Looney Labs Fluxx Mailing list Archive

Re: [Fluxx] Zombie Fluxx Question

  • FromAndy Looney <andy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • DateFri, 04 Jan 2008 16:27:30 -0500
Hi Christopher!

It is one of the first games I ever introduce people to because it
is so easy to explain, and so much fun.  (for most people.)  Fluxx has
gone fishing, camping, to family holidays, cast parties, picnics, the
zoo, and many other places.  It's a wonderful go-to game which I will
never turn down an opportunity to play.

Awesome! I'm so glad you like my game(s) so much.

If the Zombie victory goal is out and there are 5 or more Creeper
cards on the table and One person has the Zombie repellent card and a
zombie gets passed to the person with the zombie repellent, is the zombie
victory condition fulfilled? Or does instantly imply that the person
never actually gets the zombie card? For example it is given to him, and
he passes it on to somebody else before he sets it down?

This is an excellent question. Even I was a bit stumped!

it should be like a force field, which creates a zombie free
zone around your little sanctuary.  (which could in fact be detrimental
if the goal requires a zombie because you don't have a choice.)

That's basically how I see it. If you have the repellent, Zombies never really come into your possession, they bounce away from you again as soon as they approach. But mechanically, when a Creeper is given to the player with the Repellent, they do sort of possess it momentarily, as it's up to them to decide who to immediately pass it along to. So I understand the argument which says for a split second, the Zombie Victory conditions were met. But I think that goes against the spirit of both cards. The idea behind the repellent is that the it keeps zombies from ever getting close enough to you to hurt you, and the idea behind Zombie Victory is that the players lose because everyone's overcome with Zombies. It doesn't feel right to say that a player is "overcome by Zombies" because someone had to spent a moment telling an approaching zombie where to go.

So I say you made the right call. The game continues, Zombie Repellent keeps you from ever truly being in possession of a Zombie.

-- Andy Looney