Very Frequently Asked Questions
about INWO

Prepared by John Fiala,
based on Steve Hatherley and John Karakash's original work.

Last Updated 28 November 1999 by John Fiala

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.

Welcome to the VFAQ, where common INWO questions are dissected and discussed for your pleasure. Right now the page numbers here refer to the The INWO Book and the cards and rules are from the Unlimited Edition.

Less detailed answers to many, many other questions can be found in the:

To reduce space and bandwidth, the following acronyms are used in the VFAQ rather than write out the card name every single time:

AWHFY - Are We Having Fun Yet?

NPC - Nuclear Power Companies

NWO - New World Order

OMCL - Orbital Mind Control Lasers

SMWNMTK - Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know

Topics Covered

Bill Clinton

"Bill Clinton gives +3 on any attempt to control any Government group that is part of the US. He has a +8 for direct control of any Government group. Any time Clinton's alignments matter, roll a die. On a 1-3 he's Liberal at the moment. On a 4-6, he's not."

The bonuses to attack are Bill's special abilities. His flip-flopping alignment is descriptive text that cannot be affected by cards that cancel Special Abilities.

A "group that is part of the US," is any Group that represents an actual physical place within the US (Wall Street, California, Silicon Valley). It also applies to any Government group that can reasonably be viewed as part of the US Federal or State govermnent, regardless of whether they can also be viewed as part of other countries as well (for example, Post Office and State Lotteries). Note that "American" groups such as the Fnord Motor Company and the American Autoduel Association do not qualify for Bill Clinton's bonus.

Note that Bill's +3 any attempt bonus to control US Government groups is separate from his +8 direct control bonus for any government groups. (The bonuses apply to different things, even though one is a subset of the other.) Bill gets +11 (!) for direct control of any US Government group - and that's before his alignment bonus is considered!

Bill Clinton's erratic Liberalness can cause a few conceptual problems. The important thing is that you check *after* you have made a play that requires him to be Liberal (or not). Once you know what Bill's alignment is, you cannot do anything based on that knowledge.

So, for example, if you want to use Bill to aid an attack on a Liberal group, you must spend his action *before* you know if he will be eligible to join the attack or not. When the dice are rolled (signifying the end of the attack) check for Bill's alignment. If he is Liberal, then his power counted. If he isn't Liberal, then his action token doesn't count in the attack; its use is made illegal and he loses that action.

If you make Bill Liberal, Conservative, or you remove Bill's Liberalness (assuming he was Liberal when you checked, otherwise it won't work) by using any of the alignment changing cards (e.g. Fundie Money, OMCLs, Drug Companies) you don't check for the alignment for the duration of that change - it stays at what you set it to.

There are three situations when Bill's indecision can cause particular problems - Attacks, Winning and using the Gay Activists.

Attacks

When Bill is involved in an attack you need to keep track of two attack strengths - one if he is Liberal, and one if he is not. Anyone may make a play (aid the attack, play a card) that depends on Bill's Liberalness, but you don't find out whether they are legal actions until the dice are rolled. (And as long as one of the attack strength's is 2 or more, the dice are rolled.) Do not check for Bill's alignment each time someone tries to do something, instead check just once, at the end.

If Bill's alignment results in an attack strength of less than 2, then the attack automatically fails and the dice are considered not to have been rolled for the purposes of plots and abilities that only take effect after the dice are rolled.

If Bill ain't Liberal, then plots such as Benefit Concert are made illegal and return to your hand, exposed. Aiding actions depending on Bill being Liberal are made illegal, and are lost. Tough luck, you gambled poorly.

You may be wondering: Why go through so much trouble? Wouldn't it be easier if you could roll for Bill's alignment at the beginning of the attack? Yes, it would be easier, but the entire point of the Bill Clinton card is that you *don't know* how he's going to affect things. It would be easier to do it that way, but it would also be boring.

Winning

When Bill's Liberalness is important for victory, you don't check until after your opponents admit that they cannot stop you from winning. (If you could win two ways you still don't check until the very end.) They cannot wait to see which way Bill is going to bend before deciding whether to oppose you or not. Once you've checked, that's it - either the game is over (you've won) or play passes to the next player.

Bill's Liberal-ness is still in question when he is destroyed, so if you are using him to win with Let Them Eat Cake! you still need to check his alignment.

Gay Activists

When you use the Activists to reverse Bill's Liberal alignment, spend their action and then check Bill's alignment. If he is Liberal, the action stands. If he is not, the Activist's action is illegal and cancelled. If the action was legal, for the rest of the turn check for Bill's alignment as usual, except that he is Conservative instead of being Liberal.

Cancelling

A play can be cancelled either by making it illegal or by directly cancelling it with one of a number of cards. Both have the same result - the play is cancelled.

The most important thing to remember about cancelling is that if a play is cancelled, it never happened. This means that you can try again if you have the appropriate cards or actions.

Plot Cards

The cancelled Plot is discarded and any actions, discards (or other costs) powering it are lost. The Plot may be played again if a duplicate is available (or if the original is salvaged). You can cancel either the Plot Card itself (with Hoax or Secrets Man Was Not Meant to Know) or the action powering the Plot card. It's the same thing. (However, if several actions are used together to power a Plot, and one is cancelled, another group's action may be used to replace the lost Power. If this can't be done, the Plot is cancelled and the other actions are wasted.)

If the use of a Plot card is made illegal (perhaps by cancelling another card) then that Plot returns to your hand, exposed. (For example, you cancel Combined Disasters before the dice are rolled and it is discarded. The primary disaster still hits its target, but the secondary disaster is made illegal and it returns to its owner's hand, exposed.

Action Tokens

The cancelled Action token is lost, along with any Plot cards played with it. If an action token use is made illegal (say to an aiding action in an attack when the target's alignment changes) then the action is cancelled and the token is lost, along with any Plots.

Note the difference between Plot cards and action tokens - Plots return to your hand if they are made illegal, while action tokens are lost.

Automatic Takeover

If you cancel an automatic takeover the action or Plot is lost but the Resource (or group) goes back in your hand.

Special Abilities

Special abilities that require an action may be cancelled by a number of cards by cancelling the action. The token is lost, although the Group may try again if it has another action token.

Special abilities that do not require actions may only be directly cancelled by Are We Having Fun Yet? (You can also cancel them by making them illegal - for instance, if your rival's Gay Activists turn your Goldfish Fanciers Violent until the end of the turn, you can prevent this by using the OMCLs to make the Gay Activists Fanatic. The Goldfish Fanciers are immune to Fanatic groups so the Gay Activists ability is cancelled. However, it is usually easier to use AWHFY.)

Are We Having Fun Yet? lets you cancel "one special-ability use." This means that for something like immunity AWHFY cancels it for a single "use." So if you were attacking the Vatican City, AWHFY would allow a single Peaceful group to make (or aid) the attack. If you wanted to aid an attack on Vatican City with five Peaceful groups you would need five AWHFY cards. (That or use Cat Juggling to prevent Vatican City from using its special ability in the first place.)

Attacks

Attacks are more complicated as they can be cancelled (or be made illegal) at any time until the dice are rolled, and you can cancel attacking actions, aiding actions - or any other action or card play taken during the attack.

Cancelling the Attack

If you cancel the attacking Group's action, that action is lost, as are any Plots that help. Aiding and defending groups, and Resources that aid (Hammer of Thor), get their action tokens back. Plot cards used by aiding Groups in the course of the attack are returned, exposed. Agents cards are not lost and return to your hand.

Actions and cards which remain legal when you cancel the attack stay as they were. So if the NPCs had cancelled an action, they do not get their token back - and neither does the group they cancelled (because it never happened). Similarly NWOs remain in play, and so on.

If you are attacking a group from your hand, the group returns to your hand. However, if you are making another attack on a group you have already attempted (and failed) to take over from your hand and the attack is cancelled, the group does not return to your hand. It is discarded unless you manage to take control of it before the end of your turn.

Cancelling an Aiding Group

If you cancel the action of an aiding group its action is lost, along with any Plot cards. However, the group may still aid in the attack if it has any action tokens left (because the act of cancelling means that it never aided in the first place, therefore it can aid now).

If an aiding group's action becomes illegal (perhaps due to NWO Apathy or if the target's alignment changes) that that group's action token is cancelled and lost, along with any plot cards.

Cancelling Something Else

Instead of cancelling an action, you could cancel something else - such as a +10 card, or a NWO or whatever was actually played.

Cancelling and Timing

In general, the effect of a plot or ability takes place before you get a chance to cancel it. There are, however, a few exceptions:

  • Any card or effect that lets you look at your hidden Plots, or your decks,
    • must be cancelled before it takes effect. After all, your rival cannot unlearn what he sees.
  • Go Fish must be cancelled after it is played but before the target Plot is "fished". The player using Go Fish *must* put a pause between playing the card and naming the target.
  • Instant Attacks are cancelled before the dice are rolled. But you still lose the action token from a Disaster before you get a chance to cancel.
  • The target of a Senate Investigation Committee can cancel the card even though the card says that he can "do nothing else."
  • Although third parties are prevented from doing anything during a Privileged Attack, they can cancel whatever it was that made the attack Privileged. So when Bavaria makes an attack Privileged, its action cannot be cancelled as Bavaria's special ability causes the Privilege, not the action itself. Instead, Are We Having Fun Yet? must be used to cancel the special ability.

Pre-cancelling actions

You may do the following before cancelling a rival's play:

  • You may buy Plot cards with action tokens.
  • A rival may give you Plot cards.
  • You may discard an action token from a Group.
  • You may return a card to your Plot deck (to power Hoax, for example), or discard a Plot card, or give one to another player. However, you may *not* do this if a rival is looking at your hand for any reason.
  • You may use a salvaging card (such as Stealing the Plans) to salvage a just-played card. (Yes, this means that if an opponent Hoaxes your card, you can salvage his Hoax and use it to cancel itself!)

You may not do anything else. (So, for example, when Discordia Nationalizes the NPCs (see The INWO Book, p. 18) you cannot use the OMCLs to turn the NPCs Corporate and then cancel Discordia's action. You could spend action tokens to buy plots in the hope of drawing Are We Having Fun Yet? (which the NPCs could help power because plots are played by your Illuminati, not individual groups), but you couldn't use Crop Circles.)

Step by Step Cancelling

Here, then, is a simple, step-by-step guide to cancelling:

Step 0: Ignore everything you have learned about timing from Magic: the Gathering or other games. INWO is different.

Step 1: Your rival plays a Plot card (or spends an action, uses a special ability, etc). Remove an action token if he played a Disaster.

Step 2: Whatever it is they did, you feel a sudden urge to cancel it. Don't do anything yet.

Step 3:If the play involved any of the exceptions detailed above, you may cancel it now.

Step 4: The plot card (or action, or special ability) takes effect.

Step 5: Now you may cancel the Plot (or action, or ability) -- but only if you are still able to. You may do certain things (noted above) before cancelling. If you can't cancel it (because you have the wrong alignments, or you've lost the required action tokens) then you are stuck. Bad luck.

Step 6:If you can and do cancel it, then your rival's play is lost, and whatever effect it had is reversed.

Note: Some cards say "cancelled" in different ways. Computer Security and Deep Agent use the term "negate," Secrets Man Was Not Meant to Know uses "no effect" and Cover-Up uses "nullify." It all means the same thing.

Combining Goals

Just some information to keep in mind:

  • There is no way to combine two or more goal cards! Ever!
  • Whenever a card says, 'Any foo group counts double toward the total number of groups controlled' it means that all groups that match the qualifications count as two groups for the basic goal. Their power is not doubled and there is no other game effect.
  • If a Goal Card says, 'This goal cannot be combined with other goals in any way', it means exactly that: If you are using this goal for victory, any other goals of any sort do not apply. There can be no weird combinations because they are strictly not allowed.
  • Combining Goals does not allow you to sneak past the "no more than three groups can ever count double" rule. (The INWO Book, p. 20)
  • No group or resource may count more than double for the basic goal!

Of the current Goal cards some cannot be combined at all (Fratricide, The Hand of Madness, Kill for Peace, Let Them Eat Cake!, Power to the People, Up Against the Wall, Blinded by Science, and Earth First) and others are useless for combination purposes (Power for It's Own Sake).

Likewise, there are certain special goals of the Illuminati that cannot be combined. (Bavarian Illuminati, Bermuda Triangle, Shangri-La, and UFO's) This only leaves four Goal cards, so far, that can be combined: The Corporate Masters, Criminal Overlords, Hail Eris!, and Population Reduction. Combine these with the six Illuminati that modify the basic goal and you've only got 24 potential combinations that might be of interest.

The Discordians, The Gnomes, The Network, and the Society of Assassins

Each of these Illuminati's special goals are of the 'double foocard' type. These can combine with any of the three group doubling goal cards up to a maximum of three groups. Note that Hail Eris! is useless for the Discordians, and that you can't make a group count more than double by any tricky means. (e.g. If you are the Discordians and you have a group that has a power of three and is Weird, Violent, and Criminal, it won't matter that you also have the Criminal Overlords goal card. That particular group would still only count twice.)

The Adepts of Hermes

Much more interesting!

Their special goal states that each magic resource they own count as a controlled group. So you could, conceivably, win the game with three groups (let's make them power 3+ weird groups for the Hail Eris! goal card) and five magic resources plus your illuminati for a total of 12 groups (assuming that's what the basic goal is set at).

Servants of Cthulhu

You always knew they had something up their ichor coated sleeves, didn't you? Well, here's the proof.

Their special goal says that every group they destroy reduces by one the number groups they need to control to win. Despite the different wording, this works pretty much like the Adepts for combining purposes. With the basic goal at 13, you could destroy 4 groups (reducing the basic goal needed to 9), and take over 5 groups. But that still leaves you three short, so you make sure that three of them are Violent and Criminal and pull out the Criminal Overlords Goal card. Voila! (Three doubled is six, plus two regular and your illuminati for nine matches your reduced basic goal. (13- 4 destroyed=9))

Population Reduction

Even though this is a Goal card and not an Illuminati like the rest of these entries it requires special explanation. It's the only card that lets destruction of groups count toward your basic goal.

Each Huge group destroyed counts two toward your basic goal and each of these groups does count toward the three groups maximum you can have count double. So if you are the Network with three Computer groups of power 4 and you have destroyed two Huge places you still can only count three of the above groups as doubled for your goals. But, wait! If you notice, it doesn't say which groups you are required to count as doubled, so you are better off counting the two destroyed places as two groups apiece and still get credit for the Computer groups as one each.

The Servants of Cthulhu, as usual, are more of a problem. This Goal allows you to count each destroyed Huge place as double toward their special goal. The tricky part is that you cannot count any other destroyed group toward their special goal if you use Population Reduction. So you just have to do the math. If you are the Servants and have destroyed five groups, two of which are Huge places, you are better off not using the goal card (2*2=4). If three of those five groups were Huge places, you are better off using it (3*2=6). Note: If you use this goal as the Servants you can never reach the 'destroy 8 groups to win' goal.

Defense: How to add it up?

For this section, we are going to consider the case of New York with the Cyborg Soldiers and the possible additon of a +10 card, Good Polls, or a token spent from New York to defend against destruction. It works out almost the same for defense against a takeover attempt, but Cyborg Soldiers won't have any affect in that case (since it only boosts Power, not Resistance).

Spending a Token

The power for defense granted by a token of the attack group works like this: In addition to the power of the token, you get more power that is equal to the Permanent power of the group. So if the power has been temporarily modified by some means (such as a +10 card) you don't count that bonus twice.

Example: NY, a +10 card, and a spent token for defense will get you 7 (the base) +10 (for the card) +7 (the power of the token) +7 (the additional power since the token came from the attacked group) for a total of 31.

Cyborg Soldier and other Permanent power multipliers

The basic defense NY has against destruction is its Power of 7. Anything that changes that permanently changes this power (such as Necronomicon, Cyborg Soldiers, NWO:Gun Control, etc) affects all uses of that power. This includes attacks, defense,or the power of the tokens spent by NY.

Example: NY+CS has a base defense against Attacks to Destroy of 14. If NY spends a token as well, it has 14+14+14=42.

Good Polls and Permanent power multipliers

In the simplest case, NY with CS and Good Polls, the answer is quite simple: Good Polls overrules CS and the total defense is 21. If NY also spends a token, it gets more complicated.

Example: The base defense of the group is 21 (7*3 from Good Polls), plus 21 for the token (7*3, the effective power for defense due to Good Polls), PLUS 14 (The additional Permanent power because the token came from the attacked group) for a total of 56!

Putting it all together

Okay, here we go. NY linked to the Necronomicon is a puppet of the Illuminati. The owner of NY had made NY weird (in a previous turn) and had linked the Perpetual Motion Machine to it. On the turn NY is attacked to destroy the owner puts down a Good Polls to protect all his Violent groups, plays a token from The Hammer of Thor to protect NY, spends both tokens from NY in defense and plays two +10 cards (Terrorist Nuke and Albino Alligators). Ready?

+23 (base defense with Good Polls and Hammer of Thor)
+43 (first token with Good Polls, Hammer of Thor, and the +10's)
+14 (defender's bonus for first token which includes Necromicon's doubling)
+23 (second token from Perpetual Motion Machine with Good Polls and Hammer of Thor)
+14 (defender's bonus for second token)
+10 (closeness bonus)
----
127 total

Note that the +10's didn't get included in the bonus power because the token came from the defender, and neither did the boost from Good Polls and Hammer of Thor. Another thing is that two +10's are allowed, if they are different cards, but they only added once each to the calculation. If the owner had had two Good Polls (played for Violent and Weird), the result would have been the same for NY (though the owner's other Violent and Weird groups would both be protected) because you can't have two multiplying effects. Any bonuses that don't specifically modify power (such as the closeness to the illuminati bonus) are applied afterwards.

Also interesting is that the special ability of the Hammer of Thor got counted several times since it affected NY's Power-for-defense much like Good Polls does.

Special Abilities, Instructions and Features (and how to tell the difference)

The term "special ability" is used on Are We Having Fun Yet, World Hunger and a whole host of Assassins cards. Unfortunately, the WDH v1.1 fails to define the term and the following errata has been issued:

Special Ability: Anything in the text box that is generally beneficial. All other text is flavor text (usually italicized) or other features of the card, usually limiting its usefulness and instructions concerning Power or Resistance with a * and variable alignments or attributes. Under certain circumstances, usually when a player is attacking his own Power Structure, some special abilities are not beneficial and some limiting features become beneficial. This does not change their definitions.

Resources and Plots do not have special abilities, only Groups.

However, it is sometimes not always clear quite what in a Group's text box is counted as a special ability as occasionally they can be limiting and what might be a limitation can sometimes be an advantage. That's why the rule says "generally." If you need to use twisted logic, and several tricky card combinations to turn a limitation into an advantage, that does not make it a special ability.

If you're not sure about a bit of text (if it's a grey area), then try the "What happens if I cancel it?" test. If, when you hypothetically cancel a piece of text, there is no clear result (see OPEC and Dittoheads, below) then it isn't a special ability and cannot be cancelled.

The following are definitely special abilities, under all circumstances:

  • Attack bonuses.
  • Immunity.
  • Power bonuses for other groups.
  • Anything requiring the use of an Action token.

Some specific examples:

Moonbase

"Moonbase is not affected by any Disaster cards except Earthquake and Meteor. Moonbase gives a +4 on any attempt to control or destroy any Space group. If a Personality is linked to Moonbase, and Assassination attempt against that Personality is as -6. However, if Moonbase is destroyed, all Personalities there are killed."

The first three sentences are all special abilties as they are clearly beneficial. The first is beneficial to the Moonbase itself, the second to its controlling player, and the third is beneficial to any linked Personalities. That last sentence, however, is clearly not beneficial to the Personalities and is not a special ability. It is an instruction or feature.

However, there are a few situations when that last sentence can be pretty damn useful. For example, if you are Cthulhu you can use the Moonbase to kill 8 Personalities with one Disaster - and that's pretty handy. However, just because you can turn the Moonbase's explosive limitation to your advantage does not mean that it is a special ability. It is not "generally" a good idea to have linked Groups destroyed.

Be wary of trying to apply real-life logic to special abilities. For example, its hard to rationalise in real-life terms just how cancelling its special ability results in the Moonbase becoming vulnerable to earthbound Disasters (Tornado), but that's the way it works. The Illuminati move in mysterious ways . . .

OPEC

"As oil prices vary, OPEC's power also varies. When this card is first controlled, and again at the start of your turns, roll 2 dice and subtract 2 from the total to set OPEC's power. (This is considered its printed Power until the beginning of its owner's next turn.) If you also control either Texas or the Multinational Oil Companies, OPEC gets +1 permanent power for each." (Note that this is the errata-ed text.)

As OPEC's power varies with the roll of the dice, it might sometimes be good, sometimes bad. This isn't a special ability - it is an instruction. It certainly fails the "What happens if I cancel it?" test. The last sentence is, however, a special ability as it is beneficial to OPEC.

Dittoheads

"This group may only be controlled by a Personality. Place it on any side of its master's card, even if there is no Control Arrow there. The master gets +2 Power, and his Resistance is tripled!

"Any number of Dittoheads may be in play, but no Personality can control more than one. A Dittohead card may not be used as an "agents" card.

"This card always has the same alignments as its Personality, plus "Fanatic." If the Personality is already Fanatic, the fanaticism of the Dittoheads is considered the same alignment for all purposes."

Most of this is instruction. The Dittohead's only special ability is to give their master increased Power and Resistance. That the Dittoheads have the same alignment as their master is arguably beneficial (it gives them good defensive bonuses) but it fails the "What happens if I cancel it?" test as there is no clear result. (No alignments at all? Just Fanatic? It's not clear. Compare with Ross Perot, who does something similar; for him it is a special ability.)

Winning and Victory

Since winning is the goal of the game, you can imagine that this is where the most conflicts over the rules can occur. If you haven't already, take a look at the Combining Goals VFAQ.

Cheaters

There is only one official sanction for cheating. If someone has shown their cards to claim victory and they illegally have more than one goal card, they are out of the game. Some people play by 'Cheater's Rules', but these are just a much looser set of rulesto use than the ones most of can live with.

If you have more than one Goal card in your hand (excepting the rare cases where you are allowed to have more) and don't immediately discard one or return one to your deck, you are cheating. The whole book and all the cards have rules on them; breaking those rules are cheating. Around here we reserve the ultimate punishment: we don't play with that person again . . . ever.

Winning Two Ways

If you meet two Goals at once (say you meet the requirements for both the Basic Goal and Blinded by Science with your last group), then you can declare victory with either. And if your rivals thwart you, then you can immediately declare victory with the other (providing it is still valid)! Of course, your rivals may still try to thwart you again, but hopefully they will have exhausted their resources by that point . . .

Multiple Simultaneous Victors

If they are both Shangri-la, no problem. They share the win and go peacefully about destroying the quivering remains of the defeated Illuminati.

If they are different Illuminati, they share the win. After the game is over, of course, they can settle it among themselves!

If any two players are playing the same Illuminati and declare a win at the same time (other than Shangri-La), then neither of them wins at that time. So if you and another player both announce victory during a single turn, neither wins and play continues. Note that raw quantity doesn't count: If Servents of Cthulhu A and B both had 13 groups, and then player A gets another group, he doesn't win until he can prevent B from winning . . . which could be difficult if player B has destroyed 8 groups!

If, by some bizarre series of events, three or more players are able to announce victory at once then disqualify any that have the same Illuminati as another player (except, of course, those playing Shangri-La) and everyone else shares the victory. I would also recommend that you get much, much meaner. Shared victories are for wusses. ;-)

Alignment Changes

Any alignment changes that are in effect at the end of the turn count for victory purposes. Plot cards, special abilities (like the attitude adjustment Ross Perot does to his puppets), Orbital Mind Control Lasers, Gay Activists, and on and on. These do not have to be 'permanent' changes! (Such as Bill Clinton, above.)

The same is true for destroyed cards also. Permanent alignment changes for cards count for victory conditions that involve that alignment. Temporary changes (such as from OMCL) count until the end of the turn. Permanent changes from being in a power structure or linked to a group or resource are removed when the group is destroyed! (Some cards like Ross Perot, however, have effects even after they are unlinked. Make sure to read the cards!)

Don't forget that the order in which events occur matters! If you controlled Cycle Gangs with Ross Perot and then someone played Liberal Agenda on them, they would count as Liberal. If someone went ahead and used OMCL on them, they could go back to Conservative until the end of the turn and then they would revert back to Liberal.

Power Changes

Power changes, on the other hand, must be permanent. Some things that are definitely not permanent are:

  • Plot cards that boost power but are not linked to the group or are only used for a single turn or a single action. (+10 bonus cards like Terrorist Nuke and Martial Law)
  • Bonuses that only count for specific actions (e.g. bonuses to destroy, bonuses to defend against destruction, bonuses to help take over groups, etc. So Hammer of Thor would not count and neither would Good Polls)

Some things that are permanent:

  • Power modifiers inherent to the card (Church of Elvis gets more powerful when Elvis is in play, Libertarians can take on the power of Nations they control, etc.)
  • Linked Plot Cards (e.g. Emergency Powers modifies the group's power to 6, Dictatorship increases a group's power by two, Messiah adjusts a personality's power to four and gives it +2 for every Church you control, Purge reduces your power, etc.)
  • Resources (e.g. Cyborg Soldiers doubles the power of a group it's linked to, Clipper Chip increases the power of all your Government groups by two, Midas Mill will increase your regular power if it is linked to your Illuminati, etc.)
  • Power boosts from other group cards (Empty Vee gives +1 power to every Personality you control, New York boosts the power of all your other Criminal groups by +1, etc.)
  • NWO's (e.g. Gun Control increases the power of all Criminal groups by +1, Energy Crisis reduces the power of Corporate groups by 2, etc.)

Now for the fun stuff: Temporary or permanent alignment changes can have an effect on 'permanent' power! If, for example, you Nationalize Wargamers, they are eligible for the power boost provided by Clipper Chip. Moreover, you could have achieved the same effect by using the OMCL on them! The 'permanent' power increase would go away after the end of the turn, but that may be just enough for victory . . .

Extra special evil note for those who made it to this page: Military-Industrial Complex changes the alignment of all your Corporate groups to Government except for the purposes of goals. However, they can still take advantage of things that increase the Power of Government Groups (Clipper Chip, say). This means that with MIC in play and a Clipper Chip handy, Liquor Companies counts double for the Gnomes of Zurich or The Corporate Masters goal.

Playing and Exposing Goal Cards

A Goal Card is never 'played' like the other plot cards - it is instead 'revealed' during a victory attempt. You cannot Hoax a Goal, for instance. So cards like Agent in Play or Go Fish cannot be used to foil a win. During a win, a Goal card is neither in play nor in hand nor exposed. Nothing can touch it.

The Goal card is exposed (in the official sense of the word) only if the victory attempt fails. Cards and abilities that affect exposed cards cannot affect Goal Cards during a victory attempt. Even if they were already exposed by some other means beforehand, you still couldn't use the Templars to discard the goal *during* the victory attempt.

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