2: Session Report

Games Played:
1. Jenga https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2452/jenga
2. FLUXX https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/258/fluxx

Another great introductory step into analyzing game development begins with one of the most fundamental types of games we can look at, boardgames. Our group played a couple games during this lab but the most entertaining and interesting by far was FLUXX.

FLUXX began for our group as a relatively simple card game with few rules. We understood the premise of play going into the game, that for each turn we play by both drawing a card and playing a card. I started the game off for us by playing a “Keeper” card War and then drawing. The next player in our table played a keeper of their own, Love. The table similarly continues to play keeper cards until one player, Sean, eventually sets down the first goal of the session cheekily titled: The Brain. By this point in the game, everybody is piecing together the win conditions quickly. There are cards known as keepers and cards known as goals. There names are fairly self explanatory in that keepers are necessary to reach certain goals. “The Brain”, for example, requires that a player have the keeper card Brain on the table without the card TV in order to win the game.

Connie introduces another new mechanic with the next turn with an action card titled Jackpot, allowing her to draw several cards in hopes of improving her hand. Action cards can provide a variety of advantages to a player, such as drawing new cards, shuffling the deck or even sabotaging other players. Our table comes to an unspoken understanding that action cards are going to be a pivotal part in playing this game well if we want to win. After another keeper enters play, Nicole introduces to the table the last major mechanic FLUXX has by playing the creeper card Werewolf and targeting Sean as her victim. Werewolf is a type of card that burdens whatever player owns it by not allowing them to win. It becomes clear to everybody playing that creeper cards are bad and playing them against people is how you lose friendships.

Not too long after the creeper comes into play, another member of the table plays another goal card “Love Jesus“, which requires the keeper cards Love and Jesus to be in play for a player to win. This would mark the first time among many the win condition for the table would change. Every time one of us, myself include, would come close to winning someone would usually play a new goal card and its frustratingly back to square-one. As our session continues more rule cards rapidly start to come into play. “Hand Limit 1” handicaps everybody by limiting the number of cards they can own. “Party Time” meant any time the Party keeper card appeared, we would all draw extra cards. Pretty soon our game was loaded with all sorts of rules and the goal was constantly changing.

By the end of our session, nobody was close to winning. The rules compounded and the win condition constantly changed thanks to our various new goals coming in and out of play. At this point, I can safely say the best strategy to win a game of FLUXX is to have no strategy, which is the real beauty of this game. Planning ahead is impossible with the goal constantly changing. FLUXX is all about staying adaptive and responding quickly to the fleeting win conditions and opportunities that present themselves to you in the form of action and rule cards. Sometimes the best play you can make is to just horde some useful looking cards and hope you get lucky.