One Big Deck
Preliminary Draft
This is a variant of the game to be used when all the cards are owned
by the same person. It's specifically designed for the One With
Everything factory set, which has
one of every Plot and Group card, plus three of each Illuminati,
and some blanks. But these rules will work with any big stack of
INWO cards. (See this
list of sample decks
for examples.)
- Start by removing any blank cards from the deck, and dividing the
cards into one stack of Plots and one stack of Groups.
- Deal a starting hand of 3 Plots and 10 Groups to each player,
face down. Players may look at their cards, but cannot play any of
them until the game actually begins.
- Each player may go through the Plots deck and choose one
Illuminati card for himself. Pick one that goes well with the Groups
and Plots you were dealt. Shuffle the cards after the last player has
chosen.
- Each player puts his chosen Illuminati card on the table, all at
once. 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. 13 of the INWO
rulebook.
- Each player chooses one Group card from his hand, as the first
puppet of his Illuminati. All players show their choices at the same
time. Any puppets which are chosen by more than one player go back
into the owners' hands, and they must make alternate choices. This
continues until there are no duplicate puppets.
- Deal the top four Groups from the deck into the middle of the
table, to start the ''uncontrolled'' area -- see below.
- Each player rolls two dice. The one with the highest roll goes
first. At the beginning of the game, you may not attack a player
who has not yet had their first turn! You may not use Plot cards
or special abilities on them, either.
Once the game starts, use the regular turn sequence. Draw Plots and
Groups normally, as per the regular
INWO rules -- but everyone draws
from the same deck. When any card refers to an individual player's
Groups or Plots deck, just read that as meaning ''the'' Groups or
Plots deck.
Thus, a card that normally lets you look at the top card of your
own deck now has the same effect as a card that lets you look at
the top of a rival's deck. There's just one deck.
Note
that cards which allow you to look through the whole deck are now very
powerful ... of course, in 30 seconds, you may not find the card that
you want! When someone uses such a power, be very strict about the
time limit!
A player who returns a card to the deck may still put it on the top,
the bottom, or in the middle. But, of course, there's no guarantee
that he will be the one to draw it again!
The Uncontrolled Area
When any player tries to control a card from his hand and fails, that
card goes into the uncontrolled, or neutral, area. (Exception: The
special power of the Adepts of Hermes means they keep a group even if
they fail their attempt to control it.) And if a player drops out or
is destroyed, the groups in his hand go into the neutral area.
Any player may try to take over or to destroy a card from the
uncontrolled area, and anyone else may aid or oppose those attacks,
following the normal rules for attacking and for interfering with
other players' attacks. However, you may not make an automatic
takeover from the uncontrolled area.
Variations
Players may trade cards among themselves after the initial deal,
before the game starts. This may result in some hands being slightly
larger than others. So it goes.
Abuses
You could stack the deck in this game, abusively or otherwise. For
instance, you could put in nothing but Weird groups. But that would
probably be a bad idea, because then either there would be very few
groups, or there would be lots of duplicates for each Group card, and
either way people will fight over the groups.
A subtler way to stack the deck would be to include only those Plots
that are good for certain Illuminati. This is evil; don't do it. Or,
if you do, don't play for money. Or, if you do, give some to charity.
Cards Referring To Duplicates
The
One With Everything set contains only one of each
Group and Plot card. Therefore, a few cards are completely worthless
if you play a one-deck game with a single
One With
Everything set. Any player who draws one of these cards may
show it, discard it immediately, and draw a new one. These cards
include Media Blitz, Counter-Revolution, Payoff, Purge, Faction Fight,
Clone, Impostor, Forgery, and any other card which is good
only with duplicate Group or Plot cards. Of course, in a
one-deck game that does contain duplicates, these cards are no longer
worthless ... leave them in!
Cards Powered By Deck Discards
Some Plots or Groups require you to ''spend'' undrawn cards from your
Plot or Group deck. In a one-deck game, spending undrawn cards is not
a penalty! Therefore, remove the Voodoo Economics and March On
Washington cards from the game. (Or treat them as duplicates of Hoax,
with the Hoax modification below ... because it's so much fun when a
Hoax comes out.)
Change the cost for 18½ Minute Gap and Hoax to ''discard 3 Plots
from your hand'', in addition to the Action token cost listed on the
cards. (If this is too much trouble, remove these cards).
Some cards also give you the option of discarding undrawn
cards. That option is not available in a one-deck game. These cards
include The Big Sellout, Secrets Man Was Not Meant to Know, Air Magic,
and Fnord!.
