* Either due to Draw 2 and Use ‘Em, or having a Play Rule higher than the number of cards in your hand.
A: No. Any time a Goal is played, it provides a chance for someone to win with those conditions. No matter how briefly that Goal is in play, it counts, and if someone meets the conditions in that instant, they win.
…I had one card in my hand, with Play 4 in effect. I played my card, an Action card which was then discarded. I wanted to claim to able to get 3 new cards because “Get On With It” which was on the table says I could since I had discarded my hand and had 4 – 1 = 3 plays left.
A: In order to take the option to Get On With It, you must be sacrificing (at least) one of your Plays, and you must be discarding a hand of at least one card.
The most obvious issue is that, at the point when you wanted to Get On With It, you didn’t discard your hand. You played an Action, and now your hand is empty. You have to have something to discard in order to discard something. Your hand has to exist in order to be discarded.
The second issue is almost a side effect. We would not consider you to “have plays left” if you have no cards to play. In this case your first play WAS your final play, so you can’t take this option because it’s not before your final play. In order to have a final play, you have to have a card to play.
The whole thing follows logically, since the card/s you could have played – but didn’t – will be remaining in your hand, and therefore among the cards you’re throwing away.
See also: Is Swap Plays For Draws limited by the number of cards you have in your hand?
Or is it dependent on how many I have already drawn or played during my turn?
A: Rules take effect immediately, and the wording on Draw/Play Rules states that you should “Draw/Play [x] cards per turn.” Therefore, if you have already played 3 cards on your turn so far, and the rule is (now) Play 4, then you can only play one more card. The count does not start from the point the card is played, since the number of cards played is per complete turn.
Here’s another example which may be useful: If “Play All” is in effect and you play 6 cards, and then play the card “Play 3,” your turn simply ends, since you have already played 3 and have no more remaining plays in your turn.
Draw rules are similar, in that you count the total number you have drawn on your turn, so if you start with “Draw 3” and then play the card “Draw 4” you only get to draw one additional card, since Draw rules specify “so that you have drawn [x] cards on your turn.” When you increase the Draw rule, you only draw the difference. If you decrease it on your turn, however, you don’t have to “Un-draw.” You just get to keep the excess cards you drew when the Draw rule was higher.
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.
A: No. You can only “bury” treasure you have in play on the table. If it’s in your hand, you’ll have to use one of your plays to put it on the table before you can hide it under the Treasure Map.
for example, if I have the first turn of the game, and my hand has, after drawing (hypothetically):
Trash a Keeper
Let’s Simplify
Mix it all Up
Empty The Trash
It seems like none of these can be “played”, so do I just discard a card, and the turn moves to the next player?
A: One of our fans pointed out to us that a wonderful quality about Fluxx is that there are never cards that you “cannot play”. They thought this was great because even the youngest player could pick a card from their hand, and never be told “oh, you can’t play that.” Of course, that card might not actually DO anything when they play it, but it’s still a perfectly valid play, and that person has not made an error by attempting to play an unplayable card. It’s very inclusive.
So there’s that: all cards are playable, even if they don’t do anything on your turn. Secondly, you are never allowed to “pass” on your play requirement, or discard cards, unless you are reducing your hand size as required by a Hand Limit (and this only happens when it’s not your turn, or at the end of your turn, after you’ve executed all of your plays.)
It’s true that what ends up happening when you play an Action card that has no effect LOOKS A LOT like discarding it, since you “do what it says, then put it in the discard pile”. So you do what it says, nothing happens, and then it goes in on the discard pile. But it’s an important distinction, because of the rule against discarding or “passing” instead of playing: sometimes you may be forced to play a card even though it might make someone else win.
If I draw the number of cards I have left in my hand to play, do I have to play them all? Which one takes precedence? Play All, or Swap Plays?
A: Once you have exercised your option to Swap Plays for Draws, you have no more plays left (you have swapped all your remaining plays) so your turn is over. So, no, you don’t play those new cards drawn. In that sense Swap Plays “takes precedence” since you may still have cards in your hand at the end of your turn even though Play All is in effect.
Specific example:
The Swap Plays For Draws card explicitly states that when this rule is in effect, you may choose at any time to play no more cards, and draw the number of cards as you have plays left. Play All says to play all your cards this turn.
So lets say you have five cards in hand. You play two cards, and decide you want to swap the rest of your plays for draws. Since you have three cards remaining, and Play All is in effect, you have three plays left to swap, so you draw three cards, thereby ending your turn.
Likewise, if Play All But 1 is in effect, then as long as you have more than 1 card remaining in your hand (which would mean you have plays left to swap) you would get to draw the number of cards in your hand minus 1, since the number of plays you have remaining is simply 1 less than the number of cards in your hand. As with Play All, of course, once you choose to swap your remaining plays for draws, you have no more plays.
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.
A: It is never mandatory to play a card. You may choose to draw instead and end your turn (but you must do one or the other). As the rules say “You can exercise this option at any time you are called upon to play a card, such as when you get an extra play because you used a really fancy time machine,” (like the Time Train).
(or not play, and draw instead, as allowed by the rules regarding playing?)
A: No. You just draw that extra card to your hand, and your turn is over. You only had one play for that turn, and you used it to play the Time Car.
A: Sort of. If you have more than enough cards in your hand to cover the number of plays left allowed by the Play Rule, then you just subtract how many plays you took from the number shown on the Play Rule. You played 1 and it’s Play 3, and you have 7 cards left in your hand? Play 3 minus the 1 play you took leaves you 2 remaining plays you could swap for draws. Your hand size does not affect how many plays you have left to swap.
If, however, the Play Rule indicates more plays left than you have cards left in your hand, then the number of plays you have left is the number of cards in your hand. The number of plays you can swap for draws is the number of ACTUAL card plays you could make, not the theoretical number of plays allowed by the Play Rule.
EXAMPLE:
Draw 1, Play 3 is in effect.
You have a hand of 0 and you draw 1 card. Now you have 1 card in your hand. How many plays can ACTUALLY be taken by you? Not 3 because the Play Rule says 3, but 1, because you only have 1 card in your hand. You can’t play cards you don’t have. At whatever time you choose to exercise Swap Plays For Draws, the question is: how many ACTUAL plays do you have left? In this case, you have only 1 play available to you, which you could choose to swap for 1 draw. Now you have 2 cards in your hand, but do you get to play them because the Play Rule says 3? NO, because with Swap Plays For Draws, you are deciding to sacrifice ALL your remaining plays for draws, so, by definition, no matter how many you drew, you have no plays left in your turn.
This is turns out to be exactly how we figure out how many cards can be drawn when the Play All (or Play All But 1) is in effect. In that case, you look at the number of cards you have left (or that number minus 1) and that’s how many plays you have, so that’s how many cards you draw. Again, remember that using Swap Plays For Draws means you have no more plays left in your turn, so you won’t be able to use any of those cards you just drew until your next turn.
Swapping Plays For Draws is one of the ways you can avoid having to playing a card that would make someone else win.
See also: Can I use Get On With It if I played my only card, but the Play rule says to play more?
A: Yes.
A: Well, it depends which version of The Computer you’re using. The bottom line is: check the language. Where it says “may” or “can” it means you don’t have to if you don’t want to. If it just says certain parameters are increased… they’re just increased, no choice about it.
For all versions of The Computer, the increase in Draw and Play quantity is required, which interacts with Play All But 1 to make it Play All – no choice for you. For the versions in Star Fluxx and both Star Trek Fluxxes, the Limit increase is optional, but for the promo card version and the Batcomputer, the owner must use the increased limits.
Note that BMO (Adventure Time Fluxx) has the power of optionally increasing Limits by 1, and Data (Star Trek: TNG Fluxx) has the power of optionally increasing Play by 1.
|
Star Flux Star Trek Fluxx Star Trek: TNG Fluxx |
Batcomputer Computer promo |
BMO | Data | |
| increase Play/Draw | required | required | – | optional |
| increase Limits | optional | required | optional | – |
do I have to play it or can it be “discarded” and considered a play?
A: No. You cannot discard a card just because you don’t like it; you can discard only when the rules specifically say you can. If you are forced to play a card and you have only one card, then you must play that card.
Suppose it’s a Draw 5, Play 1 type of situation and no one plays a Hand Limit or a multiple Play rule. Eventually everyone has a big hand and the draw pile runs out. The discard pile gets reshuffled and reused, but suppose the situation continues until there are no cards left to be drawn. What happens? Do you just skip the draw phase of your turn till your next turn comes up where you can draw enough cards for the ‘draw requirement’? or draw what you can now and proceed to your turn?
A: Draw what you can and continue. In general, if the rules command you to do something impossible, then you just do as much as you can, and move on. If the rule says Play 3 and you only have 2 cards, then you Play 2 and stop. Similarly, if the rule says Draw 4 and there are only 3 cards for you to draw (even after reshuffling) then you draw 3 cards and proceed with the Play phase.
So yes, if the Draw pile and the Discard pile are both empty for someone, you just continue with some people not getting any new cards during their Draw phase. Now, some cards might enter the discard pile during a person’s turn, but they don’t get to immediately Draw those available cards retroactively. You don’t assess whether the discard pile needs to be reshuffled until there is an actual need for someone to Draw. Mind you, you’ll all find yourselves drawing things someone else just played for a while, but you might not choose to use them right away.
In such a situation everyone will be holding massive hands of cards so there should be plenty you can Play, even if you’re not drawing any. At some point someone will play a Hand Limit and suddenly there will be plenty of cards to shuffle again. (This is why every version of Fluxx has Hand Limits.)