Illuminati (game)
German Illuminati game components
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| Designer(s) | Steve Jackson |
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| Publisher(s) | Steve Jackson Games |
| Players | 2–8 (4–6 recommended) |
| Age range | 8 + |
| Setup time | 1–5 minutes |
| Playing time | 1 to 6 hours |
| Random chance | Medium |
| Skill(s) required | Strategic thought, Deal Making, Bluffing |
Illuminati is a standalone card game made by Steve Jackson Games (SJG), inspired by the 1975 book, 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" take on conspiracy theories. It contains groups named similarly to real world organizations, such as the Society for Creative Anarchism and the Semiconscious Liberation Army. It can be played by two to eight players. Depending on the number of players, a game can take between one and six hours.
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 secret-conspiracy idea behind Illuminatus!" was viable. After researching the Illuminati and conspiracy theories, and "extensive and enthusiastic playtesting" it went on the market in July 1982 in the (at the time) usual SJG Pocket Box format. 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 a 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."
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