Oh for Fluxx' sake! (Fluxx)

Member Name: theediscerning

Product:	Fluxx
Date:	10/07/06 (128 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great novelty value that lasts

Disadvantages: The players who don't get it quickly enough, and read their cards too slowly.

Sometimes you only realise you've had a very good day of your life a couple of weeks later. For instance, the pack of Fluxx found in a real treasure trove of a charity shop in the West Midlands for 50p wasn't opened for a few weeks. Who could tell those were wasted weeks, and the actual finding of the card game was really something to be savoured?

There are several versions of Fluxx available; the free and easy ethos of the game is such that you can probably use several decks at the same time, although the Stoner Fluxx cards have unique backs (maaaan). The standard version seems to be 3.0, some people advertise a 3.1, there's a family edition, and an Eco-Fluxx, which seems the only one to go very far from the standard deck reviewed here.

Fluxx is heralded as the card game with no rules. Or rather, a gajillion combinations of rules. Or rather, one. Give anybody who wants to play three cards, out of the deck of 80 different ones, put the basic rule(s) by the deck, leave space on the table, and have fun. Whoever is first to say they want to go first, goes first.

Green cards are worth having; you keep these, if allowed, in front of you until you can use them, as certain pairs are a good way of winning. However you have no idea what green cards you need to win until someone plays a red card that defines how to win the game. The catch is anyone can play a red card at any time, which will change the whole target for everyone.

Yellow cards are rules cards, each showing a change to the basic rules that come into force when you play them. You started off by picking a card from the deck to start your turn, and playing - using - any one card from your hand. The rules changes can alter, for example, the order of play, or how many cards of various kinds you can keep hold of, or how many cards you pick up or play in your turn.

Blue cards are actions, which are mostly good - stealing cards from other people, reusing old cards that have been thrown out. To show how the game likes the random, you may swap your entire hand from the deck, or other people, and more bizarre ideas. One rule allows your first card of each turn to be chosen by other people - this may force you to play a card that loses you the game.

A typical Fluxx game isn't long - between two and thirty minutes they promise, but it doesn't hit either extreme in reality. Because the order of which cards are dealt, which cards you play, which cards you have to discard and so on changes with every game, there are a huge amount of games to play. All raise a laugh, as people get stymied just when they think they're ready to win.

There are several rules that can be played to make the game difficult as well. Some allow you to only hold one card in your hand - so you can easily be forced to throw away cards that seconds later would give you victory, but from experience people try and ignore these more negative cards and not play them. Instead rules expand until you are picking and playing five or six cards per turn, which is just as valid a game. It doesn't make the play faster or slower, or any more interesting - just different.

It's a very easy game to start playing, but it becomes quicker once everyone gets some idea of what the cards do. For the first few games you have to really think, reading every card in your hand to decide your strategy. However experience doesn't really count for much - other people - even those who are allowed to start midway through! - will always come along and ruin your ideas.

Fluxx really is worth a punt. Yes, all you get in your box is a deck of 80-odd cards, and not much else, but that's the point. You don't need score-cards or whatnot. You certainly don't need huge rule books, as the rules are made up as you go along. (You can also buy blank cards for ones of your own.) All you need is a handful of friends you don't mind shafting in a polite way.


Fluxx, and Stoner Fluxx, are available on amazon, with the other mentioned products seen on eBay. Fluxx itself is really a charming little invention, which outlasts any novelty value, and becomes a favourite very easily. It gets slightly knocked down on VFM, and the amount of explaining a game with no rules actually needs! But it most certainly is recommended.


Best played : for 3-6 people, aged eight and above.
Set-up : very easy.
Average playing time : 10-15 minutes.
Online price : between £5 and £8, depending on site, version, seller, etc. Blanks for your own cards : £3.

Summary: A card game that delights in the random, and scorns rules.