Fluxx The Board Game

Last night a sub-group of our game-group brought out Fluxx, the Board Game, to start the evening off lightly. And we played it again. And then again. And we give it the highest praise I think a game can get: we had fun!
This little gem is very Fluxx-like in its goals, its ever-changing (yet simple) rules, and its clever visual puns and rebus-like picture collection. It’s a little finicky in set-up, but not bad. Component-wise, the only thing that garnered any criticism was the cards and pegs used to track the rule settings. The pegs popped out a lot, and we agreed there may be a better way to keep track of that without impacting the street price.
One of us was not a Fluxx player, but “got it” within a few turns. To that I would say it’s very “accessible” – but the game still displays the unpredictable nature of Fluxx. If someone is averse to a touch of chaos in their table-top entertainment, you might advise them to look elsewhere.
My conclusion is that this is a winner for just about any crowd. Regardless of the age rating, a patient pre-schooler could play along with great-grandma and have a great time. Then again, a foursome of “alpha gamers” can have a laugh or two as well, making this a great little filler. Two thumbs up!

Despite having sold lots of copies, Fluxx the Card Game is divisive a design. Many players feel that the game is purely random, too chaotic, that it can last two minutes or to sixty minutes, and that it cannot be won except through random chance. To an extent, this is true, but Fluxx the Card Game is a game about change and adapting to that change—from one turn to the next. Now Looney Labs has turned Fluxx into a board game, and the question is, will Fluxx the Board Game be as good or as bad some think that the card game is?

Fluxx the Board Game uses mechanics similar to the card game, but with a board and playing pieces. The board represents objectives to be reached by moving a player’s two pieces around—such as Cookies, Money, Dreams, and so on—which are matched to the Goal cards. A player simply needs to have his pieces on these objectives to gain a Goal, but where in Fluxx the Card Game a player only needs to have his Keeper cards match one Goal card to win, in Fluxx the Board Game, a player must match and win multiple Goal cards to win. Being a ‘Fluxx’ game, everything though, is subject to change. Just as in the card game, the number of a cards a player must draw, play, and discard fluctuates during Fluxx the Board Game, but being a board game, the number of times and the colour of the playing pieces he can move, the number of Goals he needs to acquire to win, the board layout, and tile rotation are all subject to change.

The board consists of nine square tiles. One is the Start Tile, the other eight represent the playing area. Each of these eight is divided into four spaces, three Goal objectives and a sort of shunt space for multiple playing pieces or a portal to another tile. Together, the nine tiles are arranged into a square around the Start Tile. Two additional tiles serve as the Control Boards. One for the Goal cards, five of which are randomly placed face up in a stack; the other a peg board indicating how many cards a player draws, plays, pieces he moves, and his hand limit as well as if he can rotate and move tiles, and move off the edge of the board and onto the other edge.

The cards are divided between the familiar—to anyone who has played Fluxx the Card Game—and those new that take account of the new playing area. Action cards will be familiar and do things such as ‘Taxation!’ which forces rival players to each give you a single card or ‘Discard and Draw’ which lets a player effectively change his hand. New Action cards interact with the board and playing pieces. For example, ‘Back to Square One’ forces the other players’ playing pieces back to the Starting Square and ‘Rotate Colours’ forces players to change the colour of the playing pieces they control. New Rule cards like ‘Hand Limit’ will be familiar although instead of the limit being set by the card, the player now shifts the appropriate peg on the board, whilst ‘Rotate On’ and similar cards turn the board movement on or off. Goal cards remain unchanged from Fluxx the Card Game except for setting the objectives that the players need to move to claim each Goal card. The new Leaper cards send playing pieces to a particular Objective, like ‘Music’ or ‘The Eye’, or to any ‘Octagon’ or ‘Portal’ space. Lastly, the Colour cards determine which playing pieces a player currently controls.

At game start, each player gets to adjust the control pegs up once and receives a hand of three cards and a color to determine his initial playing pieces. Five Goal cards are placed on the Goal Control Board all face up, the uppermost one setting the initial objectives.

On his turn each player draws a number of cards, then plays cards and moves pieces, and then discards cards, all according to the pegs on the Control Board. A player can play cards and move pieces in any order that he wishes—which is where the game begins to get interesting. To start with, if a player moves a playing piece into an occupied space, it bumps the playing piece already there into an adjacent space—except for Octagon spaces which can hold more than one playing piece. A player can also examine the cards in the Goal stack, though not change their order, so thus he knows what Goals and what Objective spaces he needs to reach throughout the game. Plus a player can play Goal Cards from his hand onto the top of the Goal stack to claim them. This knowledge of the Goals and their Objectives enables a player to actually plan both his card use and his moves. It is even possible for a player to use his cards and move his pieces to gain more than a single Goal in just one turn.

Together, these changes add a strategic element to Fluxx the Board Game not present in Fluxx the Card Game and counter the random element so often criticised in Fluxx the Card Game. Not completely though, as the cards drawn and the actions of rival players still effectively have a randomising effect. None of this fortunately, adds anything in the way of complexity.

Although its Control Boards and pegs do not work as well as they should, the game is decently presented and rules are easy to understand. Pleasingly, rules explain the differences between Fluxx the Board Game and Fluxx the Card Game.

In developing Fluxx into Fluxx the Board Game, the designer has created a game that is more thoughtful than Fluxx the Card Game. Still a light game though, so suitable for a family audience, but still just enough of a challenge so as not to totally bore a gaming audience.