Avast! Another great Fluxx

I'm an admitted silly card game addict, so there's no surprise that I snagged a copy of Pirate Fluxx as soon as it showed up on the shelves.

Fluxx is known as the game that you basically make up as you go along. There are just two rules to start -- draw a card and then play a card. But some of the cards youc an play are New Rules so the game changes as you play it. And the game starts with no victory conditions -- those are supplied by Goal cards -- which generally involve having two of the third type of card -- Keepers. The fourth type of card is an Action, which lets a player do one-time things like trade hands or draw extra cards.

Zombie Fluxx added a new kind of card, a Creeper, which is a sort of anti-Keeper, as it usually prevents you from winning. This proved so popular it was retrofitted to Fluxx and it played a big role in some of the new version of Fluxx, especially Martian Fluxx, but in Pirate Fluxx there are just two Creepers (Scurvy and the Shackles) and they have several counter measures available.

What is new in Pirate Fluxx is a kind of card called a Surprise, which is the first Fluxx card type that can be played during another player's turn. There are four of them, each canceling the play of one of the basic four types of cards, so now it's possible to prevent an otherwise winning play, much like Munchkin.

This adds an interesting wrinkle to the game and I expect we will see more of it in the future -- possibly even being retrofitted to earlier versions as well.

Needless to say, this doesn't add enough strategy to the game to convert Fluxx-haters into fans, but it's all good for Fluxx fanatics like myself. I don't think the theme is quite so delicious as Martian Fluxx or Monty Python Fluxx, but it's silly enough to do what Fluxx does best and that's provide a nice diversion from heavier fare or while waiting for the last player to show up for that serious game you're planning that night.