My review of Fluxx is up today at Joystiq, as part of my column. Fluxx is a fun party/family game, and I talk about it being a rules-focused game. But is it about rules?
Arguably, the central mechanic of Fluxx isn’t a player’s ability to twist the rules and set new goals, but instead the creation of clever pairs of Keeper cards. The vast majority of “Goal” cards are about the player who has both The Milk and Cookie keepers, or the player with both War and Death keepers. The augmenting of the rules certainly makes the play experience more interesting, but it’s the Keeper card mechanic that grounds the entire game, and Keepers are the only cards that aren’t about creating exceptions to the initial, simplistic starter rules.
Just something to chew on: what would a game that’s truly about rules look like? Maybe Nomic, or 1000 Blank White Cards. What other games could be made?
4 replies on “Fluxx is all about rules… kinda.”
Nomic is fun, but the one time I played it (it was play by email for about two months) my brain ended up hurting big-time. (Hint: don’t play Nomic with game designers.)
I’ll keep that in mind. 1,000 Blank White Cards seems a lot less intimidating. I’ll try inspiring a round or two with my friends once our theses are handed in and we’re all inebriated slugs. That should work, right?
Thanks for reading!
Try Haggle by Sid Sackson, from his book A Gamut of Games.
Yehuda
I just had a look at the rules for Nomic. Is it a game you can learn from the instructions or is it one of those that you can only learn from somebody who already plays? It scares me a little and I’m a massive games player.
Anyway, interesting site, might get some inspiration for a punt or two from here, cheers.