Chairman of the Board: Games make brains

‘Fluxx’ game review

By Ed Appleby, Illustrator

The rules and goals of a game create the framework in which the game can be played. In fact, some board games can become bogged down by vast books of complex rules. But what if there was a game where the rules and goals were constantly changing?

Fluxx is a card game for two to six players, designed and published by Andrew and Kirstin Looney of Looney Labs in 1997. Each player is dealt three cards and the game starts with the base rule of draw one, play one. The cards are either new rules affecting hand limit, draw and play rate, or other play matters; actions that take immediate effect; goals that set the conditions for winning the game; and keepers that are used to meet the goals. Once a player meets the active goal, they win.

Fluxx is a very accurate name, as goals and actions are constantly changing. Gameplay can last anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour. While strategy is a big part of the game, your plans can be easily ruined by other players. Though the game suffers from some “analysis paralysis” and variable length issues, the constant examining of each player’s moves and re-evaluation of your own strategy makes this game deserving of its recognition by Mensa.

There are many different versions of Fluxx for many different tastes: sci-fi, Wizard of Oz, Christian, and Monty Python are just a few of the 14 different versions. Like Munchkin, different decks can be combined and there are also blank decks that let you make up your own cards. The deck size makes Fluxx a great take-and-play-anywhere game. All of the decks have witty tongue-in-cheek humour and the replay value is huge as the game is impossible to master and even the greenest players have a chance.

I feel that every group of gamers should have at least one version of Fluxx in rotation.