The Illuminati Card Game

A card game simply titled Illuminati was created in the early 1980s by a man named Steve Jackson who was inspired by Robert Anton Wilson’s novels The Illuminatus! Trilogy The game consists of various secret societies competing for world domination through sinister means.  It was designed as a tongue-in-cheek take on conspiracy theories.

Jackson and his freelance designer had originally thought about designing the game around Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus! novels but decided against it due to the difficulties and expenses surrounding legal issues that would be involved, so they settled on making the game about the Illuminati.

Robert Shea, coauthor of The Illuminatus! Trilogy wrote an introduction to the rulebook for the Illuminati Expansion Set 1 (1983), which read, “Maybe the Illuminati are behind this game. They must be—they are, by definition, behind everything.”

Despite Shea’s support for the game, his coauthor Robert Anton Wilson criticized Jackson for exploiting the Illuminatus! name without paying royalties.

Steve Jackson’s game company would go on to produce several versions of card games focusing on the Illuminati.  In 1990, the company released a game titled The Illuminati—New World Order which consisted of various playing cards depicting Illuminati plans.  Years later, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001, the game would be seen by some as predicting the future, and by others as having the game itself designed by the Illuminati.

Several of the cards that Jackson had designed depicted terrorist attacks eerily similar to those of 9/11.  For example one card shows what looks like the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers being blown up which is a card a player could use to gain points for the organizations they control.  Another card labeled “Pentagon” shows the building being blown up and reads, “Each corporate group controlled by the Pentagon lets you draw one extra Plot card each turn.”  Another card is titled “Population Reduction”

Some see such cards as showing that the designer Steve Jackson was fairly informed about the Illuminati and the ideas that are spread surrounding their goals and operations.  Others believe that the Illuminati was involved in the game’s creation, and that Jackson himself was aware of the planned attacks years later on September 11th.

The story surrounding Steve Jackson and his Illuminati card game would take another interesting turn when his office was raided by the Secret Service in 1990 and some of his equipment was seized.  A message posted on his website reads, “On the morning of March 1, [1990] without warning, a force of armed Secret Service agents—accompanied by Austin police and at least one civilian ‘expert’ from the phone company - occupied the offices of Steve Jackson Games and began to search for computer equipment.  The home of Loyd Blankenship, the writer of GURPS Cyberpunk, was also raided. A large amount of equipment was seized, including four computers, two laser printers, some loose hard disks and a great deal of assorted hardware.  One of the computers was the one running the Illuminati BBS.”

The message goes on to say, “The company, “S.J. Games” fought back in court and finally won, but nearly went under financially.  The investigation zeroed in on “fraud” supposedly committed by the company regarding the hacker activity and the fact that the company promoted the hacker’s newsletter, “Phrack.”  However, this is so flimsy that it makes no common sense; in fact, the affidavit made so little sense that a Judge threw the case out, awarding S.J. Games $50,000 plus $250,000 attorney’s fees.”

Of course some believe that Steve Jackson had been targeted by the Illuminati for using them as the central figure in his games.  In reality, the Illuminati is probably pleased that Jackson did such a thing, because it fictionalizes them and causes people to think the Illuminati is nothing more than the name of a group of bad guys in a game.  Steve Jackson’s card game is also referenced in Dan Brown’s novel Angels & Demons.

(MARK DICE)