Players in Illico compete in two teams that sit facing one another, the deck of "Illico" cards stacked between them (with a Cache card hiding the top card) and each with three "Joker" cards at their disposal. They choose a number from 1 to 12 to determine which line they'll look at on the cards. At the start of a round, one team flips the sand timer while the other draws the top Illico card and looks at the appropriate line, which will show two things that can be referred to by the same word, such as "A direction and correct?" The team must answer with the word or phrase that describes both halves of the question – in this case "right". (The team holds up the card so that the opposing team can see the answer on the back of the card.) When the team does give the right answer, the other team draws a card and tries to answer the question. The process continues until time runs out, at which point the team not holding the card wins the round. While trying to guess an answer, a team can spend a Joker card to either learn the first letter of the answer or skip the card and draw a new one. The first team to win three rounds wins the game!