PastFuture
Linking? Use this URL!

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

Archives Games



beer from maine | hallow there


Global Air Traffic Simulation



Tirade's Choice

Pyramid Test video


"I decided to get more Fluxx cards because my friend wanted to play so badly, he was tempted to steal the deck from our math department's common room." -- comments with an order from a student at Princeton named Robert



The new Zeppelin and other stuff


Fluxx 4.0 Is At The Printers!

As those who've read the most recent issue of Notes From The Lab have already heard, we are on the brink of releasing an updated version of Fluxx! Yes, Fluxx version 4.0 is now at the printer! It'll be out in time for the holidays!

Here are the details of what's new in Fluxx Version 4.0:

  • Colorized and Improved Artwork: Under the direction of Todd Cameron Hamilton (who did the artwork for Monty Python Fluxx), my classic line drawings have been given a great new full-color look. Three of the Keepers -- Dreams, Money, and the Moon -- have been redrawn entirely. Dreams has a clearer vision, Money now has better-looking coins and a cost of living increase (it features a twenty now instead of a $5 bill), and the Moon has gone from a simple crescent to a really cool looking cratered sphere.
  • More Cards: As with Zombie and Monty Python Fluxx, version 4.0 will include 100 cards (instead of 84).
  • New Cards: Some of the cards being added with this upgrade have been available in other ways before, such as the Party and the Radioactive Potato (which debuted in the 10th Anniversary Party Pack). The set also includes some previously retired cards, like Taxes and the Eye, and some totally new cards, like a Keeper called the Cosmos and a New Rule called You Also Need a Baked Potato.
  • Creepers: Fluxx 4.0 will include 4 Creepers (and some other little changes to help you cope with them). In addition to the ever-popular Radioactive Potato, 3 classic Keepers have been reclassified as Creepers: War, Death, and Taxes. In retrospect, those concepts really aren't good material for Keeper, making much more sense as Creepers, but we didn't have any other way to represent negative stuff until the Zombie uprising. Now it seems obvious that these cards should be Creepers, and in their new incarnations, they each have special properties. (You can't have Peace if you have War, i.e. you get to push War to another player if you have Peace; Taxes destroys Money if you have them both on the table, but goes away in the process; and Death is now killing machine which destroys itself after it kills off all of your other Keepers & Creepers, one by one.)
  • New Packaging: Fluxx 4.0 will be sold in the same newly-styled two-piece box Monty Python Fluxx comes in. The new box features a purple starfield background and bold cosmic-looking front cover artwork. The back of the box features a great new cartoon of three people playing Fluxx.
  • New Rulesheet: The bigger box also allows for a bigger rulesheet, with a great new Frequently Asked Questions section.
  • New Type of Card: As you may already know, I thought of another new type of card a few months ago: the Meta Rule. This special new type of card is like a formalized house rule: assuming everyone agrees, Meta Rule cards are placed on the table with the Basic Rules card, and they stay in force throughout the entire game. We're saving some of my crazier Meta Rule ideas for a future release, so Fluxx 4.0 will launch the concept with just one Meta Rule, called Rules Escalation (which we've been using during Tournaments since Keith Baker ran them for us at our first Origins, in 1997).
So there you go, a detailed look at what's inside Fluxx 4.0. Ask for it at your favorite game store in early December!
AndyThanks for reading, and have a great whenever!

Thought Residue
I'm so very pleased with the election results this year. I vividly recall the first time I heard an Obama speech, during the '04 Convention, and I've been rooting for him ever since. Thank you America for electing him! I was also delighted to hear about the passage of Question 2 in Massachusetts, decriminalizing marijuana. While I'd rather see full legalization/regulation/taxation, this was a good step in the right direction, and it's great that it passed by such a wide margin -- two to one! Thanks, voters of Massachusetts! I'm disappointed by the Californians, for their decision to write a gay marriage ban into their constitution, but so it goes. As for my own state's politics, while I'm not a fan of slot machines myself, I'm glad we voted to allow them. But mostly, I'm excited about the election of Barack Obama. It was great waking up on my birthday with the knowledge that change has come to America. It was another TimeLine worthy event: we're sending a family of color into the White House!

The retirement money I saved up during my career as a computer programmer lost a fourth of its value during the recent stock market declines. But Kristin's similar nest egg retained its value, since she'd kept her IRA money in less risky accounts than me.
"My work is writing, and I'm happiest when I'm doing that. The trouble with writing is, you're always working. I hate myself for it, but I'll be at a party, and I'll hear someone express an interesting idea, and I'll think to myself, 'Gee, I could use that.' You have to have an ego if you're a writer too; it's egotistical to think that anyone else cares what you think and put down on paper about anything." -- Andy Rooney, 60 Minutes, 10/26/8


News Search Gift Shop Games About Us

http://www.wunderland.com | contact us