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Old 12-09-2005, 03:15 PM   #51
XehutL
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Default Re: Rules Update for Illuminati?

Quote:
Originally Posted by DirkGently
I've played many, many games of Illuminati and we've messed with a bunch of variations. the one that showed the most promise for us, although we've only played this way once, was to seperate the group cards and the special cards into two seperate decks.

Each player had a choice of choosing a group card to put on the table, or to take a special card. However, by taking a special card, that ended your turn. You can still perform any free actions, and do your two money transfers, but you can't attack any groups. The only exception was The Network. That player could choose one group, and one special card, and still perform one regular action (attack, move a group, money transfer).

It gives the players a little more control over the game (this is illuminati, after all. Control is what it's all about) but it really makes you think about whether you need that special card. It also helps prevent the pool of groups from being depleted, by only allowing you to take one if you've put one on the table.

Anyway, we've only played it once and we enjoyed it. Based on how random the game can be, this change may not be as good as we thought. But it definitely warrants more testing, IMHO.

Note: I don't know how this would effect the game with "Resource" cards included. I have not played INWO.
I like this variant and it is exactly what I was thinking about for some time. However, I would suggest that taking 1 special card should cost only 1 action AND some megabucks (7MBs seems OK to me) instead of immediately ending (thus 2 action) of that player's turn (the rule for 1 card per turn still applies).
In this case, Network can still have its important 2 specials in one turn - but no other regular action at the same time and it would be quite costly. This will also slightly reduce the Bavarian advantage of privileged attack...

-X-

Last edited by XehutL; 12-10-2005 at 01:45 PM.
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Old 12-10-2005, 11:29 AM   #52
CthulhuBob
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Missoula
Default Re: Rules Update for Illuminati?

When the uncontrolled area has become empty I have always just "reset" it by drawing four groups and burying any specials that are revealed in the process. This allows for a decent number of groups becoming available with no sacrifice of specials, some of which are way too cool to just remove from the game due to circumstance. If there is going to be an official rule change, my vote is with number 1. The others seem to tink with the mechanics balance in ways that may influence outcome. My math is not up to the task of understanding how, but even the perception of such undue statistical influence may put off players. I think option 1 solves the problem in the most balanced and fair manner, though I would still prefer to re-seed any specials rather than discarding them. Just my two cents-CthulhuBob.
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Old 01-07-2006, 04:16 PM   #53
keybounce
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Default Re: Rules Update for Illuminati?

On a seperate rule change issue:

This happened once, many years ago. I believe I have the basics of what happened correct, although the details might be hazy.

On turn one, one player got hit with a lost turn; could not do anything.

On turn two, they only managed to get one group.

You know what happened next, right? Yep. An attack to neutralize. Then, since they had no groups after turn two, they were eliminated.

I'd like to see that changed to "No groups after two turns of play" instead of "No groups after turn two".
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Old 01-08-2006, 10:04 AM   #54
rastazed
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Default Re: Rules Update for Illuminati?

We played a five player game the other night and did not use the rule varient. It would have come in handy early in the game but the lack of groupd in the uncontrolled area actually led to more attacks against other power structures (which in turn made the game last longer). If we had used the varient the game would have played out quite differently. I think the rule change should be put in place as an option.
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Old 01-25-2006, 10:43 PM   #55
Michael Ellis
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Default Re: Rules Update for Illuminati?

While reading this thread I found myself thinking: "I rather like it when there is only a few groups in the uncontrolled area.".

The reason for that is that I always find that the uncontrolled area get too crowded towards the end of the game. And fun (but almost worthless) groups like Goldfish fanciers never gets picked. Fnord! Maybe it is just me, but I still think it is fun to see groups like that in the powerstructure.

Also, when there is no groups in the uncontrolled area, people will attack the groups of other players. And that is the funniest part of the game to me.

I would rather have a rule that set a limit to the number of groups in the uncontrolled area. Maybe in the shape of a reward that you could get for not drawing a new card. Maybe like, getting 10MB instead when the number of uncontrolled groups are 6 or more. I am not sure how well a rule like that would work but I will now try to find out in our next game. Thanks for the inspiration.

Last edited by Michael Ellis; 01-26-2006 at 07:18 PM.
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Old 02-18-2006, 09:26 PM   #56
Michael Ellis
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Default Re: Rules Update for Illuminati?

Me and my friends just sat down and played Illuminati for 10 hours in a row. We used the option (1) rule trough the whole session and it worked out well. We used he Propaganda rules half of the session (but not the Brainwashing rules) and it worked just as well together with those rules.
I didn't feel the need to have any more groups coming up in the game. The only negative thing was that some Special cards tended to be thrown away every time someone got them.They were simply not used. But maybe that's just us.
My friends also thought it was a good rule.
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