Slashdot Mirror
Re-Release of Illuminati Card Game
William Tanksley writes "Anyone here remember the Illuminati card game? It seems that Steve Jackson Games got enough complaints about the horrid MagicTheGathering-clone version they'd released, and they're finally releasing an updated, full-color version of the original game."
You want to talk about a waste of money (well, not really, but it reminded me of this anyway, so whatever :).. I read in Inquest a long while back about this Illuminati tournament.. When it got down to the two finalists, one guy told the other he would pay him 50 bucks or so to throw the match. Then he played that card that lets you go back on your word while your opponent still has to honor his side of the bargain, and the move was ruled legal. :)
What better game can you think of that actually says you can cheat if you can get away with it?
~ Kish
Program your robots a turn in advance to navigate around a maze containg hazards, conveyors, turntables etc. Confused by the fact that you may not have the right program cards, another robot may bump into you throwing your calculations off, and the robots shoot at each other. Long.
Much simpler, and yet far harder. Move robots with no brakes around a board to reach a target. You have to hit things to stop. Usually there is nothing in the right place to bounce off of. So you have to move several robots. Sometimes you have to work out 20 or 30 moves in your head, and then announce before anyone else gets there. (Best call I know of was 63, which involved iteratively bouncing two robots off of eachother).
Probably the best board game ever. A sort of colonisation/town building game, with a random board made up of hex tiles. Superbly balenced, and reasonably quick.
Actually, this one is easy enough for non-geeks, but has some of the same sort of puzzles as RoboRally - work out how fast you can go without ramming an island in a randomly twisting river.
Euphrat und Tigris (Hans im Gluck) is good but I can't work out how to win. Sixteen-thirty-something (Warfrog) is a very strange twist on the normal board wargame idea.
Needless to say, the best boardgames come from Germany, although there are some good US companies too. Rules translations are sometimes needed from Game Cabinet. In the UK we have the problem that board games are regarded as something you do at Christmas so you don't have to talk to your relatives.
Alignment: Straight, Criminal, Corporate
Attribute: Computer Image: a Borg Cube-ship with the Microsoft Logo
Slogan: "Who do we want to assimilate today"
Power: 4
The only card in the deck with 5 arrows out (2 on either side, 1 on botton). Microsoft, if controlled by the Network or the Bavarian Illuminati, is +10 to control any computer group If controlled by the Servants of Cthulhu, +20 to destroy any computer group
Wow. Remember the early 1990's... back before that "Internet" thing became popular? Back when Boardwatch was all the rage and magazines like Wired didn't even matter?
Seems to me SJG led to the World(tm)'s first run in with the EFF. I guess we ought to all go buy a starter deck (even though we're all recovered addicts and this will just get us hooked againn) just to support the beginning of the end of electronic privacy and the efforts that the EFF have put in to protect us.
-Chris
(Okay, so it's off-topic, but I felt it was worthwhile.)
From the website(s):
Not yet listed at amazon.com or bn.com, but you will find the lowest price with PriceSCAN
Hacker was SJG's companion game to Illuminati. It was all about breaking into computer systems. The systems made up one huge "power structure" like in Illuminati, and you'd roll dice to get a presence on each system. You had to be able to trace a path from one of your systems to break into another, or else have a dialin. You started with a Plain Clone, but could move up to a Hackintosh or even an Amoeba.
Hmmm. Going to have to drag that out sometime.
(And, before someone decides to flame me, I know the difference between hacker and cracker.)
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Pretend there is some witty statement here.
I've been with them for about 5 years, and they've been great, but I'm leaving soon for more bandwidth. But they're a good shop - runs on Linux & Apache, EFF supporters... I'll miss 'em.
The discussion of the Slashdot card brings to mind the applicability of the game paradigm to innumerable custom spinoffs. Way back when, some folks threw together a Brown U. Illuminati set that was extremely cool (I won't burden this post with any of it, becaus the jokes were mostly very inside and very early-'90s-topical). The Burningman Illuminati idea shows some potential. Basically, any subculture with enough baroque politics is destined to be turned into an Illuminati module. It's just a matter of time...
SlashDot
Power:1 Money:1
2 arrows out (L/U)
Special: Once a turn, owner may declare a given group "Slashdotted." This group may not attack, lend power to an attack, or grant money to an attack. If attacked, no money can be spent on defense by anyone other than the group itself, but defender's power is doubled (hard to attack a site you can't reach)
If owned by the network, Slashdot POW triples (3).
(Notes: Pow and money are weak, because the special is strong, and historical concerns. This really needs to be tested in a game-the power may be a little to strong. Pow modifier is a beta idea-/. should become more effective if combined with the network, but how much so depends. A POW 3 card with a special is a pretty potent card. 2 Outgoing arrows is another way to restrict power-game balance is important)
Ceci n'est pas une sig.
While it's still a long way off, JohnCon represents all things geek, yet without a computer.
Pre-register now and come play all kinds of geek games like Illuminati, Spammers, Cults Across America, Iron Dragon, Over the Edge, AD&D, Call of Cthulhu, GURPS and more!!!
The version(s) that came out this year are regular games, not CCGs. Deluxe Edition is a remake of the orginal, and Y2k is just an exspansion deck with new groups.
INWO is long since dead
Some anonymous coward dun said:
Ah, Illuminati. :) Several of my friends knew it in the original version, so when it was re-released earlier this year (and it's been out for several months...got ours back in June) it Had To Be Bought...and I was introduced to the good, old, original game of Fsck Thy Neighbour in its original form. ;) Very cool game, it is. :3
Seriously, though...the new decks (both the re-release and the Y2K Expansion Pack--which contains a card for the Church of the Subgenius :) do have two blank power cards and two blank Illuminati cards...as a power, I figure a Slashdot Effect card could be done up giving +6 Attack power to any card held by CotSG or the Network... ;) Or maybe even automatic successes on privileged attacks on other Illuminati... :) Alignment is gonna be a bastard though... ;)
Seriously, I think we could come together and actually cook something up for this... ;)
Using Slashdot as an Illuminati would be harder. The Network IS essentially Slashdot :3
You could also do up cards for the Freaks Software Foundation (RMS in beatnik clothes or somethin', alignment Weird Communist Liberal ;) an' other stuff...I think we can let our imaginations run wild on this...
Gods, I think TOO DAMN MUCH on this. :3 Then again, I'm also one of the folks who's given real thought (after one too many incidents of kitty deciding SHE wants to play Illuminati, too, in the way kitties tend to define "read" or "play" or "type on keyboard" by laying on top of what you are doing :) to making up a Ferlie Kitty Card which enables one to randomly rearrange one's OPPONENT'S power structure... :)
-Windigo The Feral (NYAR!)
I remember playing the game years back, the concept was good, the only thing that annoyed me was all the adding etc. (I get a +4, -2, +2, -5, so I need a 7 or more (but I can use card x, if the roll is even, etc)) It took some of the spontantity out of the game.
Personally, my best memory is one of the stories I heard of what allegedly happened at one of the prize competions:
Person A and person B are in the final, very close game... Person A says to Person B, "it's close, be a shame for one of us to lose now. If you conceed, I'll split the prize, okay?" Person B thinks, agrees, and calls the ref over and conceeds. Person A then shows the card "I Lied", which enabled him to default on an agreed deal. The refs found this amusing, judged it legal (and definitly within the spirit of the game) and awarded him the prize.
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Exigo spamos et dona ferentes