Archives

Q: Can the Surprise Stop That! (aka Belay That!) prevent someone from using the Action card that is currently part of the Let’s Keep Doing That Rule?

A: When the Action is chosen to go with Let’s Keep Doing That, it becomes what is essentially a Rule-that-gives-a Free Action, so the counter-Action Surprise* can not be used to stop it.

It CAN, however, be stopped by the Surprise called No Free Lunch! (found in the More Surprises pack) which counters the use of any Free Action. Depending on what the Action is, if it allows the moving or stealing of  Keepers, some other Surprises may also be viable, like Skullduggery, It’s a Trap!, or You Can’t Take This Guy From Me.

* Stop That, Avast! Halt!, Belay That!, The Stars Are Wrong.

Q: Can someone play a Surprise in the middle of the execution of Random Tax?

… Player A played Random Tax. They went around to each player to take a random card from their hand. When Player A got to Player C, Player C played a surprise to cancel out Player A’s action. Is playing that surprise card allowed?

A: A player wishing to cancel an Action (like Random Tax) needs to do so right away after the Action is played, since it doesn’t protect only that one player, it cancels the entire Action. If that player was waiting to see what card got stolen from them, and only then decided “Oops! I should have canceled that Action!” it’s definitely too late. They needed to decide “Darn! I don’t want to lose a random card from my hand! I’ll cancel that with a Surprise.”

You see, once the receiving player has seen cards from other’s hands, it taints the game. Now, your group could decide that this effect is negligible, and let the Surprising player get away with it on a one-time basis (assuming they timed it that way because they thought that was the correct time to play it – but NOT if they were just waiting to see what card would be stolen; does that make sense?)

Of course if you let the Surprise go through, the person who played Random Tax would have to return all of the cards they took from people because it cancels the entire Action “as though it had never happened”. If it was a legitimate error on the part of the Surprise player, and they’ve been schooled, one should not cut any slack on a second offense, I’d say.

We often have the players being taxed mix up their own cards, pick one blind, and then hand it over to the person receiving the tax. This reduces the temptation to try to play a Surprise only after someone sees what card got picked. Because that’s really not okay.

Doing it the way you did still works, of course, but then we’d encourage players to mix up their hand and present it face down out towards the Taxing player, so that neither one sees what card is taken until it’s actually gone.

Q: Can the Surprises: Stop That! or Veto! counter the “Free Action” provided by some Rules or Keepers?

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 the playing of Action cards specifically. Nor will Veto! which cancels the playing of Rules stop these types of Free Actions. The Surprise you’re looking for is one found only in the More Surprises pack, and it’s called No Free Lunch.

There are a couple of other more broadly worded Surprises that prevent some types of Free Actions, however. For example, Skullduggery, It’s A Trap and You Can’t Take This Guy From Me are written so that they prevent “any game action” which causes Keepers to change hands. This can include the results of Action cards, Free Actions from Rule and Free Actions from Keepers or Creepers. It’s a Trap is in Batman Fluxx and Star Fluxx, You Can’t Take This Guy From Me is in Firefly, and Skullduggery is a promo card which can be found in the More Surprises pack linked above.

There might be some confusion on using the Action attached to 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 that grants a Free Action, so in functions like any other Free Action, and is covered by the first paragraph.

Q: If I have the Time Traveler, and play the Time Portal and someone uses a Surprise to cancel it, what happens to the Time Portal card?

since the Time Portal normally gets to go back in your hand if you have the Time Traveler…

A: The Time Portal gets discarded. Since the Time Traveler doesn’t get to use the Time Portal at all, he can’t get it back again.

Also of note: The Time Portal causes your turn to end immediately, but if the Action gets canceled, then all portions of the Action get undone, so your turn also does not end early. It’s like the Surprise makes the Action disappear entirely.

Q: Can I use a Surprise from my set-aside hand to cancel a Surprise played on one of my Draw 2 & Use Em, or Draw 3, Play 2 (or Fizzbin, or Goal Bonanza) cardplays?

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.

Q: If a player uses Trade Hands, and their hand contains Stop That (which cancels actions) can the other player use it immediately upon receipt to cancel the Trade Hands?

In this scenario Player #1 has the Trade Hands and Stop That, and Player #2 is being forced to trade hands.

A: No. If the surprise were in Player #2’s hand, then Player#2 could use it to stop the Action, but if the surprise is in Player #1’s hand, then Player #2 does not have access to the card until after the Trade Hands Action has been resolved, by which time it’s too late to be stopped.

If you think about it too hard, you’ll realize it can ONLY work this way. If it worked the way you described there would be a paradoxical loop:

You used the Stop That you received in Trade Hands to stop Trade Hands, so you didn’t trade hands, so you didn’t have the Stop That, so you couldn’t use it, so you traded hands, but then you had the Stop That, and you used it to prevent the Trade Hands, but then you didn’t have it, didn’t use it, but then you traded and had it…

…and so forth to insanity.

Q: Regarding Canceled Plans and Stop That, if you play them during your turn, it says “All other players must discard one Goal/Action, or a random card, from their hands.” Does that mean players get a choice?

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.

Q: With That’s Mine (That Be Mine, Twist Of Fate) played out of turn, if someone is receiving a card via an Action, can I use That’s Mine to intercept it, and get that Keeper myself?

…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.