****** THE UNOFFICIAL INWO FAQ (Part 1 of 3) Last Updated 14 December 1997 by Steve Hatherley New or amended items are marked '*' ****** 1. INTRODUCTION Contents 1 Introduction (the section you're reading) 2 The Rules Discussed 3 Unsolved Mysteries 4 Card Rulings and Errata 5 Proposed Errata 6 Credits The UFAQ is a collection of observations, discussions and variants culled from the Internet. It is NOT an Official FAQ, think of it as a companion to the official document. This is mere rumour and scuttlebutt. Some of it, anyway. The sections in [square brackets] are my comments - usually noting areas where rulings are vague or unofficial. By the way, if you want to check any of these rulings try the inwo-list archives at www.io.com/sjgames/inwo/news_lists/digest/greparchive.cgi ASCII versions of the UFAQ can be downloaded from my web-pages at http://www.flar.demon.co.uk/inwo/inwo.htm If there are any mistakes let me know! Illuminati: New World Order (TM) and World Domination Handbook v1.1 is copyright Steve Jackson Games. Fnord. However, and despite what you may have read in Pyramid, Hatherley is spelled Hatherley. Glossary of UFAQ Terms Some useful terms that might not be immediately apparent from the text. AWHFY: Are We Having Fun Yet?, a plot card that cancels special abilities and actions. Lynette: Lynette Cowper, the INWO netrep and line-editor. She is the sources of all official online INWO rulings - post something to either rec.games.trading-cards.misc or the inwo-list and you should catch her attention. OMCLs: The Orbital Mind Control Lasers, a very handy common Resource. NPCs: The Nuclear Power Companies, a very annoying Group. Arguably the most annoying Group of all. Secrets, or SMWNMTK: Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know, a Plot-canceller. WDH: The World Domination Handbook, or the rules to the unIlluminated. Currently these are at version 1.1. A v2.0 would hopefully reduce the size of the UFAQ considerably. ****** 2. THE RULES DISCUSSED This section contains large, sprawling discussions of certain sections of the rules. While it hasn't been blessed by the secret masters, the stuff below is based on assorted official rulings. If I'm unsure of something, I've said so. Actions A group "acts" when it spends its Action token. - WDH p.6, "Actions." The "Actions" section continues to describe types of actions: Moving a group, making an attack, participation in an attack (on either side), using a Special Ability that requires an action, powering an plot card that requires an action. It mentions that when a group acts, remove its action token. It also mentions that action tokens can be spent to draw plat cards. Under the "Actions" section, the "Free Moves" subsection describes free moves by saying, "Some things don't count as 'actions.'" It goes on to list types of free moves, including "Buying a plot card with Action tokens." Therefore, when a group acts, you must remove its Action token. But, spending Action tokens to draw plots is not an action, but a free move. As a result, The Nuclear Power Companies (and AWHFY?) cannot be used to stop someone from spending Action tokens to draw plots. They can be used against a group using it's Special Ability to draw plots (such as Bank of England). The top of page 4 in the WDH describes how you may spend Action tokens to buy plot cards. It says you may do this at any time, except during a privileged attack, including at the beginning of your turn. It then notes, "You cannot use [Action tokens] for actions before phase 5 of your turn..." There are, however, some exceptions to this. The Rosicrucians are allowed to use their Special Ability (which requires their action) any time you are entitled to draw a Plot card. Crop Circles (requiring a Magic action) can be played any time you are entitled to draw either Plot or Group cards. These specifics override the rule against acting during the start of your turn. There are other plots that require an action and specify playing them before phase 5, such as Voodoo Economics. For the same reason, these allow you to act to power them before phase 5. If a group's Special Ability says you can spend its action under certain conditions, then it can do it before phase 5 if those conditions arise. For example, if someone plays a disaster while you are drawing a group card, your Dinosaur Park could spend its Action token to help. You may also use an action for any card that applies to phases before phase 5-- abilities regarding card draws, automatic takeovers (eg, Counter Revolution) and action token placement. This includes Fraternal Orders and Bank of England. [Note - both of these groups say "at any time" which means they wouldn't normally be able to act during phases 1-4. However, they do apply to the early phases, so I am not sure if this is entirely accurate.] What does this leave out? Any Special Ability requiring an action which does not specify an ability to act during the beginning of your turn or during some specific condition which could be satisfied during the beginning of your turn. Note that you could still use these Groups' Special Abilities right before your turn, during Phase 7 of the player before you (the time when other players have the opportunity to declare victory before her turn ends). Be aware that since it's not your turn yet, you still can't have more than five plots in your hand.[ac] Additional Automatic Takeovers Automatic takeovers beyond the one in Phase 3 can only be made during Phase 5 (the Main Phase) of your own turn. This prevents your power structure from growing too quickly - which might be considered abusive. This affects the following: using an Illuminati Action, Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow, Flying Saucer, Impostor, The Stars Are Right!, Alien Abduction, Supernova, and Clone (while controlling the Clone Arrangers). The following cards also grant automatic takeovers, but as they state explicitly when they may be used they are not restricted to Phase 5: Clone Arrangers, Immortality Serum, Power Grab, Warehouse 23 (when you first take it over) and Cover of Darkness. Defection may be played during your rivals' turns as it is an "at any time" card. For the same reason Defection may be played in the middle of an attack - normally Automatic Takeovers cannot be played during attacks. [I've not actually seen this stated explicitly anywhere, but appears to be the logic behind a couple of rulings.] Aiding Attacks Questions about the definitions for aiding attacks seem to crop up quite regularly, so here they are: Aiding an attack: Spending an action token to help destroy or control a group. You cannot aid an attack on a group that is immune to you. Aiding the defender: Spending an action token to oppose an attack. You can aid the defender (alignments permitting) even if the group making the attack is immune to you. This includes attacks from the hand, so Straight and Government groups can aid the defending group when Discordia is trying to take it over from her hand. Defense: The target of the attack and other groups in its Power Structure aid in *defense.* Cards such as Good Polls affect all such groups. (See the WDH, Defense.) Interference: Groups controlled by other players may be involved in the attack. This is called interference. You either aid the attacker or defender. Cards such as Good Polls do not affect interference. (See the WDH, Interference.) The NWO Apathy therefore only affects aiding attacks; defending, and aiding the defense, are unaffected. If the target group has no alignments the only groups that may aid the attack and those with Global Power. The only groups that may aid the defender are groups with Global Power and the target group's master and puppets. At Any Time According to the WDH 1.1 glossary, "at any time" means that a card can act during another player's turn. However, there are a number of cards with "reactive" powers -such as Nuclear Power Companies, Rosicrucians, Murphy's Law- that act when the conditions stated on their card arise. These cards do not state "at any time" but can also act during other players' turns. Additionally, there are cards that can act during another player's turn providing the conditions on that card can be met. For example, although The Society for Creative Anarchism does not mention "at any time," its power may be used at any time *providing* an opponent has a Group deck. The same goes for the Templars, Las Vegas, Go Fish, Gremlins, and so on. (There is a subtle difference here between these cards and the ones with "reactive powers." Reactive cards are responding to specific situations (dice rolls, card draws and the like) and if they don't act immediately, they cannot act at all. Cards such as the Templars need not be so precise. The reason for highlighting this difference is that "reactive" cards can act during Phases 1-4.) The exception is any card that allows additional automatic takeovers. These can only be used during your turn, and only during Phase 5, unless the card says otherwise. "At any time" does not mean that the card can be used during Steps 1-4 of your turn. As a result most cards can be used at any time, unless they explicitly say otherwise (such as the Elders of Zion or Power Grab) or allow an additional automatic takeover. So while "at any time" means that a card may definitely act during another player's turn, even without those words it may still probably act then anyway. Here's even weirder strangeness: you can use Go Fish during phases 1-4 of your own turn. However, Go Fish doesn't mention anything about when it can be played, so it appears that the cards you might think are most flexible (ie, those that say they can be played at any time) are actually less flexible than those that don't say anything of the sort! Bizarre. Attacks to Destroy (Restrictions) If a group is prevented from making an attack to destroy by a card or ability (Shangri-La, the Book of Kells, Switzerland), it may still *aid* such an attack. It may simply never initiate the attack. (Even if the attack could Devastate at best, the attack still couldn't be initiated.) Attribute Freezes Attribute Freezes do not affect Agents cards, you you can play your NPC Agents even if Hubble Trouble is in play. Attribute Freezes say that Foo groups may not use action tokens "except to defend itself against an attack." Defense is defined in the WDH so the NPCs are not allowed to use their action to cancel an attack on themsleves even if this seems like a valid type of defense. The Beginning of Your Turn The Beginning of Your Turn has now been defined as including all of Phases 1-4. So if a card instructs you to do something "at the beginning of your turn" (ie, IRS) it can happen at any point during Phases 1-4. If the card refers to something specific, such as whether Lyndon LaRouche gets a token or not, then do it in that the specific Phase rather than any other. Bonuses Cards that apply to two *separate* things are cumulative Gives +3 on any attack destroy a foo group. Gives +1 on any attack to destroy bar group. (Note that Bill Clinton's +3 any attempt bonus to control US Government groups is *separate* from his +8 bonus for direct control of any Government group - Bill gets a massive +11 for direct control of a US Government group!) Cards that say the cards give 'an additional' or 'an extra' or somesuch bonus to an attack are, of course, cumulative just like they say. Cards that use 'or' are not cumulative. [lc] So, New York loses 1 Power to Peace in Our Time, gets +1 Power from Chicken in Every Pot and a massive +4 from Gun Control! Note that if a card gives a bonus to Power or Resistance under certain circumstances (Peace in Our Time) then that bonus is temporary only. Destroyed Groups Destroyed Groups are not discarded - they are set aside and placed in your destroyed pile to mark their effect. Therefore, destroyed Groups may not normally be salvaged by the Recycling Centers. The only cards that may return a destroyed group from play are those that say so - Clone Arrangers, Media Blitz and so on. If a Destroyed group does not go to a destroyed pile (say from You Are What You Eat or Sucked Dry and Cast Aside) then it may be salvaged - but cannot normally be returned to play as it is still destroyed. Resources linked to Destroyed Groups are similarly destroyed. However, destroyed Resources are discarded and may therefore be salvaged. They may be replayed normally unless they are Unique. Currently only Cover of Darkness allows you to return a destroyed Unique Resource to play. Groups that have permanent alignment changes retain those alignments when they are destroyed. This includes the puppets of Ross Perot and the Saturday Morning Cartoons, plus the Day Care Centers and Dittoheads. It also applies to those groups that have permanent alignments via Plot Cards. Note that Temporary Alignment changes discussed in the WDH (Changing Groups to Meet Goals) only applies to *temporary* changes. If a destroyed group returns to play, it loses any changes and keeps only its printed values. Dice Rolls "Successful" dice rolls are important for several cards, including Angel's Feather and Time Warp (which is the main culprit here). However, not all dice rolls give a success/failure result (OPEC's power, Bill Clinton's alignment). So how do you tell? Well, if you can argue whether a die roll is successful or not, then you probably can't use Time Warp on it! More specifically: If the roll is an attack, the die roll fails if it's higher than the target number (and note that an attack that devastates is still successful!). Also, the winner of a "dice-off" to determine speed play has rolled successfully, while the loser has failed. Otherwise, a die roll succeeds or fails if it is either mentioned on the card or is blindingly obvious. (The Suicide Squad and Killer Satellite fail on a 6, the Flat Earthers and Nephews of God have obvious successes. Checking Lyndon LaRouche's action token? I'm not sure - but who is going to waste Time Warp on Lyndon LaRouche?) Discarded Groups The old rule, based on Upheaval was that if a group was descibed as "discarded" it meant "destroyed." This has now changed (see Upheaval) so that "discarded" means just that - the Illuminati merely lost control of it. This means that discarded groups may be brought back into play by any of the normal means. If a Group from your power structure is discarded any links to its Resources or Plots become permanently illegal. The plots are discarded but the Resources are merely unlinked and may be linked again on your turn. (This assumes that the Resource does not suffer from any other restrictions, such as being linked to Count Dracula.) A group discarded from your hand or your deck may of course be salvaged. A discarded Group's puppets return to your hand. Discarded Plots Plots are discarded immediately upon use unless they remain in play to mark their effect. Discarded plot cards may be salvaged. Plots that remain in play to mark their effect may be salvaged when their effect is finished and they are subsequently discarded. Discarded Resources Resources are either either discarded from your hand (or deck) or as a result of a rival being eliminated. In either case they may be salvaged and played normally. Drawing Plots When drawing Plot cards, you may not combine the effects of the Shroud of Turin, Crystal Skull or Mossad. Also note that if you buy cards at the beginning of your turn this counts as a single plot draw for Crop Circles. (Note that Lynette has in the past ruled that you can combine some of these cards, but this is her most recent wisdom.) The End of Your Turn The End of your turn is Phases 6 and 7. You may do anything referring to the end of your turn in these phases, in any order. The turn structure has now been tweaked so that anyone can win in Phase 6. The problem is that unless you are declaring a win, you will probably knock before your opponents realise that Phase 6 is imminent. Now, technically this is speed play but a tiny amendment to the turn structure removes this: Phase 6: Has Anyone Won? Phase 7: Knock to end your turn. End of Turn effects now occur. A rival may still decare victory at this point. If someone declares victory, the end of turn effects don't occur until after they have been thwarted. [gb] Event The UFAQ uses the term 'event' to describe all actions, special ability uses and card plays. Events take place one after another, as described in Timing. According to official rules, the play of the card, paying for it, its effect and discarding it all happen in the same instant. Unfortunately this makes timing queries all but impossible to resolve. Hence the need for a more detailed, step-by-step breakdown of an event. Modified Curtis/Hatherley analysis therefore breaks an INWO 'event' into the following component parts. (This is *very* unofficial but may be useful to sort out timing conflicts.) #1: The initial event. This starts everything off and may be a card play, special ability, an action or whatever. It does not include non-Instant attacks. #2: If the event is a Plot card, it is discarded now (as are any accompanying cards - such as power boosters) unless it remains in play to mark its effect. Any costs associated with the even (actions, Plot discards, etc) are also paid. Remove an action token from the target if a Disaster is played. #3: The event may be cancelled if it involved looking at or stealing another player's Plot cards. (See Cancelling in the VFAQ for other occasions when Cancelling precedes effect.) #4: The event now resolves. If it requires rolling dice, they are not rolled until after cancelling. #5: Cancelling. You may make certain Free Moves prior to cancelling, but you can do nothing else. Any plot card or action may be cancelled. #6: Dice Rolls. Those cards affecting dice rolls may now be played (and cancelled). Note: Salvaging events are played when a card is placed in the discard pile, and may therefore occur at any phase. (Of course, cancelling and salvaging events produce their own sequence.) Salvaging cards do not affect cancelling. In fact, you can play Stealing the Plans to grab a rival's Hoax, and then Hoax their Hoax with the one you've just salvaged! [This is in the FAQ in Pyramid 22, and actually reinforces this very unofficial "Event Analysis".] Cards that are not linked are usually discarded as soon as they are played (and this includes cancelling cards) but actually *before* they take effect. An exception to this is during an attack when Plots stay on the table to mark their effect and are discarded once the attack is over. Exposed Plots Exposed Plots may only be affected by cards that explicitly say so, such as the Templars, Foiled! and Nice Idea. It's Mine Now. They are unaffected by cards such as Agent in Place and Go Fish. Exposing a Plot card is a Free Move. (Note that this means that unless the Templars, Wargamers, Arms Dealers or Psychiatrists are in play, Plots are actually safer when exposed!) Free Moves This is a complete list of Free Moves. Please let me know if I have left any out. Unless it says otherwise, Free Moves may be taken at any time. They may not be cancelled as they are not actions. Any special ability that says it is a Free Move (Italy, France) Buying a Plot card with action tokens. (If you draw several Plots at once (which can include your Phase 1 Plot draw) then this counts as a single free move.) Creating a Link (your turn only - this may be done before your Main Phase). Discarding a card (plot or group). Discarding an action token. Exposing a Plot card. Giving a card to another player. Giving an in-play Resource to another player. (But not if it has already given its bonus, if any.) Moving a Link (once per turn, on your turn - this may be done before your Main Phase). Playing a Plot card is a Free Move unless it says otherwise. Returning a Plot card to your deck. Global Power If a group gains Global Power as a result of cards such as the Society of Assassins, Midal Mill, Media Connections, etc, that Global Power is equal to the group's *Permanent* power. Goal Cards Once a Goal card has been revealed for a win it is no longer in hand, nor is it exposed. Nothing can affect it - you cannot use a Cattle Mutilators/Templars combination, nor can you play Agent in Place. If the win is to be prevented it must be done some other way. [This is official.] Goals The Basic Goal is the number of groups a player must control to win. Special Goals are found on Illuminati cards. Illuminated Goals, on the other hand, are on Goal Cards. Goals may be combined only when it makes sense to do so, and when the card doesn't forbid it. [df] Note that the starter boxes suggest that the Illuminati Special Goals are in fact Illuminated Goals. Don't believe a word of it. Group Cards Group cards in your hand and group cards in play represent different things. A group card in play represents the group itself. A group card in your hand represents agents of the Illuminati, waiting for the instruction to take over. [ac] Group cards have the puppet on their back. For cards such as Fnord!, IOU or Spy Satellite (to name but three) Resource cards count as Group cards. An Illuminati card does not count as a Group card. On the other hand, your Illuminati does count as a Group when in play and can be affected by cards such as the Center for Weird Studies or Perpetual Motion Machine. It also counts for the basic goal. Huge What is the definition of a "huge" place in INWO? Why is England Huge while Japan isn't? It sure isn't based on facts and figures: (Compiled by Don Fnordlioni, with some of the more obscure and imaginary statistics provided by Moriah. Most population figures are current as of 1995, while most area figures are current as of 1991.) Place Area in km^2 Population Huge? Notes Australia 7,686,850 18,322,231 Yes Al Amarja 4,600 500,000 No [1][2] Brazil 8,547,403 146,825,475 Yes California 411,047 31,878,234 Yes Canada 9,976,137 29,413,100 Yes CDC -- 4,600 No [3] China 9,616,676 1,188,710,100 Yes Dinosaur Park -- -- No [1] England 130,439 48,068,400 Yes [4] Finland 388,145 5,116,826 No France 543,965 58,109,160 Yes Germany 356,974 81,337,541 Yes Great Pyramid 0.2 0 No Hawaii 16,760 1,183,723 No Hollywood 5 37,041 No Israel 20,770 5,443,134 No Italy 301,230 58,261,971 No Japan 377,656 125,034,000 No Las Vegas 219 372,878 No Moonbase 0.126 -- No [5] New York 127,189 18,814,774 No [6] Pentagon 2.4 2,300 No [3] Orbit One 4.7 6-10 No [7] Russia 17,075,200 148,178,487 Yes Silicon Valley 468 845,991 No [8] Stonehenge 0.26 0 No Switzerland 41,285 7,062,354 No Texas 691,027 19,128,261 No Vatican City 0.44 771 No Notes: [1] This place is purely fictional, so no reliable statistics are available. [2] Based on "Over the Edge's" description of the island, and average average population density of other Mediterranean islands. [3] "Population" is actually the approximate number of resident employees. (For the CDC, employees at the Atlanta sites -- There are 1,648 at HQ, and 6,900 world-wide.) [4] SJG may have mistakenly been refering to the United Kingdom rather than simply England. The UK has an area of 244,110 km^2, and a population of 57,649,200 -- though this is still smaller than many non-Huge places, such as Italy. [5] Based on an Artemis Society rough figure. [6] The state, not the city. [7] Based on Space Station Alpha plans. [8] Statistics are for San Jose, California. Aaron Curtis suggests that, "Our best guess was that, IN GENERAL, 'Huge' means 350,000 sq ft or more. The exceptions are England (Huge) and Japan (not Huge), and potentially others. The best explanation I've come up with is that INWO deals with caricature and perception over reality. The average American doesn't think of Japan as a particularly huge place. Why Germany made the cut and Italy didn't is probably because Italy doesn't FEEL huge, while Germany does, and so on." There. So only the gods know, okay? Immediately The word "immediately" denotes a reactive card which may be played whenever the conditions on the card arise (including before Phase 5, if applicable). Some reactive cards do not have the word "immediately" written on them (Blitzkrieg, Cover-Up, Vultures) but must still be played before anything else (other than a Free Move) takes place. Immunity: Agents Cards Your immunity does not work against agents cards played by opponents - after all, those agents are actually part of your Group and you are never immune to your own cards. While groups you are immune to cannot attack you, they aid the defence of a group you are attacking. This is because they are not affecting you, they are aiding the defending group. Indestructible Groups You cannot make an Attack to Destroy on a Group that cannot be destroyed - even if it is an Instant Attack that can *never* Destroy, only Devastate. Similarly if you are prevented from making Attacks to Destroy against certain groups (Shangri-La) you cannot use Disasters that only Devastate. If a target group is destroyed as a result of a Plot card or special ability (Ark of the Covenant, Church of Violentology) then if that target group cannot be destroyed, it is not destroyed. (There's a Metarule on this.) The Immortality Serum/Voudonistas conflict is a special case. The official word is that the Voudonistas power does work against an immortal Personality. In Play Groups and Resources that are part of a power structure are considered in play. Destroyed Groups and Resources are not in play, nor are those still in your hand even if you are in the middle of attacking them (now considered "Just-Played"). This means that cards such as the OMCLs cannot affect the target when you attack a group from your hand. If you are playing by the One With Everything rules, the Groups in the uncontrolled area are also considered in play. [Although not, I suggest, for the purposes of Shangri-La's goal. For Lama Ramadingdong's Power? Your guess is as good as mine.] Groups and Resources that are in play may only normally be removed from play by destroying them. You may not freely discard Groups, although there are cards that force you to discard Groups (Upheaval, for example.) Plots that remain on the table to mark their effect (New World Orders, linked Plots and Plots with an effect that lasts until the end of the turn) are considered in play. Other Plots (except Goals) are played and then discarded, and are never actually "in play." (The UFOs card unfortunately uses the term "in play" to refer to the number of Goal cards. Presumably this should say "in hand.") The effects of cards that are in play are considered using INWO maths first and then in the order that they are played. (See Timing.) [Steve's Wish List for Version 2.0 of the WDH includes the addition of groups under attack from a players hand being considered in play. This means they lose their nebulous status and may definitely be affected by OMCLs, NWOs, etc. This may result in a couple of weird effects - such as Lama Ramadingdong's Power fluctuating, but so be it.] Instant Attacks While you can't use +10 cards to boost the power of an Instant Attack (nor use one to help its target) you can use a +10 booster to boost a Group's power if that Group can aid the attack in some way. Now, although there aren't many groups that can affect Instants, many of the Instants allow groups to add their power (Truck Bomb, Plague of Demons, Assassinations) to the attack (effectively the same thing) and means you can boost a group's power and then have it power that Sniper or whatever. You cannot make an Instant Attack Privileged (as only cards that specifically mention Instants can affect them) but you *can* make a non-Instant Plot attack Privileged, such as Giant Kudzu or Epidemic. Non-instant attacks are also eligible for "ordinary" attack bonuses such as your bonus to attack a rival illuminati or the Semiconscious Liberation Army's generic bonus to destroy. You could also use a +10 booster to defend against a non-instant Disaster! The INWO Dilemma The Dilemma occurs when Political Correctness and New York are in play. What happens when you play the Congressional Wives? What power are they, and are they Criminal? To answer this, apply the effect of each card in the order it was played (see the WDH, Timing). If Political Correctness was played first then the CW are Criminal and have +1 Power. If New York was played first they are merely Criminal. If Grassroots Support is then played on the CW to increase their power to 6, it is considered first under normal INWO maths. The Congressional Wives are no longer Criminal. [The bit about Grassroots Support is my interpretation. There has been a discussion on the mailing list over whether you would be able to play Mob Influence (in place of GS) on the Wives. To my mind that creates an illegal link, but the argument was never resolved. When I hear of the official word, I'll put it in.] Killed and Assassinated As there are a number of ways that Personalities can be killed without being Assassinated, cards such as Clone and Imposter are considered to say "killed" instead of "assassinated". Limit on Number of Plot Cards If you hold five Plot cards, and you get another plot when it's not your turn you must immediately get rid of one (either return it to your deck, discard it, play it). Nobody can do anything else until you have five Plot cards again. This is Lynette's ruling, but it means that the top card is effectively part of your hand when you have 5 cards. (You could buy the card, ponder for a while deciding how to play it with complete immunity.) [For this reason I think the discard rule should say something like "whenever you have more than 5 plots you must get rid of the excess before you do anything else. You may either play them, discard them or return them to your deck." The difference is that other players can act while you are deciding what to do.] Links [Still not written this bit, but in the meantime there is a rules errata on Moving Links in the WDH. A link which changes a Group's Attribute is a *permanent* link. This rule did not exist previously because until Assassins you couldn't affect Attributes.] [Here are a few other recent bits and pieces. 1. Plots usually only have one link. (I cannot offhand think of a plot that allows multiple links.) 2. Resources may also only be linked to one group. Multiple links are not allowed, and so there is no point in bringing out the Midas Mill with the Evil Geniuses. 3. Groups can be linked to several Resources and Plots. They only link to other groups as part of their special ability and it is usually clear whether multiple links are allowed (as in the case of Moonbase) or only a single link (Druids). [Can you link to a card you don't own? I'm not sure.] 4. You can link and unlink cards at the beginning of your turn, before your Main Phase. A link that cannot be moved in any way (Count Dracula, The Big Prawn) is so solid that it cannot even be Gremlined or otherwise broken as a result of a Plot or ability. On the other hand, the Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow just cannot move their link. It does not prevent the Resource from being destroyed. You may not establish a link to a card that is not yet in play. (Cancelled Actions, Alignment Changes and Other Surprises.) Meta Rules Illuminati never have Attributes. Multiple Goal Cards If you draw a second (or 4th, if you're the UFOs) Goal card you do not have to immediately discard one of them, you can instead return it to your deck. New World Orders: Attacks If a NWO that affects Power or Resistance is played during an attack it affects every group involved, even if they have already spent their action token. If a NWO makes certain groups lose tokens (World Hunger) then it affects only those groups with tokens remaining. If they have already spent their actions then they are not affected. However, if an NWO makes aiding actions illegal then those actions already spent are cancelled and lost. Similarly, other actions might be made illegal, not just aiding actions. Note that playing a NWO to replace another NWO does not cancel that first card, even if it had only just been played. The NWO took effect, no matter how briefly. If you want to cancel a NWO, you need Hoax, Secrets or 18.5 Minute Gap. [Strategy Tip: you might want to play something like World Hunger early in an attack, but wait for aiding groups to commit themselves before using Apathy or making Discordia immune to Corporate groups with Military-Industrial Complex.] Non-Instant Attacks See "Instant Attacks" for notes on these cards (Epidemic and Giant Kudzu, for example). Owner If a card refers to its "owner" it means the player currently controlling it, not the card's real-life owner (that's the Magic: the Gathering definition). Paralyzes (Waiting Period, etc) These cards say that "puppets are unaffected." However, if the puppets of a card are affected by the special ability of their master (South American Nazis, etc) then those puppets *are* affected by the Paralyze as that special ability no longer functions. Power and Resistance There are three type of Power and Resistance: Temporary, Permanent, and Printed. Temporary is the Permanent power/resistance as modified by temporary bonuses and Plot cards. Permanent is usually the printed power unless a Plot card or special ability or NWO has modified it. Printed power is whatever is written on the card. In the case of Comic Books, the number that is assumed to be printed on the card is now 0 and not whatever it really reads. That means Plots modifying printed resistance treat it as a 0. It also means that any card or ability that has given the target a different permanent Resistance still work, but the base printed Resistance is treated as 0. [lc] Note that for OPEC, you roll for its Printed Power. Unless specifically stated on the card, changes to a group's power due to abilities (Church of Elvis, Moral Minority) affect Permanent Power, not Printed Power. Some New World Orders give Temporary as well as Permanent bonuses to Power. See Peace in Our Time. ******