[Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise Voyager, it’s 10-40 minute mission to boldly go where no game of Fluxx has gone before… Ok, it’s gone there several times, but this is the last opportunity I’ll have to play with that introduction. I’ve reviewed all the previous Star Trek Fluxxen (yes, that’s the official plural form of Fluxx), so for Voyager, I handed it off to Debra to get a fresh view on things. -dc]
Fiction seems to be full of what I call “Chaos Games”: games whose rules change at the whim of the player (or creator), games that change while being played, games so complex that no one seems to know all the rules, or games where the rules simply aren’t explained at all. Calvin and Hobbes has Calvinball, Robert Asprin’s Myth Adventures books has both The Big Game and Dragon Poker, Star Wars has Sabacc, the BBC has Mornington Crescent. And finally there’s Fizzbin, the card game made up on the spot by James T. Kirk as a distraction in the episode A Piece of the Action.
The real life version of these is, of course, Fluxx, a card game by Looney Labs. Although I’m not sure if you can really call it “a game” anymore, as there are more themed versions and variants than you can easily count. The only rule in Fluxx that you need to remember is “the rules always change”. At the start of every game, there are only two rules (well, technically three). First, every player gets an opening hand of 3 cards. Second, you draw one card at the start of your turn. And Third, you play only one card, and your turn ends. That’s it. At the start of the game, you don’t even know how to win yet, because the Goal of the game doesn’t exist until someone plays a card for it. And if you are halfway to winning, and someone plays a new Goal, too bad. The original Goal doesn’t exist anymore. As you play the game, the rules change, and multiply; so you have to pay attention at all times. That doesn’t mean that it is difficult. At our play session, a new player, who had never played any version of Fluxx before, joined a game in progress and had no problems.
The version of Fluxx that I am reviewing is Star Trek: Voyager Fluxx, which joins Star Trek Fluxx, Star Trek: TNG Fluxx, the Star Trek Bridge expansion, Star Trek: DS9 Fluxx and the Archer/Porthos expansions to give you an almost full timeline of Trek-themed fun. The game consists of 100 cards, in the following categories: New Rules, cards that directly change the way the game is played; Goals, cards that list what Keepers need to be collected to win the game; Keepers, characters, ships and equipment needed to meet your Goals; Creepers, “bad” cards that prevent you from winning; Actions, cards that you can play once with various effects; and Surprises, cards that you can play at any time to undo an Action, or on your turn to perform a specific Action.
Voyager Fluxx shares the same basic system as all Fluxx games, and many of the same cards. But there are cards specific to both Star Trek and Voyager. As expected from a show that involves time travel, wormholes, paradoxes, etc, you can find multiple versions of the same character, Time Ships, references to individual episodes, and other interesting and amusing surprises. Some of my favourite cards are:
- “Ancestor’s Eve”, a New Rule Card that allows you to draw an extra card if you mention any member of your family (who is older than you), by name, on your turn.
- “That’s Mine”, a Surprise Card that lets you take a card away from an opponent as it is being played
- “Let’s Keep Doing That”, a New Rule Card that allows you to turn a discarded Action Card into a Free Action Rule usable by all players
- “Mobile Emitter”, a Keeper that counts as both a piece of equipment, and an extra copy of “The Holographic Doctor” (I also liked that he was referred to as the Holographic Doctor, and not the Emergency Medical Hologram)
- “Even Better than Coffee Substitute”, a Goal that requires “Coffee” and “Neelix” (although one player pointed out there is no substitute that is better than coffee)
If you enjoy Fluxx, you will like this game. If you enjoy Star Trek, you will love this game. If you prefer games that are different every time you play them, you will definitely enjoy this game. If you prefer games that have very specific, agreed upon rules, well, it’s going to be a long trip back to the Alpha Quadrant.
Bonus Review: Meta FLUXX
[Editor’s nitpicky Note: There is no official name for this, I’ve seen it referred to as Meta Fluxx, Quad Fluxx, Combined Fluxx, and maybe a few other things. In Fluxx, a “Meta Rule” is simply a permanently fixed rule established before the game starts. The Archer Expansion includes the new Meta Rule Card “Combined Decks”-dc]
As part of the game night where we tried out Voyager Fluxx, we took advantage of Dave Chapman’s Big Bag of Games™ and implemented the Meta Game rules as set out in the Bridge, Archer, and Porthos Expansion sets. This system allows multiple Fluxx decks to be included in the same game. The “one active goal” rule is modified so that one Goal from each deck could be in play at any one time. This is probably best played by adding together two or three Star Trek decks, but we were ambitious and threw together four decks and three expansions for maximum chaos. By my estimates, our combined deck included close to 450 cards, divided into 4 draw piles, to reduce the toppling tower thing.
There were some definite advantages and drawbacks to this Meta style of game. The combined game was very fun, but also took a long time to play. With multiple Goals in play at any time, we had to keep a very close eye on all our own Keepers, and each other’s. The biggest problem that we encountered was trying to identify which cards came from which version of Star Trek, to ensure that the “only one Goal from each deck” rule was properly followed. In many cases, it was obvious, based on the characters, titles and artwork on the cards. Other times, we had to rely on very subtle differences in text font, and a lot of guesswork. Partway through the game, we started using the boxes from each deck as a way to keep better track of what was what. At the end of the night, we didn’t even make an attempt to re-separate the cards. Sorry Dave, you are a braver person than I. Although this mega game was definitely a challenge, and not for the faint of heart, it is playable, if you have the time and energy.
Some of my favourite cards from the combined game include:
- “That’s Logical”, a Goal requiring both “Spock” and “Tuvok” (Porthos expansion)
- “Engineering’s Finest”, a Goal requiring “Scotty” and “Laforge” (Bridge expansion)
- “Phaser Overload”, a Goal requiring any two “Phaser” cards (Bridge expansion)
- “The Captain’s Table”, a Goal requiring “Archer” and any other “Captain” Keeper (Archer expansion)
- “Former Borg”, a Goal requiring both “Picard” and “Seven of Nine” (Porthos expansion)
- “Ensign Smith”, a Keeper that can be sacrificed in the place of another if it is traded, stolen or discarded (this is an original Star Trek Fluxx card, not an expansion card, but I had to include it for the humour factor)
Finally, I have to mention what was everyone’s favourite Card Combo of the night, which was when the “Morn” Keeper was given the “Mirror Universe” Creeper attachment. A Mirror Universe version of Morn? That’s really scary!
You can find more Looney Labs goodness online at www.looneylabs.com or on their Facebook page: facebook.com/LooneyLabs.
