Illuminati: The Game of Conspiracy
By:
Peter Van Dyke
Shon-Ting Fu
Jonathan Zabel
Todd Caranto
Joni Cheng
Introduction
Illuminati, for those who are not yet enlightened, is a card-based “screw your neighbor” –type game in which opponents walk the fine line between friend and foe. Competition is fierce to say the least.
As mentioned before, the game is card-based, and there is no “game board” per se. Instead, players develop their fiscal empires based on cards available for control and the breakdown of how they lay out the organizations under their control. The player count is 2-6, although in our experience it’s much more interesting to play with 3 or more people. The objective for each player is different – every group has a different win condition. However, there is also a global win condition that allows for a player to win if he/she has 12 or more groups under their control. Generally, each player’s win condition relates to his or her special ability.
An interesting note about the game is that the Rules are dynamic. While they are declared, collusion is encouraged. A good example of this is that you have to have the money on each card visible, but you can stack the values so that no one knows exactly how much money you have on a given card. This level of ambiguity adds a new dimension to the game.
Procedures
The game itself is turn based, and in their turn each player is allowed two actions. Actions can be an attack, a move of money from one card to a second adjacent card, or a reorganization of your controlled organizations (ie you can move one card or a string of cards to another place around your Illuminati group.
Resources
The primary resource is MB (megabucks), however, almost every element of the game can be considered a resource – you can trade money, control of groups, or special cards all the same way. Thus, the only thing that isn’t a resource is the primary group that you start out with.
Boundaries
Basically the boundaries of the game consist of the win condition.
Premise
The premise of the game is that you’re a shadowy organization, and you gain power and influence through groups that you control and money that they/you generate and have.
Character
The characters basically consist of the groups you try to control. They’re fictionalized versions of real-world lobby groups and organizations with a zany twist.
Challenge
The challenge of this game is generally centered on competition with your opponents. This creates an interesting dynamic because each win condition is very much dependent upon the agendas of the other players. This can be both frustrating and liberating: you can attempt to intimidate your opponents or appear meek in an attempt to give others the wrong impression about how near you are to your win condition. This sheds light on the final emphasis of the game on deception. ]
Play
Emotional responses elicited during gameplay are very colorful: greed, hate, frustration, depression, and in some situations even suicide. This makes trading and teamwork very risky, because when you’re attempting to make a deal with an opponent you have to be very wary of emotional manipulation.
Our consensus is that this is a fantastic game. Certain elements of the game are unbalanced, but this is offset by the player interaction. Group rating: 89 (we don't give 90s).
