INWO SOLO V1.4

I live in rural America and my girlfriend and others close to me don't share my interest in gaming.  I'm a big fan of collectible card games (well, not the sad marketing ploy that was the "collectible" part), in particular ones from the 90's CCG heyday.  Needless to say in addition to my locale, being a fan of dead CCGs doesn't help me find gaming-mates.  So I've come up with solitaire versions of my favorite games, including Illuminati: New World Order by Steve Jackson Games.  I originally posted my INWO solitaire rules last October, but had so many revisions after playtest that those first rules are nothing like I play now.  Here finally is my revised version.  Long post ahead... 

INWOSOLO is a solitaire variant of Steve Jackson Games' Illuminati: New World Order (INWO) card game. The following description assumes familiarity with the game, and uses the World Domination Handbook Version 1.1 (March 1995) as the base reference. All official rules changes, errata, and clarifications, found on the Steve Jackson Games website are also in effect.

INWOSOLO attempts to replicate the multiplayer INWO experience for one player and consequently preserves as many of the normal rules as possible. Unless otherwise noted or obvious, all rules for play remain the same as multiplayer INWO.

BASIC RULES
As a multiplayer game progresses, each player nears their own victory conditions as their respective power structures grow. Although they each have more Power available, their power structures are becoming ever larger and hence more vulnerable. As such, cooperation decreases and attacks on rivals increase as each player focuses on preserving their own victory chances. INWOSOLO introduces the Intrigue Score to simulate this multiplayer atmosphere. The turn sequence section below details how the Intrigue Score affects play. The rules assume the Intrigue Score is tracked on a 10-sided die, but tokens (distinct from Action tokens) may also be used.

Object of the Game

Victory conditions remain the same for INWOSOLO. You must meet either the basic goal of 11 Groups, the special goal of your Illuminati, or satisfy the conditions of a Goal card before a rival declares victory (as determined by the Intrigue Score; see below). The game also ends if you are reduced to zero Groups in your Power structure other than your Illuminati.

Beginning the Game

(1) Follow all the "Beginning the Game" instructions in the World Domination Handbook, starting by constructing a normal INWO deck of any size and continuing all the way to drawing your Group hand. The rules were playtested using decks of approximately 45 cards. INWOSOLO assumes you won the die roll to determine who goes first: this die roll is unnecessary.

(2) Construct and shuffle a Rival Plot Deck representing the fiendish plans of all your rival Illuminati. The Rival Plot Deck is exactly twice as large as your own Plot Deck, counting your Illuminati card. The Rival Plot Deck shall include one rival Illuminati card for every 10 cards or fraction thereof of its required deck size. Tips on Rival Plot Deck construction follow the Basic Rules.

(3) Construct and shuffle a Rival Group Deck representing the Groups and Resources of your rivals' Power structures. The Rival Group Deck is exactly the same size as the Rival Plot Deck.

(4) If you included a Group in the Rival Group Deck which duplicates your own lead Group, reveal from the top of the Rival Group Deck a number of cards equal to the number of rival Illuminati. If any of the cards revealed and your lead are the same, you must pick an alternate lead. Draw one more card off the top of the Rival Group Deck if it contains a copy of your alternate lead. Continue until the lead and the revealed rival Groups do not match.

(5) Set the Intrigue Score at 0 (I use an old-school d10 with a 0-9 marked on it).  You are now ready to play the first turn.

Turns

INWOSOLO uses a two turn sequence: first the Player Turn (your turn) and then the Rival Illuminati Turn. The sequence repeats until the game ends.  At the beginning of each and every of the seven phases of the Player Turn, roll two dice before doing anything else.  If the sum of these dice scores is less than or equal to the number of groups you control then a Rival Plot is triggered (see below).  If a group you control counts double for victory conditions, then it counts double for this as well.  Also, if a group counts double towards victory conditions due to an exposed Goal card, it counts double for this as well.  As you approach victory, the rival Illuminati groups become nervous and direct more and more of their attention (and plots) against you. 

Player Turn Sequence

1. to 4. Phases 1 through are identical to normal INWO: draw your plot card and group card, make your automatic takeover, and place your action tokens.  Don't forget however, to roll to trigger a Rival Plot.

5. Roll to trigger Rival Plots as in every phase.  Perform actions in phase 5 as per normal INWO, but before any such actions draw a number of cards from the Rival Group Deck equal to the Intrigue Score.  None of these groups have Action Tokens (yet).  The cards reveal parts of rival Power structures left vulnerable and thus potential targets for attack. If any rival card is a Resource, leave it in play face-up.

After considering the rival Groups, make any actions. Actions can include attacking a rival Power structure (targeting a card just revealed), attacking to control a Group from your hand, or any other action allowed in normal INWO.  On the very first turn of the game the Intrigue Score starts at 0, thus there should be no Rival Groups to attack. 

6. Roll to see if a Rival Plot is triggered.  Free moves as per INWO, including victory declaration.

7. Roll to see if a Rival Plot is triggered.  If you successfully attacked a rival power structure in Phase 5, roll to reduce the Intrigue Score (see below).

Rival Illuminati Turn Sequence

1. Add 1 to the Intrigue Score.

2. Add one action token to any rival groups and resources which require tokens and do not currently have any.

3. Determine the number of groups controlled by the most powerful Rival.  Roll a single die. If the sum of the die score and the Intrigue Score equals 11 or more, a rival Illuminati has achieved their goal and you lose.  If the sum does not equal 11 or more, the game continues. Proceed to the next phase.

4. Roll two dice.  If the sum of the dice scores is less than or equal the number of groups you control (towards victory conditions as above), then a rival Illuminati attacks your Power structure!  Reveal the top card from the Rival Plot Deck and Rival Group Deck and resolve the attack.  The Rival Group card just flipped is the attacking group; the other groups will aid if able.

5. Discard any Rival Plot cards and Rival Groups still in play, except Goal and New World Order cards.

Plot Cards

All INWO rules apply normally for your Plot cards. Rival Plots function differently. As noted, a die roll triggers play of Rival Plot cards. Since the rival Power structures are an abstract representation in INWOSOLO and not on the game table, any Rival Plot card is assumed to have all action token requirements met by the appropriate Group(s). Rival Plot cards must still be legal however; if a Plot card can only be played on the owning player's turn (the Rival Illuminati Turn in this case), then it cannot be played during the Player Turn. Any revealed Rival Plot cards which are illegal are simply discarded. A Rival Plot card is resolved immediately if applicable. Instants, Disasters, Assassinations, and Plots that target another player's card decks and card hands are all examples of Rival Plot cards that are resolved immediately.

If a Rival Plot card is legal but cannot be immediately resolved (+10 Bonus cards are a great example, as are Alignment changers), it remains in play until the beginning of the next Player Turn when it is discarded excepting New World Order and Goals as noted below.  Cards which remain in play throughout the turn will be used at an appropriate time.  For example, a +10 Bonus plot is meaningless when revealed but if a Rival Group later attacks your power structure, the Rival Plot suddenly becomes very useful for your enemies. 

Three Rival Plot cards function very different and deserve special attention: Illuminati, Goal and New World Order cards.

Illuminati Cards- An Illuminati card played from the Rival Plot Deck betrays a rival Illuminati's direct influence.  As soon as an Illuminati card comes into play it gains an action token (unlike Rival Groups).   The Illuminati card remains in play until it uses its action or the beginning of the next Player Turn, whichever comes first. The Illuminati's Global Power is used in the first attack after it is revealed, aiding either the defender (if you are attacking) or the attacker (if you are defending). After aiding one attack, the Illuminati's action token is considered spent and the card is discarded.

Goal Cards- If a Goal card is revealed, leave it in the play area next to the Rival Group Deck like a Resource. The Goal card is NOT exposed by this play; you must play an appropriate Plot or special Group ability to expose it. Successful attacks against any Rival Group which helps satisfy the Goal Card helps reduce the Intrigue Score (see below).

New World Order cards- Remain in play until removed by another NWO of the same color or a Plot, exactly as in INWO.

Group Cards

Your Groups function exactly as in INWO but Rival Groups, like Rival Plots, require special rules.  Rival Groups will use their special abilities on the appropriate turn to have the most detrimental effect on you, but must still follow normal INWO rules regarding Action Tokens; Rival Groups cannot both use special abilities and make attacks or lend Power (unless of course the special ability is free).  Rival Resources, whenever revealed, remain in play until removed by some Plot or special ability, as in INWO.

Attacks

Attacks to Control and Destroy follow all the normal rules of INWO including alignment bonuses/penalties, closeness bonuses, and legality for aiding the attackers and defenders. Again, because rival Power structures exist only in abstract, INWOSOLO requires a few additional rules to determine the closeness bonus as well as Power defending against and aiding attacks.

Interfering Power

     Interfering Power is a bonus added to the Power or Resistance of an attacking or defending Group, as appropriate.  Interfering Power represents the struggle amongst all the rival Illuminati, some of whom are aiding you (for their own reasons) and others who oppose you.  Compute Interfering Power by rolling a single die and adding the resulting die score to the Intrigue Score (Rival Illuminati are less and less inclined to help you as both you and they near victory).

Illuminati Closeness Bonus
     During attacks on Rival power structures, use the following procedure to compute a Group's defense bonus due to its proximity to its Illuminati.  Roll two dice.  If the sum of the dice scores exceeds the Intrigue Score, the target Rival Group gets a +5 closeness bonus and the dice are rolled again.  If the sum of these new dice scores again exceeds the Intrigue Score, the target Rival Group gets an additional +5 closeness bonus.  If the first dice roll fails to exceed the Intrigue Score, the closeness bonus is 0 (the longer the game, the larger and more vulnerable the Power structures get). 

Attacks to Control from Your Group Hand
Compute the Power of all the Groups you plan to use in the attack.  Compute Interfering Power and add it to the target's resistance. Finally, if any of the Rival Group revealed at the beginning of phase 5 can legally aid the target (usually via special abilities), add their bonuses as appropriate. Don't forget to add any bonuses due to Rival Plot cards in play and any Rival Resources (remove tokens as necessary). Results of Attacks to Control from your own Group hand are per INWO.

Attacks to Control or Destroy Rival Groups

If you decide to target any of the Rival Groups revealed in phase 5 of your turn, compute the Power of all the Groups you plan to use in the attack.  Compute Interfering Power and the target's Closeness Bonus; add to the target's Power or Resistance as appropriate.  Rival Groups will use any free special abilities to thwart your attack and rival Illuminati cards will spend their action token to add their Global Power to the target's Power or Resistance.

Rival Attacks to Control or Destroy Your Groups
Compute Interfering Power and add to the Rival Group's Power.  Any Rival Groups eligible to aid will do so.  Apply any bonuses due to Rival Plot cards in play and any Rival Resources (remove tokens as necessary). If an Attack to Control versus your Power structure is successful, add the target Group and any puppets to the Rival Group Deck discard pile. Successful Attacks to Destroy your Groups have the same effects as normal INWO.

Privilege

If you play a Plot or use a special ability which makes your Attack Privileged the results of the Privilege depend on your target. If Attacking your Group hand no one else can lend Power, therefore do not add any Power to your target's resistance! If you are attacking a Rival Power structure your privilege prevents other Illuminati from aiding your target; do not roll the single die and add it to the target's Power or resistance. You must still add the Intrigue Score as well as any closeness bonus.

If a Rival's attack becomes Privileged, the attack proceeds as above, but compute Interfering Power by rolling two dice instead of one and adding their sum to the Intrigue Score.

The Intrigue Score

The Intrigue Score represents not really the slow march of time but your rivals' progress toward world domination, as well as their awareness of your progress. The game can be lost with a simple die roll once the Intrigue Score reaches 5!  Since the Intrigue Score advances by 1 each turn, your inevitable defeat can only be avoided by using raw Power to slow its advance, just as you use Actions to counter your opponents in multi-player INWO.

Reducing the Intrigue Score
Two ways exist to reduce the Intrigue Score: successful attacks versus rival power structures or thwarting Illuminated Goals. 

If you successfully attack a Rival Power structure, roll a single die.  If the Group you successfully attacked counted double for a Rival's Special Goal or a face-up Goal card, roll two dice.  If the score on any die rolled is less than or equal to the Power of the targeted group, reduce the Intrigue Score by 1.  Total all the Powers of any group and its puppets if captured in an Attack to Control.  Also, add 1 to the Power for every +5 closeness bonus (rival Illuminati will typically keep their most valuable groups closer).    Example: You just Destroyed Count Dracula via an Instant Attack.  The Count had a Power Corrupts Plot linked to him making him Criminal, and the Criminal Overlords Goal card is in play for the Rival.  His closeness bonus was +5.  Since Dracula counted double towards the Criminal Overlords Goal, you roll two dice and get a 3 and a 6.  The Count's Power is 2, but due to the closeness bonus it is considered 3.  At least one of your dice was less than or equal to Dracula's Power, so you reduce the Intrigue Score by 1.  If both the dice were 3 or less you'd still only reduce the Intrigue Score by 1; your chances are increased, not the effect.

If you take out a Plot particularly vital to a rival's plans, you significantly reduce their chances for victory (and thus reduce the Intrigue Score). Any time you remove from play a face-up Rival Goal card (for example you expose it via a special ability and then use the "Foiled!" Plot to discard it), you may immediately reduce the Intrigue Score by 1. 

"What if my one of my rivals is the Servants of Cthulhu?"- If Cthulhu is one of your rivals and you cause a Group to return to play after being Destroyed, reduce the Intrigue Score by 1.

"What if my one of my rivals is the Bermuda Triangle?"- If the Triangle is one of your rivals and one of your Attacks (or Plots) results in the loss of a Rival Group, roll a single die. If the die score is less than or equal to the number of Alignments that Group possesses, reduce the Intrigue Score by an additional 1.

Other INWOSOLO Peculiarities

Deck Searches

Any Plot card (or special ability) that allows you to search another player's deck or hand works differently in INWO SOLO.

     If you play a Plot or use an ability allowing you to search a Group or Plot deck, you may search the Rival Group Deck or Rival Plot Deck respectively.

     If you play a card allowing the search of a Plot hand, roll a single die to determine the rival hand size. Remove that many cards from the top of the Rival Plot Deck and treat those cards as you would another player's hand in normal INWO. Any face-up Rival Goal cards are considered part of the rival hand. If you have to select cards from an opponent's hand without looking and face-up Rival Goals are in play, use a random die roll to fairly determine if the Goal is indeed the card you would have chosen. You may never steal a rival Illuminati card revealed from a hand or deck search, but you may expose and discard it through an appropriate combination of Plots and/or special abilites.

If you play a card allowing the search of a Group hand, roll two dice; the sum determines the rival hand size. Remove that many cards from the top of the Rival Group Deck and treat those cards as you would another player's hand in normal INWO.

"...for every..." Bonuses


For Rival Groups that have bonuses or abilities based on the number of a certain type of other Groups available (such as "Add 2 to this Group's Power and Global Power for every media Personality in your power structure"), use the following procedure to determine how many of these other Groups exist.  Roll one die.  Subtract this die score from the Intrigue Score.  Results less than zero are treated as zero.  For example: on a Rival Illuminati Turn (Intrigue Score 4), you suffer an attack on your power structure led by Hollywood.  You roll a single die to determine how many media Personalities exist in the Rival power structure and get a 2.  Subtracting this from the Intrigue Score of 4, you get a total of 2 media Personalities, boosting Hollywood's Power to 6!  If you had rolled a 6, Hollywood would have no media Personalities to boost its Power.

Deck Exhaustion

If either Rival Plot Deck or Rival Group Deck becomes exhausted, simply reshuffle all the cards in the respective discard pile and continue play. Also, after all the rival Illuminati have been revealed and discarded, immediately reshuffle the discards and the rest of the Rival Plot Deck and continue play (you can never hide from the Illuminati!).

Remember to place Destroyed rival Groups in a separate pile; these Groups may not return to play via a simple reshuffle. As in INWO only the combination of duplicate cards and relevant Plots can bring Destroyed Groups back.

Alignment Adders/Changers
Plots like "Assertiveness Training" which can add or change alignments can be used against rival Groups, but the target's closeness to its Illuminati increases the Power required. Determine the target's closeness bonus using the same procedure as when Attacking a rival Power structure.

UFOs

If the UFOs are played off the top of the Rival Plot deck, discard it after the second attack it takes part in or phase 5 of the Rival Illuminati Turn, whichever comes first.

Tips

Rival Plot Decks should include a lot of cards that will directly affect your plans.  Thus it should include a lot of Instant Attacks.  Some cards that you'd typically put in a normal INWO deck (+10 bonus cards are a good example) still function nicely against you in the Rival Plot Deck.  Other cards (like Crop Circles) have no real function in the Rival Plot Deck and thus should be left out.  Make the Rival Plot Deck nasty and it will be a lot more satisfying if you win.

Rival Group Decks should have a  number of general themes as well.  You don't have to put as much time into its construction as you do your own deck, but if Rival Groups have shared alignments it will make the game more challenging and, again, more satisfying.

If the game is too hard or too easy, adjust the ratio of Illuminati cards in the Rival Plot Deck.  Adding even one extra Illuminati card really puts the hurt on your plans.


That's it.  Unlike most of my wonky ideas, I've actually play-tested this.  Half a dozen times at least.  I will let you be the judges, but I really think this captures the feel of multi-player INWO.  Let me know what you think.