The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Shea met Wilson in the late 1960s when they worked on Playboy magazine. They decided to collaborate on a novel. It would combine sex, drugs, religious cults and conspiracies, as well as anarchy. Their philosophical and political differences merely served to enrich their efforts. Objectivity was jettisoned, as indeed was subjectivity: no single point of view or version of reality was privileged: Illuminatus! was the three-volume consequence.
Illuminati, a card game from Steve Jackson Games, was inspired by the books. A trading card game, Illuminati: New World Order, and a role-playing game, GURPS Illuminati, followed.
Shea provided in 1983 a brief introduction for the Illuminati Expansion Set rule book. "Maybe," he wrote, "the Illuminati are behind this game. They must be. They are, by definition, behind everything."
He and Wilson, though living in Chicago and California respectively, remained good friends in later years.
Read more about this topic: Robert Shea