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Illuminati

#859BGG ↗

1982 · 2-6 players · 120min · weight 2.48 · 2,702 ratings

v2 v3

BGG raw

ID
859
Name
Illuminati
Year
1982
Rank
2686
Min players
2
Max players
6
Playing time
120
Min playtime
60
Max playtime
120
Avg weight
2.4842
Num weights
221
Bayes avg
5.81209
Average
6.17235
Users rated
2702
Num owned
4087
Wanting
30
Wishing
192
Num comments
750
Fetched at
Sat Apr 25 2026 16:18:45 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Mechanisms (1)
Hand Management
Categories (4)
Card GameNovel-basedPoliticalScience Fiction
Description (2440 chars)

Illuminati is a classic Steve Jackson (I) game of world domination. Each player takes on the role of a secret society attempting to spread its tendrils into special interest groups throughout the world. The game consists of three different cards (illuminati cards, group cards, and special event cards) and money. During a player's turn, a new card is drawn from a deck containing both group cards and special event cards. If it is a special event, the player in turn keeps the card and plays it when desired. If it is a group card, it is turned up along with any other face-up cards. The player in turn may then attempt to take over any group. This can be either a group on the table or a group already controlled by another player. If another player already controls the group it is more difficult to take it over, but not impossible. How difficult it is to take over a group depends on the strength of the controlling group, the resistance of the group being taken over, the proximity of the group being taken over to the controlling player's illuminati card (if someone already controls it), and other factors. Once this is determined, both the attacking and defending player can modify the odds further by spending "megabucks". Once a group is taken over, it has to be attached to the card structure the player already controls. How cards can be attached to each other is limited by in- and outbound arrows on the cards, and maintaining a well-structured tree of groups can be vital to success. The winning condition for each player is different and depends on what illuminati card that player has. This first edition contains 54 small black and white cards. Expanded by: Illuminati Expansion Set 1 Illuminati Expansion Set 2 Illuminati Expansion Set 3 Re-published as: Illuminati CCG Version: Illuminati: New World Order Magazine Articles: Imagine (Issue 6 - Sep 1983) European Illuminati - New cards. The Space Gamer (Issue 59 - Jan 1983) Illuminating the Post Office - Converting six groups to Illuminati. Space Gamer (Issue 72 - Jan 1985) Death to Deadheads! - Variant rules for Illuminati, The Evil Geniuses Are Here! - Variant new cards for Illuminati, More Groups Illuminated! - A couple more illuminated groups for Illuminati, The Monty Python Illuminati - The British Illuminati, 24 groups, and 3 special cards with a Monty Python theme.

LLM v2 (wide)

Not yet enriched at v2 (wide pass).

LLM v3 (deep)

Not yet enriched at v3 (deep pass).