What is your favourite book? In Illiterati, your favourite books are threatened with a good old fashioned book burning, water damage and other nasty endings, and I’m not talking about the ones Stephen King often writes… Do you know how to save your favourite book?
Goal
In the word game Illiterati, players have to work together, in the role of fearless librarians, to save the world from illiteracy and finally make reading fun. Just kidding! After all, we don’t need to make reading fun, because reading is already totally fun! Players still have to save the world from illiteracy, though, because the Illiterati, a secretive society that hates books, thinks reading is stupid and is trying to make people illiterate by destroying books for some nefarious reasons.
To defeat the Illiterati, players have to collect letters to make the right words to then bind books. When each player has bound enough books, the final chapter begins. As players start collecting letters and making words they compete not only against the Illiterati (cards with nasty effects at the end of each round) but also against the clock.
Setup
At the beginning of the game, all letters (wooden tiles) are put into one of two beautiful draw bags. There are different vowels and consonants, jokers and some tiles have a specific colour (symbol) to just multiple colours (symbols). Players shuffle the two different piles of book cards (red and blue) and also the pile of Illiterati cards. Each player already gets 5 letters from the draw bag, a summary card and a red book. Players place a certain amount of tiles in the centre of the table to form the library. The library is a kind of central supply of letters, but beware as there should not be too many letters left in the library at the end of the round. Hourglass, draw bag and a burned letters tile are also placed in the centre of the table and players are ready to play.
Gameplay
In this real-time game, players have to form letters and bind books. During the game, players have to bind a number of books depending on the difficulty level. In regular play, each player has to bind a red and a blue book and once each player has succeeded, the final chapter begins. Each book indicates the condition the player must fulfil in order to bind the book. To bind books, players have to create specific words, often with certain amount of letters or use certain amount of words and letters in specific colours.
For example, the red books show a category, a minimum amount of letters and certain amount of specific colours. If, at the end of a round, a player has met the condition and no letter is burned that round, that player has managed to bind their book.
Each round proceeds in a number of steps. Players draw a quantity of letters from the bag. Then the 3-minute timer (an hourglass is included in the deluxe version of the game) starts counting down and players try to make words. Letters are burned if players had too many letters left, made incorrect words or have too many words in front of them. If no letters are burnt and a player meets the conditions of his book, a book is bound and at the end of every round the Illiterati attacks.
After the hourglass and letters are turned over, players can confer and swap letters with each other. The goal: make words and survive. Players do not necessarily have to make words that match with their book, but this is obviously useful if they want to win the game. When the hourglass runs out, players are no longer allowed to swap letters. All unused letters and incorrect words disappear to the library, and if the library limit is exceeded, a letter is burned. Too many burnt letters? Then the players have lost.
At the end of the round, you draw an illiterati card. Each card has a particular negative effect, and if a particular villain’s cards are drawn several times, you have to perform all its effects. Effects often require you to discard letters or words. In the final chapter (when all players have bound enough books), a final book is drawn and players must fulfil the conditions on the right side of the book. Each player must fulfil the conditions of the final chapter in the same round.
Verdict
Illiterati is a particularly fun and refreshing word game with a very playful theme and also a very playful character. The game, unlike many other word games, has a lot of personality and high production values. The game offers a fun and unusual cooperative challenge where players try to make words through refreshing tasks under time pressure. Players will scream across the table asking for certain letters and will have to think with each other to form certain words.
The time pressure means that no single player can ‘boss’ the other players around as is often the case in many cooperative games where players are allowed to communicate. As a result, everyone is actually playing and puzzling. Illiterati is relentless despite its cheerful theme (even though the the bad guys are literally burning books). The game is genuinely difficult, but therefore an actual and rewarding challenge you want to face. Sometimes players are unlucky if they only pull useless letters from the bag, but players can make a rule that they can swap letters with the bag once during a round. Players can also turn Illiterati into a party game element by adding extra peculiar effects to the bad guys’ cards that reduce players’ ability to communicate with each other or even prevent them from using their thumbs.
All in all, Illiterati is a very attractive game: it is beautifully designed, it is unique, suitable for both young and old, and it puts a special spin on both word games and cooperative games. Regardless of your literacy level, a nice epilogue to a great games night!
