I have tried EIGHT TIMES to get a villager to beat the Master Builder at her own game. EIGHT TIMES the villager has started the challenge, then dashed off to fix a hut. EIGHT TIMES I have wasted all those energy points trying to get this challenge finished. (And on one of those occasions, I lost a villager completely...she simply vanished when I shut off the game in disgust, and I haven't seen her again since. I posted about this in the Technical Issues section...now that is a definite bug if I ever saw one.)

Why are my villagers refusing to stay on task? They're Master Builders, I have that skill checked, they aren't afraid of wood, etc. It's bad enough that the kids won't stay in the nursery more than a few seconds, but this is ridiculous.

Have you used time warp on the master builder I tried the same thing and it didnt work until then

No...my understanding was that you had to use it on the Villager.

I've played this game many times already, even though I really hate the fact that you MUST have a population explosion in order to get things done. I prefer going with a small community so that I can interact with each one. And I like seeing how high I can push each one's skills. Too many running around is impossible to keep track of...so I lose interest, delete it, and then start another game. I'm never going to get all of the trophies........

One other time, I had a Villager ONCE run off while doing the challenge. This time it took me a grand total of ELEVEN tries before finally someone stuck around to finish the job. It was infuriating!

I guess that who ran away disliked work.

To beat the Heathen Builder:
Pause the game when you see the builder take off, put him/her back on the task. I've only played and completed the game twice, but never had the problems you describe.