A: No, using any special powers or abilities listed on Keepers or Creepers does not use up one of your plays for your turn.

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A: Let’s start with some of the things that will probably not be contentious.

• Plurals of a noun definitely count as saying that word. If I ban the word “card” and someone says “cards” most would agree that person must take the penalty.

• Homophones, words spelled differently but pronounced the same definitely don’t count as saying the word (to, too; hear, here; bare, bear). Someone might raise the issue upon hearing a homophone, but the completely different spelling AND meaning would probably be enough to get them to drop it.

• Homographs, words spelled the same but pronounced differently and having a different meaning, probably won’t even come up. Everyone is listening for the word in question, not watching for it in a transcript. Like if someone designates “bow,” a thing you shoot, and someone says “bow,” to bend down, nobody’s going to call that out.

HOWEVER… once you start to get into words that are spelled the same AND sound the same… things get more nebulous.

If I forbid the word “play” then everyone is probably on board as including both the following noun and verb:
noun: the action you take in the game, and its plural. “How many plays do I have left in this turn?”
verb: to take that action, and its various tenses and conjugations. “Play your cards already!” “Have you played yet?” and, “If he plays that card, I’m screwed.”
Or even the adjective designating a type of card. “Did someone change the Play rule while I was out of the room?”

But what about saying you went to a play last night? What about saying your kid plays the clarinet?

If I forbid the word “mean” which one do I… ahem… mean? Is it a verb: to intend? Is it an adjective: cruel? Is it a noun, the average? Our ears probably want to “catch” someone else using all of these, so what do we do?

The safest thing to do is to raise or point out this technical aspect when designating the forbidden word, so that everyone knows what to expect. Discuss it while holding the card up, perhaps, and say that when the card is placed on the table, the ban goes into effect, making sure everyone hears, understands, and agrees.

Here’s a good page describing homophones, homographs, and homonyms.

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A: Yes, you must finish drawing the rest of your cards for your turn – you might draw another Creeper which would prevent your win. You must accept any and ALL Creepers acquired during your initial Draw phase before assessing win conditions.

Consider the initial Draw phase to be all one simultaneous thing. Think of it this way: not everyone draws one… card… at… a… time. Some grab the total number for the Draw, add them to their hand, then deal with Creepers at that time, putting them immediately into play, and drawing to replace. Differences in draw style should not affect the outcome of the game.

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A: If Double Vision is in play with Draw 1, making players Draw 2 instead, and then someone plays Draw 2, the draw rule has gone from “Draw 2” to “Draw 2” so no additional cards should be drawn.

Here is another example: when going from Draw 1 + Double Vision (= Draw 2) to Draw 4, the player has already drawn 2 on their turn, and would need to draw 2 more to make their total drawn 4.

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A: No, you cannot. In most cases, if you have a Creeper not mentioned on the Goal you are trying to win with, then it prevents you from winning.

The exception could be considered to be Batman Fluxx, where, if you are winning with ANY Goal which requires a specific Villain (the Creepers of the Batman version) then no Villain prevents your win. You are considered to be “on the side of the bad guys” for that win. Batman Fluxx is also an exception in that, if the Goal does NOT require a Villain, then Villains ANYWHERE (in front of ANY player) will prevent the win.

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…For example, in Stoner Fluxx, the Mooch can be given away to another player who has Weed, or Munchies can be trashed by “eating” any food Keeper on the table.

A: Unfortunately, no, you’re stuck with those. The Free Action associated with those New Rules is considered to be simultaneous with your turn ending immediately, which means that Creeper giveaways or discards which can only happen on your turn cannot be executed, even if conditions allow it.

Creepers with potentially immediate “on your turn” disposal include:

Shackles (Pirate Fluxx): On your turn, you can discard this along with one of your Booty Keepers in play (yes, it has to be yours).
Mooch (Stoner Fluxx: On your turn, you can give this away to another player who has Weed in play.
Munchies (Stoner Fluxx): On your turn, you can discard this by discarding ANY Food Keeper in play (yes, you can discard someone else’s Food).
Hangover (Drinking Fluxx): During your turn, you can give this away to anyone who has more Drink Keepers in play than you.
Party Foul (Drinking Fluxx): During your turn, you can discard this if you also discard one of your Drink Keepers in play (yes, it has to be yours).
The Master (Doctor Who Fluxx): During your turn, you can give this to anyone with the Doctor.
Dalek (Doctor Who Fluxx): During your turn, you can discard both this and any Doctor in play.
Weeping Angel (Doctor Who Fluxx): During your turn, you can give this to any player with the TARDIS.

Note that the following Creeper situations are instantaneous and do NOT depend on it being your turn:

Taxes (4.0 or Creeper Pack): If you have Money on the table, discard both that and this.
Drought (Eco/Nature Fluxx): Discard this if either Flood or Water is anywhere in play.
Zombie Repellent (Zombie Fluxx): This Keeper prevents you from ever having Zombies, deflecting them immediately away to another player.

There are several other Creepers which can only be discarded if you’ve had them since your last turn, or have them at the beginning of your turn, so this question will obviously not apply to those as well.

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… Also, sometimes it comes up early in the game, and someone is stuck not getting to drink for quite a while until the game ends.

A: Switch To Water is mostly meant to be a way to make someone slow down their drinking for a bit if they’re getting a little too drunk. When to have that person stop drinking water instead of alcohol, or even whether to apply it in the first place can be considered subject to group consensus.

The card says “If anyone feels that a player is ’too drunk,’ that player must switch to drinking water” (emphasis added), so if it comes up early in the game, you don’t have to make anyone switch to water at all, if nobody is really very drunk.

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A: Some versions of the rules deal with this explicitly, and some don’t, so we’re answering this here in the FAQ, just in case there is any confusion.

Creepers may not be held in your hand, so if you get a Creeper as part of your dealt hand, you put it on the table in front of you (play it pre-game, essentially) and draw to replace. If it’s another Creeper, continue until you have a starting hand containing zero Creepers.

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A: Andy’s unofficial/official answer is that, while the rules don’t specifically disallow it, it’s highly frowned upon, and whoever does it is the winner of the “You’re a Big Jerk” award.

So, you technically CAN do it, but we’re pretty sure your friends (and your livers) will thank you if you don’t….

And think about it this way: Since everyone is going to have to drink on their turn anyway*, as a penalty for breaking either one rule or the other, both rules can effectively be ignored, and everyone just takes a drink on their turn, no matter what.

Simply ignoring both is significantly less fun than having to remember to avoid a word AND say a specific word after every sentence. So thanks, yeah, you just made the game less fun. That should be reason enough to avoid doing this, even if you think you’re terribly clever for having thought of it.

*Actually one can avoid a lot of the drinking from this situation by simply not speaking, which, again, is less fun, though there are other rules which might require speaking, like Toastmaster.

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A: You may notice that Meta-Rules have different backs from the rest of the cards. They are meant to not be shuffled into the deck at all, and the different back facilitates finding and pulling them if you accidentally shuffle them in. You just decide at the beginning of the game whether you want to play by those permanent rules or not. It’s like they are a house rule which all players decide on before starting.

This page has a short list and descriptions of all the MetaRules, with a little commentary.

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A: The wording on Let’s Simplify is as clear as we could make it. If we had said that you may discard up to half of the New Rules in play, and there were an odd number (for example, five of them) you wouldn’t know whether you should round up or down. But we tell you that you should ROUND UP when figuring out what “half” is, so in this example, you know you can discard up to three.

Of course, you may discard up to half – you don’t have to discard three; you could choose to discard just one or two, or even zero if you want. Those numbers are all less than “half (rounded up) of five”.

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A: We’d consider any cards which change the meaning of numerals on a card to be mutually exclusive to each other. Only one of them can be in play at a time, so if one is out, and someone plays a different one, the previous one would be discarded.

Inflation (Fluxx 5.0)(also available as a promo card)
Double Vision (Fluxx Remixx, Drinking Fluxx, More Rules promo pack)
One, Two, Five! (Monty Python Fluxx)
Increment All (Math Fluxx)
Mathematical! (Adventure Time Fluxx)

Note that you’ll find almost all of these (except for 1,2,5) on the same line in the Fluxx card comparison spreadsheet, since we consider these to be kind of variations on Inflation.

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A: If a Creeper is drawn by the active player, they must take the Creeper (play it in front of themselves) and draw to replace, such that all the cards they have drawn for whatever the Action indicates will contain no Creepers.

For example, if I play Everybody Gets One, then I, as the active player, am the one drawing cards. As such, I have to take all the Creepers I draw, redrawing until I’m holding enough non-Creeper cards to give 1 to each player including myself. In a deck with a lot of Creepers, anything that makes you draw cards is a liability!

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…I say it’s just one card, but my husband says it should be three, since three Creepers were drawn. Who is right?

A: For practical purposes, you are correct. If you have laid down three Creepers in a row like that, you are left needing to draw 1. After your draw phase, you should end up having drawn just 1 non-Creeper for your Draw 1.

If anyone is having a hard time wrapping their head around why this is, here’s a blow-by-blow description of what happens when you draw three Creepers in a row while trying to Draw 1.

You Draw 1. It’s a Creeper.
It goes in front of you, and you draw to replace it, hoping for a non-Creeper to satisfy the current Draw rule.
Your “draw to replace” is… a second Creeper.
It goes in front of you with the first, and you draw to replace it, hoping for a non-Creeper to satisfy the current Draw rule.
Your “draw to replace” is… a third Creeper.
It goes in front of you, and you draw to replace it, hoping for a non-Creeper to satisfy the current Draw rule.
Your “draw to replace” is… finally a non-Creeper, which you add to your hand, and you have successfully followed the current Draw rule, which is Draw 1.

As you can see, in some ways, your husband is right… but the thing is, the three cards that were “drawn to replace” did happen… they’re just over as soon as you draw 1 non-Creeper.

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A: In the vast majority of cases, you cannot win if you have Creepers not specifically required by the goal.

Exceptions:
• Do your extraneous Creepers say that they keep you from winning? (Almost all Creepers do, but if they don’t then go for it.)
• Is there a Rule in play that lets you win even if you have Creepers? (There are a couple of these, depending on which versions you have.)
• In Batman Fluxx, if the Goal requires a Villain, Villains don’t prevent you from winning. However, if the Goal does NOT require a Villain, then Villains ANYWHERE prevent you from winning.
• In Nature Fluxx (aka EcoFluxx) all Creepers prevent everyone from winning, regardless of who has them.

See also: The… Goal requires a Keeper and either of two Creepers…

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A: Yes. Since everything happens instantly in Fluxx, Draw 3 Play 2 Of Them (D3P2) suddenly becomes Draw 4 Play 3 Of Them (D4P3, if you will). The player should immediately draw an extra card and add it to the remainder of the cards being chosen from (the mini hand for the Action, not the set-aside main hand). It’s kind of like if you’d only drawn 2 cards instead of the 3 you were supposed to, realizing the mistake after playing one of them, and drawing the extra card you need at that point.

Of course, your regular hand will also need an extra card, since the Draw Rule itself has also incremented. You could do that at the time you’re executing your D3P2 by drawing a card and adding it to your set-aside hand, or you could catch up with that when you pick your regular hand back up again after the action. Note you’ll also have an extra Play to execute as well.

Star Trek Fluxx includes Fizzbin, which is similar to D3P2/D2UE. If Inflation was played as part of Fizzbin, all numbers would need to be increased, so you’d draw an extra card from the draw pile, and take an extra card from your neighbor. You should then reshuffle your temporary Fizzbin hand and continue.

Adventure Time includes the Inflation analogue, Mathematical! Inflation is also available as a promo card to add to any Fluxx deck.

Math Fluxx includes a card called Increment All, which is similar to Inflation except it only affects Actions and New Rules.

Drinking Fluxx includes a card called Double Vision, which is similar to Inflation, but only changes 1 to 2, without affecting any higher numbers, so actually, it won’t affect Draw 3 Play 2, but it’s worth noting.

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A: No. There is no limit to the number of Creepers you can have in front of you.

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