Your chancellor sends masters to campus spaces to recruit students and professors, acquire books, advance research, and improve the university. Books are both currency and reputation: every school publishes its own volumes, their market value shifts with demand, and rivals may need to buy your work to hire the scholars they want. Students add income and permanent abilities, professors create strong specialist actions, and research across four disciplines opens bonuses and end-game prestige. With a different scholar display, book economy, and action competition each session, Alma Mater rewards timing, liquidity, and knowing when another university’s knowledge is worth more than your own.
