A: Yes, the unattached Creeper will instantly attach to its newly-found victim, and, after that happens, you discard a Keeper to bring you back down to the Limit. This means you can choose to discard the afflicted Keeper, thus ridding yourself of the Creeper. If, however, for some reason you wish to keep the Creeper, you can choose to discard a non-afflicted Keeper instead.

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A: No, using any special powers or abilities listed on Keepers or Creepers does not use up one of your plays for your turn.

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A: Let’s start with some of the things that will probably not be contentious.

• Plurals of a noun definitely count as saying that word. If I ban the word “card” and someone says “cards” most would agree that person must take the penalty.

• Homophones, words spelled differently but pronounced the same definitely don’t count as saying the word (to, too; hear, here; bare, bear). Someone might raise the issue upon hearing a homophone, but the completely different spelling AND meaning would probably be enough to get them to drop it.

• Homographs, words spelled the same but pronounced differently and having a different meaning, probably won’t even come up. Everyone is listening for the word in question, not watching for it in a transcript. Like if someone designates “bow,” a thing you shoot, and someone says “bow,” to bend down, nobody’s going to call that out.

HOWEVER… once you start to get into words that are spelled the same AND sound the same… things get more nebulous.

If I forbid the word “play” then everyone is probably on board as including both the following noun and verb:
noun: the action you take in the game, and its plural. “How many plays do I have left in this turn?”
verb: to take that action, and its various tenses and conjugations. “Play your cards already!” “Have you played yet?” and, “If he plays that card, I’m screwed.”
Or even the adjective designating a type of card. “Did someone change the Play rule while I was out of the room?”

But what about saying you went to a play last night? What about saying your kid plays the clarinet?

If I forbid the word “mean” which one do I… ahem… mean? Is it a verb: to intend? Is it an adjective: cruel? Is it a noun, the average? Our ears probably want to “catch” someone else using all of these, so what do we do?

The safest thing to do is to raise or point out this technical aspect when designating the forbidden word, so that everyone knows what to expect. Discuss it while holding the card up, perhaps, and say that when the card is placed on the table, the ban goes into effect, making sure everyone hears, understands, and agrees.

Here’s a good page describing homophones, homographs, and homonyms.

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A: Yes, you must finish drawing the rest of your cards for your turn – you might draw another Creeper which would prevent your win. You must accept any and ALL Creepers acquired during your initial Draw phase before assessing win conditions.

Consider the initial Draw phase to be all one simultaneous thing. Think of it this way: not everyone draws one… card… at… a… time. Some grab the total number for the Draw, add them to their hand, then deal with Creepers at that time, putting them immediately into play, and drawing to replace. Differences in draw style should not affect the outcome of the game.

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A: Yes. In Star Fluxx, you could have an Evil Malfunctioning Robot. In Cthulhu Fluxx, you could have a Metamorphosing Poet who is plagued by Nightmares.

The only exception to this is in Anatomy Fluxx, where, the way the Creepers are written, you can only attach them to a Keeper which is not already afflicted, so any given Keeper can only be attached to one Creeper. On the other hand, in Anatomy Fluxx you also have the only case where you can have multiple Keepers attached to one Creeper.
If the Rule It’s Spreading! is in play, then, every time your turn comes around, you must attach an additional Keeper (if you have any unattached in play).

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A: No, you cannot. In most cases, if you have a Creeper not mentioned on the Goal you are trying to win with, then it prevents you from winning.

The exception could be considered to be Batman Fluxx, where, if you are winning with ANY Goal which requires a specific Villain (the Creepers of the Batman version) then no Villain prevents your win. You are considered to be “on the side of the bad guys” for that win. Batman Fluxx is also an exception in that, if the Goal does NOT require a Villain, then Villains ANYWHERE (in front of ANY player) will prevent the win.

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A: Although the attachment of attaching Creepers is almost instantaneous (happening even before something like the Elder Sign or Necronomicon can protect itself from the Creeper) the intent of Surprises is to nullify the targeted card play as if it hadn’t happened, or, in the case of the Keeper-nullifier, as though you had played the Keeper directly to yourself instead of your opponent playing it to themselves.

“Out of Turn: When another player plays a Keeper, it goes in front of you instead of them…”

So, in this case, it’s as though the Keeper being hijacked would technically not hit the table in front of your opponent at all, and therefore it is not possible for any of their Creepers to attach (or be covered, in the case of the Elder Sign).

TLDR: If you Surprise a Keeper-play of someone with a Creeper that could accompany the Keeper, you are not forced to take the Creeper. You just get the Keeper.

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A: “On your turn” means every time your turn comes around (assuming favorable conditions apply).

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A: No. The Librarian card states that it “Counts as the Necronomicon for purposes of Actions and Rules if the real Necronomicon isn’t on the table.” The power on the Necronomicon Keeper is not an Action or Rule, so the Librarian doesn’t get to do that stuff. Neither does he get to count as the Necronomicon for purposes of meeting Goal conditions, obviously.

There are only two Actions (Revelations of Azathoth, and The Yellow Sign) and one Rule (Miskatonic Studies) which mention the Necronomicon, and these are the cards for which the Librarian can stand in for the Necronomicon.

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A: No. In order to use the powers of a Keeper or Creeper in play, it must be in your possession. “You/your” in this case refers to the owner of the card only.

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A: Well, this is a pretty rare scenario, but, to refresh the memory, Dreams and Omens says:

Set your hand aside. Count the number of players in the game. Draw enough cards to give 1 card to each player. You decide who gets which, placing them each face down in front of their recipients. No one else may look at these cards. Each player (including you) must play this card before starting their next turn. This does not count as one of their plays for that turn.

Meanwhile, Even Death May Die, is a reworking of Let’s Do That Again. It says:

Search through the discard pile. Take any Action or investigator Keeper card you wish, and immediately play it. (anyone may look through the discard pile at any time, but the order of what’s in the pile should not be changed.)

So if Dreams and Omens gets played twice, each player would have TWO face down cards in front of them, which they’re required to play before starting their next turn. Does the order matter? Well, most of the time it won’t affect things, but occasionally it will be very important! Therefore, you should play them in the order received. This shouldn’t be difficult to remember: if the first card is placed face down, and the second is placed face down on top of that one, then you pick them up together as a pile, and play the first one facing you first.

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A: To refresh, FBI Raid says:

Select a doomed Keeper or Creeper currently on the table and discard it. If you have the Federal Agents on the table, you may discard any Keeper.

This means that if you have the Feds on the table in front of you when you play FBI Raid, you can discard any Keeper, regardless of whether it has doom or not. Without the Federal Agents, you could only discard a Keeper if it is doomed. (Note that all Creepers have doom, so nothing changes about that, you could always choose to discard a Creeper instead, whether you have the Feds or not).

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A: TLDR: Officially, no… BUT, when playing in any of our games which include interrupt cards which cancel a previous play (Surprise, Memo From Your Future Self, Stop Time) it’s good practice to play a little slower if you happen to be executing multiple plays, so that your opponents have plenty of time to play one of these cards, should they so desire.

Deliberately playing super-fast, “shotgunning” as one fan put it, is just rude, and, rather than avoiding arguments about interrupts, actually ends up causing them. So if you have someone who insists upon playing that way, feel free to implement a requirement of a full one-hippopotamus silent count between card plays. We think those worried about their second-to-last winning play being foiled by an interrupt will find that others are not as psychic as they feared. Read on…

So here’s a typical Surprise situation, which can cause a bit of controversy:

I recently won when the rules called for Play 2. I played my first card, a Keeper, and then a moment later I played a Goal card that caused me to win. My opponent then showed me that he had the Surprise card in his hand that could have stopped me from playing the Keeper, and we had a brief discussion about whether I should have left him more time to consider playing it.

(Related question: A player doesn’t have to “announce” or “report” their play out loud, right? They can just play their cards and if other players aren’t paying attention, that’s the fault of the other players? We all want to have good sportsmanship, but you know how games can sometimes get, in terms of either other players not paying attention, or in terms of being very competitive!)

Here’s our response:
While we don’t have any official guidelines about exact timing of card plays, We recommend a slight pause between a two-card play like this when the active player knows it’s going to make them win. It’s rarely the case that the person with the Keeper-stopper will intuitively know that the necessary Goal is coming… until it gets there (or vice-versa: if they had the Goal-stopper, and you’d decided to play the Keeper last, they couldn’t know you’d have the winning Keeper to play after the innocuous Goal), so playing slow is often to your advantage, as the player who’s about to win.

In fact, playing casually, even pretending you don’t know what you want to play next, can be a great move. Playing slowly enough to allow a possible Surprise doesn’t have to mean broadcasting your impending win. (For example, looking significantly around the table as if expecting a challenge). Of course, announcing your your play is in no way required, but could even be part of your nonchalant act, depending on how you do it. (“Hmm… Well, there’s this Small Moon… and… let’s see… That’s No Moon, for the win!”)

That said, one often doesn’t have the presence of mind to think about deliberately hesitating. In real life, you’re usually just taking your play, and winning, at regular game speed.

Here is where the question is really about what your opponent was thinking, and they have to be honest about it: did it only occur to them to play the Surprise after you’d played the winning Goal? If you’d just accidentally played the Goal first, and then the Keeper, their Keeper-canceling Surprise would have gone through and prevented your win. But just as they couldn’t know your next play would be the end of the game, you couldn’t know they had a Surprise. For all you knew, they had the Goal-stopping Surprise, and it’s just chance which order you chose to play those two cards in. It’s not as though you deliberately played in such a way as to deliberately thwart a Surprise on your first play.

The thing to point out here is that, had you stopped playing after the Keeper, would it even have occurred to them to use the Surprise? Probably not, if they’re being honest. It’s extremely rare that one’s opponent is prescient or observant enough to realize that this play might be your second-to-last. People rarely want to squander a Surprise on the off-chance that your next play will be the winning one*. In the kind of situation you describe, the Surprise-having player usually just shrugs, and says “Darn! I had [the Surprise that would have prevented your second-to-last play], and I could have stopped that play, but it’s too late now… Oh well. Let’s deal again…”

Because, in the end, if they didn’t get that Surprise in after the applicable card, that’s the way it goes, and that’s the official ruling if people get – ahem – unruly.

*I mean, imagine it. If they’d canceled your Keeper before you’d played the winning Goal, your best reaction is probably simply to shrug as if mildly confused by such a powerful play, apparently for nothing, and make them feel like they just wasted their Surprise on a random Keeper play… heh heh. You don’t have to let them know they totally blocked your win. Meanwhile… you don’t have to get upset about missing that chance… it’s just Fluxx, and victory is snatched away at all the time in the course of any given game – usually completely by accident. Or you can let them know their spidey-senses were working, or congratulate them on how observant they are. It’s up to you.

Now let’s return to that “shotgunning” player who’s deliberately playing quickly so that nobody can slip a Surprise in on that penultimate play… It is, as the fan above pointed out, not entirely fair, and, moreover, it invites the argument “But you didn’t leave me enough time to play my Surprise!” If, on the other hand they had played it slowly, as described above, their opponent has no excuse to challenge the win, on the claim that they “were going to play a Surprise.” The opponent had plenty of time, but in the vast majority of cases, they won’t play the Surprise, because they have no idea what’s coming next. That’s part of the beauty of Fluxx!

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A: No, you don’t HAVE to use it immediately. You MAY use it immediately if you want to, however.

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A: Keeper powers do not usually destroy or take the Keeper out of play to use them – unless they specifically say they do.

A couple say you’ll have to pick the Keeper up and put it back in your hand when you use its power, and one or two say to insert the Keeper into the middle of the draw pile. Only a couple will cause destruction of the Keeper being used. In any case those requirements will all be specified on the Keeper in question.

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A: Yes, as UnGoals say on them “This card is treated like a Goal,” you would be able to discard UnGoals along with Goals if utilizing the power of Goal Mill.

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A: Some versions of the rules deal with this explicitly, and some don’t, so we’re answering this here in the FAQ, just in case there is any confusion.

Creepers may not be held in your hand, so if you get a Creeper as part of your dealt hand, you put it on the table in front of you (play it pre-game, essentially) and draw to replace. If it’s another Creeper, continue until you have a starting hand containing zero Creepers.

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A: No, once you’ve attached an Attaching Creeper, it stays with that one unless something happens to separate them (discarding both, mixing up all Keepers & Creepers, or some card which specifically states that you can detach a Creeper). Sorry!

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… – For example: The Spock’s Beard Goal requires Spock and the Mirror Universe. If I had Spock, but the Mirror Universe is attached to Uhura, do I still win? Or does it have to be attached to Spock in order to win with that goal?

A: No, the Creeper does not have to be attached to the Keeper it goes with for the Goal.

This is sort of the corollary to this question: If my Attaching Creepers are not attached to the Keepers I need to win…

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A: The Dreamer can cure anyone of Nightmares, including himself.

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A: There are two situations which could be the case. The first one is actually very easily resolved, but the second one is a bit more complicated.

1: Doom points are even, and the revealed Creeper would tip the Doom points in one player’s favor.
2: Doom points are uneven, and the balance would change when the hidden Creeper is revealed.

1: Since Cult Clash is in play, there can be no situation where all players lose. Cult Clash is intended to ensure there will always be a winner (for example, in a tournament situation, you’d want to have a winner for every game). Therefore, in this case, if both players were tied for the number of Doom points, you do as you would for any “tie” or “simultaneous win”: the game continues until there is a clear winner. So the game has not “ended due to an UnGoal,” and the player with the Elder Sign simply reveals their hidden Creeper, and wins.

2: If, on the other hand, the game ends due to an UnGoal with Cult Clash in play, and Player A appears to have the most Doom points, until Player B reveals a Creeper hidden under their Elder Sign, then Player B is essentially stealing the win from Player A, similar to using a Surprise to cancel a game-winning play, so just like using a Surprise in such a situation, it’s all going to depend on INTENT and TIMING.

If you’re looking to cancel someone else’s win, you’ve got to be really on-the-ball about it. Basically, Player B, with the hidden Doom Points under their Elder Sign, needs to reveal those AS SOON AS THE UNGOAL IS TRIGGERED, so that they can get them in the count when everyone is comparing Doom points.

If Player B only realizes they have more Doom than they thought AFTER the count has publicly been made… they missed that opportunity. Cthulhu called, and they were out to lunch or something.

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A: Draw 2 + Doom starts:
“Draw 2 cards per turn plus one for your personal Doom score (combining your Keepers and Creepers), with a maximum of six cards.”

So each person, on their turn would get to Draw 2. Then they would look at what their total Doom points are, and draw as many extra cards as their Doom total. Since it’s not possible to draw a negative number of cards, they simply do not get to draw extra if their Doom total is zero or negative. Nobody will ever be drawing fewer than 2 on their turn.

In short, you don’t have to do the math all at once, it was just easier for us to write the card title that way.

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A: Feel free to reveal as many fears as you want, but you may only draw and play one extra card per (your) turn this way.

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A: No. If anything, it’s the opposite of Doomed, whatever that is.

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A: Yes. In these cases, since one is instructed to play the acquired Keeper, that acquisition can be intercepted with the counter-Keeper Surprise (That’s Mine!, Twist of Fate) which allows the intercepting player to gain the Keeper instead.

Decks that have Actions which let you pull a Keeper from the discard and play it are:
In Cthulhu Fluxx: Even Death May Die
In Fantasy Fluxx: Healing Spell

The following decks don’t natively have Surprises, but since Surprises could be added in, we list them here for completeness:
In Marvel Fluxx: We Thought You Were Dead!
In Olympus Fluxx: Charon Nixes Styx Tix
In Adventure Time Fluxx, Cartoon Network Fluxx, and Regular Show Fluxx: Toons Never Die

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…so that it would take three cards with one Anti-Doom each to completely negate the three Doom on, say, Cthulhu?

A: Yes. Anti-Doom and Doom cancel each other out on a 1:1 basis, both when counting up a given players Doom count, and when totaling the Doom count for the table.

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A: When Cosmic Instructions is played, it causes UnGoals to be treated exactly like Creepers, so if you draw one as part of your D3P2 play, you need to immediately play it and draw to replace to your mini-hand until you have 3 cards, none of which are UnGoals (or Creepers). Then Play 2 and discard the remaining card.

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A: Dark Gifts does not depend on your Doom total, but merely on whether you have anything with Doom points in play, so the presence of cards in play with Anti-Doom does not affect your status with respect to Dark Gifts.

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…Dreams & Omens creates a situation where one card has been allocated to each player, placed in front of that person, to be played “before starting their next turn.” Does that mean it’s not the player’s turn, and they must use the out-of-turn effect?

A: Although it says “before starting their next turn” it is, for all intents and purposes, that player’s turn as soon as they start “doing stuff”. The point is that this card must be played before the regular draw and play phases, and even before any available optional Free Actions.

Here’s a nifty chart we made which details the order of various events in a Fluxx turn.

Furthermore, if you read the out-of-turn instructions on the Surprises, you’ll see that they are in reaction to a specific game event (a specific card play, or an UnGoal being fulfilled) and without that event occurring, there isn’t really any logical way to execute the out-of-turn effect.

See also: Many cards state that you can do something “on your turn”. When does one’s turn officially begin and end…

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(and of course the Mi-Go/Fungi is not covered by the Elder Sign). The first part of Mi-Go Migration says that all players discard an Investigator, except for the player with the Elder Sign. The second part of Mi-Go Migration says that the player with the Mi-Go/Fungi Creeper loses ALL their investigators (and the Mi-Go), but doesn’t mention any protection from the Elder Sign in this case. What should happen in this case?

A: We consulted Keith (our game designer friend and Lovecraft expert who adapted Fluxx to the Cthulhu theme for us) and he ruled that, in a strict reading of the card, you’d take each paragraph separately, in order:

1) All players discard an Investigator except the player with the Elder Sign.
2) The player with the Mi-Go in play loses ALL their Investigators. As it comes second, it ends up overriding the first rule entirely.
Result: The player with the Mi-Go loses all their Investigators, and the Elder Sign does not protect against this effect at all.

HOWEVER: It was put forth that another possible call would be to rule that the Elder Sign is capable of protecting exactly ONE Investigator, and no more, so that the person who had both Mi-Go and Elder Sign would lose all but one Investigator. He says this would be a perfectly reasonable Keith-approved house rule one might choose to implement.

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A: You can only steal a Keeper they have on the table. This card behaves just like the standard Steal A Keeper Action when played during your turn, and as such, you can only steal what’s available. How would you know if they had a Keeper in their hand anyhow?

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… We were playing Cthulhu Fluxx, and what complicates things is that my wife had the Secret Cultist, so she would win if the UnGoal overrides the Goal, but my son would have won with the Goal if that overrides the UnGoal. [Note from Looney Labs, in Cthulhu Fluxx, a simultaneous Goal and UnGoal could arise from either Double Agenda or The Stars Are Right. Zombie Fluxx and Martian Fluxx could also generate this condition since they both have Double Agenda and an UnGoal. Zombie Fluxx also has the Zombie Boss Rule which can make a player win in the case of the UnGoal being met.]

A: Well, this IS a doozy. Andy and I had to think this through carefully.

But in the end, the answer seems obvious: on the rule sheet itself, at end of the first page in “Notes” is the ruling for ties:

“The game doesn’t end until there is a clear winner. If for some reason two of more players meet the winning conditions simultaneously, the game continues until a single winner emerges.”

So, for your situation, the answer is actually fairly simple: there were two players meeting winning conditions simultaneously, so keep playing until a clear winner emerges. Note that the “clear winner” need not be one of the two originally tied. It could happen that someone else manages to break the tie and win instead of either one of them.

What got a little tricky for us, is that we also wanted to rule in cases where the Cultist/Secret Cultist/Zombie Boss wasn’t invoked, which is to say when there is one player winning, but the conditions for “all players losing” is also met. How could that be? Would we rule that there is only one player winning? Or would we rule that there is “no clear winner”, since that player should simultaneously be both winning and losing?

We went with the latter: If a Goal and UnGoal are met simultaneously, then, even if there is not an actual player that can claim victory in the case of the UnGoal conditions, having the UnGoal met is like having the “forces of evil” be the winner. So if a player meets the winning condition, they are actually tied with “the forces of evil” , thus play would continue until a clear winner emerges.

In a way, all that the Cultist/Secret Cultist/Zombie Boss does is make an actual player represent those forces of evil, thereby claiming that victory.

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A: While one of the most obvious ways to get rid of a Creeper attached to one of your Keepers is to destroy them both (or move them both), there ARE ways that you can destroy the Creeper while still retaining the Keeper. The key things here are 1) explicit wording, and 2) thematic appropriateness.

In Star Fluxx*, the exceptions are the Doctor, who can cure Brain Parasites, and the Engineer*, who can fix a Malfunction. In both cases they detach the Creeper, and the Keeper is left, good as new. Creeper Reassignment also specifically states that you detach the Creeper to move it. In Cthulhu Fluxx, the Dreamer states that he can detach Nightmares and discard it. Meanwhile the Sanitarium logically can cure an afflicted Keeper of Nightmares or Insanity. In Anatomy Fluxx, special actions allow you to “cure” yourself.

Some examples where the Creepers DO stay attached would be, in Star Fluxx, the weapons Laser Sword and Laser Pistol, which, again, quite logically, destroy the Keeper in order to destroy the attached Creeper. And while the Phaser in Star Trek or TNG Fluxx targets just the Creeper, it doesn’t say anything about detaching the Keeper either, so if you use it to get rid of an attached Creeper, the Keeper it’s attached to will also be destroyed. The Teleporter will move a Keeper… and its attached Creeper. If a Keeper or Creeper goes into the trash, then it’s attached card goes along.

In Cthulhu Fluxx, The Feds are pretty much the equivalent, though they also destroy themselves in the process. The Necronomicon lets you move any Creeper… and says nothing about detaching it, so you’d have to move any attendant Keeper (and extra Creepers if more than one is attached).

Trash Something is the generic Action version of what the weapons allow you to do. You could trash a Keeper, and it’s Creeper will go along, or you could trash a Creeper, and it’s attached Keeper would go along. There’s no logical reason or explicit wording that lets you detach connected Creeper-Keeper combos for this Action.

*In various Star Trek Fluxxen, there are specific Engineer analogues: Scotty, Geordi, O’Brien that work the same way with respect to Malfunction.

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A: If you are the active player, counter-Surprising does not use up one of your total plays for the turn. By the same token, however, this means you cannot use the Surprise for it’s function which would use a play. To wit:

You can only use a Surprise to do one of three things:

1) use it on your turn as a play, for it’s in-turn function
OR
2) Use it to Surprise another player,
2a) on another player’s turn to cancel a play
OR
2b) on your turn to counter their interruption of your own play (“counter-Surprise”)

You cannot do more than one of those things.

So if you’re using it to counter-Surprise on your turn (2b), you can’t also use it as one of your plays for it’s “in-turn” function (1).

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A: We would say that the Secret Cultist’s win trumps that of the overt Cultist.  Surprises are meant to Surprise the other players, and prevent what would have normally happened, and make something else happen.  So, in this case, the Cultist is expecting to win, but… Surprise!  The Secret Cultist has been machinating behind his back…

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A: Yes.

Knowledge Is Power is a New Rule that states, “If you have one or more Investigators in front of you, then Creepers do not prevent you from winning.”

It does not matter if those Investigators are the ones with Creepers attached, you can still win in that situation if Knowledge Is Power is in effect.

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A: Max is 6 cards to draw for your turn.

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A: It’s true, the Creeper card does say “immediately draw another card to replace it” but this doesn’t mean you replace the Creeper on the table, discarding it. This means “replace the Creeper in the number of cards you drew.” If you needed to draw 3 cards, and you drew them and one of them was a Creeper, you play the Creeper and draw another card, because that Creeper doesn’t count as one of the 3 cards you needed to draw (neither does it count against the number of cards you get to Play on your turn), so you have only drawn 2 cards, so you still need to draw a third.

You’re not replacing the Creeper from it’s place “in play” (i.e. on the table). You’re just replacing the card “lost” as part of your draw count because it was a Creeper. The idea is that Creepers go into play automatically, whether you want them to or not. They’re usually a problem for you, and you have to work to get rid of them (though sometimes you need them for Goals, otherwise, they hinder you).

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A: Yes, that’s exactly what she can do. The Secret Cultist, is, naturally, working for the downfall of everyone, staying hidden until the Old Ones rise to take control, at which point the Secret Cultist comes out of hiding and claim at least enough credit so as not to get destroyed. Being a Surprise card, it’s meant to be played out of turn, including, in this case, specifically just after the game has “ended” due to an UnGoal.

Sorry to break it to you… Thanks for playing our games. Maybe she can put in a good word for you after the apocalypse or something.

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Just to clarify: Strange Aeons has you look everywhere (people’s hands, discard pile, draw deck) for the two New Rules cards Cosmic Instructions and The Stars Are Right, and put them into play. Cosmic Instructions further says that whoever puts it into play gets to immediately draw 3 extra cards.

A: No, if Cosmic Instructions is already in play when you play Strange Aeons, you’re not putting it into play “again”. It’s just already in play, that half of the effects of Strange Aeons would simply do nothing. In fact, if both Cosmic Instructions AND The Stars Are Right are already in play, Strange Aeons would have no effect at all.

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A: We’re very careful not to include cards that don’t play well together in a deck. So, for most decks with Creepers, we use Mix It All Up (or one of its analogues, like Crawling Chaos) instead of Share The Wealth. Star Fluxx doesn’t have either card (Share The Wealth OR Mix It All Up). The only deck with Creepers that has Share The Wealth is Pirate Fluxx, which does not have attaching Creepers, and Crawling Chaos (in Cthulhu Fluxx), which includes Creepers but specifically says that you do detach Creepers to mix them up, so that should be clear.

Mix It All Up is clear in its wording that it will detach Attaching Creepers, in that it says to gather them all, and when redistributed “Creepers that attach are attached to a new Keeper…” We don’t want a “memory condition” to exist where you have to remember what a Creeper was attached to when you mix them all together.

If you’re encountering Share the Wealth with Attaching Creepers, it would only be if you were mixing decks, in which case, please treat it as if it were a Mix It All Up card: detach all Creepers, and mix them all in with the Keepers to deal out. If you’re just playing Pirate Fluxx, it should not be an issue to play Share The Wealth as written, i.e. not including Creepers.

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A: Those are not considered “Actions” in the sense that they are not Action cards, and Stop That (or Belay That) is intended to cancel out Action cards specifically. Nor will Veto! which cancels Rules stop this type of free action.

More broadly worded Surprises might prevent some of these, however. For example, Skullduggery, It’s A Trap and You Can’t Take This Guy From Me are designed more broadly, so that they can prevent “any game action” which can include the results of Action cards, Free Actions from Rule and Free Actions from Keepers or Creepers. The first two can be acquired in the More Surprises pack.

There might be some confusion on Let’s Keep Doing That, since there is an Action card permanently in play, but it is intended to act as if it were a New Rule, so we would rule that it’s no longer stoppable by the Stop That! Anti-Action Surprise.

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…Example:
Player A plays a Hand Limit
Player B and C discard down to the hand limit
Player A plays Veto to cancel the Hand Limit for themselves.

Is this allowed?

A: Well, it all depends how Player A was trying to play the Veto. Every Surprise has two different instructions on it. One for when you’re using it to interrupt someone else’s play, and one for if you play it out of your own hand as a regular card on your turn.

First case (the out-of-turn function):

If Player A was trying to use the out-of-turn function to cancel the play of their own card, that’s not allowed. It’s their turn, so they can only use the in-turn function. See also: Can one ever use the out-of-turn function of a Surprise on their own turn?

Note that even if it were another person playing out-of-turn to cancel the card (let’s call them Player D) the Surprise should be played immediately after the card one wants to cancel: in the case of a Hand Limit, that would ideally be before anyone has discarded anything.

Moreover, even if everyone decided to cut imaginary Player D some slack about the timing, and they did let Player D play the Veto after some people had discarded, canceling the Rule would “prevent it from ever taking effect” and everyone would get to take all their cards back as though the Hand Limit had never been played. Long story short: you can’t Veto a rule just for you. The Rule applies to everyone, so when you Veto it, it’s Vetoed for everyone.

Second case (the in-turn function):

If Player A still had a play left on their turn after playing the Hand Limit, they could simply play the Veto for its in-turn function. What it does in this case is let them “discard [their] choice of up to 2 New Rules currently in play”. The Rules discarded don’t even have to be ones that were recently played.

In this case, those rules are not being “canceled” without ever having taken effect, they’re just being discarded. The Rules were played, they took effect for as long as they were in play, and then they were discarded. So if Player A did that, they could simply trash the Hand Limit before their turn ends, thereby avoiding having to discard down at all. Of course, this uses up one of their plays for their turn.

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A: No. Surprises can only be played for an out-of-turn effect when there is an effect to be had. You can’t just play a Surprise for no effect just to burn it.

When used for their in-turn effect, of course, they behave much the same way as Actions, and, as such, may or may not have an effect.

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A: Well, as the Librarian card states, if the Necronomicon is not on the table, then the Librarian card counts as the Necronomicon for Actions and New Rules. Miskatonic Study Group is a New Rule. So, yes, players get to draw and play an extra card on their turn if the Librarian is out. The person who has the Librarian can take the extra bonus of ignoring Hand Limits – again, only if the real Necronomicon is not on the table. If the real Necronomicon is out, everyone will be able to take the general bonus, but only the person with the real Necronomicon gets to ignore Hand Limits.

See also: Does Animator count as the Finger Of God for smiting…

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A: You may notice that Meta-Rules have different backs from the rest of the cards. They are meant to not be shuffled into the deck at all, and the different back facilitates finding and pulling them if you accidentally shuffle them in. You just decide at the beginning of the game whether you want to play by those permanent rules or not. It’s like they are a house rule which all players decide on before starting.

This page has a short list and descriptions of all the MetaRules, with a little commentary.

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Example:
Player A uses That’s Mine for its in-turn function to steal a Keeper from Player B
Player B uses It’s A Trap! to cancel the steal, and instead steal from Player A
Player A uses Canceled plans to cancel It’s A Trap, since Surprises can cancel Surprises.

Does the original steal go through? Player B argued that there was no steal in either direction, as both That’s Mine and It’s A Trap had been canceled by subsequent Surprises.

A: The short answer is that That’s Mine is carried out for it’s in-turn function for the Keeper steal.

The long answer:

• That’s Mine is played in turn: Keeper is stolen
• It’s A Trap is played out of turn by victim: That’s Mine is negated and the Keeper steal is reversed
• Cancelled plans negates It’s a Trap, which had previously been reversing the Keeper steal and negating That’s Mine. This leaves That’s Mine un-negated to steal the Keeper as originally played

It’s not that cards just get put on the discard pile, covered and they’re gone. Think of each card as going into a “being played” area only into the discard pile when they are done being used, or when negated for good. There was sort of a little wrestling match out there in the “being played” area between all the Surprises, and It’s A Trap lost.

Here is a generic version of what a battle like this could look like. It can continue until you run out of Surprises. Keep in mind that it’s totally possible and allowed for some other player, for example, Player C, to jump in on either side, potentially confusing the toggle state of the original play. If things come to this, it may be very important to keep track of the original play being canceled, perhaps putting it in the middle and flipping it over to indicate which state it is in: effective, vs canceled.

• A plays some card X.
• B plays Surprise 1, canceling X.
• A cancels surprise 1 with Surprise 2, so X is in effect again.
• B cancels surprise 2 with Surprise 3, so Surprise 1 goes through, and X is canceled again.

and so forth. If there were more, it would look like this:

• A cancels surprise 3 with Surprise 4, so Surprise 2 goes through, canceling Surprise 1, so X happens.
• B cancels surprise 4 with Surprise 5, so Surprise 3 goes through, canceling Surprise 2, so Surprise 1 is in effect again, so X is canceled.

So far, the maximum number of Surprises in a version is 6, in Batman Fluxx, but here’s the page where we would update that info:
Complexity Factors for Fluxx editions

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The Elder Sign, in Cthulhu Fluxx specifically states that the Creeper it’s covering moves with it. This is not specifically noted for other attaching Creepers. Does that mean other attaching Creepers don’t move with their attached Keeper?

A: The reason the Elder sign specifically tells you that its Creeper comes along for the ride is that the Creeper associated with the Elder Sign is not actually attached, rather, it is being nullified. Hiding in this fashion does not constitute attachment: you’re completely hiding the Creeper as though it doesn’t exist for you. Therefore it can’t prevent you from winning, but neither can it be used for a Goal.

Also note that the Elder Sign can hide ANY Creeper, even if it’s one that is not capable of attachment (but if it is an attaching type Creeper, you can’t hide it if it’s already attached to some other Keeper, hence the requirement that the Creeper be unattached in order to hide it).

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A: Our call would be that you could win if you have both, since both are mentioned on the same Goal, and the rule regarding winning with Creepers is that it’s possible if the Goal specifically requires that Creeper. Another way to think of it is that it’s not an “exclusive or” (XOR) it is an “inclusive or” (and/or). An exclusive or would mean one or the other, but not both, whereas an inclusive or means one or the other or both.

This is true for any Goal which requires any subset of a group of Creepers. If the Creeper is shown on the Goal, it will not prevent the win, but if the person in question has any Creepers NOT shown on the Goal they’re trying to win with, then those excess unrelated Creepers will prevent the win.

It would be difficult to find all of them to list them here, but we will tag various applicable Goals as they are brought to our attention.
Terrifying Inspiration (Cthulhu Fluxx)
Q Who (Star Trek TNG Fluxx)

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It appears that with Play All, I could effectively do this an unlimited number of times, moving all the Creepers in the game to wherever I wanted them. Is this correct?

A: This is an unfortunate loophole with the card as written in the first several printings. It was intended that you could only use it once per turn to move a single Creeper. We updated this wording as of approximately September 2016 (but there are a lot of decks out there with it open-ended like this). If you’ve been playing it over-powered like this, you’d be within your rights, since it does not technically say “once per turn”. Now that you know the intended usage, you could still choose to use it as written, however, we’d prefer that it be nerfed as follows:

Our official ruling would be to play it as if it said “…once during your turn you may move any Creeper from one player to another, then put this card back in your hand.” Of course, if there were a multiple play situation, you might subsequently play it again to the table, but would not then be able to use it to move a Creeper again on your turn.

As always, “once per turn” means once per YOUR turn, not once on every person’s turn.
See For special Keeper (or Item) powers or Rules that say “once per turn”, does that mean…

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A: You may notice that Attaching Creepers are usually something which modifies the qualities of the Keeper itself. The idea is that they become as inseparable as one object. You don’t have a Doctor and a Brain Parasite, you have a Sick Doctor; you don’t have a Poet and Insanity and Metamorphosis, you have an Insane Mutated Poet; you don’t have a Holodeck and a Malfunction, you have a Malfunctioning Holodeck; you don’t have a Bacteria and Liver and Heart and Thyroid, you have one giant Liver-Heart-Thyroid Infection (yipes!); you don’t have Spock and the Mirror Universe, you have Mirror Universe Spock, and so on, and so on…

That’s the whole point of the “stays together until discarded” wording. Anything that you could do to the Keeper will also happen to the Creeper which is attached to it, and vice versa. In Star Fluxx, when you use the Laser Sword or Laser Pistol to attack a Keeper with a Creeper attached, you are attacking the afflicted Keeper, and the whole point is that it’s a way to get rid of the Creeper.

In the Star Trek Fluxxes, the Phaser is similar, but the language states that you are targeting the Creeper (because the Trek Fluxxes include non-attaching Creepers as well, it makes the Phaser more useful against ALL Creepers, not just attaching ones). When you destroy the Creeper, then if it is attached to a Keeper, the Keeper will be destroyed too (it’s not possible to shoot just the Mirror Universe aspect of Mirror Universe Spock, you have to shoot the dude as a whole…)

You can Trash a Keeper, Exchange Keepers, or discard it because of a Keeper Limit. All totally valid ways to rid yourself of annoying attached Creepers! (If you Trash Something to discard the Creeper, the Keeper it’s attached to will also be trashed, of course.)

You can even Recycle it (bonus!) and the attached Creeper will go into the discard pile with the Keeper. “Oh, this thing is messed up and useless to me now. In fact, it’s a hindrance!… I don’t want it anymore. But hey! At least I can recycle it!”

In fact, if you’re trying to acquire a certain Creeper to meet a Goal, you can Steal a Keeper (or Steal Something), and you’ll get the whole Keeper/Creeper combo. see: If a Goal requires a Keeper and Attaching Creeper…

Your Hologram or Holodeck is not duplicating just a Robot, it’s duplicating an Evil Robot… for better or for worse, as the case may be! see: If the Holographic Projector/Holodeck is used to imitate a Keeper with a Creeper attached…

There are some exceptions, and they’re usually very explicitly worded to let you know they are exceptions. see: …Are there exceptions to this rule?

Or they follow directly from qualities of the Creeper (i.e. things which would take the Keeper up into someone’s hand, but it has a Creeper attached, will result in the Creeper being “spat out” in front of the person who took the combo up into their hand.
see: If someone plays Beam Us Up, and one player had a being/crew member with a Creeper attached…
see: What happens if I use Zap a Card on a Creeper/Keeper combo?

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A: Your Doom increased? Draw=2+doom is just a formula. If “Doom” increases than so will your Draw rule. Have you Drawn that many cards yet this turn? If not, Draw up until you have drawn the right amount total. (But don’t forget about the maximum of 6.)

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A: No. (That’s why you also draw an extra card — it’s like the Ungoal plays itself automatically and you get a different card in your hand instead.) When Cosmic Instructions is in effect, it causes UnGoals to be treated exactly like Creepers: automatic play and draw to replace, not counting against your Draw or Play quantity.

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or is that considered to be playing it “during my turn”?

A: If an Ungoal is played, and conditions are met, then it suddenly becomes no-one’s turn, as the game is essentially over, and anyone, including the person who played the Ungoal, can then reveal the Secret Cultist to claim victory.

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How do we decide which one to keep?

A: The situation is just like resolving the two Goals that result from Double Agenda: whoever got rid of the Rule allowing the double Goal/Ungoal situation gets to decide which to keep, and which to toss.

UNLESS Cosmic Agenda is also in play (which forces you to play UnGoals). In that case, you should be forced to keep the UnGoal in play, and trash the Goal, because this is analagous to having to play the UnGoal.

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A: Metamorphosis (and Madness) specifically state that any special powers of the Keeper they are attached to are nullified, so the Feds cannot “cure themselves” of either one. Note that in order to use their special power, you sacrifice the Feds Keeper, so in this case, it makes them seem oddly sane that they don’t want to kill themselves even when they go Mad or start to Metamorphose.

Nightmares, on the other hand, while they do attach, do not impair the Keeper, so the Feds could “kill themselves” to “cure” themselves of Nightmares. This would be perfectly effective, gameplay-wise, though it does seem a bit drastic, thematically:

“Agent Jones is having terrible nightmares, Sir!”
“Well, clearly, the only way to solve this case is to kill him, even if it means taking some casualties ourselves….”
“I’ll assemble a team, Sir!”

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A: The Dunwich Horror Ungoal has to be in play. It was tricky for us to word this. If it were a Goal, then we could say “if someone wins with…” which would require the Goal to be on the table. What we really meant was “If everyone loses because of the Dunwich Horror UnGoal…” which would, of course, mean that the Dunwich Horror is in play. That didn’t seem right since everyone is not losing – the Cultist is winning!

Think of it as though the Dunwich Horror Ungoal acts as a Goal for you if you have the Cultist in front of you. Obviously the Dunwich Horror has to be in play in order for you to win with it, just as for any other Goal.

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A: When Cosmic Instructions is played, it causes UnGoals to be treated exactly like Creepers, so you’d have to play them all. You get to decide the order, but they all have to go down. Then draw to replace and continue with your turn… if you have not all LOOSSSTTTT!!!!

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Do I have to reveal a card, for example, a Shoggoth or something, and say I’m afraid of it?

A: In this case “reveal” means “confess to your friends”. For example, if you are someone who is afraid of spiders, or nuclear war, or whatever, then you can say, “I’m afraid of spiders,” or “I fear nuclear war,” or whatever, and draw a card for revealing this secret about yourself.

Other players may later use this info against you!

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A: The Keepers in Cthulhu Fluxx that have special powers (meaning there is some ability which could be impaired) include:

The Dreamer (cure Nightmares anywhere on the table, whether attached or not)
The Reanimator (steal The Body, if in play)
The Socialite (steal The Poet, if in play)
The Sanitarium (cure Nightmares or Madness if attached to your Keepers)
The Elder Sign (hide, i.e. neutralize any one unattached Creeper)
The Necronomicon (move any Creeper from player to player, then put the Necronomicon back in your hand)
The Ghoul (discard The Body, if it is in front of you)
The Cultist (win if in play when The Dunwich Horror Ungoal causes everyone else to lose)

Here is a flavor-text interpretation:

Regarding Madness (which only affects Investigators)
The Dreamer, Reanimator and Socialite can’t do any of that nifty stuff they do if they have gone Insane. Easy. Remember that Nightmares, however, don’t impair the Keeper, so The Dreamer can still get rid of them, even if he’s the one who has them.

Regarding Metamorphosis (which can attach to ANY Keeper)
If a Keeper starts to Metamorphose, it just can’t function the way it should. A Metamorphosed Sanitarium probably isn’t going to cure your Madness or your Nightmares (in fact, it will probably make them worse) and neither will a Metamorphosed Dreamer. The Socialite just isn’t going to be particularly attractive to The Poet once she starts turning into a frog-person.

There are some other theming issues that are raised with Metamorphosis, however, because it is so far-reaching (attaches to any Keeper).

For example, does it really make sense that Wilbur Whately wouldn’t win if The Dunwich Horror occurred, just because he was Metamorphosed? I thought a main quality of this personage was that he was pretty darn metamorphosed to begin with. Also, somehow I thought a Metamorphosed Ghoul would still eat Dead Bodies.

I consulted Andy on this, however, and he had to conclude that, while it does not necessarily make the best thematic sense, the rule with regards to gameplay, is quite clear: those special abilities are lost if that Keeper is Metamorphosed. Maybe they start morphing into something NICER than they were before!

Ghoul: “My tummy feels funny! That Dead Body just doesn’t look that appetizing anymore…”

Wilbur: “OMG where are my abdominal tentacles?! Dad’s* totally not going to recognize me without them! I am SO toast…”

* For those less familiar with The Dunwich Horror, Wilbur Whately is the abomination of a son resulting from a human woman bearing the child of an Elder God. Wilbur is trying to summon his father, Yog Sothoth, to the Earthly plane.

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If I draw (and play) Metamorphosis while I control The Elder Sign, do I have time to put The Elder Sign on top of Metamorphosis before Metamorphosis can attach? What about the reverse order? Suppose I have Metamorphosis but no Keepers (so Metamorphosis is unattached). Can I play The Elder Sign on top of Metamorphosis?

Similarly, with the Necronomicon, do I have time to use its special power to move Metamorphosis away before it attaches itself to the book?

A: Just for the record, it’s not so much that you play the Elder Sign on top of a Creeper, as it is that you hide a Creeper under it after both are on the table. After discussing this with Andy, his ruling was that Creepers attach instantly to applicable Keepers they share the table with (in front of a given player). It doesn’t matter which order you play Metamorphosis and the Keeper; Metamorphosis would attach instantly, and the Keeper would lose its special ability before it had a chance to use it to get rid of or neutralize Metamorphosis.

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Cosmic Instructions says one gets to draw extra when the card is “first put into play”. Does that mean that if it comes up again in the game, the person playing it doesn’t get to draw those extra cards?

A: In consultation with Andy, we concluded that the word “first” is redundant and unnecessary. Just pretend it’s not there. What is meant is that when the card is put into play (from a state of not previously having been in play) this special action is invoked. So yes, if Cosmic Instructions is trashed via Rules Reset or some other card, and later finds its way into someone’s hand and they play it again (or is pulled via Strange Aeons), the person playing it gets to draw the extra three cards.

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or do they go face down on the table? If I’m not the one that played the card, and I get a card that way, do I get to know what it is? Does it count towards the Hand Limit? Is it affected by “in hand” effects (Revelations of Azathoth, Dream Thief, etc.)?

A: Let’s start by reading the (pertinent) text on Dreams And Omens: “You decide who gets which, placing them each face down in front of their recipients. No one else may look at these cards.

Do they go into players’ hands or face down on the table? See: “…placing them face down in front of their recipients. No one else may look at these cards.” They’d probably end up seeing the card if they put it into their hand, right? They’re not allowed to see the card, so it really can’t be put into their hand. Also, it would be hard to remember which is the card they need to play before their next turn begins. In short: each player’s card is placed face down in front of them, and it remains there until played. It never goes in their hands.

If you didn’t play the Action, do you get to know what you got? See: “No one else may look at these cards.” So, no, unless you are psychic and can know what card it is without looking, you do not know the identity of this card if you were not the person who played Dreams and Omens.

Does it count towards the Hand Limit? Is it affected by “in hand” effects? The card never enters players hands, so it does not affect Hand Limit, nor can it be affected by any of these cards.

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Similarly, can a face down Cosmic Instructions or The Stars are Right be found by Strange Aeons?

A: You would get to look in all of the places mentioned (people’s hands*, the draw pile, and the discard pile) for the pertinent item/s, and, if you did not find them, you’d just have to conclude that they were one of those face-down cards*. Since that is not called out as a location you can recover a card from, you are not allowed to look at or take one of those face-down cards. They’re sort of in their own separate world outside reality, aren’t they? Very Lovecraftian.

*If someone tried to get sneaky and lie about having one of those cards in their hand, figuring it would be concluded that the card sought was face down, remember that everyone will see those face down cards as they come into play, so if the card DOESN’T come up, then somebody was cheating… or you’re missing a card in your deck. Contact us, and we’ll replace it.

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is the face down card automatically played at the start of the appropriate player’s next turn (before that player can draw, play, or use any “on your turn” abilities)?

Hence, if I play Dreams and Omens, the card I give myself is the last of the face down cards to be played. Is this right?

A: It’s just like you said: before doing anything on your turn, i.e. before Drawing, or taking any optional special action derived from a Rule or Keeper.

Yes, your card would be the last of those face-down cards played. Unless the game ends before it gets around to your turn. Mwah-hah-hah-hah….

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Crawling Chaos specifies that it detaches creepers from keepers, but The Elder Sign doesn’t use the “attached” nomenclature to describe how it covers a creeper. Is The Elder Sign considered attached to the card it covers for purposes of Crawling Chaos, or does something weird happen?

A: A Creeper hidden by the Elder Sign would be taken up and mixed with the other cards. Though the term “attachment” is not utilized, it will, in fact separate the Elder Sign from whatever Creeper it’s covering. Whoever gets the Elder Sign after the redistribution may choose to nullify an unattached Creeper they receive. It’s much the same as what happens to any Booty hidden under the Treasure Map in Pirate Fluxx, when Mix It All Up is played.

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My friend tried to claim that I could ONLY use fears named via Fear of the Unknown in that same game, claiming that I could not use a fear he’d stated in yesterday’s game with Fear of the Unknown, nor could I use a fear that I know he’s had his whole life (I’ve known him for a long time!)

A: Unfortunately your friend was taking too narrow of a view here. You are correct.

When playing Dream Thief, you are free to name or simply try to guess ANY fear that another player may have. If nothing has been admitted within the players’ memory (“But you just said yesterday that you were afraid of clowns!”) the target player is free to try to deny the claim*, but longstanding knowledge of a friend’s fears are just as valid as any explicitly stated during the course of the game, either the present game, or yesterday’s, or last month’s.

*If the target player wishes to dispute this, the onus is on them to justify it, however, it is quite possible to give plausible justifications for a lack of fear of something. For example:

SHARKS
Really? You’re not afraid of being eaten by a shark?
No, since I don’t expect to be swimming in shark infested waters, I do not consider this a general global fear – I don’t walk around every day in fear of being eaten by a shark.

BEING KILLED IN A CAR ACCIDENT
Really? You’re not afraid of being hit by a car?
I don’t even walk around in fear of being hit by a car. Of course, that would be a crappy thing to happen, so naturally, I use normal caution to avoid this terrible outcome, but that doesn’t mean I have a fear of that thing specifically. Since I avoid it fairly easily, I have no need to fear it.

DEATH
Really? You’re not afraid of dying?
Okay, fine. Death scares me. I’m sure if I were on the brink of dying or actually in a situation where I might die (having just been hit by a car and bleeding out on the side of the road, or swimming and seeing a giant shark fin nearby) I’d be feeling fear.

alternatively:
DEATH
Really? You’re not afraid of dying?
No, I really believe I’m at peace with the idea of my eventual non-existence.
or
No, I believe that I’ve lived a full life, and I’ve been a good person, and I’ll see my loved ones in heaven.

Of course, you can’t just keep guessing like this. These are just a few examples of possible responses. Yes, they have to justify their denial, and having received justification, you could debate it (civilly!) but you can’t take an alternate guess. If you guessed wrong, you just move on.

Seriously, this shouldn’t have to cause strife among friends.

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I know I lose my next turn, but is that ability still available to me?

A: You can only win with the Secret Cultist if you are playing it as an out-of-turn play. If you are forced to play it as an actual in-turn play, you take the penalty instead of the out-of-play ability. Thematically, the idea is that you’ve been exposed as the Secret Cultist and your plans are therefore ruined. They locked you up until you came to your senses (your lost turn) and you no longer worship the Ancient Ones.

Note that if you play the Secret Cultist as a counter-Surprise, it does not count as using its in-turn function, and does not “reveal” you, so you don’t take the penalty. It’s more like you were a Secret Cultist for a while, but then you got tired of hanging out with those losers, and just decided to leave on your own.

Either way, whether you’re thinking about it thematically or not, there’s no way you could retain that special status/ability. Since you can only claim your Secret Cultist win by playing it out-of-turn after the game ends with an UnGoal, you need to still have it in your hand when that happens. If you’ve already played it in any fashion, that card has been used up, and is now in the discard pile. You’re no longer the Secret Cultist. In fact, if the discard pile is reshuffled, someone else might end up with it in their hand, in which case THEY would be the (as yet unrevealed) Secret Cultist. You’re just some failed has-been wannabe Secret Cultist (or successful survivor of a dangerous cult experience!)

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A: No. The idea is that the Secret Cultist benefits from the end of the world in ways regular players do not, so everything is backwards — that which would normally make you lose now helps you win. So if victory is found through the Minions of Darkness, it’s just a bonus if Cthulhu himself also joins the party!

While the win conditions for the (non-secret) Cultist are more narrow, the same is true, since they’re winning with an UnGoal, reveling in the destruction of all we hold sane.

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A: Yes indeed. Any Surprise can be canceled by another Surprise.

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Suppose Player1 has the Fungi Creeper and the Elder Sign Keeper as well as several investigators. (The Fungi creeper is not hidden by the Elder Sign.) What happens when the Mi-go Migration action is played?

A: The first part of the card indicates that the player with the Elder Sign is protected and does not have to discard an Investigator. However, the second part of the card overrides this, requiring that a player who has the Mi-Go/Fungi Creeper must discard all of their Investigators. Unfortunately, as written the Elder Sign won’t help you in this case. However, Andy asked Keith about this on Episode 37 of the Download podcast, and they sanctioned a house rule for the player with the Elder Sign to be allowed to save one of their Investigators in this situation.

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A: The only reason that it says “if the card is not in play” is that your very FIRST option is to just take it from in play in front of any other player: the first words are simply “Put the Necronomicon in front of you.”

Only then, “if the card is NOT in play” i.e. obvious on the table (emphasis added), THEN you can go looking for it in various places, first in other players’ hands, then the discard pile, then the draw pile.

The Grand Theft Biblio card is supposed to almost always simply give the person playing it the Necronomicon. The only things that would prevent this would be if someone countered the Action with the Surprise The Stars Are Wrong, OR, if the Necronomicon was in the only place not mentioned as searchable: face down in front of a player waiting to be played due to Dreams & Omens (See If the Necronomicon has been distributed by Dreams & Omens…

I suppose it would be clearer to start with “Take the Necronomicon from wherever it is on the table, and put it in front of you,” and then go on to your options if it’s not in play, but it gets hard to fit all the important information onto cards sometimes.

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A: You can use the counter-Surprise function at any time, either during someone else’s turn or your own. Here are some basic examples:

On your own turn:
Someone cancels one of your plays with a Surprise. You play a Surprise to counter their Surprise. Note: although it is your turn, this does not count as one of your Plays.

On someone else’s turn:
They play a Surprise for the in-turn function. You play a Suprise to counter it.

On someone else’s turn:
They play a card. You cancel it with the appropriate Surprise. They counter-Surprise you. You counter-Surprise them!

On someone else’s turn:
Player A plays a card. Player B cancels it with a Surprise. You decide to counter Player B’s Surprise, for whatever reason motivates you.
(In other words, if there is a Surprise/counter-Surprise “battle” going on between two other players, as described in the previous example, you can jump in at any time on either players “side”.)

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Do I have to set my hand aside so that card doesn’t mix with it, and play that card exactly, or does this just add to my total play, so I can add the extra card to my hand, and play whatever cards I want, increasing the number of plays I have?

A: “Draw and Play 1 extra card per turn” just increases your total draws and total plays for the turn by 1, so whatever card you draw that is “extra” just gets added to your hand like all the other cards you drew, and you can play whatever cards you want from your hand up to the play quantity plus 1.

Unless the card says you have to set aside your hand, you don’t, and you’re not required to play the specific card you drew card unless the option you’re invoking specifies that.

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A: If a Creeper is drawn by the active player, they must take the Creeper (play it in front of themselves) and draw to replace, such that all the cards they have drawn for whatever the Action indicates will contain no Creepers.

For example, if I play Everybody Gets One, then I, as the active player, am the one drawing cards. As such, I have to take all the Creepers I draw, redrawing until I’m holding enough non-Creeper cards to give 1 to each player including myself. In a deck with a lot of Creepers, anything that makes you draw cards is a liability!

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…I say it’s just one card, but my husband says it should be three, since three Creepers were drawn. Who is right?

A: For practical purposes, you are correct. If you have laid down three Creepers in a row like that, you are left needing to draw 1. After your draw phase, you should end up having drawn just 1 non-Creeper for your Draw 1.

If anyone is having a hard time wrapping their head around why this is, here’s a blow-by-blow description of what happens when you draw three Creepers in a row while trying to Draw 1.

You Draw 1. It’s a Creeper.
It goes in front of you, and you draw to replace it, hoping for a non-Creeper to satisfy the current Draw rule.
Your “draw to replace” is… a second Creeper.
It goes in front of you with the first, and you draw to replace it, hoping for a non-Creeper to satisfy the current Draw rule.
Your “draw to replace” is… a third Creeper.
It goes in front of you, and you draw to replace it, hoping for a non-Creeper to satisfy the current Draw rule.
Your “draw to replace” is… finally a non-Creeper, which you add to your hand, and you have successfully followed the current Draw rule, which is Draw 1.

As you can see, in some ways, your husband is right… but the thing is, the three cards that were “drawn to replace” did happen… they’re just over as soon as you draw 1 non-Creeper.

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A: Creeper cards say “You can’t win if you have this unless the Goal says otherwise.” This means that having a Creeper in play in front of you prevents you from winning whether it is attached to one of the Keepers needed for the Goal or not.

Creepers occur in many versions of Fluxx, but only in a relatively few versions do they attach to specific Keepers. So the question of attachment does not affect the general behavior and limitations of Creepers.

This is sort of the corollary to this question: If a Goal requires a Keeper and an Attaching Creeper…

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A: Yes, as long as the Keeper is compatible with the Creeper. Some attaching Creepers can only attach to Keepers with certain specific qualities, like they have to be sentient, or they have to be investigators, or they have to be mechanical.

For example, you could attach both Evil and Malfunction to the Teleporter to get an Evil Malfunctioning Teleporter. In Cthulhu Fluxx, The Poet could be Mad and also have Nightmares… heck, he could also be Metamorphosed as well.

This can make it easier to get rid of those Creepers, since you only have to get rid of that one VERY afflicted Keeper to ditch ALL the attached Creepers.

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For example, if an attaching Creeper is played when there is no appropriate Keeper to attach to, does it stay unattached forever (or until the Action Creeper Reassignment is played), or does it attach to the next available Keeper which accompanies it in play? In other words, does it only attach if there are (appropriate) Keepers in play when it goes down on the table, or will it attach to Keepers played later?

A: The text on attaching Creepers states “If you have any [appropriate Keepers] in play, you much choose one to attach this to.” This property is not limited to the moment when the Creeper is first played. If there is no appropriate Keeper to attach to when it is played, it will attach to the first appropriate Keeper that arrives.

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Does it count as one of your plays for your turn to do this thing?

A: No. That’s the whole point of it being “free”. It does not use one of your plays. Depending on the game we’re talking about (there are cards like this in Chrononauts and Back To The Future, in addition to many in Fluxx editions), you might only be getting one play per turn, and whatever this thing does won’t use up your play for the turn.

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any of these?
Card text (paragraphs)
Card title or name
Card Type (special symbols)
Doom/anti-doom hourglasses

A: The special powers referred to on Creepers that can be canceled out are found in the paragraphs describing any special actions or abilities related to having a given Keeper in play. There’s nothing special about a card being a Keeper, or about the name (there are no “names” of cards that give you any abilities are there?) Doom/anti-doom counters are also a separate concept, unaffected by Creepers: Doom is a quality, not an ability.

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A: There is no reason Surprises would work any differently depending on the number of players. Surprises always counter Surprises in full, no matter what the function of the Surprises in question.

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Some examples:

Example 3: Player A played Draw 3 Play 2 Of Them, drew three cards, and one of them is a Goal that let them win, so they played it. Player B then played Stop That (the counter-Action Surprise) to try to cancel the playing of Draw 3 Play 2, hoping to cancel the win.

A: In all of these cases, Player A’s actions stand, as the Surprise has been played too late. The counteractive Surprise must be played IMMEDIATELY after the card you wish to counteract. It also doesn’t apply to “the most recently played card of the target type played this turn.” Once another card of any type has been played, or a subsequent resulting action taken, it becomes too late to retroactively stop a previous card play with a Surprise.

Don’t be that person needing to ask for a special exception to the rules, and make sure the new players you’re teaching understand: Surprises need to be used in a timely manner. Whenever you have one in your hand, acquaint yourself with its power right away so that you can make a snap decision about whether to use it, since, if you hesitate too long, your opportunity is likely to pass.

So are there ever exceptions? It depends how relaxed you want to play, and how everyone is getting along. If Player B was a less-than-experienced player, it’s highly likely that it just took them a little while to read their own Surprise card to realize that it could be used in that way. If the results of a rewind are relatively inconsequential, one might cut them some slack. If Player A somehow anticipated that Player B was going to counter their play, and took their next action with barely a blink then that’s a bit rude. But if there was a heated disagreement, please do fall back on the official ruling. The ONLY reason you might choose to ignore it is if you wish to cut Player B some slack for being a n00b, or if you want to call shenanigans on Player A’s playing style for some reason.

Remember: it’s never appropriate to see the consequences of a previous card play, and THEN realize that you wish you’d stopped it before something else happened as a result of that play. In example 1, Player B probably didn’t realize that the first play would result in the win until the second card was played. In example 3, Player B couldn’t know when Draw 3 Play 2 was played that it would result in a win. Too bad. No exceptions for those cases.

This is where careful ordering of your plays and a good poker face are important so as not to broadcast your intentions. And people say there’s no strategy in Fluxx…

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… or does the card that was canceled go in the trash (or to my opponent in the case of That’s Mine), and my attempt has used up one of my plays?

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Little Answers

A: No, it’s that second thing you said: the card that got canceled goes away, and that play has been squandered. On the other hand, your opponent had to give up a card from their hand as well, so it’s not as though it’s without sacrifice on their part too.

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A: Yes.

See also: If multiple Surprises are canceled by each other, how do you figure out what happens…

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…For example, if they’re using Steal A Keeper, or Exchange Keepers, can I get the Keeper they’re acquiring?
Or if they’re Plundering a Keeper, can I take the Keeper they’re Plundering?
Or if someone plays Mix It All Up, or Share the Wealth, can I get a Keeper that’s being dealt out to someone else?

A: No, No, and No. You can only use the out-of-turn* function of That’s Mine when someone else is putting a Keeper into play in a situation where it was previously NOT in play. You can’t use it to intercept a Keeper being allocated, traded, stolen, or acquired in any other way.

In most cases it’s an Action, or possibly a Free Action, for which there are Surprises you could use – but they wouldn’t gain you the Keeper which is in transit. They would only stop the Action or Free Action from happening, preventing the Keeper from changing hands in the first place.

There are, however, some situations besides normal playing of a Keeper from someone’s hand, where wording on another card does actually include the word “play” in the way a Keeper is acquired. See this FAQ about cards played via the Free Action Wormhole (AKA Mystery Play). Or this FAQ about Actions which allow you to take a Keeper out of the discard pile and play it.

* Of course you could use your That’s Mine card on your next turn, for it’s in-turn function which is essentially the same as Steal a Keeper, so you’re really not in a bad place, even if you couldn’t get that Keeper in the middle of the results of an Action.

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A: Yes

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A: If you use the Surprise card as one of your plays during your turn, then you must use the “during your turn” functions. The “out of turn” functions almost always cancel some other card play, and it is not allowed to cancel your own play with your own Surprise. Thematically, consider this: it’s hard to really call it a “surprise” if you’re doing it to yourself in this manner.

The only time when you might not use the “during your turn” on your turn is when you’re using a Surprise to counter a Surprise played by another player against you during your turn.

See Does countering a Surprise on my turn count as…

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Player #1 contends that he won the game because the rules say that as soon as a goal is achieved the game is over and no other actions/cards can be played. Player #2 says that no, the Surprise card overrides the general rule and cancels the playing of the goal and therefore the game does not end. Which is true?

A: Yes. If the Canceled Plans card played is played immediately, it cancels the Goal and play continues to the next person. That is the intent of the card.

It works the same way for That’s Mine. If the winning play is a Keeper, That’s Mine can be used to cancel that play, preventing the win.

Again, Surprises are meant to be able to work this way… but you have to be using the correct Surprise for the type of play you’re canceling – and you must play your Surprise in a timely manner: say, within a few seconds of the player playing their card.

For more nuanced suggestions about how to resolve some tweaky timing issues, check
When a player is allowed multiple plays on their turn, are there any guidelines for timing between plays?”

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If I play a card on my turn and another player plays a Surprise to cancel it, then I play another Surprise to cancel the first one, since it’s my turn, does mounter Surprise count as a Play for me?

A: It does not count as a play. It’s sort of meta-out-of-turn.

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Also, could I use a Surprise that was part of the subturn to cancel the attacking Surprise, and if so would that count as one of the plays?

Example:
Player #1 plays “Draw 3, Play 2 Of Them” and gets an Action, a Keeper, and a Surprise.
They play their Action and Player #2 plays Belay That [Avast, Stop That] to cancel it.
–> can Player #1 use the Surprise in their mini-hand to cancel that Surprise,
–> and if so do they still get to play their Keeper afterwards?

A: Yes, you can use a Surprise from your main hand, or from your sub-hand, to cancel another player’s Surprise during your Draw 3, Play 2 Action. Playing a Surprise to cancel a Surprise is a free action, so yes, you would get to play the third card if your second card is a Surprise that you use to counter a Surprise being used to stop your first card.

Using Goal Bonanza also results in the play of a “sub-hand” while the rest of your hand is put aside, and the same things would apply there as well. Yes, you can counter-Surprise from either your main hand or your sub-hand.

In the case of Fizzbin, you don’t have the option of using any of the cards in your temporary hand, you have to play them blind, in random order, so any Surprises that are in that temporary hand won’t be useful to you – but you can still use Surprises in your set-aside hand to counter Surprises played against cards played as part of your Fizzbin action.

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Or must you discard a Goal/Action if you have one, and a random card only if you don’t?

A: Players get to choose. They may either look at their cards and select a Goal/Action to give up, or they may select a random card from their hand to give up. Of course, if they don’t have any Goals/Actions, they can only opt to lose a random card.

Note that random means RANDOM. They don’t get to decide which card they give up in this case. They can do this either by mixing their own hand face down, and pulling one out without looking, or they can have you pull one from their hand as they hold it up facing themselves.

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A: In the vast majority of cases, you cannot win if you have Creepers not specifically required by the goal.

Exceptions:
• Do your extraneous Creepers say that they keep you from winning? (Almost all Creepers do, but if they don’t then go for it.)
• Is there a Rule in play that lets you win even if you have Creepers? (There are a couple of these, depending on which versions you have.)
• In Batman Fluxx, if the Goal requires a Villain, Villains don’t prevent you from winning. However, if the Goal does NOT require a Villain, then Villains ANYWHERE prevent you from winning.
• In Nature Fluxx (aka EcoFluxx) all Creepers prevent everyone from winning, regardless of who has them.

See also: The… Goal requires a Keeper and either of two Creepers…

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Do I get to decide who gets what? Do I get to decide how many to deal to each player? Do the recipients put them in their hands or on the table in front of them? Are they face up or face down? When I’m dealing them out, who do I start with?

A: First of all, only for Everybody Gets 1 (or Dreams & Omens) does the active player get to look at and decide who gets what. That’s a very different situation that the ones we’re talking about here. This question focuses on random (fairly even) redistribution along the lines of Share The Wealth.

The cards in question are shuffled or otherwise randomized so that the dealer does not know what’s being given out. They are then dealt out evenly, going around the circle clockwise, one card to each player in turn, continuing until the cards are all gone. Dealing starts with either the active player or the player to their left, with the intention of providing any possible benefit to the active player.

• So if it’s for Keepers, or a mixture of Keepers and Creepers, the active player should get the first card, because this is felt to be to their advantage, so they won’t get shorted if the number doesn’t deal out evenly. However, we would consider it an officially sanctioned house-rule if your group wanted to give the active player the option of starting with the player to their left instead of themselves. There could be reasons…

• For redistribution of Creepers-only, the card will usually say to start with the player to the left of the active player, because Creepers are generally considered a disadvantage, and this would mean that if anyone was going to receive fewer, it would always be the active player. However, as with other redistribution cards, your group may choose to let the active player decide whether they want to start with themselves or the person on their left. Again, we can think of reasons why someone might want to start distributing Creepers to themselves first.

Once dealt, all cards will be put into play immediately, so it’s OK to deal them out face up, but it’s sometimes better to deal them out face down, then have everybody reveal what they got all at once. As mentioned above, re/distributing by dealing will cause all players to end up with roughly equal numbers of cards. So if there are large discrepancies in the number of cards players had in play, this will even them out: players with a lot more than other players will end up with fewer than they had, and players with few or zero cards in play may end up with more. That’s the way it goes.

Here’s a list of redistributing cards, and their types:

Scramble Keepers, which is only in early versions of “Basic” Fluxx (1.0-3.x) is the only Action which is different. While you still shuffle up the Keepers and hand them back randomly and they go back into play, you don’t deal them out evenly, but instead give each player the same number of Keepers they had before. When we came up with Share The Wealth, we felt it was far superior, as we liked the way it leveled the playing field, keeping the game more competitive, to maximize player engagement.

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Based on the wording of the card, it would seem that you still only get one extra turn.

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A: Correct. You can’t save up any extra Another Turns. The maximum number of turns you can take in a row using this card is two. Most, but, unfortunately, not all, iterations or versions of this card have that language on them. Keeping things consistent across so many Fluxx decks is surprisingly difficult.

For those wondering how this card could be played more than once, it’s quite possible that one could play Take Another Turn, and then Let’s Do That Again (either during their first turn, or their “Another” turn)… but you can’t take another “Another Turn,” so don’t pick that card to Do Again.

Shadow Out Of Time in Cthulhu Fluxx functions the same way.

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A: No. There is no limit to the number of Creepers you can have in front of you.

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