My Illuminati Tournament, first draft
This two-round tournament is designed for a prelim round of 24 to 36 players playing at six tables. The prelim round will probably be split over two con slots, Friday afternoon and evening. I imagine running 2 tables Friday afternoon and 4 Friday evening, but if more than 12 people sign up Friday afternoon I definitely run a third table and cut back Friday evening. The final consists of a table of the six highest scoring players who show up to play Friday twilight. If more than nine players show up, a second table would be run as 'consolation prize'. Everyone would be briefed about the consolation prize to help insure at least 4 'finalists' show up.

In my mind at least, scoring is the critical issue. Scores are reported in a three part method, the first two parts being a percentage, the last part the number of players at the table. The percentages indicates how close the player was in reaching their victory conditions when the game ended. Say Discordia won on a general victory and had 2 (out of a needed 5)Weird groups in a game involving 4 players. That would be reported as a score of 100-40-4, for 100% of general victory, 40% of special victory, and 4 players in the round. The second and third part function essentially as tie-breakers for advancement to the final. It should be noted that the two percentages should always be reported with the higher of the two numbers first.

Slots of scheduled time at Winter War generally last 4 hours. In my experience Illuminati can play in less than that time. Anyone wanting to play a second hand is welcome to do so, but must stop at the predesignated time (say 10 minutes til the slot ends, to allow for scoring).

Anyone who played in one or more games Friday afternoon is welcome to play again Friday night. Unless it turns out to be impossible in the final round, you never get to play the same Illuminati twice.

I have a concern, in that it would be theoretically possible for people to play 4 games, resulting in up to 24 finalists to a two round tournament. Should I get more than 8 winners (100-X-Y) showing up the final round, I guess I could end up running a three round torunament on an ad hoc basis.

I would love to have something to give away in the form of trophies, plaques, etc. I'll have to investigate that angle further. Maybe CafePress.com can help.