Basic Rules

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Object of the Game

The object of Illuminati is to control the world. You start with a single Illuminati card, representing your own secret conspiracy. During the game, you take over other Group cards. They are added to your Power Structure as your puppets -- unless a foe takes them from you. You can use Plot cards to advance your own position or harass your foes.

You may win by controlling enough groups, or by fulfilling the special goal of your own Illuminati, or by meeting the objectives on a Goal card. Or, of course, by destroying all of your foes!

Beginning the Game

(1) Each player must have his own INWO deck, all of the same size -- we recommend 45 cards, including your Illuminati. (As a shortcut, you can just compare the heights of the decks on the table.) The relative number of Plot and Group cards in your deck is up to you, though 12 to 20 groups is a good number. Designing a strong deck, with cards that work together, will help you win. Trade cards with others, or buy Booster Packs, to improve your deck.

(2) Each player divides his cards into Groups (with the puppet on the back) and Plots (with the hand on the back).

(3) Each player puts his chosen Illuminati card (see p. 5) on the table, all at once. Note: It can happen that more than one players have the same type of Illuminati . . . which means they represent different factions of the same conspiracy. See p. 14.

(4) Each player shuffles his Plot deck and draws three Plot cards. You may look at your cards, but you cannot play any of them until the game actually begins. Place them in your hand. These are your first "hidden plots."

(5) Each player chooses one Group card as a "lead" -- the first puppet of his Illuminati. All players place their leads on the table at the same time. (Any leads which are chosen by more than one player are set aside. Those players must make alternate choices which don't duplicate any leads already attempted or exposed. This continues until there are no duplicate leads.) Thus, when the first round begins, each player already has one puppet. You may not lead with a Resource -- it must be a Group!

(6) Shuffle your Group deck and draw six cards for your hand. If you had set aside any failed lead cards, shuffle them back in after your first draw. From now on, you may not look at, or trade, any of your undrawn cards -- just the ones in your hand.

(7) Each player rolls two dice. The one with the highest roll goes first.

At the beginning of the game, you may not do anything to a rival who has not yet completed their first turn! You may not use Plot cards or special abilities on them, interfere with their attacks, or play any cards that injure them (except NWOs -- see p. 14). Exception: If someone attacks you during their first turn, you are free to respond against that player in any way you can.

Turn Sequence

Each turn has the following steps:

1. Draw the top card from your Plot deck, if you wish. At the same time, if you have action tokens on any of your Groups, you may spend them for extra Plots (see p. 4).

2. Draw the top card from your Groups deck, if you wish. There is no limit to the number of Groups in your hand.

3. Make one automatic takeover, if you wish. Choose any Group or Resource from your hand. You take it over automatically -- no die roll is required.

A red card with Control Arrows is a Group. Put it on any outgoing arrow of your Power Structure. You may not make an automatic takeover of a Group that duplicates a card already in play.

A purple card, with no Control Arrows, is a Resource . . . put it beside your Power Structure. (But you may not duplicate a Unique Resource already in play. See p. 14.)

4. Place an Action token on each of your groups that doesn't have one. You can use anything you want -- we like glass stones -- but they should all be the same. No group can ever have more than one token unless its special ability, or a Plot card, specifically gives it an extra action.

5. Attempt attacks or other actions, as explained below. Each Action token allows one action -- you can attack, or use a special ability, or draw more Plot cards. Plot cards, in turn, may give you extra attacks or other actions. Groups that don't act during your turn can use special abilities or Plot cards to act during the other players' turns! When a group acts, remove the Action token from its card.

6. Take any remaining "free moves" you want. Free moves (see p. 6) don't count as actions. You may take free moves before, between, or after your actions.

At this point, if you have achieved one of your Goals, you must say so, to giveother players a last chance to stop you by spending their actions or playing Plot cards. If they can't stop you, you win. Otherwise . . .

7. Knock. Rap on the table to alert the next player that you're finished. An evil laugh is appropriate here.

If some other player announces a victory, the game now ends unless the rest of you can stop his schemes. Otherwise, the next player now starts his turn.

Play continues counterclockwise until a player (or coalition of players) wins -- see p. 13. As play develops, your holdings might look like this:

Your Illuminati card (1) is in front of you. Connected to it are the groups that make up the rest of your Power Structure (2). Beside it are your Resources (3) and any exposed Plots, face up (4). Your Plots and Groups decks (5, 6) are ready for your next draws. Your discard pile (7) is off to the side, face up.

You will also be holding a hand of up to 5 Plot cards (some of which may be "exposed" and face-up on the table in front of you) and any number of Groups and/or Resources.

Plot Cards

These cards are blue, and represent Illuminated plots. A Plot is discarded immediately after use, unless it is kept on the table as a marker for its effect.

Each Plot card tells when you can play it. Follow the instructions on the card. Often a Plot will allow an exception to the rules. The instructions on a card always take precedence over this rulebook, except for the Meta-Rules on p. 17.

Draw from the top of your Plot deck. Place each Plot in your hand, unless you can use it immediately. It stays in your hand, "hidden," until you play it or return it to the deck, or until one of your rivals exposes it. You may expose it yourself, but that's usually unwise.

When one of your Plots is exposed, turn it face-up in front of you. It stays face-up until it's used, returned to your deck, stolen, discarded, or hidden again (by a Plot or special ability that lets you return exposed Plots to your hand.)

You may show a hidden Plot to individual rivals, and then keep it face-down. They can tell others what they saw, of course. Or they can lie.

You must always show how many hidden Plots you have, if someone asks.

Some Plots work automatically; others require a die roll. Some require a specific group to use an action; others are free. Follow the instructions on the card.

How to Get Plot Cards

You may draw a Plot card at the start of each of your turns, until your deck runs out. Some cards let you draw more Plots, or steal Plots from your rivals.

You never have to draw a Plot (or Group) card, and there is no penalty for running out of undrawn Plots or Groups.

Spending Tokens for Plots: You may spend one Action token from your Illuminati, or two tokens from any other groups you control, to draw one Plot card. You may do this at any time except during a privileged attack.

If you have tokens on your groups at the beginning of your turn, you may spend these tokens to draw extra Plots immediately, before you place new tokens on your groups! (This is all you can do with them. You cannot use them for actions before phase 5 of your turn; in most cases, you might as well spend them for Plots. However, you may be vulnerable to certain attacks between the time you spend your tokens and the time you replace them . . .)

Limit on Number of Plot Cards

You may have any number of Plot cards in your hand during your turn.

At any time except during your own turn, whenever you have more than 5 Plot cards, you must immediately get rid of the extra(s) . . . by using Plots, giving them away, discarding them, or returning them to your deck!

Both hidden and exposed Plots count toward your limit. But some Plots (NWO cards, for instance) stay on the table when used, as a reminder or "link" for the effect they create. Once you've played them, they do not count against your limit.

There are some cards that let you hold more than 5 Plots.

Discards

All discarded cards go face-up, because other players may have the ability to "scavenge" from your discards. This holds true whether you discarded a Plot because you had too many, or for some other reason.

Returning Plots To Your Deck

You may return a Plot to your deck if you have too many Plots (or if you just want to get it out of your hand). You may put it on the top, the bottom, or anywhere in the middle, depending on how soon you hope to draw it again!

You may do this at any time except in the middle of a multiple-card draw, or after someone uses a Plot or ability that lets them see (or steal) Plots from either your hand or your deck.

Trading / Giving Away Plot Cards

Plot cards not yet used may be given away at any time, except during a privileged attack. See Gifts and Trades, p. 12.

Group Cards

Groups are the cards that make up your Power Structure. Typically, a Group card represents the leadership of the group, or the secret cabal that controls it. For instance, the Dentists card does not represent all dentists . . . just the secret leaders of the dentists' conspiracy.

You may draw one Group card at the beginning of each turn, and one more, after you get Action tokens, if you spend your Illuminati action.

Groups (except for Illuminati) are red, with gold arrows. The group's name (1) is at the top. Below are its description and special abilities (2). The large numbers are its Power and Resistance (3). At the bottom left are its Alignments (4). At the bottom right are any Attributes (5) that it has. At the edges are the gold control arrows (6).

Types of Groups

Most Groups are Organizations. There are three other kinds of Groups:

Illuminati: the Masters. Each player has only one Illuminati group, at the center of his Power Structure. These are black and have a horizontal design, rather than vertical. The backs show a hand (like Plots) rather than a puppet like the other groups. This lets you hide extra Illuminati cards in your Plot deck, if you wish -- see p. 14.

Places: usually the cabal that controls that place's government. Places can be hit by Disasters.

Personalities: influential individuals, and their loyal henchmen and possessions. Personalities are vulnerable to Assassination cards.

Alignment

There are ten different alignments. They are shown at the bottom left of Group cards. Some groups have one alignment, some have several, and a few have none. It is easier for a group to control groups with similar alignments, and to destroy those of opposite alignments.

Meanings of the alignments in INWO:

Government -- An arm of any government; its opposite is Corporate.

Corporate -- A business or coalition of businesses; its opposite is Government.

Liberal -- Politically "left," whatever that means; its opposite is Conservative.

Conservative -- Usually mad at the Liberals; its opposite is Liberal.

Peaceful -- Philosophically opposed to the use of force; its opposite is Violent.

Violent -- Armed and/or dangerous; not necessarily vicious; its opposite is Peaceful.

Straight -- Socially middle-of-the-road; Joe Sixpack; its opposite is Weird.

Weird -- Peculiar, offbeat, not like the neighbors; its opposite is Straight.

Criminal -- Extorting money from citizens through force, fraud or threat, and/or committing notorious crimes. There is no opposite.

Fanatic -- Holding to a limited system of beliefs in defiance of all others. Any two Fanatic groups are considered "opposite" to each other.

Changing Alignments: Some cards can change the alignments of groups, either for a limited time or permanently. A permanent change lasts even after the group is destroyed (yes, sometimes it matters). A temporary change does not.

A group can never have two alignments that are opposite; if it is Violent, for instance, and something makes it Peaceful, it is no longer Violent. Likewise, a group cannot have "double alignments." If it is Violent and something happens to make it Violent again, there is no further effect.

Attributes

Certain "attributes," in italic, may appear at the bottom right of a Group card. These define which cards can be affected by certain Plots or special abilities. For instance, Computer is an attribute. A card that affects "all Computer groups" affects only those cards with Computer at the lower right.

Attributes have no automatic effect on each other. A Computer card has no special effect on other Computer cards, unless the card itself says it does.

Power

A group's Power is a measure of its ability to dominate other groups. The higher the number, the better. Some groups have two Power numbers -- for example, 7/4. The first number is regular Power, which is used when the group makes a direct attack on any card, or aids an attack on a group of appropriate alignment. The second number is Global Power, which can be used to aid attacks even if there are no alignments in common (see p. 8).

When something changes a group's Power, the new Power is effective for all purposes unless a card specifies otherwise. But note that temporary Power bonuses (from +10 Plot cards, for instance) don't count toward Goals. See p. 13.

A group with a printed Power of 0 gets an Action token unless its card says otherwise, but if a group's Power is reduced to 0, it loses its token. It cannot act until its Power is increased. No group's Power can be reduced below 0.

If a group's Power (or Resistance) has a *, read the instructions on the card!

Resistance

This is the group's ability to resist domination. High Resistance makes a group harder to take over . . . and easier to defend, once you control it.

Illuminati cards have no Resistance, because they cannot be attacked directly.

Control Arrows

Illuminati cards have four outgoing control arrows. Each of these can be used to control one group.

Other groups have one incoming arrow, and 0 to 3 outgoing arrows. A group's incoming arrow must be placed next to an outgoing arrow of its master, the group that controls it.

Special Abilities

Every Group has a special ability -- often something that goes outside the normal rules, or even breaks them! See p. 17 for a list of terms used in defining these abilities.

Resources

Resource cards represent Illuminated secrets . . . hidden knowledge, magic artifacts, ultra-tech devices and other tools of world domination.

Resource cards are purple, with the same back design as Groups. They are drawn from your Groups deck.

Normally, they can be played only as an automatic takeover. You may also spend a single Illuminati action each turn to take over a Resource. (So, if you use your automatic takeover and one Illuminati token, you can get two Resources in one turn, but you cannot normally get more.)

Resources have no alignments or Control Arrows, and don't go into your Power Structure. They are placed beside it.

There is no normal way to attack an enemy Resource, but some Plot cards and special abilities can affect them.

All Resources belong directly to your Illuminati unless they are linked to another group (see p. 15). If a group is captured, its linked Resources go with it. If a group is destroyed, remove its linked Resources permanently from play.

Some Resources have the word Action at the bottom, to show that they get Action tokens. They follow the same Action rules that groups do, but their tokens cannot be traded for Plot cards!

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