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There are many excellent non-collectible card games like Munchkin which have a good ratio of interesting game play to the amount of time it takes to learn how to play, and to play well. Good, but not perfect. Even something as relatively simple as Munchkin has several pages of rules and takes about one play through the game, lasting at least an hour, before you really get the hang of it and can make sensible strategic decisions.
In games like this, it is generally the case that most of the "meat" of the system is on the cards. You have a set of basic rules, which make a simple but not very interesting game; then you have a lot of cards that have one or another exception encoded on them. And the total of the rules and those exceptions is the game.
Fluxx is a brilliantly designed card game that defies description specifically because it takes this pattern -- "much of the game system is on the cards" -- and runs with it, embraces it. And the result is that long-sought holy grail of game design. Sophisticated and interesting game play, but you literally can sit down and start playing in about a minute.
No, really, you can. You'll probably have to try it to believe me. You've been stung so many times before with games where when you first start, you can play but not really... or you know how to make the decisions, but not why you'd choose this over that. What, another game claiming it's trivially easy to learn yet has interesting and sophisticated gameplay? I've heard that before.
Well, I was just as skeptical, but having nothing else to do at a con while I waited for people to (not) show up for a game I was running, I gave it a try. My wife, who'd played once before, dealt me three cards, played one face up, and told me to read the card that was face up. It said "Draw 1, Play 1" and elaborated: on this turn, the rules were that I should draw one card, then play any one card from my hand. Simple as that.
About half the cards are Rules cards. Playing them changes the rules. For instance, play a Draw 3 card, and now you draw 3 each turn, and you immediately get to draw the 2 you're owed. Play a Play All card, and everyone has to play all their cards before the turn ends. Play a Hand Limit 2 card, and everyone has to end their turn with no more than 2 cards. Each of these changes takes effect immediately, so if you have four cards in your hand, the combinations of playing them in different orders can be breathtaking in their scope, yet all you have to do is think it through.
How do you win? Some of the cards are Keepers, each denoted with a concept: War, Chocolate, Sleep, The Moon, etc. You can play one to keep it. There are also Goals cards, most of which refer to a combination of Keeper cards. Only one Goal is in play at any time -- you play a new Goal to displace the old one, just like you play Rules to displace old ones. If you have the Keepers that the current Goal requires, you win.
Most games are over in no more than ten minutes, making this a great fun way to pass a little bit of time, not something you need to invest an evening into. But making the game take a little longer and skewing the luck/strategy balance a little more towards strategy is easy. When someone achieves a Goal, instead of winning instantly, they just get to keep the Goal card they achieved, and then you play until someone has won some number of Goals.
There are also Action cards that let you do a particular action, like trade hands with someone, reverse the order of turns, etc. on a one-time basis.
And that's it.
You can start playing right after you read those first three cards, and make moderately sensible strategic decisions, enough to have fun. Within ten minutes you'll have enough information to make good strategic decisions. But there'll still be tons more to discover as you keep playing. What more can you ask for from a card game?
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