Illuminati (game)
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Illuminati is an unusual card game (not a trading card game) made by Steve Jackson Games (SJG), inspired by The Illuminatus! Trilogy. The game has ominous secret societies competing with each other to control the world through sinister means, including legal, illegal, and even mystical. It makes fun of conspiracy theories, and also makes fun of people who don't believe in them. It can be played by two to eight players. Depending on the number of players, a game can take between one and six hours.
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[edit] Genesis of game
In September of 1981, Steve Jackson and his regular free-lance cover artist Dave Martin discussed their mutual admiration of the Illuminatus! Trilogy, and the latter suggested a game. Steve Jackson decided against adapting the novel because of the expense of game rights, and the difficulty of adapting a novel with such convoluted plots. He decided "a game about the secret-conspiracy idea behind Illuminatus!" was doable. After doing research on the Illuminati and conspiracy theories, and "extensive and enthusiastic playtesting" it went on the market in July 1982 in the "pocket box" format (a plastic box the size of a mass-market paperback) which was at the time the usual for SJG.
[edit] Description
The game is played with a deck of special cards, money chips (representing millions of dollars in low-nominal unmarked banknotes) and two D6 dice. There are three types of cards:
- Illuminati
- groups
- special cards
The players take role of Illuminati societies (The Bavarian Illuminati, The Discordian Society, The UFOs, The Society of Assassins, The Network, The Servants of Cthulhu, The Bermuda Triangle, The Gnomes of Zürich and in the expansion Illuminati Y2K, the Church of The SubGenius and Shangri-La) that struggle to take over the world.
The world is represented by group cards such as Secret Masters of Fandom, the CIA, The International Communist Conspiracy, Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow, California, and many more – there are over 300 official cards available. Every group and Illuminati has some Power, Resistance and Income values; most of the world groups have an Alignment. The game is written with the usual SJG humor. The game uses a multitude of conspiracy theory in-jokes, with cards such as the Boy Sprouts (where sinister youth leaders influence the world leaders of tomorrow), the Orbital Mind Control Lasers, the Mafia, two headed Anti-Nuclear Activists, or Trekkies.
Special cards represent unexpected phenomena and features, for example increasing Income or Resistance of a group.
The game is played in turns. The primary Illuminati (player) activity is taking control of groups. During an attack to control the attacker must overcome the Resistance of attacked groups with combined Power of his groups (affected by Alignment of attacker and attacked), money spent, and influence of special cards. The attacked group can be defended by spending money and special cards by other players (especially by the controlling Illuminati if the group is already controlled). After a successful attack to control the card is placed (along the special markers) next to Illuminati, or another already controlled group forming a power structure.
Each group has their own money, best marked by placing each group's money counters on that group. Money is moved slowly, only one step at a time between groups once per turn. Money in the Illuminated group is accessible for defence of or attacks on all groups in the entire world. Money in the groups can only be used in attacks by or against that group, but gives double defense bonus when spent. Be sure to spread the high-income cards across the structure to ease the transport time.
Other types of attacks are attacks to neutralize (a neutralized group is removed from attacked Illuminati power structure and returns to the table - to the world) and attack to destroy (destroyed groups are removed from the game).
Besides attacking groups and themselves the players can trade, form alliances, and many other activities. In one variant of the game, players are allowed to cheat, steal money from the table and do anything it takes to win.
The aim of the game is fulfilled when Illuminati build a power structure consisting of given number of cards (depending on number of players), or when Illuminati fulfill its special goal, such as controlling at least one card of each alignment (the Bermuda Triangle), controlling a combined power of 35 (the Bavarian Illuminati) or hoarding 150 megabucks of money (the Gnomes of Zürich).
Although the game can support two players or seven players, a group of four or five is considered ideal. Some Illuminati might seem unbalanced, such as the extremely high-income Gnomes and the low-level Discordians, but sometimes their true value is not visible at first or valuable only in certain circumstances. Planning the power structure is important, since groups close to the Illuminated core have a defence bonus. Also, since groups can easily "block" each other's control arrows, through which groups control other groups. The flow of money is also important, as a large lump of it will boost defensive/offensive of the owning group when spent. Tactics such as playing off opponents at each other, backstabbing and concealing your true motives are encouraged in this game.
The game has attained cult status in some circles, been referenced in some geek media (like User Friendly comic strip).
[edit] Expansions
Available expansion sets are:
- Illuminati Brainwash
- Illuminati Y2K
Another expansion, Bavarian Fire Drill, is expected for release sometime in 2007.
Illuminati Y2K brought two new Illuminati groups to the deck: Shangri-La and The Church of the SubGenius and many non-Illuminated new groups (although typeset not so precisely as the original set). Also a minor addition was an optional rule of cancelling privilege status in attacks for control.
Brainwash is a set of optional rules for media brainwash (altering power of one group), propaganda (represented by an included special gameboard - altering the power and Income of all groups of given Alignment), adding attributes to groups, and a few minor optional rules.
Bavarian Fire Drill will add 110 new cards, including several new groups, and will add a new type of card, artifacts.
[edit] Related games
Steve Jackson Games also released a collectible card game version called Illuminati: New World Order. SJG also developed some Illuminated role-playing game modules for its GURPS system, including GURPS Illuminati, GURPS Illuminati University and GURPS Warehouse 23.
SJG also released two related games. One is the recent Illuminati: Crime Lords where the players assume the roles of Illuminated mob bosses bringing the power struggle to street level. This is a separate game based on a similar rules set. The other one is Hacker which is also similar to the original Illuminati (modulo terminology), but the players fight for the control of computer networks. It is more loose, and based primarily on interlocking access to different computer systems in the web. Players are not set directly towards each other, and several players can share access to a system.
Adventures Systems (now Flying Buffalo) created a Play-by-mail game (PBM) version of Illuminati, based on and licensed from the Steve Jackson game, with many modifications. The designer, Draper Kauffman, had been tring to develop a "global strategy game" for many years when he received a copy of Illuminati. Recalling the creation of the PBM version, Kauffman wrote, "It wasn't long before I found that every problem in my own game design had a suspiciously similar solution: 'Hey, how about if we just handle that like they did in Illuminati?"
[edit] Awards
- Illuminati won the Origins Award for Best Science Fiction Boardgame of 1982.
- GURPS Illuminati won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Supplement of 1992.
- Illuminati: New World Order won the Origins Award for Best Card Game of 1994.
- Illuminati PBM won the Origins Award for Best Play-by-Mail Game of 1985, 1990-1994, tied in 1995 with Middle-earth PBM, and was then added to their Hall of Fame in 1997.
[edit] References
- Jackson, Steve (1982). "The Truth Behind ILLUMINATI" Adventure Gaming 2 (3): 11-13.
- Kauffman, Draper (1985). "Illuminati PBM Designer's Notes" Space Gamer 72:29.
- Award Winners - Origins International Game Expo
