I just received my copy of Doctor Who Fluxx in the mail!


Fluxx is a card game created by software developers which is basically a frenzy of ever-changing requirements. The idea is that the game starts with the basic Rules of "draw one card, play one card" and no Goals (meaning, no way to win), and then as you play cards, the Rules and Goals change. For example, there are cards that change the first Rule to "draw two cards". There's a Goal card called "It's You!" which says that you win if you have in your face-up cards any Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith. If you play a new Goal card, then the old Goal card is discarded. As you can imagine, it's difficult to win, because the rules are constantly changing and what might make you win right now will change in thirty seconds.

It's a pretty good metaphor for software development.

After the game became popular, the creators started making different themes, such as zombies and Monty Python, and now Doctor Who. I haven't had a chance to play the game yet (we're going to try at lunch), but I have looked through the cards. There are cards for all the Doctors through Twelve and one for "Future Doctor", as well as all the modern companions through Clara. Most of the references are to the modern show, which is disappointing. All of the Goal cards are references (such as the "It's You!" I mentioned above and the "Doomsday" Goal, which is having both Daleks and Cybermen in play at the same time), but only some of the Rules cards are. For example, the Blinovitch Limitation Effect Rule says that only one Doctor may be in play at any time, and when a second Doctor comes out, the lower-number Doctor must be discarded. However, the "Draw 2 cards" Rule doesn't have a reference at all. I'm thinking of going through and adding references to all the vanilla cards.

It's kind of funny how everyone on these cards look horrified.




In other news, I'm almost finished with my next story.


It's all written, but really need polish. It's not really a multi-chapter; more like a multi-section. I haven't really figured out how I'm going to cut it up. One big long thing?

It's a David and Will story, and was meant to be an adventure during the time David lived on Earth. I discovered that it's really hard to write an adventure that's set in normal, every day life. I don't want to write aliens rampaging through the small northern town that they live in, because that's just absurd. Everyone knows that aliens only attack London. (hee!) The whole point is that David is not the Doctor and doesn't attract weird trouble all the time, and thus David and Will are not running around saving the world. And thus, though I like the point of the story, the actual execution isn't very compelling. However, it's great getting something done, and now I can move on to something else. I just picked up an idea that I started about two years ago, and I'm looking forward to working on it.