@RUTGERS.ARPA:Mills.Multics@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS.ARPA (02/27/85)
From: Mills@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS.ARPA Steve Jackman Games produced a game "Illuminati" about 2-3 years ago. As far as I know it is still in print. The Basic game and each of 2 expansion sets cost about $6 each. Since we are on the topic here is a review of it. Illuminati happens to be one of my favorite games. It will play 2-8 players if you have both expansion sets, but 4-6 is probably optimal. The equipment is one set of 6-8 illuminati cards, 40-100 group cards, and lots of horrible small funny money. The counts here are approximate because of the additions of the expansion set, which are nice, but you could do without reasonable well. Each player starts with one of the illuminati cards and some money. The main aim is to gain control of uncontrolled groups or groups controlled by other players. The latter is much more difficult. The regular victory condition is to control some number of groups that changes with the number of players, but 8 is typical. The group cards all have one input arrow and 0-3 output arrows. As you aquire groups you must connect each new group to one of the output arrows of the group that made attack to control. One tricky part of this is that all of your groups must fit together physically. The groups with no output arrows further complicate this by creating dead ends. In play each group in your power tree has its own income and treasury. That is the reason for the horrible little funny money. Since a group card is only about 1 1/4" x 2" you need small money to fit on top of the card. Us coins or regular number counters from some other game are a good idea. Each group can also have a number of triats. Some of them are staight, weird, violent, criminal, goverment, communist, liberal, conservative,peaceful, and two others I can't remember. One of the pleasures of the game is the artwork on the group card and seeing the traits assigned. These traits also affect attemps to control or kill groups. It is easier to control a group with matching traits than opposite ones with the opposite being true for attempts to destroy a group. Each illminati/player also has some special ability and victory condition. The discordant society gets bennies in trying to control wierd groups with a win if it controls 5. Illuminati is a "VERY" interactive game. If you are willing to pay for it you can affect the outcome of almost anything anyone else tries to do. In most attacks all of the power, defence, group allignments... are added up. This yeilds the number the person must roll less than or equal to on 2 d6. One of the adds/subtracts is money. Anyone can buy plusses or minus of the number. This can be very frustrating as it seems whenever you try to do anything realy good, everyone tells you not to even bother to try, because they won't let you. This can lead to everyone slowly getting very angry at each other. It is very important that people play this game in a somewhat layed back manner, or they might end up hating each other. In closing I will mention that the rules allow for a multiple person win if they all can arrange a deal where they meet their victory conditions simultaenouly. It is very important that everyone understand the trading rules very well. Playing time is 2-6 hours depending on the intensity of threats and trading. John Mills