The problem with Scrabble, Upwords, Bananagrams, and other word-based board games is that they're all highly competitive. You can't work together with your friends to communally use all of your letters for a common cause, those triple word tiles are fleeting and precious, and you'll carve your way across the board in a frenzied flurry of consonants and vowels to get there first. Well, Illiterati seeks to change that, offering a cooperative word game experience.
In Illiterati, players control members of the League of Librarians, working together to stop the evil Illiterati from getting rid of all of the world's books and rendering everyone illiterate.
Gameplay in Illiterati unfolds in real time, and is seperated into three phases. First of all, during 'world building', everyone is given a selection of letter tiles that they need to assemble into words. They have three minutes to complete this, and players are able to share letters by depositing and withdrawing them from a central library.
Once the three minutes are up, the game progresses into phase two, 'book binding'. In this phase, everyone checks to ensure that all of their words are legal and then attempts to bind some books, which is this game's way of saying score objectives. Players can use words that meet certain criteria, such as animals, shapes, and emotions, to bind their books and move a step closer to literary victory.
Finally, in phase 3, the Illiterati attack, inflicting a variety of penalties such as confiscating tiles or limiting the variety of words that can be formed in the future.
Once everyone has bound two books, the game advances to the final chapter. To wrap up the game's finale, the entire group must form words that fulfill the requirements of a tricky endgame objective. With that done, you can close the book on Illiterati.
This Kickstarter also includes a new expansion pack: Red Herrings and White Roses. This adds playable characters and villains, each with abilities that impact how the game unfolds.
The Illiterati Kickstarter is now live. $49 (£37) will get you a deluxe version of the base game, $29 (£22) will secure you the expansion, and you can get a bundle containing both for $75 (£57).
If you're looking for a place to chat about games, the Wargamer Discord is certified 100% safe from both the Illuminati and the Illiterati.
Whether you're into word games or war games, you'll want to check out our list of the best board games.