INWO Book explained

The INWO Book is a book published by Steve Jackson Games (SJG) in 1995 about the company's satirical collectible card game (CCG) .

Description

With CCGs on the rise in 1994 following the release of , Steve Jackson Games published Illuminati: New World Order (INWO), a CCG with complex rules that won the 1994 Origins Award for Best Card Game. The game was immensely popular — Jackson reported that "pre-sales alone were more than 10 times as much as for any game we'd done before."

The following year, SJG published a guidebook about INWO titled The INWO Book,^[1] subtitled "Being a Compendium of Lore, Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics concerning the New World Order of the Il;luminated Masters." The 152-page paperback was written by Steve Jackson, with illustrations by John Kovalic, David Martin, Shea Ryan, and Dan Smith.

The book contains

• Steve Jackson's production reports about planning sessions leading up to the publication of the game
• complete and updated rules, as well as optional rules and variant games
• official tournament rules
• suggested strategies and deck builds
• an overview of every card published in the initial print run
• a complete card list
• the various printing styles for rare and ordinary cards

The book contained rules, strategies, color prints of all cards, and also included a rare card from the Unlimited Edition.^[2]

Reception

In the October 1995 edition of Dragon (#222), Rick Swan noted that the book provides "everything you want to know" about INWO, and called it a revealing read.^[3]

Notes and References

1. Web site: The INWO Book.
2. Quick takes. 1. InQuest. Wizard Entertainment. 13–15. May 1995.
3. Swan. Rick. Rick Swan. October 1995 . Roleplaying Reviews. Dragon. TSR, Inc.. 222. 29.