Illuminati (Card Game) Created in September 1981 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Illuminati is a standalone card game made by Steve Jackson Games (SJG), inspired by The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. The game has ominous secret societies competing with each other to control the world through sinister means, including legal, illegal, and even mystical. It was designed as a "tongue-in-cheek rather than serious"[1] take on conspiracy theories. It contains groups named similarly to real world organizations, such as the Society for Creative Anarchy and the Semiconscious Liberation Army.[2] It can be played by two to eight players. Depending on the number of players, a game can take between one and six hours.
Genesis of game In September 1981, Steve Jackson and his regular freelance cover artist Dave Martin discussed their shared 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 secretconspiracy 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. Over the next few years, three expansions for the Pocket Box Illuminati game were published—the first two were substantially incorporated into the deluxe edition, while the third was an earlier version of what would become Illuminati: Brainwash. Robert Shea provided a four-paragraph introduction to the rulebook for the Illuminati Expansion Set 1 (1983), in which he wrote, "Maybe the Illuminati are behind this game. They must be—they are, by definition, behind everything." Despite this initial involvement, Wilson later criticized some of these products for exploiting the Illuminatus! name without paying royalties (taking advantage of what he viewed as a legal loophole).[3] Later commentators have attributed both the game and the Illuminatus! Trilogy as using real conspiracies as "targets of ridicule."[4]
Description The game is played with a deck of special cards, money chips (representing millions of dollars in lowdenomination unmarked banknotes) and two six-sided dice. There are three types of cards: • Illuminati • groups • • special cards The players take role of Illuminati societies that struggle to take over the world. The Pocket Box edition depicted six Illuminati groups: The Bavarian Illuminati, The Discordian Society, The UFOs, The Servants of Cthulhu, The Bermuda Triangle, and The Gnomes of Zürich. The deluxe edition added the Society of Assassins and The Network, and the Illuminati Y2K expansion added the Church of The SubGenius and Shangri-La. 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 AntiNuclear 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 take 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 take control, the card is placed (along the special markers) next to Illuminati, or another already controlled group forming a power structure. Each group has its 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 defense 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. 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 to ten 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 defense bonus. Also, groups can "block" each others 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 opponents off 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). It is also mentioned in Dan Brown's novel Angels & Demons, which concerns an apparent attack by the revived Illuminati; the game is referred to as an online computer game, but references to Steve Jackson make clear that the reference is to this game.[5]
Expansions Available expansion sets are: • • • •
Illuminati: Brainwash Illuminati: Y2K Illuminati: Bavarian Fire Drill Illuminati: Mutual Assured Distraction
Illuminati: Y2K brought two new Illuminati groups to the deck (Shangri-La and The Church of the SubGenius), many non-Illuminated new groups, and a minor optional rule of canceling privilege status in attacks for control. Brainwash is a set of optional rules for brainwashing (altering the alignment 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 adds 110 new cards, including Artifacts (a new type of card) and several new groups. In issue #72 of Space Gamer, Bill Cassel presented an unofficial expansion entitled "The Pythonated Illuminati", which added cards based on the television series Monty Python's Flying Circus. Mutual Assured Distraction introduces "New World Order" cards to the classic Illuminati game. A NWO card affects all the players, not just the one who put it down. These 18 NWO cards to boost, penalize, and offend major political and social groups of all kinds. There are also five special cards to trigger, add, or remove NWO effects.
Related games Steve Jackson Games also released a collectible card game version called Illuminati: New World Order and a stand-alone version called Illuminati: Crime Lords. SJG also developed some Illuminated roleplaying 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 control mobs in attempt to take over a city. 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. Adventure Systems created a Play-by-mail game (PBM) version of Illuminati, based on and licensed from the Steve Jackson game, with many modifications. The game was eventually purchased, and is now run, by Flying Buffalo. The designer, Draper Kauffman, had been trying 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?"
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.
References 1. ^ Jackson, Steve. "Illuminati Designer Article". Steve Jackson Games. Retrieved 2008-10-25. 2. ^ Sarrett, Peter. "Desert Island Games". The Game Report. 3. ^ Disinformation Website: In the RAW: Necessary Heresies originally published in REVelation magazine (#13, Autumn, 1995) pp. 36–40 "RAW recently criticised several games companies who have marketed products exploiting Illuminatus! and the Discordians, and are able to escape paying royalties through legal loop-holes." (URL accessed 28 February) 4. ^ Payne, Pat (2001-05-22). "Illuminating paranoia". Oregon Daily Emerald. Retrieved 2008-1025.[dead link] 5. ^ Dan Brown, Angels & Demons (paprback edition) (New York: Pocket Books, 2001), 99, 257258. • 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
External links • The official Illuminati game home page • The official Illuminati PBM game home page • Illuminati: Deluxe Edition at BoardGameGeek
Ominous Old Illuminati Card Game ‘Predicts’ 9/11, The New World Order and More By truther December 11, 2012 ‘Illuminati: The Game of Conspiracy’ is a card game produced by Steve Jackson Games that was originally released in the early 80′s. It was based on the successful book trilogy ‘The Illuminatus!’ and was supposedly designed to be a satirical, tongue in cheek take on the topic of global conspiracism, featuring opposing secret societies competing for world domination using various malevolent means. You may well have heard of this somewhat sinister card game already, as there are plenty of online references to it on other alternative and conspiracy based websites, mostly due to it’s apparent prophetic content, which rather accurately details aspects of the illuminati
agenda that we are now seeing playing out in front of us on a daily basis. The makers of the card game, were, as mentioned above, influenced by the book trilogy “The Illuminatus!’ and prior to it’s release they also spent time researching the illuminati and various other conspiracy theories and so it’s no surprise that this kind of subject matter was used within the game. What is surprising however and perhaps even a little disturbing, depending on how you look at it, is how many of the events depicted in the game decades ago have now actually happened or are currently in the process of happening – things that the creators of the game could surely not have known about – or could they? The first card in the game talks of rewriting history and depicts discarded books in a library or classroom environment. It is no secret that the government controlled education system and the mainstream media work exceptionally hard to shape the minds of the masses to fit with their manufactured version of reality. Many important histories are overlooked and events left unreported, while other, either false or far less important topics and events are given excessive amounts of focus, in order to engender bias towards the illuminati agenda. The second card in the game is perhaps the most disturbing. Entitled ‘Terrorist Nuke’, it depicts two skyscrapers that look very much like the World Trade Center Twin Towers, exploding in exactly the same fashion as the first tower did when it was struck back in 2001. The description on the card says to play it any time you want to give 10+ ‘power’ or ‘resistance’ points to any violent group you control and of course since 9/11, the subsequent invasion of the Middle East has allowed the West to increase it’s power and resistance, in what has now been a 10+ year occupation.
9/11 Anyone? Of course, it wasn’t just the World Trade Centre that was attacked on 9/11, The Pentagon was also struck (whether it be by plane or guided missile) and card number three just so happens to depict The Pentagon with a huge explosion emanating from it’s centre. Now considering when these cards were produced, this is either one honking great coincidental prophecy, or it is in fact the future plans of the
illuminati being ‘hidden’ in plain sight, years in advance by the game producers who somehow had prior knowledge of their agenda. Even in a game based around global domination and conspiracy, could someone ‘accidentally’ depict these future events so accurately? Strangely enough, there was a four paragraph introduction to the rulebook of the game which included the sentence – “Maybe the illuminati are behind this game. They must be – they are, by definition, behind everything.” Now of course back when it was originally released players of the game would no doubt have thought nothing of this except that perhaps it was a little fun to make things more exciting and authentic, however, the fact that events depicted in a game that openly declared the illuminati were behind it have now actually occurred, is hard to simply shrug off.
Favoured objectives of the Illuminati Agenda. Bearing this point in mind, it’s worth taking a look at some of the other themes featured in the game that all bear significant similarities to the illuminati agenda and to events that can be seen happening around the world today. For example, there is a card that talks of population reduction – a major theme amongst so called ‘conspiracy theorists’ that believe the illuminati want to effectively cull the population to achieve a smaller, more manageable amount and the means by which this could be achieved are all eerily featured in the game. Cards outlining disease epidemics and outbreaks depict vaccinations and quarantine, which could quite easily be linked to recent apparent outbreaks of illuminati created, lab engineered diseases such as bird flu, swine flu and the H1N1 flu virus strain that the authorities were ever so keen to have the population mass vaccinated against. Weather manipulation and chemtrails are current ‘hot topics’ that an increasing amount of people believe are aimed at keeping the population in poor health and at ultimately, reducing their numbers and of course we have a card themed around this too, entitled; ‘International Weather Organisation’, which depicts an aircraft pulling a large grey cloud behind it which suspiciously resembles the scenes we are seeing in our skies today as aircraft leave trails which then quickly lead to heavy cloud formation that blocks out the sun and seeds persistent rainfall. Chemtrails however, are a fairly recent ‘phenomenon’ and there wasn’t anything like the level of spraying we see today back at the time when
the card game was being devised, so, is this just yet another random coincidence? Perhaps, perhaps not.
Chemtrails & HAARP are fairly recent ‘phenomenon’. HAARP (or the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) is another recent subject of debate amongst global conspiracy believers as many think it is a new tool of the illuminati that is being used to manipulate the Earth’s ionosphere in order to trigger what appear to be ‘natural’ disasters, disasters just like the recent devastating Japanese Earthquake and subsequent Tsunami. Unsurprisingly then, next up we have a card named ‘Earthquake Projector’ which shows some sort of energy ray pointing down at the earth triggering seismic activity but again, no such purported technology existed back when this card game was being produced, so I ask again – mere coincidence, or future illuminati technologies and events being predicted in the guise of a harmless ‘fictional’ card game? There are many other topics also featured within the game such as ‘Market Manipulation’, which could easily be linked to recent stock market crashes and financial decline triggered by the illuminati banking elite and of ‘Sweeping Reforms’ which is classic terminology the government loves to repeatedly use in order to disguise their increasing cutbacks. There’s then nuclear disasters, oil spills, an energy crisis, mind control of the masses, a black politician that looks suspiciously like Barack Obama and even a somewhat peculiar ‘Raining of Frogs’ card, yet even this could be likened to the recent mass deaths of fish in rivers and lakes around the world and of dead birds that suddenly started ‘raining’ from the sky for some apparently unknown reason.
Japanese Tsunami & Fukushima Nuclear Disaster? The game concludes with the cards depicting WWWIII, the end of the world and of course the New World Order – all themes that are being increasingly referenced and talked about in society today, that decades ago would not perhaps of been obvious things to use as subject matter. So, was this game some sort sick joke, or even perhaps a warning about the future by people who somehow had insider information pertaining to the illuminati agenda, or is it just a series of non connected harmless coincidences? One thing for sure is that if it was indeed just a harmless bit of fun then the creators have some damn good prophetic talent that they will now most likely be aware of. All events lead to the New World Order that ‘conspiracy theorists’ have been detailing for some time now. In making up your mind, it’s also worth noting that you can only keep putting things down to ‘coincidence’ a certain number of times before you yourself begin to look foolish. People are commonly labelled as ‘conspiracy theorists’ for repeatedly questioning the status quo and doing their own research into world events instead of swallowing the corporate media’s biased spin, so conversely, shouldn’t people who are always shrugging things off as mere ‘coincidence’ similarly be pigeon holed as ‘coincidence theorists’? DOES THE CONSPIRACY CARD REMIND YOU OF ANYONE? GLENN BECK WITH HIS CHALK BOARD DON'T BELEIVE ME HERES VIDEO PROOF Glenn Beck - Insane Chalkboard Nonsense 3/24/10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO1timWATHE
GO HERE TO VIEW ALL THE CARDS http://media.adamdodson.org/index.php/IlluminatiCard-Game?page=1 THIS IS JUST FREAKING CREEPY Illuminati Card Game All the cards! VIDEO BELOW http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8SS1WnEMI4 Illuminati Card Game .Shows Colorado Batman Shooting on Al Amarja Card. Meaning Newcomer. VIDEO BELOW http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X13Sl7Nh220 CLICK LINK BELOW TO SEE ALL YOUTUBE VIDEOS I FOUND http://www.youtube.com/results? search_query=the+illuminati+card+game&oq=the+illuminati+card+game&gs_l=youtube.12..0l3. 1300.1300.0.1855.1.1.0.0.0.0.278.278.2-1.1.0...0.0...1ac.2.xqE2JZQhigA
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