Looney Labs Fluxx Mailing list Archive

Re: [Fluxx] Hand Limits Optional

  • FromChristopher Hickman <tophu@xxxxxxx>
  • DateFri, 08 Aug 2008 15:43:16 -0400
On Friday, August 08, 2008, at 03:33PM, "James Hazelton" <jameshazelton@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>This reminds me of the time I was playing Fluxx in the Border's Cafe with my
>Wednesday night game group, and we invited a stranger who was waiting for a
>game of chess to open up to come play with us. I was a little worried that
>the game would be too complicated for him, as he had never played Fluxx at
>all before, and it's not uncommon with my deck to have a dozen New Rules out
>at once. But the stranger kept up quite adeptly; he would read each card as
>it was played and never seemed to get overwhelmed. As it turned out, he was
>a computer programmer, and keeping all of those rules in his head proved no
>challenge at all. Midway through the game, he began commenting on some of
>the custom cards I made with Blanxx. He would bring up loopholes and
>exploits that came about because of my word choice--loopholes I had never
>even considered before. Oftentimes, I don't have room to explain on a card
>just how it interacts with other cards, but our group has an understanding
>that the cards work as I intended them to. But the computer programmer, who
>hadn't been in our group long enough to know how we play certain cards, and
>who was reading the text, word by word, for the first time, insisted that we
>play the way the cards are written. He pointed out loophole after loophole;
>I hadn't realized just how flawed my text had been. We did allow him to play
>cards as written rather than intended, but I told him that I would be going
>back to the drawing board and revising each card so that he couldn't pull
>these stunts again.

That's why the "Draw up to 7" new rule* in my deck has so many dang words.  It's a really simple concept, but difficult to cram all of the words required to handle that concept on to the card.

Topher
-----
I'm tired of choosing the lesser of two evils.
Make a real choice for President: www.BobBarr2008.com

*That new rule is "Draw no cards per turn. If it isn't your turn you should have at least 7 cards in hand. If you don't, immediately draw cards until you have 7 cards. (No hand limit.)" It replaces any draw and/or hand limit rules in play and makes you draw until you have seven at the end of your turn.