MORE Fluxxen

This month’s Looney Saturday review is MORE than just a single review. This month we are looking at MORE than one Flux product, Hence the title MORE Fluxxen. Fluxxen is the plural form of Fluxx, and this month we are looking at three booster sized expansion packs: MORE Rules, MORE Actions, and MORE Surprises.

MORE Rules

The biggest draw to any given Fluxx game is usually the theme. Fans of Firefly will be drawn to Firefly Fluxx. Whovians want Doctor Who Fluxx. There is Cthulu Fluxx, Math Flux, Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland Flux, Astronomy Fluxx, Anatomy Fluxx, Star Fluxx, four Star Trek Fluxxen, and more. But the reason that there are so many themes, is that the core mechanics of Fluxx are so well done. A big part of that are the New Rule Cards that keep Fluxx in constant flux. MORE Rules brings back ten lesser seen New Rules and three Meta Rules. 

Meta Rules are rules that are set at the start of the game and never change. (He says, knowing full well that just saying it is tempting both Fate and Andy Looney to change the whole not-changing thing somehow.) “Combined Decks” helps to facilitate using multiple Fluxx decks. (Shocking, right?) With decades of Fluxx out in the world, there are some sets that are naturally complimentary and some that are so different that combining them would be ridiculous. Do the ridiculous, just remember that more deck makes a longer game even when you can have multiple goals in play. Want the game to go even longer? Of course you do. Use “Keep Going” to keep… going… (another shocker) after a goal is achieved. Set your own ending condition or use “Time Limit” to (do I really have to say this? Fine…) set a time limit for play.

The rest of the New Rule cards are less bluntly named. Some of them less you look or draw different cards while others are weirder. “Double Vision” changes the numeral “1” to the numeral “2” on any card, but only the numeral. So “1” but not the word “one”. “Camouflage” lets you flip over a Keeper you have in front of you and it is not considered to be in play, which can super useful. The last New Rule I want to mention is “Let’s Do That!” which lets you take an Action Card out of the discard pile and put it in play for anyone to use as a Free Action (For as long as the New Rule card is in play, of course.) Action Cards, you say? There are never enough Action Cards. I want…

MORE Actions

That’s what we, in the business, call a seamless segue. 

The MORE Actions pack includes ten fan favourite Action Cards. More than half of them move Keeper Cards around. Since specific Keepers are the key to winning the game, it’s no surprise these cards are popular with players. But my absolute personal favourite is “Pandora’s Box”. High risk, hopefully high reward, and guaranteed high chaos. Draw a card. If it’s a New Rule, put it in play. If it’s a Creeper play it in front of you. Anything else is discarded, with this continuing until three New Rule cards have been played. What the game will look like after you open Pandora’s Box is a complete surprise. A surprise being an unknown thing until it happens, not an actual Surprise Card. Those exist and you can even get… 

MORE Surprises

Okay, not as seamless, but still a decent segue.

Surprise Cards are a fairly new card type to Fluxx, so many players may never have seen them before. MORE Surprises contains the four original Surprises, four rarer ones, and two all-new cards. Overall, Surprise Cards have three uses. They can be played on another player’s turn to respond to a card they have played. They can be played on your own turn for a similar, but different effect. They can be played anytime to cancel another Surprise Card. 

Often a Surprise is played to defend yourself or to screw over another player. But believe it or not, they can be used to help another player. “Not My Problem!” for example, lets you choose who a Creeper is played on when another player draws one.

BONUS REVIEW: Fluxx Sham-Bo

Fluxx Sham-Bo was last year’s holiday gift. A simple seven-card booster themed around Ro-Sham-Bo, or more commonly: Rock-Paper-Scissors. 

The contents may be, and may already be, quickly predictable. There is one Action Card: “Rock-Paper-Scissors Showdown” that allows you to challenge another player to three rounds of Rock-Paper-Scissors with the winner taking the loser’s entire hand. It is one of the more unique Fluxx cards available and can make for a huge shift in the game.

Now the predictable part. There are three Keeper Cards: “Rock”, “Paper”, and “Scissors”. Finally three Goal Cards: “Paper Covers Rock”, “Rock Smashes Scissors”, and “Scissors Cuts Paper”.

Although there are some exceptions, most Fluxx games are intended to be played individually, not mixed. You could put “Rock-Paper-Scissors Showdown” into any game, even a full Star Trek Meta Fluxx. But the rest of the cards really do need to be in a single deck (which is, again, the norm for most people.)

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