Looney Labs Fluxx Mailing list Archive

[Fluxx] Editorial Suggestions for Zombie Fluxx reprint

  • From"Bryan Stout" <bryan.stout@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • DateWed, 13 Aug 2008 09:03:45 -0400
We're about to go to press with Monty Python Fluxx, plus we're about to reprint Zombie Fluxx as version 1.1 (with a few little tweaks) and later there's Martian Fluxx and someday Fluxx 4.0 and who knows what else. All of them will have Hand Limits. So what should I do for these and all future versions of Fluxx?

-- Andy

Here is a list of editorial things you might wish to change for the Zombie Fluxx reprint. Many of these have been mentioned on this list already.

-- Rules Sheet, "How to Play" section. If you're ready to make a decisive ruling about whether Draw X must precede Play Y, this looks like the best place to do it. [The Zombie Quartet card is probably the most obvious reason this issue comes up.]

-- Rules Sheet, "On Your Turn" list. I'm pretty sure #3, "Follow other current New Rules (if any)", actually refers to the New Rules that allow extra actions during one's turn, i.e. Eradication Bonus; Look, Over There!; Weapon Bonus; Zombie Season. Most of the other New Rules affect how the other steps of a happen, so following them doesn't feel like a separate step. You may want to reword #3 to something like: "Carry out other actions allowed by cards on the table (if any)." This focuses the step to those New Rules with extra actions, while also including Keepers with actions like The Shotgun.

-- Rules Sheet, "On Your Turn" list. Item #3 also brings up another turn-step-order issue. The posted order is open to the interpretation that carrying out table-card actions must follow the Play Y step. If you want to rule that the basic steps must be done in order, while allowing table-card actions to be done at any time -- which is what I think your intention is -- you might change this list to something like this:

On Your Turn:
Carry out the following steps in this order:
1) Draw the number of cards currently required.
2) Play the number of cards currently required.
3) Discard down to the current Hand Limit (if any).
You may carry out other actions allowed by New Rules, Keepers, etc., at any point during your turn, unless the card states otherwise.

-- Rules Sheet, "Playing Without Zombies" section. Instead of saying that Zombie-related cards have a "special mark in the bottom left corners", say that their colored stripe has a dripping bottom edge. [I for one was baffled about the "special mark" -- I was looking for an icon like the Zombie face or something. It was reading on this list that helped me understand what it was talking about.]

-- Rules Sheet, "Set Aside" list. There are cards whose status on this list could be changed. This also implies that the presence or absence of the special mark / dripping edge should be changed as well:
 - Brain Baseball:  Requires a Zombie.  Should be on the list.
 - Brain Sandwiches:  ditto.
 - Out of Ammo:  Affects non-Zombie Keepers.  Could be off the list.
 - Zombie Jamboree:  ditto.

-- Eaten by Zombies! card. Add words to make it clear that if noone has Zombies, this card has no effect.

-- Larry the Zombie promo card. If you to reprint this card, you can add the dripping border to it, as well as changing the "Creeper" title to the dripping font used by the Zombie Fluxx official cards.

[As an aside, let me say that I really like the different font. I also noticed that in the mock-ups of the Monty Python cards you posted, their titles were in a distinct font as well. I love this as an overall policy: use a different font for each version of Fluxx, plus one for promo cards. It makes it easy to sort them out after combining them.]

-- Flame-Thrower expansion card. If this expansion gets reprinted, you may want to add to its text that it is affected by It Doesn't Work!, which seems natural.


Regards,
Bryan