These optional rules will provide you with many new ways of playing Illuminati. Add them one at a time or in any combination you like. The game may become as intricate and complicated as you please. The Choice is yours. Use your power wisely…

A game usually lasts from 1.5 to 3 hours. For a longer game, increase the number of groups required for the Basic Victory Condition.

For a very long game, ignore both the Basic and the Special Victory Conditions and play until there are no cards left uncontrolled; compute the total Power of each player's groups, plus 1 for each group controlled. The winner is the player with the highest score.

An easy way to change the game is to vary the sequence in which players take their turns. These will also normally increase the playing time. Use any of these three methods:

Staggered Sequence. Turns are grouped into "rounds." A round is over when each player has had one turn. The first round goes normally, counter-clockwise: A, B, C, D, E. The next round skips forward to start: B, C, D, E, A. The third round skips forward again: C, D, E, A, B. And so on… The catch is this: A player cannot win unless his victory conditions are fulfilled at the end of a round. This system makes for very long games, and makes shared victories more attractive. It could take all night…you have been warned!

Random Sequence. After each player finishes his turn, roll two dice. The high roller gets the next turn. A player may take two turns in a row, but never three. Each player must keep track of the number of turns he has taken, since no player may be destroyed until after his own third turn.

Bidding. Similar to Random Sequence except that after the dice roll, each player may bid any number of MB to add to his roll. Bidding continues until one player wins, at which time he pays the money he has bid, and takes his turn. The money must come from the Illuminati group itself. Losing bidders pay nothing. (Players may contribute money to each others' bids.) Again a player may take two turns in a row, but never three.

Each Illuminati group has its normal special power, but no group (except the UFOs) has its normal Special Victory Condition. Instead, each player chooses one possible victory condition from the list and writes it down, just as the UFOs normally do.

Each player keeps his Illuminati group upside-down! Only the player knows which Illuminati he controls. A player can only use the Power, Income, and special power of his own group -- but he is never required to use all of his Power or Income, or reveal his special power. (Anyone caught cheating is out of the game!)

During the action phase of his turn, a player may make an accusation against another player (for example, "I think you're Cthulhu.") This counts as one of the player's two actions, but does not count against any specific group. An incorrect accusation has no affect; a correct identification forces the identified Illuminati to play face-up.

The advantage to being unidentified, of course, is that your desired victory conditions are unknown to the other players. Once the UFOs are identified, they are played face-up, but their true victory condition remains unknown!

Alternative Rule: An unidentified Illuminati may legally "overstate" his Power and/or Income by 1, until he is identified.

Normally, no more than six should play at once. But there are eight Illuminati cards. If you use them all, expect the game to last at least three to four hours. For a seven-player game, the income of each Illuminati group should be increased by 3 MB per turn. In an eight-player game, increase Illuminati incomes by 5 MB per turn.

Some fiendish people think Illuminati is even more fun when nothing -- not even the bank -- is sacred. In this variant of the game, most forms of cheating are permitted. Exceptions:

1. You may not tip over the table or disarrange Power Structures.
2. You may not bring in counterfeit money or money from other sets.
3. You may not cheat on the amount of money drawn from the bank during setup or the Income phase. (This would slow things down too much.)

Anything else goes. Anyone caught in the act must undo that cheat. There is no other penalty.

Suggested methods for cheating include:

1. Accidentally misread the dice
2. Steal from the bank (other than during the Income phase).
3. Lie about the amount of Power or Resistance your groups have.
4. Stack the deck, or peek ahead.
5. If anyone leaves the table, anything goes!

We recommend you play the Cheating Game only with very good friends, or with people you will never see again.