The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Yetis are everywhere. Dokstok, the traveling festival of peace, light and utter, deranged manic weirdness is on tour throughout the land. Loyal SubGenii dupe the Pinks and the Church of Middle America. X-Day, the end of the world, is coming. All this and more can be yours if you play INWO Subgenius.

INWO Subgenius is the second expansion set for Steve Jackson Games' CCG, Illuminati: New World Order. In the original set, shady conspiracies plotted to take over the world. They're still up to their old tricks in this set, but now they're doing it through The Church of the SubGenius, a bizarre and incomprehensible psuedo-religion. To get a feeling for the SubGenius, you may wish to look at their webpage (http://www.subgenius.com) or at the Automated Rant Generator SJ Games has thoughtfully provided at http://www.sjgames.com/inwo/SubGenius/rant.html for further inspiration.

This expansion, unlike the first, is a stand-alone set and does not require any other cards to play. It also has simplified rules; players of the original INWO will notice there are no Disasters, Assassinations, or New World Orders in this set. Perhaps an even bigger difference is that this set is non-collectible. Yes, that's right, no more hunting through boosters to find that one card you really wanted. This is an idea that the set's creators should be commended for.

There are two major rules differences in INWO SubGenius. The first is that the set is designed to be played in a One Big Deck format. Unlike the original INWO, players do not design their own decks. Instead, there is a common Groups deck and a common Plots deck from which all players draw. The other players in my group thought this was a great idea, and I agree with them. A variant that was suggested on the INWO e-mail list recently was to combine cards from all three sets and play a One Big Deck with them using the INWO SubGenius rules, and this sounds like it would be great fun.

The other major rules difference is that players no longer have hands of Group cards that only they can control. Instead, there is an "uncontrolled area" that all Groups go to. Players may make one automatic takeover per turn, but only of a Group they turned over that turn, and by making an automatic takeover (or ATO, as they are sometimes called), they do not recieve an Illuminati Action Token (the most powerful) for that turn. It's often a hard choice. Besides making an ATO, players can also attack to control groups from the uncontrolled area as they would if another player controlled them. This makes INWO SubGenius less isolationist in nature than the original INWO, which many players were calling for.

Probably the best point of INWO SubGenius is the humor. My friend Daniel eagerly awaited each new card he drew, and laughed long and hard at most of them. Some particular favorites of ours were the Phlegm Elementals, Random Jesii (including "the Vampire Jesus who gave His blood for you and now WANTS IT BACK..."), S.L.A.K. (color text: "The SubGenius League of Ass-Kickers: holy storm troopers, or brutal, drug-crazed bums? Hey, why do we have to be one or the other), Jesus B. (who lets you mail one dollar in an envelope to the SubGenius Foundation in Dallas to buy an Illuminati action), the Rain of Prairie Squid, and my personal favorite, the Advanced Supersonic Aluminum Nazi Hell Creatures From Beneath the Hollow Earth.

The art tends to be highly variable. Some of it is good (Glorps, Eternal Salvation), some of it is beautiful computer generated graphics (X-Day, The Prescriptures), and some is pretty bad ("Bobbies", Rant). Overall, it's of fairly good quality, but nothing outstanding.

If you like conspiracies, intricate back-stabbing and double-crosses, or just high-spirited bizarre weirdness, you should buy INWO SubGenius. Not only is it fun, it might just save you when those Xists come back to destroy the earth...

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

INWO SubGenius<
Author: Steve Jackson and Lynette R.F. Cowper Category: CCG Supplement Company/Publisher: Steve Jackson Games Cost: $16.95 Page count: n/a ISBN: 1-55634-338-8 Playtest Review by Sam Lindsay-Levine on 08/08/98. Genre tags: none	Yetis are everywhere. Dokstok, the traveling festival of peace, light and utter, deranged manic weirdness is on tour throughout the land. Loyal SubGenii dupe the Pinks and the Church of Middle America. X-Day, the end of the world, is coming. All this and more can be yours if you play INWO Subgenius. INWO Subgenius is the second expansion set for Steve Jackson Games' CCG, Illuminati: New World Order. In the original set, shady conspiracies plotted to take over the world. They're still up to their old tricks in this set, but now they're doing it through The Church of the SubGenius, a bizarre and incomprehensible psuedo-religion. To get a feeling for the SubGenius, you may wish to look at their webpage (http://www.subgenius.com) or at the Automated Rant Generator SJ Games has thoughtfully provided at http://www.sjgames.com/inwo/SubGenius/rant.html for further inspiration. This expansion, unlike the first, is a stand-alone set and does not require any other cards to play. It also has simplified rules; players of the original INWO will notice there are no Disasters, Assassinations, or New World Orders in this set. Perhaps an even bigger difference is that this set is non-collectible. Yes, that's right, no more hunting through boosters to find that one card you really wanted. This is an idea that the set's creators should be commended for. There are two major rules differences in INWO SubGenius. The first is that the set is designed to be played in a One Big Deck format. Unlike the original INWO, players do not design their own decks. Instead, there is a common Groups deck and a common Plots deck from which all players draw. The other players in my group thought this was a great idea, and I agree with them. A variant that was suggested on the INWO e-mail list recently was to combine cards from all three sets and play a One Big Deck with them using the INWO SubGenius rules, and this sounds like it would be great fun. The other major rules difference is that players no longer have hands of Group cards that only they can control. Instead, there is an "uncontrolled area" that all Groups go to. Players may make one automatic takeover per turn, but only of a Group they turned over that turn, and by making an automatic takeover (or ATO, as they are sometimes called), they do not recieve an Illuminati Action Token (the most powerful) for that turn. It's often a hard choice. Besides making an ATO, players can also attack to control groups from the uncontrolled area as they would if another player controlled them. This makes INWO SubGenius less isolationist in nature than the original INWO, which many players were calling for. Probably the best point of INWO SubGenius is the humor. My friend Daniel eagerly awaited each new card he drew, and laughed long and hard at most of them. Some particular favorites of ours were the Phlegm Elementals, Random Jesii (including "the Vampire Jesus who gave His blood for you and now WANTS IT BACK..."), S.L.A.K. (color text: "The SubGenius League of Ass-Kickers: holy storm troopers, or brutal, drug-crazed bums? Hey, why do we have to be one or the other), Jesus B. (who lets you mail one dollar in an envelope to the SubGenius Foundation in Dallas to buy an Illuminati action), the Rain of Prairie Squid, and my personal favorite, the Advanced Supersonic Aluminum Nazi Hell Creatures From Beneath the Hollow Earth. The art tends to be highly variable. Some of it is good (Glorps, Eternal Salvation), some of it is beautiful computer generated graphics (X-Day, The Prescriptures), and some is pretty bad ("Bobbies", Rant). Overall, it's of fairly good quality, but nothing outstanding. If you like conspiracies, intricate back-stabbing and double-crosses, or just high-spirited bizarre weirdness, you should buy INWO SubGenius. Not only is it fun, it might just save you when those Xists come back to destroy the earth... Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

INWO SubGenius<