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Q: How does Personal Goal work with the Surprise Canceled Plans?

A: For the out-of-turn play of Canceled Plans, it works the same way it does in any other situation. If someone plays a Goal, and you want to prevent that play, you can play Canceled Plans right after they have played it, and the Goal goes in the trash instead of into play. Canceled Plans doesn’t specify any particular location the Goal is being played, so it can prevent any play of a Goal, no matter where someone was about to put it down.

It’s the in-turn play that gets complicated. The in-turn instructions for Canceled Plans say “Discard the current Goal/s.” It doesn’t specify where the possible multiple Goals in play might be, so Andy has ruled that this would cause all Goals in play on the table to be discarded, including personal Goals.

This question is also tagged for Bucket List as it is the same as Personal Goal. It is also categorized under Fluxx Expansions, since one might add Canceled Plans from the More Surprises pack into a version with Bucket List.

Q: Can I play a Surprise to cancel a win caused by using Mystery Play*?

A: It depends which Surprise you have, and when you play it.

If you have the promo No Free Lunch, found in the More Surprises pack, you can play it to prevent someone from utilizing Mystery Play (or any of its analogues, see below). The trick is, you’d have to play No Free Lunch when they declare they’re using Mystery Play, but before they reveal the card – you can’t wait to see whether it makes them win to declare you’re using No Free Lunch.

On the other hand the card that is drawn and played because of Mystery Play is affected by any of the “standard” Surprises. So if the winning card played because of Mystery Play was a Goal, then Canceled Plans would be able to prevent the win, since it cancels Goals. If the card played was a Keeper, you’d need to use the That’s Mine in order to stop the win.

Of course, you can’t cancel any of these if YOU are the one who is using Mystery Play.
See Can one ever use the “out-of-turn” function of a Surprise during one’s own turn? (spoiler alert: no)

*Note that you may be seeing this FAQ because your deck has a version of this card with a different name. There are so many analogues for Mystery Play that you should simply check the Fluxx Comparison Chart. Highlight the row for the Rule: Mystery Play, and scroll across to the deck you have to find the card this question refers to.

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: Can Canceled Plans prevent someone from winning the game? What about That’s Mine?

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?”

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.