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Q: When does the Holographic Projector turn off relative to a player Transferring Brains?

…Consider this situation: Player A has the Scientist, and plays the Goal My Time Machine Works! (Scientist + Time Traveler). Player B has the Holographic Projector and the Time Traveler. The Holographic Projector can “be” the Scientist, but only during the active turn of its owner, and, since it is Player A’s turn, the Holographic Projector is not working for Player B.

Now, however, Player A plays Brain Transference, and switches positions with Player B. Brain Transference says that it causes your turn to “end immediately.” Does Player A win as soon as they switch positions, since they are the active player, and now have a working Holographic Projector + the Scientist? Or has their turn ended already due to executing the Brain Transference?…

(Note this type of situation can also occur playing with Star Trek TOS + TNG Fluxx, because of the Holodeck and Brain Transference, though, of course, this would not be the Goal in question.)

A: This was an extremely tricky situation, and Andy initially agreed with my (Alison’s) original take that the Brain Transference would be simultaneous with the Holographic Projector turning off, meaning Player A would not win.

However, after reconsidering exactly when Goal conditions should be checked regarding the interaction of these two cards, at the prompting of fan and BGA programmer Iwan Tomlow, Andy noted that Brain Transference explicitly states that “You take over that other player’s entire position in the game, as if you were in that position all along,” [emphasis added] which means that you should consider the win conditions of your new spot “as if you’d been there all along” before your turn ends immediately due to the Brain Transference.

So you “wake up from your brain transference surgery” look down at your Keepers, including the active Holographic Projector and exclaim, “Wow, how did I not notice I’m totally winning!?”

Also check out the Order of Events in a Fluxx Turn

Q: Do Worf and Kor count as Klingons? And what about B’Ellana Torres?

A: Yes, Worf can count as Klingons for the purposes of Goals, though he should not be treated as a Creeper. The same goes for Kor from the Porthos Pack, and for B’Ellana Torres from Voyager (never mind that she’s only half-Klingon – Spock was only half-Vulcan, and he was constantly being treated as if he were all-Vulcan.)

Q: If we are playing with mixed Trek Fluxxes, and more than one Transporter is in play, who gets what when Beam Us Up/Back! is played?

…and what about Attached Creepers?

A: First off, lets clarify that the people who can be Beamed Up (or Beamed Back) by any Transporter include all “Crew Members” (AKA “Starfleet Officers”) as well as the “Visitors and Other Personnel” called out by the DS9 version of this card.

OK, so we know that a standard transporter pad has six spots for people to stand on. (Never mind that some artwork seems to only show two spots, we know they can all handle six.) The person who plays Beam Us Up takes their choice of the first six eligible Keepers. Control then passes around to the next player in turn order who has a Transporter, that player beams up the next group of up to six. If any player has more than one Transporter in play, they get six per Transporter. This continues around the table, even possibly reaching the original player if there are enough eligible Keepers in play.

As for Creepers, any that are attached go with their crew members, and then are immediately replayed by the person who collected them, since Creepers cannot be in a player’s hand. See If someone plays Beam Us Up…

Q: If playing with combined Star Trek TOS & TNG decks, for the Goal Standard Gear, which calls for 2-out-of-3 items, can I win with two of the same item, from different eras?

A: No, though there are five potential Keepers which could help you achieve this Goal, it doesn’t become “any two out of five” it’s still “any two out of the three types, we just don’t care which era.”

You need two of those three types of equipment, regardless of when they were manufactured. If you want to think of it thematically: two of the same item are not going to be terribly useful when your goal is to be well equipped.

Q: If I have a Goal which requires Creepers, and I’m playing with a deck that has duplicate Creepers do extras of one of the Creepers required prevent my win?

…for example, for the Goal Enemy Alliance that requires Romulans and Klingons, if I have both the TNG and TOS versions of the Romulans Creeper, does the second Romulans count as an extra Creeper which prevents my win, as mentioned in this FAQ? Or is it just more of what I need to win?

A: Since the Goal specifically mentions Romulans without specifying one of the other, they’re effectively identical, and both count towards the Goal and not against it, and it doesn’t matter that you have a superfluous one. It’s more like what’s described in this FAQ.

Q: Can Captains of different Trek series steal each other’s Crew Members, or only crew from their own ships?

A: Any Captain can steal any Keeper with the Starfleet Officer/Crew Member icon, unless that Crew Member is already with their appropriately matched Captain. All Captains are commanding officers, so even though they are from different eras, if somehow they’re on the same mission (yeah, yeah, it’s time travel, or something), then any of them can order any crew member to join them – unless they’re trying to pull a Crew Member away from their “home Captain.”

And, of course, Captains cannot steal each other.

Regarding Worf’s situation: we see him in two different time periods in his life, and each version will stick with their current Captain. For those who are not familiar enough with the costumes from the two different series to tell them apart from their picture, they can also be distinguished by the title font, which will match between Keepers from the same deck. Also, Worf from TNG is a Lieutenant, while Worf from DS9 is a Commander.

The only Crew Member matching Captain Archer (in the Archer Expansion) is Dr. Phlox (in the Porthos Expansion), but he can still command others who are not already with the Captain they report to.

Q: If playing with TOS and TNG Trek decks, and someone has both Ensign Smith AND Tasha Yar (both “Expendable Crewman” analogues) how do you decide which gets taken or killed?

A: In thematic situational terms you’ve got two reckless crew members rushing forward, and one of them is going to “take the bullet” (or get kidnapped by accident, whatever). Which it will end up being, we really don’t know, but one of them will be… you should take the two “Expendable Crewpersons” (Tasha Yar and Ensign Smith) and mix them face down, and randomly pick which was the one stolen/trashed instead of the intended target.

Another edge case we’d like to preemptively rule on: in the case that one of them was themselves the intended target, the same thing applies: they both “rush forward” and you randomize which gets taken, or killed, or zapped, or whatever.

Q: When the Bridge Goals in the Expansion call for the Bridge and “one of” the other two applicable Keepers, is that either one or the other, or can it be both?

A: To refresh, Captain on the Bridge calls for the Bridge and “one of” Kirk/Picard, and The Bridge of the Enterprise calls for the Bridge and “one of” either version of the Enterprise.

We considered that it might make thematic sense for Captain on the Bridge to have a requirement for a maximum of one Captain, but The Bridge is standing for the bridge of any Enterprise, and, since the Captains are identical in wording, gameplay-wise, it makes more sense for it to be an and-or situation, where you can win with either one or both*, plus the Bridge.

We figured if both captains are on “the bridge,” it’s bound to be the bridge of one of them, and the other is just visiting. It doesn’t matter which one is which, you still definitely have the captain that goes with that bridge, since it’s not specified which bridge.

*If you are bold and lucky enough to combine yet more Star Trek versions using this expansion, any other Trek Captains (Sisko, Janeway, and of course, Archer) would also count as “a Captain.”

Q: Can the Teleporter teleport itself? What about the Transporter? Can one Transporter transport another Transporter?

A: You cannot teleport the Teleport Chamber itself. We should probably word the card just a tad bit clearer to specify any other Keeper.

Note that the Transporter in Star Trek Fluxxen has a different function than the Teleporter in Star Fluxx, however. Rather than moving a Keeper from one player to another on the table, it takes any Keeper on the table up into the hand of the player who has the Transporter. Again, you can’t use the Transporter to transport itself up to your hand. We’re not sure why you’d want to, but we thought we’d answer that just in case.

Now, if you’re mixing more than one Star Trek deck, there will be many Transporters in the deck, and it’s quite possible that someone might want to use one Transporter to suck up another Transporter to their hand to take it away from someone else. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to rule that out on the basis that it would definitely cause some sort of terrible Transporter-related disaster, probably involving stray tachyons or chroniton particles.

Q: Do Double Agenda and Triple Agenda replace each other as rules?

A: Yes, Double and Triple Agenda are considered mutually exclusive, since they’re both determinants of the same parameter: the number of simultaneous Goals allowed. There’s only one deck that contains both* so we didn’t think to specify it, and left it with the “filler” small print about taking immediate effect.

Note that any Goals in effect with Double Agenda stay in play if it is replaced by Triple agenda. Triple Agenda simply “opens up an additional slot” for another Goal. Of course, when reducing from Triple Agenda to Double Agenda, the active player would choose which Goal will be tossed, leaving the others in play, just as when going from Double Agenda back to the regular single Goal in play.

* Holiday Fluxx, though this issue could also come up if you’re playing with the combined Star Trek TOS & TNG double-deck or some other combo of combined decks.

* There is another situation which could cause both to be in the same game, and that is when combining Across America Fluxx (which has Double Agenda) and Around the World Fluxx (which has Triple Agenda).

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???”