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Q: Does the Expendable Crewman protect against a Keeper being copied by the Holographic Projector? Or being given an attaching Creeper during Creeper reassignment?

A: The Keeper being copied is in no danger from the Holographic Projector, so the Expendable Crewman’s power is not triggered. Yes, the Holographic Projector says that it’s as though the Keeper is in another player’s possession… but it’s not, really. It’s kind of like stealing… but it isn’t. The Keeper will never actually change hands or be destroyed, which are the things that trigger the Expendable Crewman.

Likewise, attaching a Creeper to a Keeper does not actually cause it to be destroyed or change ownership either, so no Crewman intervention. The Expendable Crewman’s power is not a blanket protection against EVERYTHING…

Note that Ensign Smith is the Star Trek: Original Series Fluxx, version of the Expendable Crewman, and Tasha Yar is the Star Trek: TNG Fluxx equivalent.

Q: At the end of a turn, which would happen first: the Holographic Projector/Holodeck turns off, or Keepers are discarded from a Keeper Limit?

…One player would have been winning on their turn due to the Holographic Projector imitating another Keeper, except that they also had a Keeper-With-Attached-Creeper. At the end of their turn, the Keeper Limit compelled them to discard a Keeper, and they discarded the one with the Creeper, so they were no longer prevented from winning… but was it no longer their turn, so the Holographic Projector was no longer imitating the other required Keeper?

A: In this case those two things are considered to happen simultaneously: the discard of the Creeper (via the Keeper Limit) and the “turning off” of the Holographic Projector. Execute both things, and THEN evaluate whether anyone is meeting the win conditions. That player essentially goes instantaneously from not-winning because of the Creeper, to not-winning because their Hologram isn’t working. A sad story for them.

For more details, see this Order of Events in a Fluxx Turn

Q: What happens if two players simultaneously meet the win conditions because one of them has the Holographic Projection?

…For instance, if player A has Scientist, Engineer, and Hologram and player B has Expendable Crewman, Captain, and Doctor and player A plays the goal “Landing Party” on his turn (neither player has any Creepers), does player A instantly win because the Hologram says to meet the goal as though they had “Expendable Crewman” and not player B, or would neither player win because both players met the winning condition (until player A’s turn ends, at which point player B would still meet the conditions and player A would not, resulting in a win for player B)? The former seems to fit from a literal reading of the card, but it does not make sense that a holographic projection would keep something from someone else.

Although I agree, it seems counter-intuitive, logically, we rule a strict reading of the card (i.e. the first scenario is correct). Andy said, essentially:

So if you have the holographic projector, it’s like the hologram is SO REALISTIC that nobody can effectively tell the difference, so that, while you may have THOUGHT you had the real thing, suddenly you might discover that you’ve been tricked and they’re projecting the hologram to you, and they have the real one.” In actuality, the wording is deliberately written specifically to avoid the awkwardness of the sort of temporary tie discussed.

Q: Can the Doctor cure a holographic projection of a Keeper with Brain Parasites?

A: The Holographic Projector duplicates any one Keeper on the table, complete with any modifying Creeper effects, so it’s as if that Keeper were in front of you, afflicted with it’s Creeper, however, the Doctor cannot cure a Holographic Projection of something – the card clearly states that the Doctor can only cure your own Keepers.

Q: Can someone with the Holographic Projector win if the two Keepers needed are owned by other players?

A: No, the Hologram can only be one Keeper at a time. It’s already a very powerful card – if it could be any TWO Keepers at once, it would be ridiculously overpowered. Now, it is possible, when combining certain Star Trek Fluxxen, for there to be TWO Hologram analogues in the game (Holodeck/Holosuite.) So, if a player has two, one of them could imitate one Keeper owned by another player, and the other could imitate a second Keeper owned by another player.

It is possible to win with one Holographic Projector even if you don’t have either of the required cards yourself only if the win conditions include a Creeper or Creepers which are attached to a single Keeper owned by another player. In that case, the Holographic Projector only needs to be one Keeper, but it also mimics the associated Creeper properties. A few examples of Goals for this type of win would include Imperial Destroyer, Evil Computer, Evil Brain Parasites, Robot Uprising, The Power Of Evil, and Malfunctioning Transporter.

See also: Can the Holodeck count as both itself AND someone else’s Keeper…

Q: If the Holographic Projector/Holodeck is used to imitate a Keeper with a Creeper attached, does the Hologram count as both the Keeper and the Creeper at the same time?

Say I have a Robot with Evil attached to it. If my girlfriend plays the Holographic Projection and then the Robot Uprising Goal, does she win?

A: Yes. Your girlfriend wins.

Think of an attached Creeper as being simply an aspect of its host Keeper, something that transforms the whole rather than just riding on top. The Holographic Projection copies the whole thing, and if that’s all you need for victory, you win. On the other hand, if you need just the Keeper, but it has a Creeper attached, then suddenly you also have the Creeper, which will probably prevent your win.

If all you needed was the Creeper from the Hologram, and you have the other half of the Goal yourself, you could also win. For example, if she had the Starship, and you had the Robot with Evil attached, she could Hologram the Evil Robot, and win with the Goal Imperial Destroyer (Evil and the Starship).

Note, however, that if you need the Keeper to win, but not the Creeper, if you Holographically imitate the Keeper, you’ll also “acquire” the Creeper, which will prevent your win if it’s not the exact Creeper needed for the Goal.

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I must admit it seemed illogical to me (Alison), but Andy and I recently debated this again. The wording on the card says that if you have the Holographic Projection in front of you, it’s as though you have the imitated Keeper were in front of you AND NOT them (emphasis added). So you have it INSTEAD of them.

When I protested to Andy that you having a holographic projection of something that I have shouldn’t negate my having the actual thing, he argued that he’d prefer to stick with the original wording, as it is actually clearer in terms of gameplay (as opposed to calling it a tie, in which case you’d have to keep playing until a clear winner emerges, which, by the way, is the rule for any situation in Fluxx where there appear to be dual winners. Except for the APTWE. Of course).

Moreover, Andy had this logical workaround: the holographic projector is SO GOOD that if you have a holographic projection of something duplicating it, it’s as though you’ve swapped with the other person, and they suddenly realize they don’t have the original/s any more at all:

“OMG! How long has this doctor been a hologram???”