We skipped along the yellow brick road, collecting magical items in the ever-changing game of Oz Fluxx, the next in our A-Z game play-through.
Basic Info: Oz Fluxx
Players: 2-6
Time: 10-40 Minutes
Designers: Andrew Looney
Artists: Michael Hays
Publisher: Looney Labs
Fluxx, and all of its themed siblings, is a card game that starts out relatively easily with players each having a hand of three cards and simply drawing and playing a card on their turn. However, the rules start to change, making it more and more complex. Eventually someone will play a Goal, and the first person to satisfy the active Goal — with Keepers in front of them — wins the game.
The game is set up with the Basic Rules card placed in the center of the table, the deck of cards shuffled and three cards dealt the each player.
The cards come in a few varieties – Keepers are played in front of a player and stay there throughout the game unless stolen or discarded due to Keeper Limit restrictions, Creepers are played in front of a player and stay there, preventing them from winning until they can get rid of it, New Rules change the rules, Goals define the win condition, and Actions change things up even more. Every rule can be changed – different goals, hand-limits introduced, drawing more cards each turn, playing more cards each turn, and limits on the number of Keepers in front of you.
The first player to have the necessary Keepers in front of them to fulfill the current Goal immediately wins the game.
In each Fluxx variant, the theming is everything. As the name implies, Oz Fluxx concentrates on The Wizard of Oz, and some of the new rules are also thematic.
The original Fluxx was one of the first games in our collection, and Oz Fluxx was a later one that I picked up because I thought I would enjoy the theme. And, it is probably one of my favorite Fluxx variants in my collection. It has Creepers, which makes the game a bit more challenging than the original game. And some of the thematic rules are a lot of fun — like clicking your heels together three times to draw and play an additional card.
How is it as a 2-player game? Fluxx in general isn’t a great 2-player game. It plays fine, but the game just works better with more players changing the rules, replacing the goals, and generally creating chaos.
How about the art and component quality? I like the art of this variant. The cards themselves are good quality, and they come in a sturdy box.
Will this stay in my collection? Definitely. This is my favorite of the various Fluxx variants that we have. The new rules are fun and thematic, and the art is fun. It’s a good filler game for the end of the night, and this would be the one I have in my collection that I’m most likely to pull off the shelf.
