A: This was clearly an oversight on our part. We hope that everyone considers Starfleet Engineers competent enough that they don’t simply toss a broken piece of equipment or machinery, they fix it. Yes, Scotty, Geordi, Lt. Torres, and Chief O’Brien can all detach a Malfunction in order to discard it, rendering the afflicted item intact again.

One benefit of the unintentionally simplified language used (“If you have a Malfunction, you may discard it.”) is that the Malfunction doesn’t have to be attached in order to be discarded, so that’s a plus.

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.. for example, the Enterprise coul have a malfunctioning turbolift and a malfunctioning Hydroponics lab…

A: Yes, you could have a piece of equipment which has multiple Malfunctions, just as in the example you provided (nice!) And, since they would be different breakdowns, yes, as you have hypothesized, the Engineer could only fix one on your turn, and then you’d have to wait for your turn to come around again for them to fix the second one.

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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.)

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A: Yes, Garak and Dukat can count as Cardassians for the purposes of Goals, though they should not be treated as a Creepers.

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…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

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A: There is no penalty for failing to use the catchphrases, other than disappointing your friends and bringing dishonor upon your house. That said, if you really need to stay silent when playing one of those cards, perhaps you can express the required sentiment in a non-verbal fashion.

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A: It can be ANY version of Star Trek on your screen – any version, any era, any movie. Andy says “Heck I’d even accept Galaxy Quest or The Orville.” Some might consider that last decision a stretch, so you might want to discuss it before the game begins, but even if you ended up having to bring it up mid-game, we’re guessing that few players are likely to veto a decision that benefits everyone.

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A: In matters such as Teleportation, Borg Assimilation, and Mirror Universe Duplication, they should be treated interchangeably. However, Visitors and Other Personnel are not subject to the whims of Captains, while Crew Members and Starfleet Officers are.

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A: No. Although it’s normally totally possible to attach two Creepers to the same Keeper, in this case the redundant Borg will await the next available non-assimilated being to attach to.

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A: It doesn’t matter. Since the Goal doesn’t specify which Captain, and the regular Captain is clearly absent, any available Captain will take temporary command of the ship and lead the crew to victory!

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A: You would think so, yes, but unfortunately, much as Porthos might wish to obey his master’s command, the dog cannot free himself from the confines of the captain’s quarters.

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A: If your Transporter is Malfunctioning, no, it will not get you all the Crew in play. You will get the same effect from Beam Us Up as if you had no Transporter.

(Note that in Star Fluxx, it’s called a Teleporter, and the Keepers which are Beamed Up are Beings, not Crew, but this question could still arise if Beam Us Up is played with a Malfunctioning Teleporter)

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…For other Actions, like Draw 3, Play 2 of Them, Inflation affects the Action in progress. For Goal Bonanza, one can easily draw an extra card, but does Inflation retroactively affect how may Goals one needs to have discarded? What if I don’t have an extra Goal to discard?

A: While Inflation can certainly increase a Draw or Play requirement, it’s not possible to have it retroactively affect any discard requirement, since, as pointed out, there’s no guarantee a player will have an extra Goal (or whatever) to throw away. So, in this case, you would not be required to discard an extra Goal to get the extra draw and subsequent play.

Note that 5 Card Mission is the Meta Rule equivalent of the regular New Rule Goal Bonanza, and the Black Knight expansion for Monty Python also has a New Rule called It’s a Quest, which works in much the same way as Goal Bonanza (except it’s discard 3 Goals, and draw 4 cards to play).

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A: No. Unfortunately, you can’t choose to play the Creepers last. As Creepers they are never really held in your hand (or temporary hand). You have to play them immediately, as usual, the only difference with 5 Card Mission is that, unlike in other similar situations, you don’t get to draw to replace them with non-Creepers.

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A: As long as the negating card is not a Creeper (see this question) you can play the card which would make you win, and the game would end (assuming it’s not stopped by a Surprise, of course). You do not have to play all of the 5 Card Mission cards and THEN assess your win status.

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A: No, the Surprise you draw via Mystery Play* cannot be used to stop the previous Canceling of your play. It’s far too late. Whatever card you played has been Canceled, and that’s that. With no Surprise available, you could not stop the Surprise, so you have moved on and taken your next game action: choosing to use Mystery Play.

Since choosing to use Mystery Play will always disrupt the immediacy required for a reactive Surprise play, any Surprise drawn via Mystery Play would have to be used for it’s in-turn function.

* Or any of its analogues below:
Mystery Play in Fluxx 5.0, SE, Remixx, Astronomy, SpongeBob, and Wonderland
Mythtery Play in Fantasy
Wormhole in Star, Star Trek TOS, TNG, and Voyager
Shiny! in Firefly
Allons-y/Geronimo! in Doctor Who
Spontaneous Reaction in Chemistry
Egads! in Batman
Unknown Variable in Math
THWIP! in Marvel
(the Infinity Gauntlet Keeper in Marvel has this as its special power as well)
Great Idea! in Stoner
Magic Spell in Fairy Tale
Magic Portal in Adventure Time
Magic Shoes in Oz (if you click your heels together three times)
Open The Door in Monster (if the Spooky Door is in play)
Open A Gift! in Holiday (if The Gift is in play)
Chemical X in Cartoon Network (if at least one Powerpuff Girl is in play)
Time Doorway in Regular Show (if the Time Machine is in play)

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…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.

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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.

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…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…

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A: Each version of Fluxx has some distinguishing feature. It’s almost always the font at the top of the card, but on some very early decks, we did fun things with the color stripe. Here’s an example of two of the “same” card from Star Trek (TNG) and Star Trek (TOS) Fluxx versions:

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A: Yes. If it says you need a Phaser, the Enterprise, a Computer, a Malfunction, a Transporter, Romulans, or Worf, then any deck’s version of that card will do, regardless of the image.

Also note that Holodecks are interchangeable with the Holosuite; similarly, the Runabout counts as a Shuttlecraft and vice versa.

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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.”

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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.

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A: If a card calls for any Captain, you need any one of the five Captains in their series: Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, or Archer. Yes, Spock, and others, became captains later, but in these games, they don’t have that rank yet.

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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.

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A: When something which is obviously completely redundant comes up, for example, if Draw 2 is in play, and someone plays Draw 2 again, the old one is discarded, and the new one replaces it, and game conditions do not change. If Wormhole is in play, and someone plays Wormhole again, no, you don’t get a double-Wormhole, you just replace the old one with the new, and there is no functional change to the gameplay. When Double Agenda is replaced by Double Agenda, the same two Goals stay in play.

(You could just put the new one directly in the discard if you want, but don’t just stack them! Rules which have been superseded should always go in the discard pile so they can be referenced, reshuffled, etc.)

Functionally-redundant New Rule cards, which is to say, cards which have different names, but do the same (or almost the same) thing should be treated the same way. Examples would be Mystery Play, Eureka!, and Open the Door, which are all identical in function to Wormhole.

See our Fluxx Card Comparison chart to see which cards we consider functionally (or practically) redundant. Just click to highlight a whole row, and you can scroll to the right to see all of the cards that do that thing, even if they have different names.

A few non-obvious points would be:
Q: Do Double Agenda and Triple Agenda replace each other as rules? Yes. Double Agenda contradicts Triple Agenda and vice versa, since they’re both determinants of the same parameter: the number of simultaneous Goals allowed.

Bonuses generally stack, however, since they are almost always granted based on conditions which are completely independent from each other. For example the Rich and Poor Bonus do not replace each other, and neither contradicts Party Bonus. Furthermore, although we’ve put the Party Bonus and the Love Bonus on the same line in the comparison chart, we would not consider them to be mutually exclusive, since they grant their Bonuses based on the presence of completely different cards.

Of course, if someone played a duplicate Party Bonus (based on the presence of The Party specifically), it would simply replace the Party Bonus already in play, as described above.

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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.

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…Beam Us Back! Specifically calls out Visitors and Other Personnel in addition to Starfleet Officers. Will Beam Us Up! from the other Trekk Fluxxen also affect all of those categories of people?

A: Yes, any Transporter can Beam Up all “Crew Members” (AKA “Starfleet Officers”) as well as the “Visitors and Other Personnel” called out by the DS9 version of this card.

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A: Our call would be that you could win if you have both, since both are mentioned on the same Goal, and the rule regarding winning with Creepers is that it’s possible if the Goal specifically requires that Creeper. Another way to think of it is that it’s not an “exclusive or” (XOR) it is an “inclusive or” (and/or). An exclusive or would mean one or the other, but not both, whereas an inclusive or means one or the other or both.

This is true for any Goal which requires any subset of a group of Creepers. If the Creeper is shown on the Goal, it will not prevent the win, but if the person in question has any Creepers NOT shown on the Goal they’re trying to win with, then those excess unrelated Creepers will prevent the win.

It would be difficult to find all of them to list them here, but we will tag various applicable Goals as they are brought to our attention.
Terrifying Inspiration (Cthulhu Fluxx)
Q Who (Star Trek TNG Fluxx)

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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).

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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???”

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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…

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