Eve of Destruction: Introduction

Eve of Destruction: Climate Change Comes to Town

Eve of Destruction is a new game based on Steve Jackson's classic card and dice game, Illuminati. It is not an expansion set although you may wish to use the megabucks and illuminated dice from your Illuminati set. The rules of EoD are similar to those of Illuminati. They are summarized as follows but please, refer to your Illuminati rule book to settle disputes without assassination.

The game uses a deck of groups heavily modified from the realm of all previous Illuminati decks. These changes reflect the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of the Internet. Overall, EoD has more international flavour than the original game and, while still humorous, may be a little more dour. But such is our present… eve... of destruction.

As you play, you will recognize many of your favourite groups but many others have been retired, renamed or repurposed. Do not fear, the balance of powers, alignments and relationships between groups has been scrupulously maintained to mimic the gameplay of Deluxe Illuminati. The exceptions to this are an increase of Transferrable Power in the deck to make The Network competitive, and the addition of more Government and Communist groups – now called Corporate and Socialist.

The EoD deck contains twelve Illuminati cards, eighty-eight Group cards and seventeen Special cards. It introduces two new Illuminati, two new Specials, and many new Groups. It can be played just like the original game of Illuminati, however, it is best played a little differently. EoD has been designed to be played with a twist in order to simulate the deep forces confronting today.

In Eve of Destruction one of the new Illuminati, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (a cabal as devious as any in the minds of many), is always played. They attempt to save human society from ecological disaster but must do so in competition with the nefarious forces of greed and power that have always sought to control humanity. On the rare occasion the IPCC wins a game (circumstances are stacked against them), all players can rejoice that there may be hope the real Illuminati can avoid the disruption a post-apocalyptic world would pose to their rule. FNORD

enjoy!   Jeff Hohner, Sept, 2013
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note: Low-res images were pulled from the Internet for use in the EoD deck; none of them have been cleared of any potential copyright. If your likeness or intellectual property appears in EoD against your wishes, I apologize. But the sad truth is, sooner or later, each of us is snared in the dragnets of conspiracy wrought by the Illuminati.

Eve of Destruction: Cards

^Eve of Destruction: Set-Up

^Eve of Destruction: Rules

Eve of Destruction: The Illuminati

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Eve of Destruction: Card Samples

^Eve of Destruction: Cards 2

^Eve of Destruction: Cards 3

^Eve of Destruction: Cards 4

^Eve of Destruction: Cards 5

^Eve of Destruction: Cards 6

^Eve of Destruction: Cards 7

^Eve of Destruction: Cards 8

^Eve of Destruction: Cards 9

Eve of Destruction: Modifications

Eve of Destruction: Disclaimer

Eve of Destruction is not for sale. It is a pet project and labour of love I undertook to share with my gaming friends. The original Illuminati is one of my favourite games. It is elegant in design, simple to learn, devious to play, and difficult to master. Fun, fun, fun. I encourage you to get a copy and try it if you haven't already.

Eve of Destruction is satire. The representations made in the game are all in good fun. No criticism of actual groups or people should be inferred. This satire is intrinsic to Illuminati. The genius of the game and the books that inspired it is to fold the psychology of conspiracy culture back onto itself. To believe that ancient, powerful, secret groups shape world events is to surrender history and political analysis to preposterousness, and preposterousness is the heart of satire. Illuminati takes this preposterousness as its gospel to make fun of the ways of power. The best political and social satire is topical of course, hence the update to Cold War-era Illuminati. EoD also extends its satire into its gameplay by structuring a scenario that models a world caught between the forces of greed and environmental disaster.

Eve of Destruction is IMHO IANAL YMMV fair use. First of all... Satire! Second, the roots of the game elements run deep into popular culture. The inclusion of famous, familiar and found images is a celebration of pop culture; a riff on, not a rip-off of, it. As they say, pop will eat itself. Third, most of the images used in EoD have been heavily modified or are montages of previous art. The one exception to this is the game's cover image. While modified, it still reads as an integral work of art. The original photograph was taken by landscape photographer Mitch Dobrowner. Please visit his Web site to see more of his striking work.

Eve of Destruction: Printing Instructions

If you would like to play Eve of Destruction, you can use the following files to print your own deck of cards. My local copy shop (Power 1, Resistance 3, Income 4 in Deluxe Illuminati) was able to print straight from these PDF's onto 100lb, glossy card stock for a reasonable price and with great results.

Rule Booklet
print these files double-sided with each other and fold:

EoD-01-outerleaf.pdf
EoD-01r-innerleaf.pdf

Player Reference
print these files double-sided with each other twice on card stock
and cut to make four cards:

EoD-02-setup.pdf
EoD-02r-rules.pdf

Illuminati Cards
print these files double-sided with each other on a piece of card stock
and cut along crop marks:

EoD-03-illuminati.pdf
EoD-03r-illuminati-backs.pdf

Group/Special Cards
print this file double-sided with each of the following files on card stock
and cut along crop marks:

EoD-04r-card-backs.pdf

EoD-04-cards-1.pdf
EoD-05-cards-2.pdf
EoD-06-cards-3.pdf
EoD-07-cards-4.pdf
EoD-08-cards-5.pdf
EoD-09-cards-6.pdf
EoD-10-cards-7.pdf
EoD-11-cards-8.pdf
EoD-12-cards-9.pdf

Money
print this file on a piece of card stock and cut along crop marks:

EoD-13-money.pdf

Card Lists (optional)
print these files double-sided with each other and cut to make two lists:

EoD-00-card-list.pdf
EoD-00r-card-summary.pdf