Cosmic Encounter

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Avalon Hill's box top for Cosmic Encounter

Cosmic Encounter is a science fiction-themed strategy board game, designed by "Future Pastimes" (collectively, Peter Olotka, Jack Kittredge and Bill Eberle) and originally published by Eon Games in 1977. In it, each player takes the role of a particular alien species attempting to establish control over the universe. In 1992, Cosmic Encounter won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame of 1991, and placed 6th in the Deutscher Spiele Preis.

Cosmic Encounter is a very dynamic and social game, with players being encouraged to interact, argue, form alliances, make deals, double-cross, and occasionally work together to protect the common good. Most editions of the game are designed for three to six players, although official rules exist for playing with as few as two, or as many as eight, players.

1 Gameplay
2 History
3 Influence
4 External links

[edit] Gameplay

The board consists of a home system with five planets for each player and an area in the middle termed "The Warp". There is also a cardboard HyperSpace Cone used for pointing an attack at an opponent's planet. Each player begins with twenty tokens in their home system (four on each planet). Two decks of cards are used: one deck which determines who is attacked next (the "destiny" pile), and one which contains the cards players hold in their hands. This second deck is made up of numbered cards which are used in challenges and many other special cards which affect the game in various ways. The specific wording of these cards varies among editions.

On each challenge a player turns over a card from the first deck that determines which system to attack (his/her "destiny"), chooses a particular planet in that system, and puts one or more tokens in the cone to attack with. The attacking and defending players then have the opportunity to ask other players to ally with them. Allies stand to gain benefits if they join the winning side, or suffer losses if on the losing side. Each main player then selects one of the numbered cards from his hand, to play face down, then flip over simultaneously. The cards and tokens involved in the challenge are added up, any special conditions or cards played are taken into account, and the side with the higher total wins. If the attacking player is successful, he gains a base on the disputed planet. All tokens from the losing side are sent into the warp, where they cannot be used until retrieved. Under certain conditions, players may also be forced to "make a deal" which can include the exchange of cards, bases, and other game properties, though if no deal can be made within a short time, both players lose tokens to the Warp.

The object of the game is to establish five bases on planets outside of one's home system, with the exception of Cosmic Encounter Online in which only four bases are required to win.

Each player has one or more alien powers which distort, extend, or break the basic rules of the game in some way, usually to that player's advantage. For example, Macron's tokens are worth four of any other's tokens; Zombie never loses tokens to the warp; Oracle can see what card his opponent plays before choosing his card. There is even a power which can change the object of the game; other players are allowed to ask a yes-or-no question each turn in order to determine what they're trying to accomplish. Some powers encourage a limited role-playing aspect (e.g. the Sniveller, with the power to "whine" when doing worse than the other players.) See list of Cosmic Encounter powers.

At the beginning of the game, these powers are randomly selected from the many different alien powers, so each game requires a different strategy to win. Many of these powers interact with one another in complex ways that are not immediately apparent, sometimes even requiring group consensus (or experience) to resolve conflicts.

There are many other cards ("Edicts") which may be played at various times with many different effects. More advanced optional game components can add further levels of chaos and unpredictability, and include:

Flares: Cards based on the alien powers that provide a player with a single-use aspect of that power. Flares also feature "Super Flares" which can only be used if the player holding that card also has use of that alien power.
Lucre: The concept of money for the game, with several additional alien powers that affect how lucre is used in the game
Moons: Bases placed in each player's system, but do not count towards victory conditions. However, while occupied, the controlling player can use the ability that is granted by the moon.
Special planetary systems: Printed on the reverse side of the normal systems in most prints of Cosmic Encounter, the special systems have additional rules in regards to the player's initial setup, bases, and victory conditions.

Some players have created their own "homemade" powers, and posted these along with other various game extensions to the internet.

Major variants include multiple-power games and hidden-power games (in which the powers are not revealed until their first use). Official variants include rules for adding a seventh or eighth player.

[edit] History

Art from the inside of the Eon edition. Copyright.

The original version of Cosmic Encounter had exactly six alien powers and was designed for up to six players. This edition was nearly published by Parker Brothers in the mid-1970s; when it was not, the designers founded Eon Games to publish it.

The first Eon edition was released in 1977. It allowed up to four players and included fifteen alien powers. Over the next five years, Eon released nine expansions, adding sixty more alien powers, components for a fifth and sixth player, and several new types of pieces, including "Flare" cards, money (Lucre), Moons, and special power planet systems. The artwork on these early editions (especially the alien power cards, many of which were painted by Dean Morrissey) is regarded as truly surreal and spectacular.^{[citation needed]}

In 1986, the game was republished in the U.S. by West End Games. The game used the same deck of cards and number of players, and the same powers with five additional powers from Eon expansion sets #1 and #2. However, the cards and tokens were incompatible with the Eon edition. Meanwhile, in the UK, the game was published by Games Workshop. The GW edition supported six players, with powers from the Eon base set and some of the first three expansions.

Mayfair Game's box top for More Cosmic Encounter

In 1991, the game was licensed by Mayfair Games. Mayfair published Cosmic Encounter and two expansions called More Cosmic Encounter (1992) and Simply Cosmic (1995), the last of which was an introductory-level standalone version of the game. The Mayfair edition dropped or revised some powers from the original Eon set, introduced many more, and significantly revised some of the existing components. It also introduced several new components. By combining the three Mayfair products, it is possible to play a 10-player game.

In 2000, Avalon Hill (by then a division of Hasbro) published a simplified version in one box with plastic pieces. This version was limited to 20 powers and four players.

In 2003, original designer Peter Olotka and partners launched a new version called Cosmic Encounter Online that may be played over the internet. Currently, this version has 33 powers, including six (Brat, Dork, Martian, Mite, Sapient, and Tripler) not found in any earlier versions.

[edit] Influence

The possibility of an organic and completely different experience every time one plays was clearly one of the influences in the design of the very successful card game Magic: The Gathering. Magic designer Richard Garfield has often cited Cosmic Encounter as being influential in the design of Magic, going so far as to say, "[Magic's] most influential ancestor is a game for which I have no end of respect: Cosmic Encounter."^{[citation needed]}

The game also heavily influenced the Dune board game, which was also designed by Future Pastimes.