Illuminati: New World Order

[Magi]

On Friday while snooping around the back of my local card shoppe, I stumbled across a fat binder full of Shadowfist and Illuminati cards. Rather than just jack it I decided to offer some money for it. I got the entire thing for $20, which upon searching some card values, may have been too much.

Anyways, after tossing the Shadowjunk stuff (28 pages) I was left with all the Illuminati cards, which were really funky and the main reason I wanted the binder.

What I want to know is, is this game worth the effort to learn the rules and make decks and play? It looks fun, but hey, XXXenophile looked fun at first glance, and that turned out to be shit (thank goodness I got it for free). Does anyone have an previous experience playing this game?

The reason I ask is because while I have, I'd say 1000 or so cards, I'm missing some key cards, namely the Illuminati themselves (I only have the UFO's, and only 3 different goals). In order to make some functional decks I'd have to go online and spend a few $. Not too much, but I just want to know if the hassle is worth it. I would also try and probably get some of the cool and rare cards, and some cards from the expansions they put out.

Otherwise, this game looks like a blast. The cards, and artwork, and "flavor text", all have that nice "edge" to them (wish I could describe it better).

Here are some cards I find interesting, clever, or just plain whack:

World Hunger
Murphy's Law
Jihad
Nationalization (think Federal Department of Lunch)
Terrorist Nuke (the artwork for this card is a clear sign that it was printed before 9/11)
Bill and Hillary Clinton
Saddam
Vatican City
United Nations
Japan
New York
Pentagon
Stonehenge
OPEC
KKK
Libertarians
Recording Industry
Gay Activists
Church of Elvis
Trekkies
War Gamers (this would be the closest thing to us Magic Players)
Mercenaries
Orbital Mind Control Lasers
The Ark of the Covenant

yea. Gov't VS Corporations VS Organized Crime VS Terrorists VS Weird Special Interest Groups VS anything and everything. Quite colorful.

[Jacob Orlove]

That game is 100% awesome. There's several people back in Davis who picked it up a long time ago, so when I saw the "one with everything" boxed set (one of each card from the base set, plus a bunch of illuminati) for cheap, I picked it up. INWO is a ton of fun, although there are a few fairly degenerate strategies (although these get much weaker as you add more players to the game). It is a multiplayer game, though, so while you can play one on one, you really need at least three, and preferably four to five people to get a really good game going.

Let me put it this way: some of my friends have basically quit magic, but they're still up for the occasional game of Illuminati. I say, go for it.

[JACO]

Illuminati is the best CCG outside of Magic. It's a game that doesn't have as many complex rules, and you can get booster boxes for like $10-15 if you search around on the Internet. It is definitely worth playing if you can get some of your possee interested in it.

[jpmeyer]

You know what other Steve Jackson Games card game is hot?  Munchkin.

[Saucemaster]

Illuminati is a spectacular game for a casual beer-and-pizza-and-games kind of get together.  And you can play it when drunk!  Highly recommended!  Four stars.

[Machinus]

OH MY GOD Illuminati is AMAZING. Learn it and play it NOW!

[Magi]

SOLD!

I'll be searching around now for some INWO stuff. You guys have me convinced.

JP: Yea, I've played Munchkin, it's pretty fun