Illuminati!
Conspiracy Theory? No, we deal in conspiracy practicalities
My introduction to gaming was (like many of my cohort) through Science Fiction Books, which I devoured while I in High School. Among the things I read was Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus! Trilogy, which I guess was shelved in the Science Fiction section because it had aliens. And Gnomes. And every other conspiracy, all fighting for … something. I barely remember any of it, apart from the things that became memes, like Fnord and 5:23.1 Part of the reason I don’t remember much was that it was a gonzo world, where every theory was contradicted, possibly even on the same page.
A few years later, when I discovered Science Fiction Conventions and stumbled onto people who were also gamers, I was surprised and delighted to find that one of the games played was — about those weird books!
So it was that Steve Jackson’s Illuminati became one of the first board games I owned bought from a comic/hobby store, not a toy store. Each player controls one of the Illuminati, bent on dominating the world by secretly controlling society via groups. You might be the Gnomes of Zurich, the Bavarian Illuminati, or the Discordians or others.
You’d secretly take control over non-illuminated groups that previously had served no master, or steal control from another illuminati, and arrange them in an org chart. For example in the picture below the Discordians directly control the American Autoduel Association2, which in turn controls the Comic Books, etc.
Groups would have some values and attributes (like Conservative or Liberal). If an illuminati got enough groups, you could win outright, but each Illuminati also had a special power and victory condition3.
So you might have a game with a turn like “I’ll have Fox News attempt to take control the Feminists, using the Orbital Mind Control Lasers to temporarily make the Feminists conservative, and I’ll aid them with the Church of the SubGenius.”4
“The U.F.O.s spend five megabucks against…” and so on. If you just listened to a play-by-play of Illuminati, chances are you’d here something amusing (if not downright hilarious). The game play isn’t particularly complex, you have to chuck dice and there’s always a chance of failure. Illuminati was my first “beer and pretzel” game; enough strategy to keep you interested, enough luck to let the losers shrug5. Something you could play while watching football and then guffaw when Professional Sports suddenly show up and take over the Elvis Impersonators.
Much like the books, I remember nothing of any individual game. That’s not the point. We played it a lot. At college. Back home I introduced my high school friends. After Magic the Gathering kicked off the collectable card game mania, the guys at the game store all rushed out and bought Illumaniti: New World Order. Sure, it was a blatant cash grab/retheme6, but a fun blatant cash grab retheme.
So what if there’s no deeper meaning …. (but that’s what they want you to think).
Am I sure that Illumanti belongs in the 100 Most Influential Games of the 20th Century? It definitely belongs in my personal list, but that’s not a solid argument. Feel free to voice your opinion, or the opinion of your nefarious masters. Either’s fine with me.
After making old man noises when discussing “67,” writing “5:23” made me feel simultaneously guilty, yet resolved to yell at those kids.
In the picture above, the Discordians have won because they control enough Weird groups.
All real groups in the game, although Fox News only in later reprints.
Or dramatically curse their fates, but in either case, no hard feelings.
In an interview with his in-house magazine Pyramid when asked about INWO, Steve Jackson jokingly said something like “I’ve always wanted to be able to use gold krugerands as game tokens … this seems like my best chance.”
It also inspired the part of The Republic of Rome where you persuade opposition Senators to your side.
Never read the books, but did enjoy the game, back in the day...