Illuminati: Bavarian Fire Drill
Illuminati: Bavarian Fire Drill Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Artifacts
Artifacts are unique items possessed by the Illuminati. Some are magical, some are technological, some are just . . . strange. Some are deep secrets; some are known to everyone. But they all give their owners an unfair advantage in the struggle for world domination.
The Artifact card represents not only the item itself, but its small cadre of operators and protectors. Therefore, they are considered Group cards, and can be controlled, neutralized, and traded just like other Groups. Some Artifacts have Alignments, but most do not. Artifact cards are oriented vertically, to distinguish them from other Groups.
Each Artifact gives its owner a special power, described on the card. Artifact use is a free action unless the card specifies that an action is required. All Artifact powers "stack," so, for instance, if you have both the Holy Grail and the Crystal Skull, your Illuminati get +4 Power and Transferrable Power.
An Artifact may have an Income, but money is never placed on an Artifact card. The Income of an Artifact is placed on its controlling Illuminati.
Controlling an Artifact
To take control of an Artifact, a player must make a regular Attack to Control. The Resistance of an Artifact represents the difficulty and expense of locating and securing the Artifact, as well as the resistance of its keepers. Other players may interfere as usual with money from their Illuminati.
Note that Artifacts do not have control arrows. When an Artifact is taken over, it is placed face-up in front of the player, not attached to the Power Structure. Therefore, it does not use up a Control Arrow, and a group with no open Control Arrow may make an attack to control an Artifact.
Artifacts do count as "controlled groups" for victory.
Stealing Artifacts from Your Rivals
To take an Artifact away from another player, make a regular Attack to Control. Artifacts are always considered to be controlled directly by the Illuminati, so an Artifact has +10 Resistance if a rival tries to attack it. Only the owner's Illuminati may spend money to defend an Artifact. Other players may interfere as usual with money from their Illuminati.
An Artifact may not be destroyed by a regular Attack to Destroy; only special cards and card powers may destroy Artifacts.
Playing with Brainwash
If you are using the Illuminati Brainwash expansion, the following groups are designated Media: Bloggers, Cellular Phones, Embedded Media, the Ghoul Channel, Ninety Minutes, Offshore Call Centers, Reality Shows, Science Alarmists, Screen Savers, Ultrahypermegaplexes, Voice Mail, and Webcams.
Rules Tweaks
Although Illuminati has been around a while, we still play the original game . . . and think about ways to make it better. Here are two rules tweaks that improve the game.
Uncontrolled Groups
At the end of each turn, if the uncontrolled area has fewer than two groups, draw cards until there are two uncontrolled groups. If a Special is drawn, discard it.
A New Use for Specials
After someone declares an attack Privileged, any two special cards may be discarded together, by the same person, to abolish that privilege. If Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know is used to cancel one of those cards, the other is lost unless the player can replace it! (Remember: no one may exchange or give away Specials after privilege has been declared. And once an attack loses its privilege, it may not get it back.)