Looney Labs Fluxx Mailing list Archive

Re: [Fluxx] "Able to draw the extra cards you were supposed to get"

  • FromAnnOn <ann_on@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • DateSun, 11 Jan 2009 12:21:32 -0700
hi,
In regards to "Able to draw the extra card(s) you were supposed to get during the Draw phase" isn't that wrong? How can cards which get discarded in the play phase be picked up in draw phase. This seems to revisit the long discussion of the separation of phases of the hand. The hand would become draw, play, draw, play repeated which could cause problems. For example if the rules are draw five play two, the player could pick up the only card in the draw pile, because the previous player put it there, but plays the take_another_turn card. The take_another_turn card is "shuffled" by itself and used as the draw pile and the player draws it again and plays it again gaining two turns. Quickly the player will get an infinite number of turns causing the game to vanish in a black hole.

The draw phase should be separate from the play phase. If the card played says draw & play cards then a separate self-contained draw/play phases are to be completed. In conclusion, if a player is not able to pick up enough cards in the draw phase there should be no possibility of picking up the remaining cards later. If all cards are removed from both the draw pile and the discard pile the draw part of the play cannot be done but if the player can play any cards the play portion must be done thus providing at least one card to the next player. If the play goes around the table a couple of times without anyone making changes to their cards then throw the hands into the middle and cancel the round.



Andy Looney wrote:
Hi Michael,

I think those who've written before me have already answered this pretty well, but just for completeness, here's my reply...

In general, if the rules command you to do something impossible, then do as much as you can, and move on.

If the rule says Play 3 and you only have 2 cards, then you Play 2 and stop. Similarly, if the rule says Draw 4 and there are only 3 cards for you to draw (even after reshuffling) then you draw 3 cards and proceed with the Play phase. In this very rare scenario, all players will have giant handfuls of cards and as noted, all it will take is a Hand Limit to flood the discard pile. This means that if you play a Hand Limit at this point, you'll force everyone else to discard, and then, assuming your turn isn't over, you'll be able to draw the extra card(s) you were supposed to get during the Draw phase, the same way you draw more cards if you increase the Draw amount during your turn.

If you play an Action that requires you to draw more cards than are available, you again draw as many as you can and make do with what you have at that point. If you don't get your full value for the card because of the situation, maybe it's not a good idea to play that card at this time. The point is that no, you would not redraw the Action played as one of the cards for the Action. The Action card does not become part of the discard pile until after the Action has been fully resolved.

I find it helpful to imagine that the Action card hovers in the air above the discard pile while the Action is happening, perhaps spinning slowly in space so that it can be seen by all, then gently settling down onto the discard pile afterwards.

-- Andy Looney