Fluxx: Bow Down To the Cards

If you have a hard time following the rules, you’re not alone. Learning the rules of a card game can be a competition in and of itself, causing you to scratch your head and fight over whether or not you’re allowed to play a Draw 2 on top of another Draw 2. But in the card game Fluxx, learning the rules actually is the point of the game! 

This challenging and wacky card game allows you to change the rules every time you play, constantly switching up the game and morphing it into something entirely new. You’ll have a blast as you lay down card after card, leveling the playing field and knocking the frontrunner off his high horse.

Changing the Rules

Fluxx is a card game with constantly changing rules. The more cards you play, the more the rules change. This makes the game incredibly difficult to plan ahead and manage your hand, as you’re constantly having to shift your strategy along with the rules. New cards will change things like how the cards are drawn, how they’re played, and how many cards you’re allowed to hold onto at one time.

Fluxx begins with some basic rules, with one player shuffling the deck and giving each player three cards. Each player is allowed to draw and play one card per turn, while there is no limit to the cards you’re allowed to hold in your hand. However, as soon as someone plays a card, those simple rules become not so simple. 

For example, a player can play a New Rule card that forces everyone to draw five cards per turn instead of one. Players can also play cards that allow you to play three cards at once, or that limit the number of cards in your hand to only one at a time. If at any point a new rule contradicts an old one, the old rule is discarded in favor of the new.

Keeper, Goal, and Action Cards

The overall goal of Fluxx is to match Keeper cards with Goal cards. The Keeper cards will have certain requirements that the Goal cards have to match. For example, the War Keeper card matches the War = Death Goal card, meaning that if you play both cards on the table, then you win the game.

However, the twist of this card game is that the goals change just like the rules do. You might manage to assemble the right combination of Keeper cards only to find that you’re too late and the goal has changed to something else. You’ll have to stay on top of the ever-changing rules and goals if you want to win the game.

To make things even more complicated, Fluxx also throws in Action cards that allow you to perform random actions. The “Taxation!” card allows you to take cards from the other players, while the “Let’s Do That Again!” card allows you to search through the discard pile and play any Action or New Rule card you choose.

Fluxx Sequels

The joy of Fluxx is that they have released countless sequel card games, promo cards, and themed editions of the original card game. Adventure Time Fluxx has the same rules as the original card game but allows you to play with your favorite characters from the classic Cartoon Network TV show. Join Jake the dog and Finn the human on their adventures in the City of Thieves as you deal with the changing rules!

Doctors and anatomy-lovers will rejoice at Anatomy Fluxx, which allows you to play with cards that correspond with body parts. Play with cards like Blood Vessels and Bones as you fight against the deadly Virus and Mutation. You’ll also have to avoid UnGoals like Cancer that will cause you to instantly lose the game.

Can You Keep Up With All the Changes In Fluxx?

Fluxx is playable by 2-6 players, so it’s a good card game for small parties or families. It’s also suitable for ages 8 and up, making it accessible to both kids and adults alike. Playing time lasts around 5-30 minutes, as it entirely depends on the luck of the draw.

Buy Fluxx today and enjoy the chaos of this random card game!

 

Bananagrams: Quit Monkeying Around!

Bananagrams is one of those classic word games that almost everyone has an edition of sitting around somewhere in their closet. With the trademark little felt banana bag and those user-friendly letter tiles, you can easily mix and match words to create your own crossword and be the first to shout out “Bananagrams!” If you’re a fan of classic word games like Scrabble or Boggle but are looking for something a little more fast-paced, you’ll love Bananagrams.

Arranging the Tiles

Bananagrams is an incredibly simple and fast-paced game that uses small tiles to form words in the shape of a grid. In this sense, it is incredibly similar to Scrabble, although Bananagrams gets rid of the game board and speeds things up by allowing each player to make their own grid. To make their words, players get to use 144 tiles that all come in a cute little bag shaped like a banana.

Bananagrams begins with all of the tiles being flipped and placed in the center of the table. Each player then takes 12 tiles and begins arranging them into words in the form of a grid, similar to the way a crossword is set up. Once a player uses up all of the letters in their bunch, they shout “peel!” and everyone has to take a new tile from the pool in the center.

If you’re stuck with a bunch of bum letters that you can’t place, then you can dump one of your tiles and draw three more. While this can help you dig your way out of the hole, beware! You may only find yourself deeper in the pit with more tiles you can’t use. Once the pool in the center of the table is almost empty, then the first person to use all of their tiles shouts out “Bananagrams!” and wins the game.

Variant Rules

Bananagrams is incredibly simple, with hands usually taking as little as 5 minutes. However, there are different variant rules within the game itself that you can use depending on where you are and how complex you want the game to be. The Banana Smoothie of the board game gives everyone their own bunch of tiles right at the start of the game, dividing it equally among everyone. This allows you to plan out your whole crossword right at the beginning.

The Banana Cafe version of Bananagrams is meant to be played in public when waiting for service. Players play with 21 tiles and are allowed to dump tiles and draw more if they need to, but they don’t have to “peel” and force anyone else to draw more tiles. You can also play the Banana Solitaire version of Bananagrams to play the game all on your own, competing against your own best time.

Bananagrams Sequels

There are several sequels to the original Bananagrams board game that allow you to play it with new and complex rules. Bananagrams Duel! turns the board game into a two-player word game that uses both letter cubes and Banana cards. Players use any side of their 12 letter cubes to try to create a crossword grid, competing for Banana cards to see who can win the most rounds.

Bananagrams Party adds 14 more “party power” tiles to the original game. These tiles range from The Re-Gifter to The Thief to Switcheroo, with each giving you a special power to use against your opponents. Bananagrams WildTiles adds 6 wild monkey tiles to the game, each of which can be used as whatever letter you like. This is similar to the wild tiles in Scrabble, which can help you make a new word when you can’t seem to find the letter you need. 

Bananagrams: Wordplay Never Tasted So Sweet

Bananagrams is playable by 1-8 players, so you can easily play it with the whole family or just on your own when you’re killing time. It’s suitable for ages 7 and up, as anyone can grasp the simplicity of the rules. Playing time lasts around 15 minutes, although you’ll definitely be playing best of 5 or best of 10.

Buy Bananagrams and add this classic tile game to your collection of word games!

 

Go: A Game As Old As Time

Chances are you’ve seen people playing a game of Go in the park or on TV, maneuvering around little black and white stones on a large wooden board. While Go may be one of the simplest games to learn, it offers countless opportunities for developing strategies and tactics to beat your partner and steal their territory out from underneath them. Go gives you the ability to develop your own unique style, providing you with countless of hours of mindbending fun.

The History of Go

Go is one of the oldest board games in history, but its simple rules belay an endless amount of depth. Go was first mentioned in the Analects of Confucious in around 500 BC, while the earliest physical evidence of the board game was a Go board discovered in 1952 in the tomb of the Han Dynasty, which lasted from 206 BC to 9 AD.

There are many urban legends and scholarly anecdotes about the origins of Go, the most popular of which is that it was invented by either Chinese emperors, court astrologers, or an imperial vassal. Many claim that Go was invented by Emperor Yao to amuse his son, while others claim that Emperor Shun created the game to make his son smarter. No matter who invented Go, its popularity and endurance have certainly been well established.

Learning the Rules

Because Go has been around for so long, there are plenty of different variants of the game that come with all sorts of different rules. However, the standard game is usually the same. It starts with an empty board, which is a 17×17 grid. Each player is given a bunch of stones to use, with one player using black stones and the other using white.

The goal of the game is to use your stones to form territories by blocking off empty spaces on the board. Players will take turns placing one stone at a time on the intersections of the lines. Once you’ve placed a stone, you can’t move it. However, you can surround your opponent’s stones and capture them, which allows you to take them prisoner.

The game ends once the board has been filled or when both players agree to end it. At the end of the game, players will tally up the points by collecting one point for every empty space within their territory and one point for each of their opponent’s stones they’ve captured. Like the game of chess, Go requires you to think many steps ahead to anticipate your opponent’s strategy and thwart their plans before they can succeed.

Variants of Go

Go has many different variants that differ in areas such as the scoring method and the placement of handicaps. Tibetan Go begins with six stones from both colors placed on the third line within the grid. The Korean form of Go (called Sunjung baduk) begins with eight stones of each color laid out on the grid in a specific pattern, while Capture Go simplifies the game by declaring the first person to capture a stone the winner.

There’s even a variant of Go called Joker Go that uses a special deck of cards to spice things up. Each player is given a deck of 27 cards that show a unique configuration of stones. Players can then either play a stone normally or draw and play a card, which allows them to place the stones as shown on the card. This can throw a wrench in your plans or your opponent’s plans by reshaping the board in a dramatic way.

Ready, Set, Go

Go is the ultimate 2-person game, as it’s very much a one-on-one game of getting into your opponent’s head. It’s suitable for ages 8 and up, as it has incredibly simple rules that can be understood by any player regardless of their level of skill. Playing time lasts around 30 minutes, although the game has been known to go on for up to three hours depending on the skill of the players.

Go is an excellent abstract strategy game if you’re looking for something to stimulate your mind. Buy Go today and enjoy the limitless fun of this ancient game!

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