MY THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ABOUT PLAYING FLUXX
1. WHEN IN DOUBT, READ THE CARD OUT LOUD.
Read it carefully, out loud to all the players at the table. Disputes about what precise effects the cards have can practically always be resolved this way (oh, and custom cards can be debugged as well). And by the way, when someone else is reading a card out loud, please be quiet so everyone can hear.
2. PLAY TO HAVE FUN, NOT TO WIN.
Remember in high school when the coach said "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game"? Well, I'm saying the same thing, only I actually mean it. Winning is not the most important aspect of this game. This is Fluxx, not poker. Don't sit there staring at your cards for hours on end, trying to calculate which card has the maximum win/lose probability ratio or whatever. The fun of the game is watching the chaos unfold before your eyes as the rules change left and right. Who wins is a side issue. Keep it moving!
3. FLUXX IS ONLY FUN IF EVERYONE'S INVOLVED.
Part of the fun is watching what cards the other players play, and what effects they have. "Wake me when it's my turn" is the WRONG attitude. Sometimes the cards combine to give the other guy a large hand and a very long turn, playing card after card after card. If this does not sound appealing, then Fluxx is not for you. In fact, if you find your attention wandering from the game a lot, do everyone a favor. Please discard your hand and leave the table.
(Points 2 and 3 can be summarized as: "Don't take the game too seriously" and "Don't NOT take the game seriously enough".)
4. HOUSE RULES
If you wish, you may establish your own refinements to the rules at the start of the game. For instance, I played a game of Fluxx with a guy who had a rule that the X=X+1 card only applied to numerals appearing in the colored bar on the side of the cards; numerals appearing only in the body text were not affected. I guess that made the game easier for him and thus faster. Another example: my first batch of custom cards caused a situation where we had so many cards in our hands that the draw and discard piles ran out, and we couldn't draw any more cards. So I had to end the game and state a new house rule: if during a game, the discard and draw piles both run out, everybody must discard their hands, and then the deck must be shuffled and a new hand of 3 cards dealt out to each player. When using house rules, make sure everybody is clear on them before the game begins.
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