| Designer(s) | Peter Olotka, Jack Kittredge, BIll Eberle, Bill Norton |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | Eon Products, Inc, West End Games, Games Workshop Mayfair Games, Avalon Hill, Fantasy Flight Games |
| Players | 3–6+ (depending on edition) |
| Age range | https://www.facebook.com/cosmicencounter |
| Setup time | 5-10 minutes |
| Playing time | 20-120+ minutes (depending on various factors) |
| Random chance | Medium |
| Skill(s) required | Prediction, diplomacy, card management |
Cosmic Encounter is a science fiction-themed strategy board game, designed by "Future Pastimes" (collectively, Peter Olotka, Jack Kittredge and Bill Eberle, with Bill Norton) and originally published by Eon Games in 1977. In it, each player takes the role of a particular alien species with a unique power to break one of the rules of the game attempting to establish control over the universe. In 1992, a new edition of Cosmic Encounter won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame of 1991,[1] and placed 6th in the Deutscher Spiele Preis. The game was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame in 1997.[2]
Cosmic Encounter is a 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.
Contents |
Cosmic Encounter combines a simple basic structure with a wide selection of complications. Each player begins with five planets (the "home system"), four starships on each planet, and a hand of cards. The goal is to found colonies on (i.e. have ships placed on) five planets outside of one's home system. There is also "the Warp," an area where lost ships go, and two decks of cards: one that the players draw their cards from, and one "destiny" deck.
On a player's turn, he or she retrieves one ship from the Warp, turns over a card from the destiny deck that determines which system to attack, and sends one to four ships to any planet in that system. The attacker and the defender then have the opportunity to ask other players to send in ships to help. They both select a numbered card from their hands, play the cards face down, and flip them over simultaneously. The cards and ships are added up, and the higher total wins. All ships on the losing side are sent to the Warp, where they cannot be used until retrieved. A victorious attacker's ships and allied ships land on the planet. A victorious defender gets to keep the planet, and any allies are allowed to take ships from the Warp or draw cards from the deck; usually, a player may only draw cards after using up a hand.
Each player has one or more alien powers which distort, extend, or break the rules in some way. For example, Macron's ships are worth four of any other's ships, Zombie never loses ships to the Warp, and Oracle can see what card its opponent plays before it chooses one. Some powers encourage a limited role-playing aspect, for example the Sniveler, with the power to "whine" when doing worse than the other players. While some powers have limited effects that affect a single aspect of gameplay (such as Clone being allowed to keep a card it has just played instead of discarding it), others change the game more substantially (such as Void removing enemy ships from the game permanently) or even change the object of the game (such as Masochist instantly winning if all of its ships are lost).
Powers are selected randomly at the beginning of the game, 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. However, should a player have fewer than 3 colonies in their system, their alien powers become inactive until the player can regain a 3rd colony back in their home system.
Players' cards include both numbered ("encounter") cards and "artifact" cards, which may be played at various times with many different effects, such as instantly releasing all ships from the Warp. There are also "negotiation" encounter cards that lose the encounter to any numbered card, but the loser may draw cards from the winner's hand. When both sides of an encounter play negotiation cards they can trade cards, colonies, and other game properties, though if no deal is reached within a short time, both players lose ships to the Warp.
More advanced optional game components can add further levels of complexity and unpredictability. No edition has all of the optional components. They include:
Some players have created their own "homemade" powers, and have posted these along with other various game extensions on the Internet.
Major variants include multiple-power games (in which players have multiple alien powers at once) and hidden-power games (in which powers are not revealed until their first use). Official variants include rules for adding a seventh or eighth player, and there has been a version providing enough components for a ten-player game (when combined with a previous release).
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 included images painted by Dean Morrissey.
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.
In 1991, the game was licensed by Mayfair Games. Mayfair published Cosmic Encounter, an expansion called More Cosmic Encounter (1992), and a stripped-down introductory version of the game called Simply Cosmic (1995). The Mayfair edition 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.
On Aug. 17, 2007, Fantasy Flight Games announced plans to reprint the game "in the Summer of 2008."[3] This was later updated to "November 2008."[4] Game designer Kevin Wilson gave demonstrations of the Fantasy Flight Cosmic Encounter version at Gen Con 2008. This was released in December 2008, and included 50 alien powers, a new Technology variant, and support for 5 players. Fantasy Flight released an expansion set called "Cosmic Incursion" in February 2010 that added 20 aliens (some new and some old), ships for a sixth player, and a "Rewards" deck which includes, among other things, Kickers and Rifts. In February 2011, Fantasy Flight released the second expansion set, "Cosmic Conflict", which included 20 alien powers, ships for a seventh player, and a "Hazard" deck which adds special conditions to encounters. On December 6, 2011, Fantasy Flight announced that the third expansion set, "Cosmic Alliance," with new alien powers, kit for an eighth player and rules for team play, would be released in early 2012.
In 2003, original designer Peter Olotka and partners launched a new version called Cosmic Encounter Online that may be played over the internet. As of 2010[update], this version has 35 powers, including four new aliens and two more that are designed for online play (such as Dork, which blocks other players' screens).
The possibility of an organic and completely different experience every time one plays was one of the influences in the design of the 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."[5]
The game also heavily influenced the Dune board game, which was also designed by Future Pastimes.[6]