September 30, 2009
Volume 2, Issue 4
Feature Article
It's an Invasion from the Planet Mars!
The makers of Zombie Fluxx bring you - Martian Fluxx - another classic monster story in ever-changing card game form. The players are the Martians determined to destroy the Pathetic Humans who are represented as Creeper cards. It's got Flying Saucers, Giant Tripod War Machines, Tentacles, Ray Guns, a Mothership, and of course, a Space Modulator. Other Creepers include Germs, the Army, and the Important Human - which is required for the "Take Us To Your Leader" Goal.
Martian Fluxx went on sale September 25, and many of your Friendly Local Game Stores got a special Demo Kit that included a dozen "Talk Like A Martian" Promo Cards! If your local store doesn't know about the promotion, let them know they can order it from any of their distributors. Please check out this web page for more details. Now, go get your tentacles on a copy of Martian Fluxx before the Humans escape from the Abduction Chamber!
Coming Soon from Looney Labs - Chrononauts and The Gore Years Expansion Pack!
What would YOU do with a Time Machine? Would you stop the sinking of the Titanic? Prevent the assassination of JFK or John Lennon? Kill Hitler before WWII? These are just a few of the possibilities in Chrononauts, the award-winning time travel card game. To win, you must change history at key points called Linchpins, so that history transforms into the Alternate Reality your character calls home. You can also win by collecting a specific set of Artifacts, such as a live dinosaur, the Mona Lisa, and an unpublished Shakespearean play. But be careful -- if you create too many paradoxes, you could destroy the entire universe!
A lot has happened since Chrononauts was first published, and the Timeline has slipped out of date. So, how would the past 8 years be different if Time Travelers changed the outcome of the 2000 election? Well, for starters, they'd be called The Gore Years! This 11-card Expansion Pack brings Chrononauts into the 21st Century, containing 5 new TimeLine cards, three Alternate Reality Patches, and three new Chrononauts Character ID cards. (And yes, now you can prevent the 9/11 attacks!) At only $3 this expansion pack is a must-have for any Chrononauts fan.
Chrononauts and The Gore Years will be releasing on October 23rd. If you already have a copy of Chrononauts, make sure you read "Ask Andy" below so you can see "What's New in Chrononauts 1.4". If you don't already have a copy of Chrononauts, head to your Friendly Local Game Store and pre-order one today!
Trivia Question
There's a goal in Martian Fluxx called "Humans Without Hats". What is this a reference to?
Scroll down to see the answer.
Ask Andy
Q: What's New in Chrononauts 1.4?
Andy's answer: "The updates to Chrononauts for Version 1.4 are pretty minor. The most obvious changes are the new box and the new Rulesheet. The box is the standard two-part Looney Labs game box we've been gradually converting everything over to, complete with (for the first time for Chrononauts) a six-unit store display box. The new rulesheet is the biggest we've ever made, features full color, and will hopefully be much easier for people to learn the game from than the original miniature booklet.
Inside it's mostly unchanged, although there are a couple of new cards. The card count has gone from 136 to 140. The cards added aren't all that new: one is just an extra "Restore History", the second is the "Beatles Reunion CD" (previously available as a promo card), and the two cards that are new are both just ideas that have been on Andy's Mysteries of the TimeLine page for years: "Sarah the Triceratops" and the 1945-D Patch, "Tokyo Nuked," which fills out the Nexus for the case in which Hitler was assassinated but the Pearl Harbor and Manhattan Project linchpins are set to True History.
Lastly, I made a few tiny edits, such as adding this clause to the "Articles of Faith" mission "If you are playing UberChrononauts, the Golden Calf may be substituted for any one of the above artifacts." But perhaps most interesting tweak is the addition of the 2001 Linchpin icon to the "Halt Attack" and "Avert Disaster" inverters, thus making the game forward compatible with the new Gore Years expansion.
The Gore Years is a 12 card packet which is being released at the same time as Chrononauts, and it extends the TimeLine from 2000 to 2008. The set includes five new TimeLine cards, three new patches, and three new Identities."
Survey of the Month
What's Your Favorite Alien Invasion Movie?
Take the Survey! We'll post the results in our next newsletter.
Results of Last Issue's Survey
Our question last time was: What is the youngest age player you have ever played Aquarius with?
Here are the top results of the 126 votes cast:
22-34 yrs old - 9.5%
18-21 yrs old - 7.9%
14-17 yrs old - 6.3%
13 yrs old - 1.6%
12 yrs old - 2.4%
11 yrs old - 2.4%
10 yrs old - 5.6%
9 yrs old - 2.4%
8 yrs old - 4.8%
7 yrs old - 5.6%
6 yrs old - 2.4%
5 yrs old - 2.4%
4 yrs old - 3.2%
3 yrs old - 1.6%
Under 3 yrs old - 1.6%
Trivia Question Answer
The goal name "Humans Without Hats" was inspired by the group "Men Without Hats," the one-hit-wonder from the 80s who sang "Safety Dance." The card was also inspired -- at the very last minute -- by the final game art created by John Ottinger. Andy noticed that three of the 10 Pathetic Humans had hats -- four if you count the Prom Queen's tiara as a hat (which was a matter of much debate). Andy also wanted to add to the usefulness of the "Tin Foil Hat", and thus this goal was born.