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Q: Can I pile up my Keepers in play in a stack, or do I have to lay them out so they are clearly displayed?

A: While it is not specified in the rules, the intention is that all Keepers and Creepers under your control should be visible to your opponents at all times unless there is some specific situation that lets you stack or hide them. In general, if a Keeper or Creeper is hidden under another card, it is as though it does not exist on the table, and a player may only stack Keepers/Creepers in certain very specific situations.

For example, in Martian Fluxx, you are allowed to hide your Pathetic Humans (Creepers) under your Abduction Chamber (Keeper). They are effectively “not showing on the table” and do not prevent you from winning (though you can release them at any time to meet a win condition).

There is a similar card in Pirate Fluxx that lets you hide your “booty” Keepers under your Treasure Map. They don’t count towards the Keeper limit, and this protects them from being Plundered, (a special Rule in Pirate Fluxx) but if someone uses Steal a Keeper to take your map, they also take the booty you’ve hidden under it.

In Cthulhu Fluxx, one may hide one Creeper under the Elder Sign card, which neutralizes it, much like the Abduction Chamber does for Pathetic Humans, but for only one Creeper.

There may be other cards which allow similar situations, but unless you have any of these special cards that allow you to hide a Keeper or Creeper in front of you, all your Keepers and Creepers need to be showing. If space is an issue, you can overlap them so the name stripe is showing, but you may not simply hide them from the other players.

Q: Who wins if player A plays the Martian Zookeeper Goal, with winning conditions in place, and Player B also meets the conditions, but their Humans are hidden in the Abduction Chamber?

To review: the Martian Zookeeper requires a Cow and a male and female Human, but ties are broken by whoever has more total Humans. So if player A is all set to win when they play the Goal, but B also meets the conditions, with more Humans, but they’re hidden in the Abduction Chamber, can player B reveal their Humans and win?

A: Player A wins. The Abduction Chamber can be accessed at any time, but it’s neither instantaneous nor retroactive. I might choose to set my Humans free during another player’s turn, when a change in the Goal or the Rules has altered the situation, but it does take a moment to open the cage and round them up.

In other words, if you’re set to win but you wouldn’t if my Humans were loose, I can’t stop you from winning by releasing my Humans. It’s too late, you’ve already won.

Q: If one player has humans in the Abduction Chamber, can the humans be moved out of the Chamber or put back in as needed to meet any Goal in a quick succession?

For example in the instance where Goals were going to be played in succession during a Play All, can it be assumed that the player with the Abduction Chamber has as much time as they need between Goal plays to either show or cover their Humans as needed to meet the Goals that come up?

A: Yes and no. It is stated on the Abduction Chamber card that a player can reveal Humans from it at any time. Though it does not specify when a player can hide them, we intended for this card to work similarly to others like it: you can only put Humans into the Abduction Chamber on your turn. See Can Humans be moved in and/or out of the Abduction Chamber at any time…

When a series of Goal cards is played in succession, there must always be a check to see if anyone wins with each one. During that check, the player with the Abduction Chamber may choose to reveal their Humans, with the understanding that they cannot be put back in again. Of course, if they’ve been revealed to achieve a win, that point is fairly moot.

We would rule that the player who owns the Abduction Chamber is capable of checking to see its contents without choosing to reveal them, so they would really ONLY let their Humans out if it was to win the game.