Fluxx

It's the simplest game in the world - until you've played for a few minutes. Actually, when the game begins, there is only a single rule: draw a card into your hand and then play a card from your hand. There isn't even a winning condition at the outset, just the one rule. As the game progesses, the players will take turns establishing the winning condition (typically having to do with the placement of green Keepers in front of oneself) as well as more rules, which often redefine the numbers of cards to draw and play but can have other, subtler, effects. Players can also play certain one-shot cards that steal Keepers, shuffle hands and generally make it less clear how close one is to winning. I understand that some people don't like the chaos of Fluxx, but I find it to be endearing.

The game can be long or short, and one never gets a strong impression that very much is at stake, so it's not a big deal to appoint a winner (or not) and call the game off in favor of another activity. That makes Fluxx an ideal filler game at Game Night while people wait for others to arrive or finish off another game.

While I have yet to test this, I believe Fluxx would make a good PartyGame to spring on, shall we say, less game-centered groups of people than one might find at Game Night.

--Paul_David_Unwin?

BoardgameGeek page for Fluxx

Here in Toronto, we've observed that Fluxx is more appealing to the light gamers as Paul suggested above. It makes for a good pub game, unless you're eating dinner; the game can require quite a bit of table space. Looney_Labs? also publishes blank cards for the game. We wanted to add more cards to personalize the deck we used, but with a mind for game balance we made sure that each Keeper card we made could be used for exactly two Goals, and new Goals would only allow for each Keeper to have two uses. To this end, here are the new cards we wrote: Cigarettes(Keeper), Whoops!(Goal, must have Cigarettes and Rocket), Hooker's Breakfast (Goal: must have Coffee and Cigarettes), Steal A Rule (Action: select one of the new rules in effect and take it into your hand), Reverse Order (New Rule: if the order of play was clockwise, it is now counter-clockwise (or vice-versa)).

--Moses_Moore?

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