Cosmic Encounters

University of Auckland Discordian Society House Rules Simon Bridge April 10, 2011

Introduction
Cosmic Encounter is a highly social 2-61 player pseudo-science-ction game, copyright c 1983 Eon Products Inc. You are encouraged to obtain an original copy, if you can. There are second-hand copies available from various places online, including Amazon. It is out of print at the time of writing. I rst encountered the game as a freshman undergraduate at the University of Auckland in 1986. This was a hand-made reproduction of a game my freinds had played in high school in the early 80s. Reproduced, that is, from memory, and warped over the years to suit the temperaments of the players. We called ourselves the Discordian Society, and the rules favoured an unpredictable and somewhat agressive style. Expansion set 9 for the ocial game became available in New Zealand in the early 90s, and lead us to modify our game more along ocial lines. We broadened the denitions of some of the powers and tightened others, as well as eliminating what we saw as unbalancing factors and needless complications (like moons and lucre). We also added playfully to the default set. The end result is simple, lean, fast-paced and full of arguments. Arguing about the rules is part of the game. Overall, lots of fun around a table. Im sharing these modications here in the hope that this style of gameplay does not die out. Enjoy.

Equipment
six planet system hexagons: the central star is one of six dierent colors identifying the players and there are ve circles representing planets in an arc about it. An A4-size sheet of card works well for size.
1 technically

You will need to make or obtain:

there is no upper limit but over six players requires modication of the game.

 one warp hexagon: this has a large circle covering most of the area which is called the warp. It is where dead tokens end up during the game. You also need enough room to accommodate a couple of decks of cards. Same size as the system hexagons. six sets of twenty colored tokens: by preference we used clear plastic game tokens with colored-dot stickers on one side so we could use the reverse (white) side to represent various neutral tokens. 18 small place-cards with the six player colors one three each. This is the destiny stack. the deck of 52 challenge cards made from medium place-cards. 64 Alien Power cards: these have a drawing of the alien in question and a description of the power. the hyperspace cone: a picture of a cone with some rings around the pointed bit representing the hyperspace anomaly that allows spacecraft to travel between systems. we do not use lucre, moons, or ares so these wont be descrbed. . . . details of the cards are included later.

Setting Up

This is the same as the ocial game:

2.1

Hexes

The warp goes in the middle of the table, each player gets a planetary hex to themselves. The color of the star is the color of the player.

2.2

Tokens

Each player gets 20 tokens of their stars color. These are placed, 4-each, on each of the ve planets. The hex is oriented so the planets are towards the warp.

2.3

Alien Powers

The power deck is shued and eight powers are dealt out to each player. The players select four from these and discard the rest2 . The selected four are placed face-down in a line between the player and the players system hex. These cards allow you to break the rules in some specic way so be sure to read them.
2 the

Reincarnator player does not discard the rest.

2.4

The Deck

Somebody shues the main deck and deals each player seven cards face down. Players may look at them but must keep them secret.

2.5

Fist PLayer

The destiny stack is cut indicating the color of the rst player.

Basic Play

The object of the game is to establish bases in other players home systems. One or more tokens on a planet is one base, regardless of how many. This means you start the game with ve bases (one on each of your home planets) but they dont count for winning. The rst player to acquire four bases outside their home system wins the game.

3.1

Turns

Players take turns to play, anticlockwise from the rst player. On your turn, you are the attacker.

3.2

Destiny

At the start of your turn you turn over the top card on the destiny stack3 that is the color of the system you get to attack. Take the hyperspace cone (the cone) and point it to one of the bases of destiny color on one of the planets in the destiny system. (If it is your own system, you can point to any base not your own color or turn over another destiny card.) The owner of the target base becomes the defender. The defender and attacker are main players.

3.3

Attacker Commits

If any of your tokens are in the warp, place one from the warp in the open end of the cone. Add to that more tokens taken from any of your bases (up to a total of four).

3.4

Allies

Attacker and defender call for allies. They may invite specic players to ally or open the invitation to all comers. Players who wish to ally with the attack place a number of tokens (up to four each) in the open end of the cone. Players who wish to ally with the defence place a number of tokens (up to four each) on the ring around the point of the cone.
3 if

Destiny is in the game, they select the top card instead.

3.4.1

accepting alliance invitation

You may ally with one or other main player if you are not a main player yourself. You may ally with only one or the other, not both at once. This may seem common sence but it turns out that there is always one player who tries it if I dont spell it out.

3.5

Selecting Cards

Each main player selects a card (either a compromise or an attack card) from their hand and places it face down in front of them. At this stage there is usually a certain amount of out-psyching and bravado backed by an initial war of powers. When both players are ready they may reveal their cards. 3.5.1 playing a kicker

Main players may opt to play a kicker they must announce the intention to do so, then play two cards (one a kicker) face down. You cannot play two kickers. No you cant.

3.6

Revealing the cards

Both players turn over their cards and everybody does some math to determine the winner. If kickers are played, they are revealed at the same time.

3.7

Resolution

The result depends on the cards played (modied by powers and kickers). In the unmodied game there are three basic results: 1. both players reveal compromise cards: all allied tokens return to bases these dont have to be the same bases they came from but they do have to belong to the same player. The main players must come to a deal (see below). 2. one player reveals a compromise card: the compromising player loses. The other player wins. However, the compromising player is entitled to consolation: one card at random from the winners hand for each compromising player token (not allies) lost. 3. both players reveal attack cards: both players add the number of tokens on their side to the attack card played. If the attacker has a greater result than the defender, the attacker wins. Otherwise the defender wins. At the end of the attack, all cards played are discarded, face up, next to the deck. The result of winning or losing is as follows:

3.7.1

if the attacker wins:

. . . all tokens defending are removed to the warp, all attacking tokens are moved to the planet where they become bases. 3.7.2 if the defender wins:

. . . all attacking tokens are removed to the warp. The defenders allies move their tokens back to bases (of the same player). For each token they committed to the defence they may draw one card from the deck or one token from the warp. 3.7.3 home eld advantage:

. . . in the event of a tie, the defender wins.

3.8

Deals and Compromises

There are lots of situations where a deal is called for, including both players revealing compromise cards in a challenge. Deals are between two players only, usually the attacker and the defender in a challenge. A legal deal is an exchange, valid items are cards and bases. You may oer the other player a card chosen by some agreed means (random, named by type, whatever) or a base on a planet where you already have a base. The oered deal can be fair (base for a base), null (compromise for a compromise) or draconian (I get two bases and all your cards in return for a compromise card) as you want, but it must involve an exchange and the other player does not have to agree to it. If the two players are unable to agree in a reasonable time (usually dened as however long it takes other players to complain, more than one minute) then both players lose three tokens from bases to the warp. At the conclusion of the deal, attacker tokens are returned to bases.

3.9

Playing a kicker

If you played a kicker with an attack card, you multiply the value of the attack card with the kicker. The product is the new attack card value. This is considered to occur at the exact moment cards are revealed and thus before powers like Equaliser have a chance to take eect. If you played a kicker with a compromise card, and lost, your consolation is multiplied by the value of the kicker. If you played a kicker with a compromise card, and a deal is invoked, then your kicker multiplies your opponents penalty for failure to come to a deal. Notice there are x0 and x1 kickers. These are useful with powers which give advantage to low values or as a blu for using up an opponents high value kickers.

3.10

the second attack

If the attacker wins (or successfully makes a deal) on the rst attack, they get an optional second attack starting from turning a destiny card. If they forgo the second attack, have already used it, or lost the rst attack, their turn is over and the next players turn starts.

3.11

Getting new cards

If, as attacker, you have no attack or compromise cards at the start of your turn, play or discard all remaining cards and draw a fresh seven. If you run out of these cards during the turn, however, you turn ends immediately: return any tokens in the cone to bases. If you are defender and you have run out, you can play or discard all remaining cards and draw a fresh set.

Alien Powers

Any player with at least three bases on home planets may also use alien powers to break the above rules according to the descriptions of the powers.

4.1

Conict in the same players powers

. . . to create interesting eects. Where the eect depends on the order the powers get used, they must be used in reverse alphabetical order. Thus the Oracle occurs after the Mind. Where two eects conict so as to cancel each other, the manditory power supercedes the optional ones and the one used rst prevents the second one from working. Where both are manditory powers, the rst one declaired prevents the second from being declaired. Note that the Negator power allows powers to be undeclaired during the game, so this sort of combination may be a reasonable choice. In general, try to choose power combinations that do not conict.

4.2

Timing Concts

When opposing players try to use powers at the same time, and the timing matters to the outcome, then the defensive player gets home eld advantage unless this is the rst use of a power as it is rst declaired in which case, the declairing player gets the advantage of surprise. Powers used on behalf of the defence supercede those used on behalf of the attack. Main players choose which allied powers come in which order.

4.3

Caveat

This is in direct contradiction to rule XII in expansion set 9. Arguments over the rules are a part of the game. Usually it is clear who got the power in rst and these resolutions are intended as suggestions for where it is not clear or an argument gets heated. Players ghting need to resolve their dispute in a reasonable amount of time ... as in compromises. If need be the other players will impose a 3-token ne on players who spend too much time ghting. Besides, the Judge power has the nal say :)