In the spirit of games like The Resistance and Secret Hitler, players fill the roles of Freemasons in 1780s Bavaria seeking to identify the subversive Illuminati. Over the course of several rounds, the players will be sent on various missions to secure loyalty in eight Bavarian cities. Some of the players are secretly loyal to the Illuminati, and will sabotage these missions when it is strategically sound to do so. The Illuminati know one another, while the rest of the players are left in the dark. The game is divided into years. The Lodge sends out missions in January, April, September, and November. In December, the Factory owners elect a new Alderman, who has minimal power. Every June the Lodge will elect new officers who will be responsible for assigning the committees that go out on these missions. The Secretary will select where these committees will go (from limited options presented to him), and the Worshipful Master will nominate a committee to send. If the Lodge consents, that committee will go, and their actions will determine the loyalty of that city. Some cities will be visited more than once over the course of the campaign. After four years (sixteen missions), check for the following endgame conditions: All eight cities have picked a side of this fateful conflict Six or more cities are on the same side If both conditions are met, the game ends, and the team with majority control wins. If either of the conditions is not met, then the game continues one more year. At the end of that final round, if neither side has six cities, the Elector, Karl Theodor, will outlaw both the Illuminati and Freemasonry, and the Rosicrucian wins alone. In addition to your secret roles (Loyalist/Illuminati/Rosicrucian), players are given public roles which limit when they can travel, limit the travel of others, allow them to learn the loyalty of another player, or allow them to manipulate committees before they begin their missions. -description from designer