1 Basic Rules
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- The Society of Assassins
- BIBLIOGRAPHY C 15 ALIGNMENTS Government
- Weird. Criminal
- 2. Draw a card.
- 6. Take special-power actions. 7. Add targets.
- ATTACKS Attack to Control.
- Attack to Neutralize.
13 the Gnomes’ income gets to the 25-MB range, Zurich is probably close to a victory. Attack! A coalition is probably your only chance; attack either to control or to neutralize, even if the attacks are hopeless, to bleed the Gnomes’ trea- sury. Attack puppets that don’t have much money in their own treasuries, to make it more expensive to defend them. Whenever they try to make a deal, demand that they give you more money “because they are so rich.” The longer the game runs, the richer the Gnomes get. To stop them, play aggressively.
Some say the Network is a conspiracy of the world’s computer programmers; others believe that the programmers are merely the pawns, and the computers themselves have taken over. Either way, they are rich and powerful, and they are probably watching you right now. The Network knows everything, and it knows it first.
every turn. The Network can win by collecting 25 points worth of transferable power, including its own 7 points. Playing The Network: Your special ability is a very good one. It increases your chance of getting good cards of all kinds. Try to keep at least one Special card in your hand; these cards can provide excellent bargaining leverage. However, your Special Goal is tough, since few Groups have a high Transferable Power, and such Groups are valuable to everyone. Often your best bet is a regular victory, unless the right Groups come up, but this is easier for you than for some of your foes. Opposing The Network: Don’t destroy Groups with Transferable Power (unless you’re Cthulhu); take them over, protect them, and use them. Maybe you can sell one to the Network for more than it’s worth. If he gets several Special cards in his hand, you can make the other players paranoid about them and put together a coalition. Otherwise, try to play him off against Bavaria, who will be after many of the same targets. The Network has an extra advantage in a game with inexperienced players, who are less likely to go after the Groups with transferable power.
These are the students of those things man was not meant to know. They seek to master arcane powers and inhu- man forces, though they risk their own lives and souls. Power and Goals: The Servants of Cthulhu seek to destroy, and they are good at it; this player gets an extra +2 on any attempt to destroy any Group! Their objective in the game is to destroy eight other Groups. If they knock another Illuminati out of the game by taking away its last Group, the destroyed Illuminati counts toward their total, too. Playing Cthulhu: Start destroying Groups early, or you’ll never get your goal of eight – but don’t overdo it. Whenever the other players want a Group destroyed (espe- cially early in the game, when your Goal is far away and you don’t look dangerous), offer to do their dirty work for them. If they will help pay for the destruction, so much the better! And, if you have a chance to eliminate another player entirely, the rest of the Illuminati will probably help you, even though the destruction counts toward your own Goal. After all, knocking someone out of the game helps everyone else. After you destroy six or seven Groups, the other players may get so paranoid about your Special Goal that they will lose track of the number of Groups you control – letting you win an easy regular victory. Take over a couple of low-power Groups instead of destroying them; you can use their income during the game, and later, when you need more victims, there they are! To make your job of destruction easier, you need Groups with money and power. Also useful are those Groups that give their possessor a bonus to destroy (like the Cycle Gangs and the Semiconscious Liberation Army). But don’t go out of your way to take one – they’re not that much better than a Transferable Power Group, and they make you look dan- gerous. Remember that if you knock a foe out of the game, by capturing, neutralizing, or destroying his last Group, the destroyed Illuminati counts as a kill!
powerful, it will be too late for anything but luck to help you. There are two strategies you can use. The first is to take away his prey . . . a Group cannot be destroyed if it’s already gone! When a low-power Group comes up, grab it and protect it if it is useful; if the Group is not useful, destroy it yourself before Cthulhu can get to it.
Alternatively, you can conspire with the other players to deliberately leave low-power Groups vulnerable. If Cthulhu spends his first few turns gleefully killing small fry, he won’t be controlling very much . . . and he can be eliminated completely by a concerted attack on the fourth or fifth turn, just when he thinks victory is within his tentacles. The Society of Assassins Arising in the Middle East, the Assassins were a secret order of the Ismailite sect of Muslims. They attained the height of their power during the Middle Ages but continue even today. Often they do not need to act . . . the mere hint of their displeasure is enough to intimidate a foe. The ancient warning of the Assassins, the dagger left on a rival’s pillow, has made kings tremble.
they control six Violent Groups. Their special ability is an extra +4 on any attempt to neutralize an enemy-controlled Group.
special ability is purely an offensive weapon. Use it sparingly; it is a powerful threat. Others are likely to support you in an attempt to neutral- ize, since you don’t benefit directly. (Of course, you can neutralize a Group, and then attempt to control it!) Your foes may even be willing to bribe you to leave them alone. To win, you need Violent cards. Build up a reserve of cash to increase your chances of getting good Violent Groups when they come along, and of keeping them after you get them. Your very best cards are those that, like Texas and the Mafia, are both powerful and Violent.
Assassins single you out as a foe! With their ability to neu- tral ize, they are a very dangerous enemy. Offer to help them in an attempt to neutralize someone else’s Groups; that way, the Assassins don’t benefit directly, injure someone else, and make enemies elsewhere. A subtle and powerful Group, the Assassins are best opposed with guile and indirection. You may be tempted to destroy Violent cards – but be careful; this a very obvious ploy. Watch their Power Structure. Once they get five Violent Groups, it is time to abandon subtlety and attack.
Are they creatures from outer space, or human super- scientists? No one knows. These are the most elusive of all the Illuminati. Their aims are shrouded in secrecy and change constantly.
Illuminati Group may attack (or aid an attack) twice per turn. No other Group may do this. Their Special Goal is chosen by the UFO player himself, at the beginning of the game. He picks any of the other seven Goals and writes it on a piece of paper, secretly. He may reveal it at any time, but will usually not do so until he has achieved it!
advantage is that your opponents don’t know what you’re trying to do. Keep them guessing! Destroy a Group or two to make them wonder if you’re really Cthulhu (and to keep the real Cthulhu from getting them). Money is always useful, and a big pile of it will make them wonder if you’re Zurich. Take over a couple of Weird Groups, and you’ve made Discordia’s life miserable. And so on. If you need an extra negotiating tool, you can offer to tell what your Special Goal really is. You might even tell the truth! Your special ability to act twice can be very powerful if used properly. Rather than acting directly, you may want to let the UFOs aid twice a turn, adding their power to that of other powerful Groups in your control, for devastating attacks that don’t cost much money. Opposing the UFOs: First, you have to figure out what they are doing. Watch carefully! Then proceed as indicated for that particular Goal. If you see that the UFOs are very close to any Goal, start worrying. In the meantime, try to keep them away from Groups with especially high Power or Income, just on general principles. 14 Acknowledgements Special thanks go to David Martin (who first suggested doing a game about the Illuminati), Elisabeth Zakes (for playtesting above and beyond the call of duty), and Draper and Susan Kauffman (for the play-by-mail version that illuminated the Post Office). Others who playtested or commented include Mike Arms, Norman Banduch, Lynn Bell, Brad Bentz, Kenneth R. Brown, Eric Carver, Martin de Castongrene, David and Kris Cobb, James Crouchet, Pat Cuney, Kathleen Donelson, David Dunham, Jim Gould, Kelly Grimes, Beverly Hale, Scott Haring, Tracy Harms, Tim Kask, Rob Kirk, David Ladyman, Creede and Sharleen Lambard, Mara Lee, Robert Lovelace, William Christopher Seth Affleck Asch Lowe, Billy Moore, Ray Morgan, Robert Niles, Jim Norman, Will Norris, Clay Phennicie, Jay Rudin, Dave Seagraves, Jerry and Vicki Self, Chris Smith, Monica Stephens, Kirk Tate, Jim Tomlinson, Allen Varney, and Chris Zakes.
onspiracy is an ancient pastime; so is the study of conspiracy. Secrecy in itself is harmless, but it always attracts attention. And many “known” secret groups are powerful indeed! Try to envision the criminal world without the Mafia, the American civil rights movement without the Ku Klux Klan, or an American college campus without Greek-letter societies. An estimated 15 million Americans are involved in secret (or at least secretive) groups of one kind or another. A number of excellent sources are avail- able for those wishing more information about (a) the Illuminati; (b) people who believe in them; and (c) people who enjoy leaving false trails to confuse people who believe in the Illuminati. Any good encyclopedia will include articles on the historical Society of Assassins, Bavarian Illuminati, and Freemasonry, and the connections, known and speculative, between them. The Illuminatus! trilogy, by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, is required reading for any conspiracy buff. Wilson is this century’s foremost pub- lic authority on the Illuminati, though his books conceal their information within great masses of humor, lies, and philosophical speculation. His Schrödinger’s Cat trilogy is entertaining but relatively uninformative. Cosmic Trigger
commentary, laced with discussion of conspiracy and Strange Coincidence. Masks of the Illuminati is fictionalized history (or historicized fiction). More recently, Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum illustrates the folly of looking too deeply into any con spiracy . . . or into your own mind.
interesting primer, discussing many Illuminated, pseudo- Illuminated, and totally unconnected Groups. It should not be taken as gospel, but makes a good research guide. The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon, is a classic study of alienation (and a lot of fun!). If one accepts the Illuminati, can the sinister minions of Tristero be far behind? What Pynchon does not say here is far more important than what he does.
the bible of Discordianism. More entertaining than most holy books, it also contains a number of interesting truths, not all of which were intended by the authors. SJ Games publishes an edition of the Principia, and will gleefully sell you a copy! The Illuminoids, by Neal Wilgus, is an examination, not of the Illuminati themselves, but of the men and women who study and believe in the various conspiracy theories.
Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, argues that an unrevealed con- spiracy has, in fact, been working among us for 2,000 years. The recent thriller The Da Vinci Code recycled the idea for the mass market, with more explosions. Alan Moore’s brilliant graphic novel Watchmen mingles superheroics with conspiracy. Power can indeed corrupt, no matter what its nature. World Revolution, by Nesta H. Webster, is a turgid text by a woman who was chasing Illuminati long before most of us were born. She takes the Bavarian Illuminati very seriously, citing them as the guid- ing force behind Communism, the French Revolution, and so on. A bigoted and alarmist book, which strongly warns of “the danger now threatening civilization.” Rare, but available in some large libraries. Also from the 1920s, Charles Fort’s The Book of the Damned and Lo! cite numerous cases of the strange and inexplicable: showers of frogs, vanishing men, impossible coincidences. His favorite theme: factual reports suppressed by “authority” because they cannot be explained. A typical conjecture: “I think we’re property.” Another early piece of conspiracy literature is the
first propounded early in this century; it purports to be the minutes of the meetings of a Zionist conspiracy to (what else?) take over the world. Oddly, many “conspiracy buffs” still take the Protocols at face value. Martin Gardner’s Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science contains detailed, if unsympathetic, treatments of a number of “fringe” cults, pseudosciences, and peculiar phenom ena. It could well inspire a reader to invent groups stranger than anything in the game. Finally, the writings of the survivalist/financial author Howard Ruff contain many references to (or debunkings of) modern theories of economic conspiracy. What really hap- pened to silver prices in 1981-82? Why did the stock market crash in 1987, and why doesn’t it crash now? Why does inflation keep on inflating, and who benefits most? Those who remain interested in the mystery of the Illuminati will no doubt go on to more serious research involving the works of Aleister Crowley, Abd al-Azrad, Tirion Palantir, “Bob” Dobbs, O.K. Ravenhurst, Kilgore Trout, and so on. Please don’t write to tell me what you learn. I don’t want to know. And don’t blame me if you van- ish on some foggy night, never to be seen again. After all, it’s just a game . . . isn’t it? Fnord. – Steve Jackson BIBLIOGRAPHY C 15 ALIGNMENTS Government is the opposite of Communist. Liberal is the opposite of Conservative. Peaceful is the opposite of Violent. Straight is the opposite of Weird. Criminal has no opposite alignment. Fanatic – Any two Fanatic Groups are considered “opposite” to each other.
Play goes counter-clockwise around the table. 1. Collect income on all cards that have an Income number. 2. Draw a card. If it is a Special card, the player keeps it. If the card is a Group, it is placed face-up in the uncontrolled area. 3. Take two “actions.” See list, below. 4. Take any “free actions.” These do not count against the two actions allowed during each turn. They may be taken before, between, or after the two regular actions. See below for list.
Part or all of any Group’s money may be moved to an adjacent Group. Two money transfers are allowed per turn. 6. Take special-power actions. 7. Add targets. Draw cards until there are two uncon- trolled Groups. Discard any Specials drawn.
destroy); Transfer money; Move a Group; Give a Group away.
Use a Special (Exception: Bribery is a regular action.) Passing: A player may choose not to take any actions of any sort and collect 5MB instead. ATTACKS Attack to Control. Defending Group’s Resistance is subtracted from attacking Group’s Power, including any Transferable Power from other Groups aiding in the attack. Only members of attacker’s own Power Structure can aid the attack. Modify this number for attacker’s or defender’s special powers, for money spent by both sides, and for other factors shown below. Using two dice, attacker must roll this number or less. A
Same alignment (e.g., Weird vs. Weird) . . . . . . . . . . . . . +4 Opposite alignment (e.g., Straight vs. Weird) . . . . . . . . . -4 Each Megabuck (MB) spent by attacker . . . . . . . . . . . . +1 Each MB spent by defending Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -2 Each MB spent by defender’s Illuminati. . . . . . . . . . . . . -1 Each MB spent by other players to Interfere. . . . . . . . . . -1 Each MB spent by other players to Assist . . . . . . . . . . . +1 Defending Group is controlled directly by Illuminati . . -10 Defending Group is 1 Group away from Illuminati . . . . -5 Defending Group is 2 Groups away from Illuminati . . . -2
As above, except that attacker receives a +6 bonus.
As above except: 1. Roll “Power minus Power,” instead of “Power minus Resistance.” 2. +4 for opposite alignment; -4 for identical. 3. Attacking Group does not need an open control arrow. BASIC GOALS Groups to be controlled, including Illuminati 2 or 3 players (not recommended) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4 players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 5 players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 6 players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 7 or 8 players (not recommended) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
35 or more (including their own Power of 10). Bermuda Triangle. Control at least one Group of each align- ment. A Group with more than one alignment counts for each of its alignments.
Power Structure’s treasuries). The Network. Control Groups with a total Transferable Power of 25 (including their own 7). Servants of Cthulhu. Destroy eight Groups. Society of Assassins. Control six Violent Groups. UFOs. At the beginning of the game, after players choose their Illuminati, the UFO player picks the Special Goal of any other Illuminati group. He writes it down, keeping it secret from the other players. 16 ILLUMINATI RULES SUMMARY Yüklə 3,21 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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