... and this is what they looked like before:

As you will have noticed, not only do the new cards have a prettier colour scheme (that's what I think, anyway, and I hope you'll agree), but more importantly, two parameters have been dropped: The colour in which name and life data are written is now always identical to the colour of the number, and both are permanently linked to the background colour.

The reason for this change is that after playing with this deck for two years I have come to the conclusion that I really had gone slightly over the top in my endeavour to pack as many features as possible into the cards. For satisfying gameplay it was definitely a bad idea to have all parameters in play, and having to explicitely exclude some of them before each session was becoming a bit of a drag.

So the distinctive features we're left with are the following:

12 Numbers (1 to 12)
4 background colours
3 frame colours
2 frame shapes
2 picture colours (black & white = person is dead, colour = person is alive)
2 genders (male / female)

As a steady diet, my recommendation would be that by default (i.e. unless God decrees otherwise) all of these features are in play except the last (male / female).
Two binary criteria are enough, and the other two are easier to distinguish visually.
If gender is in play, however, at least one of the other parameters (e.g. numbers) should be excluded.

Anyway, these are mere recommendations (based on quite a lot of playing experience, though), and if you want a really tough game you could even include that old favourite "person faces left or right" (still distributed evenly in the deck), or allow rules based on people's names or life data etc.

With beginners or children, however, it's a good idea to narrow things down to one or two criteria at the beginning of the game (e.g. :"We're going to play with background and frame colours only", or "men / women & dead / alive only" etc.).

In a round of "initiated" players this aspect of the game can be left to regulate itself, in the sense that "God", in order to score well, has a vital interest in that at least one of the scientists will eventually crack his rule, so he'll tend to give the necessary hints (see below) at the outset.

"What's that whole Eleusis thing anyway?" I hear you mutter.
Here's a bit of history and a summary of what the game is all about:

What all incarnations of the game have in common is the following:
One of the players ("God") concocts a secret rule, according to which the rest of the players (the "scientists") have to place cards on the table in an ever-increasing row. God accepts or rejects the scientists' attempts to get rid of their cards (which is their ultimate aim), and from his decisions they have to gradually deduce the hidden rule - a process not unlike scientific experimentation in pursuit of the hidden laws of nature.
The original appeal of Eleusis lies in the way it makes you think: For once, the objective is not to make the best out of a fixed set of rules known from the outset to all the players, but to find out about those rules in the first place - before anybody else does! - or (if you're "God") invent a rule that is just about "crackable" for the other players. Its reliance on inductive (rather than deductive) logic means that the game can never be fully mastered and is a fresh challenge each and every time.

What you will find here are two things:
1. My own deck of 192 cards especially designed for this game
2. A summary of the current rules of "Eleusis" (adapted, where necessary, to the new deck).

The game is perfectly playable with three or four standard Poker decks of 52 cards each, and that's what Robert Abbott based his rules for Eleusis and New Eleusis upon (the obvious advantage being that anybody anywhere can pick it up and play immediately).
However, I have always found this less than satisfactory, in view of the limited aesthetic appeal of those cards, and, perhaps more to the point, their limited quantity of usable distinctive features: there are 4 suits, which can be grouped in 2 colours (red and black), 13 ranks (2-10 plus J, Q, K, A which are assigned the values 11, 12, 13, 1), and that's pretty much it. Having 13 numbers is awkward (if, for instance, a rule is based on even / odd numbers, the deck will sooner run out of the former than the latter), and having to permanently keep in mind the numbers represented by the picture cards means an unwelcome additional brain-strain which detracts from the real fun.

Now let's have a look at the

Rules of Eleusis

The original Eleusis was a great game, but New Eleusis, now standard and hence itself called Eleusis,  is even better, much better! Apart from addressing a few minor gameplay issues, its main achievement (and a true stroke of genius!) is the introduction of a third character, the "Prophet". This fellow is a former scientist who believes he has figured out God's hidden rule, and consequently assumes divine functions (calling the plays good or bad, that is), until he gets it wrong and is overthrown and publicly humbled...
 

Number of players:
4 to 8, aged 8+
(At a pinch, 3 can also play; 5 or 6 players is best)

Material:
- The Ludopath Eleusis Deck of 192 cards
- 4 white and 4 black markers
- paper and pencil for scoring

Preparation:
Cards are drawn, highest number plays God in the first round. From then on this function proceeds clockwise.
God writes his secret rule on a piece of paper and sits on it.
 

Click here to see loads of sample rules  ranging from very easy to nasty!

The scientists are dealt 14 cards each.

God keeps the rest of the deck and later deals the scientists (and Prophets) their penalty cards from it.

Now (and only now!) is the time for God to give hints about the secret rule, if he sees fit. Examples:
"Colours (or: numbers) are especially important this time."
"Look only at the pictures of the personalities and ignore the rest."
"There's only one feature in play."
"You can ignore numbers."
"Don't just look at the last card on the table."  etc.

The Play

God chooses a card from the remainder of the deck and starts the row placing it on the table. The scientist on his left then makes his first "experiment" by adding a card from his hand. If the card is correct according to the secret rule, God gives it the nod and play proceeds with the next scientist. If the card is wrong, it is placed to one side of the space where the correct card would have gone (1), and God deals this scientist two new cards, before play continues with the next scientist..
(Note: According to Robert Abbott's "official" rules, the rejected cards are placed next to the last card played correctly, rather than next to the following card played correctly (which obviously isn't there yet). I suppose this is merely a matter of taste; personally I prefer the latter method, because it seems to make it somewhat easier to compare accepted and rejected cards at a given juncture.)

A scientist may, if he feels confident, at any time try to add more than one card to the row, up to a maximum of four. God evaluates this attempt as a whole, i.e. he accepts it only if the entire sequence of cards follows the rule, and rejects it wholesale if the sequence contains the slightest mistake. In this latter case he must not reveal where the mistake lies exactly. The wrong cards are added as a group (2)to the side of the wrong cards, and the scientist receives two penalty cards for each of them.

Important special case: Whenever a scientist, on his turn,  believes that none of his cards is playable according to the rule, he shows his hand to everybody and God examines the veracity of the claim. If the scientist was right, he hands in his cards to God and is dealt new ones, but four less than he had before. If he had only four (or less) cards left, this may actually finish the round. If, on the other hand, God does find a playable card in the hand, he adds that card to the row and deals the deluded scientist five penalty cards.

As soon as a player plays his last card(s) successfully, the round ends immediately, and scoring ensues (see below).

God puts a white marker (3) on every 10th card placed on the table (be it wrong or right!). After the 40th card has been added, a "sudden death" phase begins, during which each scientist who plays a wrong card (or erroneously claims "no play") is immediately eliminated from this round. His wrong card is placed in the usual manner and he receives two (or more, if he tried to lay a string of cards) last penalty cards. The number of cards he holds now will count for him in the end.
(When there is an active Prophet, sudden death starts after the 4th black marker, see below.)

The Prophet

A scientist who is confident to have understood the secret rule may, at any time, declare his intention to become "Prophet". There can only be one Prophet at a time. If other scientists want to be Prophet as well, the one who placed the last card (wrong or right!) on the table takes precedence, and following him the others in the order of play (i.e. clockwise).
A player who (unsuccessfully) has been Prophet before in the same round is no longer eligible for the job. A further condition is that apart from the would-be Prophet, at least two other scientists must still be in play (i.e. not eliminated).

As soon as a Prophet takes office he puts his cards aside (but not entirely: he may need them again if he's overthrown!).
From now on he, rather than God, calls the scientists' plays correct or incorrect. God watches him closely, and after the slightest error the Prophet is overthrown, picks up his hand again and is penalized with 5 additional cards.

Special rule: If a player occasioned the ousting of a Prophet by playing a wrong card (or combination of cards) which the Prophet erroneously called "good", this player does not receive the penalty card(s) he would normally, nor is he eliminated in "sudden death". This exception encourages speculative play with the objective of "catching out" a Prophet whose grasp of the hidden rule is less than firm.

At the moment of taking office the Prophet puts a black marker (4) on the last card played, and from now on on every 10th card. When he puts the 4th black marker (i.e. 30 cards after he took over as Prophet) the round goes into "sudden death" mode.
The white markers, meanwhile, keep being placed as well, so that after the downfall of a False Prophet "sudden death" may sometimes commence immediately, if the overall number of 40 cards has been reached.
After the overthrow of a Prophet the black markers are withdrawn, and should there be another Prophet later on, he has to start putting them anew.

End of a Round

A round ends when a scientist has no cards left or when all scientists have been eliminated in "sudden death".
(You may want to admit the following exception:
If the player who just played his last card wishes to play on as Prophet, he forfeits the 4 point bonus for "zero cards" (see "Scoring" below), and later receives the Prophet's score plus the "high count" (see below) instead. If subsequently he fails as Prophet he is dealt 8 (!) penalty cards and has to play on as a run of the mill scientist again.)

Scoring
 

1. All players (including the Prophet!) count their hand and the maximum number of cards held by any player is established as the "high count". All scientists and the Prophet (but not God) receive that number of points minus the number of their own hand cards. (The holder of the biggest hand thus receives 0 points). 2. Every player (except God) without any cards gets a bonus of 4 points. 3. A "True Prophet", i.e. one who was still in office at the end of the round, receives 1 point for every correct card and 2 points for every incorrect card played after he took over. 4. God gets the smaller of the following two numbers of points: a) the highest score of all the other players (scientists and Prophet) b) double the amount of cards played before the True Prophet took office (i.e. before the 1st black marker).

Ludopath House Rule: If neither a) one of the scientists has managed to get rid of all of his cards, nor b) there is an active True Prophet at the end of the round,  it follows that God has made his secret rule too difficult, and hence in this case his score will automatically be "zero points". (This rule may sound harsh, but in my experience it has a very healthy effect on gameplay. The least enjoyable rounds of Eleusis are those with an impossibly difficult rule, and it makes sense to give God some extra motivation to think hard about what he can or cannot expect the other players to solve!)

Ideally, the game ends after as many rounds as there are players (i.e. when everybody has played as God once). Should the game have to be interrupted before, all players who have not been God yet receive a bonus of 10 points.
The player with the most points is the winner (surprise, surprise!).
 
 

Now then, it's time for a little download session!
As you can see below, the Ludopath Eleusis Deck comes in 8 sheets of 24 cards each. Click on each sheet to enlarge and download from there. File sizes are about 180 KB each.

The cards are 150 pixels wide and the jpg-compression rate is 25%, which means perfectly adequate quality for inkjet printing.
(My original cards are 261 pixels wide, but in your printouts you shouldn't notice this difference at all. If, however, for some reason you require best quality, just drop me a line.)

Print each sheet in A4 format, which will give you a card size of approximately 3,5 x 6,2 cm.

As always, I recommend you print the cards on white cardboard (the thickest your printer can stomach) and protect them with adhesive plastic (transparent on the front, any structured yet unobtrusive pattern on the back).

I wish you good luck with the handiwork, and bags of fun with this wonderful game!
 
 

Worried that the numerous distinctive features of the Ludopath deck might make for an unnecessarily steep learning curve? Anxious to minimize the handiwork and start playing as soon as possible? Afraid that your playing table might be too small? For - err - wimps like you I have added the Basic Edition with cards stripped down to the bare essentials!