Steve Jackson Games

**Steve Jackson Games** (**SJGames**) is a game company often associated with the Illuminati. It was founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and (until 2019) the gaming magazine *Pyramid*.

## Historical

Founded in 1980, six years after the creation of *Dungeons & Dragons*, SJGames created several role-playing and strategy games with science fiction themes. SJGames' early titles were microgames initially sold in 4×7 inch ziploc bags, and later in the similarly sized Pocket Box. Games such as *Ogre*, *Car Wars*, and *G.E.V* (an *Ogre* spin-off) were popular during SJGames' early years. Game designers such as Loren Wiseman and Jonathan Leistiko have worked for Steve Jackson Games.

Today SJGames publishes a variety of games, such as card games, board games, strategy games, and in different genres, such as fantasy, sci-fi, gothic horror.

## Conspiratorial

### Discordianism

They published the book *Principia Discordia*, the sacred text of the Discordian religion, in 1994. This was the first mass published edition since one made by Loompanics in 1970.

### Illuminati

SJGames has published many things related to the Illuminati. These include:

* *Illuminati*, a game of competing conspiracies, based largely on *The Illuminatus! Trilogy* by Robert Anton Wilson. Originally published in microgame format followed by three numbered expansions. Later published in a full-sized box with expansions 1 and 2 as *Deluxe Illuminati*. Expansion 3 would later be reprinted as *Illuminati: Brainwash*.
	+ *Illuminati: Y2K* - all-card expansion for *Deluxe Illuminati*
	+ *Illuminati: Bavarian Fire Drill* - all-card expansion for *Deluxe Illuminati*
	+ *Illuminati: New World Order* (*INWO*), the collectible card game based on concepts in *Illuminati*.
		- *INWO Subgenius* - expansion based on Church of the Subgenius concepts which can also be played stand-alone.
	+ *Illuminati Crime Lords*, a mafia-based variation on Illuminati which combines gameplay elements of the original *Illuminati* and *INWO*.
* *GURPS*, the "Generic Universal RolePlaying Game," has several ties to the Illuminati.
	+ *GURPS Illuminati University, in 1995 introduced Agatha Heterodyne, the character who would go on to star in the popular comic series Girl Genius in 2001.*
	+ *GURPS Warehouse 23* published in 1997 has a collection of hidden items including the Ark of the Covenant, the gold plates of Moroni, and a Yeti.
* *Hacker* is a modern-day card game based on the mechanics of *Illuminati*.
	+ *Hacker II: The Dark Side*

Steve Jackson Games maintains the website illuminati.com

### Secret Service Raid

On March 1, 1990, the Secret Service raided the offices of Steve Jackson Games, seizing three computers, two laser printers, dozens of floppy disks, and the master copy of *GURPS Cyberpunk*; a genre toolkit for cyberpunk games, written by Loyd Blankenship, the hacker and an employee at the time. The Secret Service believed that Blankenship had illegally accessed Bell South systems, and uploaded a document possibly affecting 9-1-1 systems onto Steve Jackson Games's public bulletin board system; and, furthermore, that *GURPS Cyberpunk* would help others commit computer crimes. During their investigation, the Secret Service also read (and deleted) private emails on one of the computers. Though the materials were later returned in June, Steve Jackson Games filed suit in federal court, winning at trial.

## External links

Main website

Illuminati website

The raid helped form the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which was founded in July 1990.