Game, Play, Mechanics

It's blog time again; today's subject is the use of game mechanics in Fluxx; a game that has no real story. There is no sequence of actions causing a character to rise up ladders or go down chutes, nor does it chronicle rival property lords hoping to develop a real estate monopoly. Fluxx does not benefit from a theme such as a parody of D&D game play and mechanics, nor the impression of being an executioner during the French revolution. Fluxx is a game designed entirely around its rules and mechanics.

A game based around rules, sounds "fun" doesn't it? It's actually not too bad, the game is turn based with turns that proceed clockwise around the table. Each turn consists of drawing cards, playing cards, and if need be, discarding cards. The cards you play fall into 5 categories: Keeper, Creeper, Rule, Action or Goal. Keeper cards get played in front of you, they do not affect the game in anyway unless the current goal card requires them to win. Creepers are also played in front of you, they have no effect on game play except they prevent you from winning the game unless the goal card say otherwise. Rule cards dictate how many cards are drawn each round, how many cards are played each round, how many cards you may have in your hand at once and miscellaneous other rules. Actions allow you to get rid of rules, steal other people's cards, pick a card from the discard pile, and other generic actions. Finally goal cards determine the conditions for winning,, which from my experience all seem to revolve around if you have 2 random keepers in front of you or not.
So how does this game play out? For me it was an exercise in randomness and tedium. It is a grand leap from Candy Land in the number of choices you can make at any given time, but at the same time the decisions that you make have a relatively low chance of actually affecting the end of the game. It is almost remarkable when you think about it; there are 2 randomly generated sets, rules, and keepers, and the goal of the game is that the goals line up with a certain players keepers first. Simplified the game would play out by every player randomly being assigned a number 1-6, then a die being cast. If the die number equals a player number, that player wins, if not roll again. If you want to replicate the tedium and length of the game, try the same game with a D20.

In closing, my particular experience was not the best, but I am by no means the authority of which board games shall triumph, and which shall fail. There is the chance of a fun game emerging from the mess of keepers, creepers, actions, rules and goals, but like everything else in Fluxx, it is just a small chance of good amongst an ocean on pointlessness.