Interesting thread.

Personally, I have had an offer (at least once) for every guild available in the game, depending on what faction I was playing as.

As stated earlier, make sure that the AI did not build their standard Thieves Guild in your newly acquired city/castle. Obviously, if there is a guild already existing, you will never get offered another.

I have had to wait for what seemed like forever to finally get offered the particular guild that I wanted in that particular city/castle, but it has always eventually happened.

In my current campaign I arbitrarily decided that I wanted Edinborough (I am playing as Scotland) to be the home of my main Merchant's Guild. I trained all my merchants there, built all market upgrades I could but was continually offered, for what seemed like an eternity, guilds of other sorts. Thieves, Explorers, Assassin, etc. Finally, it happened! Then, in relatively short order, I was offered the next 2 level upgrades to finally achieve the Tier 3 (Headquarters, I guess) Merchant building. Now all my merchants from there come out with a minimum of 4 stars and sometimes much more. Well worth the wait!

I am curious, however, with respect to the Mason's Guild. I have only ever received an offer for it once, playing as France. (a previous poster noted this as well, that he/she received the offer playing as France also) Has anyone ever acquired the Mason's Guild while playing any other faction other than France? And what are the triggers for it? I would love to acquire this Guild more often, as apparently the bonuses for the 2nd & 3rd tier level of guild are rather spectacular. Does anyone know?

thanks!