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Description ILLEGAL is a crazy, offbeat party game for 5 to 9 players where participants each take on the role of an illegal dealer. The game is accessible to casual as well as expert gamers, and has a mature theme. The rules of ILLEGAL are simple, but the game will challenge your skills in negotiation, misdirection, discretion, charisma, and persuasion. The more you play, the more you will learn to expand and master these skills. Each game lasts about half an hour, and is packed with intense exchanges, interactions and a lot of humour. Launch into this risqué adventure! Dare to become one of these offbeat dealers and get a good laugh with your friends. How to Play ILLEGAL is played in two phases: During the first phase, each player receives a deck of cards prepared by the Game Master (GM). These decks assign each player his dealer role and gives him a good quantity of the corresponding resources. Each player's deck also specifies his buyer role, and he will make every effort during the game to get as many resources as possible of the type he is interested in. These roles are kept secret until the end of the game. Players leave the table and split up into continually changing pairs or groups to negotiate and exchange some of their resources, away from prying eyes. Every three minutes, they return to the table to collect new resources at the docks (from the GM). Then they go again for another three minutes of secret dealing. The second phase, called the Tribunal phase, starts once the players have returned to the table and the GM has run out of resources. At the tribunal, players play the roles of jury members, witnesses, suspects and judges! They openly discuss their suspicions concerning the secret roles assigned to every other player. The GM reveals the suspect cards in pairs representing the dealer and buyer roles assigned to the various players. For each card pair, players have one minute to debate. After one minute, a simultaneous vote is cast, and a suspect is formally accused. Scoring At the end of the game, each player reveals his role pair and acquired resources. He scores one victory point for each resource acquired corresponding to his buyer role, one point for each suspect card accusing him wrongly, thus rewarding him for his skills in misdirection and discretion, but he loses 5 points for each suspect card accurately accusing him, representing 5 years spent in prison. It is very easy to end the game with a 10-year jail sentence if you are insufficiently discreet or are too greedy!
| Year | 2014 |
|---|---|
| Designers | Christophe Boelinger |
| Artists | Christophe Boelinger, David Hueso, Jean-Charles Mourey |
| Publishers | asmodee, Conclave Editora, Ludically |
| Players | 5–9 |
| Time | 25 min |
| Status | Played or rated only |
| BGG Rating | 6.0 |
| Categories | Party Game |
| Mechanics | Trading, Voting, Acting |
| BGG Rank | 17861 |
| Complexity | 1.20 / 5 |
| Language | No necessary in-game text |
| Date | Location | Duration | Qty | Players | Scores | Winner | |
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2014-10-19 | – | 1 | – | – | – |
My BGG Comment
5-9 players (with GM). Party game with hidden identities that was more fun than it looked at first. You get a secret buyer and a secret seller identity and some (illegal) wares to sell. You score points for not being discovered and for getting all the wares of the type you are supposed to buy. Mingle in the room with the other players and secretly trade ... sadly a little bit too expensive with 18€ for a pure card game. Also needing a GM is a bit of a bummer - but somebody has to prepare the card stacks so you don't have the same seller and buyer identities.