Star fluxx

Have you ever wanted to play a card game where the rules are constantly changing? One that has a general Sci- fi theme, but touches on some of your favorite books or shows? One that is easy to teach, even easier to play AND fits inside your pocket? Than Star fluxx could be a game for you.     

                       

The box cover

Upon opening the box, you see the inside divided in two, each filled with cards,with a rules sheet tucked underneath the insert. 

Inside the box

The rules sheet is short, with a few graphic examples, but after playing a few games you won't even need the it any more, as everything is written on the cards.

The contents of the game are the cards, divided by color, into Keepers, Creepers, Actions, Surprises, Goals and New rule cards. The keepers and goals are the most numerous, as the game is centered around them.

The contents laid out

Every game starts with the Basic rules card placed on the table. All the other cards are shuffled together and placed close by. Each player then gets 3 cards from the deck to start with.

The basic rules card gives the instruction on what a player has to do during his turn. He must draw 1 card from the deck, then play 1 card from his hand. Sounds simple enough, right?

During gameplay, as the players play the cards from their hands, new rules will come into play. When they do, the player will be instructed to discard the previous rule card that alters that aspect of the game (for example, if a draw 2 card was already in play, when playing a draw 5 card, the player would discard the draw 2 card from the game). New rules that introduce a new aspect would be placed along the growing row of rules cards. Most of them also have an additional effect when they come into play.  

Some times the player will be able to use the new rules to his benefit, other times it will hamper him.

New rules

The meat of the game are the Keepers and the Goals. The keepers are what the players collect / steal / trade during the game, in order to achieve the goal that is currently in play. Some of the keepers have an additional effect when in play. As you can see in the image bellow, most are recognizable if you ever read or watched any Sci-fi in your life. It is these little references to Star wars, Star Trek, Doctor who, The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, and others, that give this game its theme.

The keepers

The goals will present the players with the task of collecting the 2 keepers that are shown, before a new goal card replaces it, in order to win the game.

The goals

But watch out, there are 3 cards in the game that change the way its played even further. These must be played as soon as the player draws them. Just follow the text on the card, and draw another card after that. There creepers will attach themselves to the keepers from the player that drew it. They prevent the player from wining the game even if he has the matching keepers for the current goal. The way you deal with these is either to play a new goal that shows the creeper as one of the requirements, or by using one of the action cards.

The creepers

The action cards are one time sort of events, that you can play from your hand, and discard them afterwards. These will allow the players to trade the cards in their hands or in front of them, draw additional cards for the turn, steal a keeper from the opponent, or even discard some or all of the new rules.

The actions

Then there are the surprises. There is only a few of them, but they allow the player to pick the effect listed on the card, and play it either during their own turn (as the rest of the cards) or during the opponents turn thereby preventing the opponent from playing his chosen card.

Surprises

The game plays 2-6 players, ages 8 and up. Its very language dependent as there is a lot of text on the cards. The box says it lasts between 10-40 minutes. Most of our games last around 20 minutes, but we did have a few marathons where we couldn't finish the game after 90 minutes, as the rules are constantly in flux(x). The rules reset card will soon become the favorite one in the deck.  

We had this game for a better part of a decade. We fell in love with its general Sci-fi theme, as at the time there were no Fluxx titles for a specific franchise like there are today (for example there are 4 star trek titles plus an expansion). Having a general sci-fi theme instead of a franchise specific one, means there are but a few cards for each more famous franchise, and that just makes it easier for players to recognize the more famous bits, thus ensuring that every game ends up with an exchange of favorite quotes. 

What we think? Well, after so many years in our collection, we never thought of getting rid of it, though we don't play it as often as we used to. The cards are starting to warp a little. Our average playtime would tend to class this game as a filler, but it can easily turn into a mess where it gets hard to keep track of all the rules that are on the table, and drag on for over an hour. We would much rather play it 3-4 times in a row than go through 90 minutes of actively trying to finish the game just so we can remove it from the table and play something else.

We would recommend this as a filler game if you enjoy a bit of table banter and the inevitable exchange of favorite quotes. It isn't an actual sci-fi game, and the general theme won't make you feel like you just played a Star trek game for example. If we ever get a chance, we would love to try a few other fluxx titles (especially the Star trek and Doctor who ones), perhaps they would have a more immersive theme.

We give it a score of 7/10.