Martian Fluxx
by Dan Repperger

Like many gaming groups, mine keeps a collection of board games and card games we also enjoy playing.  Sometimes we’ll skip roleplaying completely for a week in favor of Descent or Arkham Horror.  Sometimes we just need filler while we’re waiting on a late player or letting the GM handle events that don’t involve everyone.

One of the best card games I’ve been introduced to is Fluxx.  And, no, they’re not paying me to say that.  I genuinely mean it, and if you haven’t tried the game, you ought to at least borrow a copy to see how it runs.  They’ve released several versions of Fluxx, each with a different theme.  There’s the original version, which is honestly a bit bland, though they do offer mini-expansions to give it some spice.  After that came Monty Python and zombie themed games, which I think are a lot more fun.  All of them are lighthearted and focus on the joy of playing over any sense of competition.

In case you’ve never played Fluxx, you only have a few rules…

1. Everyone draws three cards to start with.

2. If you have a bad guy (called a Creeper), you have to play it immediately and draw another card.

3. You pick a player to start and work around the table clockwise from there.

4. On your turn, all you have to do is draw one card and play one card.

That’s it!  Sound boring?  Let’s go back to the name of the game.  It’s called Fluxx because the game is constantly changing.  The cards allow you to keep modifying the rules and objective of the game.  Maybe you draw more cards, play more cards, trade hands with someone, kill off a Creeper, or do silly meta-game things like talking in an accent.  If the rules become too burdensome, there are cards that let you wipe them all out and return the game to its original state.

Looney Labs has been admirably creative with the variety of cards, so each game will play a bit differently.  The rules are so simple that you can teach even the biggest moron to play in a matter of seconds.  And since the game is constantly changing, you can easily add players at any time.  I’ve joined games 10 minutes in and won within a couple of turns.

If you’re still not following, let me give you an example from the zombie version of the game.  When the game starts, you’re in a zombie apocalypse, trying to get away.  The Creepers are zombies which can keep you from winning.  But you also get good guys (called Keepers) like friends, chainsaws, and food rations.  The game’s objective — which changes whenever someone plays a new one — generally involves having the right combination of Keepers, without any Creepers that preclude your victory.  For example, having both the gasoline and car, in which case you can drive away.

On September 25th, they’ll be releasing a version of the game called Martian Fluxx, which is based on campy, sci-fi movies.  You play an alien trying to — well, it depends on the cards in play, but you’re trying to do something.  And those pesky humans (the Creepers) keep getting in your way.  Fortunately, you have Keepers like ray guns and abduction machines to help you out.

Each version of Fluxx plays a little bit differently, and the Martian version is no exception.  But for anyone that’s new to the game, I can assure you they’re similar enough that you don’t really need to stress over which one has the best rules or most entertaining cards.  Simply pick the one that fits the interests of your group of friends.  If you’re more into Monty Python than Martians or zombies, there ya go.  It’s like picking a setting book for a generic RPG system: whether you go with aliens or wizards, you’re still playing the same game.

For anyone that’s familiar with the prior incarnations, we tried several rounds of Martian Fluxx to see how it plays.  It’s not a radical departure from anything you’ve seen before, but we did notice one major thing.  In the zombie version, Creepers had a lot of their own rules and behavior mechanisms, which was something not really seen in prior versions.  For example, killing one zombie in a crowd might send that crowd running to a neighboring player.  Martian Fluxx draws that back a little but introduces a lot of rules for the Keepers.  For example, you can use an abduction card to make the presence of humans irrelevant, or you can use your ray gun to blast things out of existence.

My final analysis is that the game is enjoyable, but as I stressed above, the important thing about Fluxx is picking the right flavor.  If you’re not that into Martians, stick with your zombie, Monty Python, Jewish, Christian, or even marijuana (?!)* flavors of the game.  But if you like little green men with big brains picking on hapless humans, this will be worth your $14.97.

* I didn’t even know that version existed until doing some site look-ups while writing this review.

UPDATE: After posting this article, I was contacted by Looney Labs with some interesting tidbits, quoted below…

Since you mentioned it in your article, I do want to let you know that Stoner Fluxx has been out of print for over 4 years.  Looney Labs recently launched a second imprint called Fully Baked Ideas, which we will use to release games with adult themes.  The first Fully Baked Ideas release will be a new and improved version of Stoner Fluxx on November 13, 2009.  The reason Looney Labs created Fully Baked Ideas is to keep all consumer marketing separate, so that children on our family games website will not be exposed to adult oriented games.