My Design

Welcome to the design page of Cosmic Encounter: Blutooth Edition. This is where you come to learn the ins and outs of my system. How does this game work compared to the original? Why was this version modified from the original? What are the new rules? What does a ‘power’ mean? What is the broader framing that underpins the in-universe experience?

All will be answered on this page, and I will continue to update it as I come up with new aspects to clarify.

My Lore

Though it may seem trivial, if you want to immerse yourself in a fictional universe, you need a motive to do something. One million points can mean significantly less to you than one point depending on the context. Cosmic Encounter has never been too big on lore. Many of the game components are abstracted to a degree, so immersion was never really a major focus either. My version attempts to let the player get into the role as much as possible, so adding some lore to explain why these “encounters” are occurring seems only natural.

Power. 

In the beginning, there was only power. Immeasurable, indestructible, and absolute power. This intangible collection of energy boasted neither owner nor allegiance. It was simply all that was. Before recorded history, this all-powerful entity known as The Origin met its untimely end after ultimately collapsing under its own magnitude. The devastating release of energy manifested creation and destruction both, manifesting new life only to vaporize it moments later. This cycle repeated incessantly until the Origin’s remains had diffused across an unfathomably great distance, resulting in the formation of The Cosmos as we know it today. 

All that exists, plant or animal, living or nonliving, organic or mechanic, contains within it some fragment of the Origin’s original power within, both to create and to destroy. While this power is infinitesimally minuscule compared to its source, the wild disparity between powers has given rise to countless kings and conquerors. As generations of bizarre creatures passed on their inherent traits, coherent alien races formed, refining their powers for maximum utility, through either natural or unnatural means. But such power demanded more power still, as if the remnants of The Origin longed to become whole once more.

With the advent of space travel, conflict broke out across the Cosmos. Chaos reigned, and wars raged unceasingly across multiple eras. Empires rose and fell, entire galaxies were wiped off the star charts, and an untold number of alien races were pushed to the brink of extinction.

When all seemed hopeless, a collection of powerful aliens known as the Eon 15 came together, combining their might to bring an end to the carnage. Through the power of cooperation, they brought an end to the senseless violence and dragged the Cosmos into an era that could be called peaceful. However, the hunger for power could not so easily be wiped from the DNA of the Cosmos. Seeking a more structured outlet for their natural impulses, the Eon 15 formed a Federation of aliens to oversee a new system of warfare, one that would satisfy the alien’s desire for conquest without the needless slaughter of innocents. This was the birth of the Cosmic Encounter.

 

  • Prime 6: The 6 aliens to achieve the most success during the Unnamed Era. Each one owned at least one entire system of planets as a result of their conquest. Many aliens were powerful enough to challenge or even surpass the Prime 6, but lacked the space travel that allowed them to invade and conquer. Disbanded after the rise of the Eon 15.
    • Amoeba – Once a microorganism that grew to become a threat. Virtually impossible to kill and capable of escaping any danger. By merging together with itself, could form kaiju-type behemoths that most aliens could not deal with.
    • Crystal – Capable of refracting light to deal devastating blasts of power. Infamous for destroying planets they could not conquer. Controlled the least raw territory of the prime 6.
    • Machine – An unstoppable race that knew neither exhaustion nor fear. Destroyed their creators and ceaselessly started invading other planets. Controlled the most raw territory of the Prime 6.
    • Mind – An unmatched super genius in a time when many aliens fought with sticks and stones.
    • Plant – Capable of stealing any power that opposed them by grafting onto them.
    • Virus – An unstoppable powerhouse capable of infinitely replicating, eventually covering entire planets with its members and needing more space. Its enemies were often destroyed by accident.
  • Eon 15: The first 15 alien races to form a long-term alliance. Put an end to the Unnamed Era of senseless violence and destruction. Founded the Eon Federation, which would become the Federation of today.
    • Oracle – The instigator of the Eon 15. Foresaw the future that would come to pass if they started teaming up with other strong aliens. Decided to go with it.
    • Empath – The first to join the Eon 15. Lacked the strength to be of much use, but felt Oracle’s pain when no one else would join and wanted to help their cause.
    • Mind – The second to accept Oracle’s invitation. Mostly took over the operation after joining the alliance. Took care of the majority of the recruiting and strategy afterwards.
    • Macron – A formidable planet-eating race of brutes that Mind recruited to fight for their cause. Could have easily been one of the Prime 6 if they attempted conquering planets instead of eating them.
    • Amoeba – A member of the Prime 6 approached by Mind, who accepted the invitation while Plant, Machine, Crystal, and Virus refused. Desired companionship, as all members of Amoeba are actually a single entity split into many.
    • Chronos – Recruited by Mind to provide more reliable warnings as to whether their invasions would succeed after Oracle predicted a victory in Plant’s system that resulted in failure. Oracle was insulted that Chronos’s powers were called upon, but put their anger aside for the sake of the alliance.
    • Clone – Recruited by Mind to duplicate their resources and clone footsoldiers. Recruited to help in the second invasion of Plant’s system.
    • Mutant – Recruited by Mind as a source of “arms” for their cause to help in the second assault on Plant’s system.
    • Laser – Recruited by Mind to help reduce casualties by attacking from above, after Chronos reported they still failed even with Mutant and Clone. Recruited to help with the second invasion on Plant’s system.
    • Zombie – A virtually immortal race with no sense of strategy or space travel capability. Recruited by Mind to gain footsoldiers who were effectively immortal after Chronos still failed an assault on Plant with Laser’s help.
    • Philanthropist – One of the original sponsors of the Eon 15. Helped fund their brigade when their finances ran low after defeating Plant.
    • Vulture – A race of scavengers with a fantastic hoard of weapons taken from the remains of battles. Sponsored the Eon 15 with their weapon stash to help in the fight against Machine.
    • Trader – Sponsored the Eon 15 by selling weapons in exchange for much of the spoils from the victory over Machine. Made a killing without ever having to engage in battle or send troops.
    • Virus – The Eon 15’s “secret weapon.” Considered one of the most powerful alien races and originally refused Mind’s offer. Agreed to join the alliance to defeat Crystal in exchange for a majority of the Eon 15’s total territory after the organization started showing results. Conquered most of the Cosmos after receiving support from the alliance.
    • Void – Considered an honorary member of the Eon 15, becoming an official one after the Federation was formed. The only alien race to prove a capable threat after the dethroning of the original Prime 6. Its vaporization power nullified all casualty reduction strategies employed by Mind thus far. Only Virus proved capable of going toe-to-toe, resulting in a stalemate. Void agreed to a ceasefire with the Eon 15 in exchange for its own territory.

My Rules

If you want to know how something works, you’ve got to know the rules. That’s a universal rule, which means it applies even in outer space. Cosmic is a fairly unique beast that requires a great deal of explanation, and my version is no exception. Don’t be too intimidated though. Learning the rules is the hard part. Remembering them is pretty easy. If you get confused by any terminology, consult the ‘My Terminology’ section below.

Note that my rules have been modified compared to vanilla Cosmic, so I’d recommend both Cosmic newbies and veterans take a look.

In Cosmic Encounter, you are the leader of a powerful alien race. You have wagered several of your home planets in the hopes of gaining for territory for your empire by competing against three to seven other alien races in a match of Cosmic Encounter an ancient sport used to civilly settle disputes between alien races. To achieve victory, your objective is to establish one foreign base for each of your wagered home planets, generating enough power for you to take control of the territory.

Setup

Every Cosmic Encounter begins with setup. Setup consists of four steps.

  • First, each alien begins by declaring their power, which is a unique racial trait specific to each alien that will grant them special advantages during the Encounter. Declaring the power ensures that everyone knows everyone else’s power is and allows anyone to ask clarifying questions if something is unclear.
  • Next, the forge and gate are configured based on the encounter specifics. Aur is added to the forge based on the chosen pool, and destiny charges are set in the gate based on the chosen alien colors.
  • Then, each alien receives their provisions from the Federation which consists of a cache of 8 pods from the forge, 4 lucre pods, 4 ships placed on each home planet, any special provisions listed in the “setup” clause of an alien bio, and any special provisions established by special Federation rules such as space stations or future tech. Each alien is designed a different color to identify their planets and ships. The eight usable colors are red, blue, yellow, green, purple, orange, white, and black.
  • Finally, each alien activates any aspects of their power listed in a “Setup” clause. After setup is performed, the Cosmic Encounter begins, following the Invasion Protocol until the match is decided.

Invasions

The Cosmic Encounter system is performed through a series of alien invasions. Participating aliens in a Cosmic Encounter take turns acting as the invader. As the invader, you get an opportunity to invade another system in hopes of establishing a foreign base on one of their planets. An alien may establish one base on a planet by landing one or more ships on that planet. Each alien may only have one base on each planet, but any number of aliens may have a base on the same planet. If the base is in your system, it is a home base. If a base is in another alien’s system, it is a foreign base. In order to win a Cosmic Encounter, you must get one foreign base for each of your home bases, determined at the start of the match.

If there are four aliens participating in the match, each alien wagers four home planets. If there are five or more aliens participating, each alien wagers five home planets. Consult the next section for detailed info on the Invasion Protocol.

Combat

When it comes to combat, it’s all about might. Might is the unit of measurement for combat potential in encounters. The more might an aspect has, the stronger it is. By default, ships have 1 might, and pods have might equal to their aur value, the value printed on the pod. 
 
During combat, all sources of might are added together to determine a fleet’s total might. If the flagship’s might has a non-numeric value, the nature of the fleet will change, preventing it from attacking. When both fleets are attacking, the fleet with the highest might wins the encounter.

Negotiation

Negotiation occurs when both fleets end up with an envoy. The two leaders enter a private discussion to negotiate their terms. Each leader starts the negotiation with “influence” equal to their authority, plus any special game aspects that grant influence. Influence can be spent in order to get several different types of rewards through “demands”. When a demand is made, the other leader has the option to either cancel it at the cost of influence or agree to it. If a demand is not cancelled, it can no longer be cancelled without quashing the negotiation.

At any time during the negotiation, either side may quash the negotiation, resulting in a loss for both sides of the encounter. This means the defender will lose their base, and the invader will lose their ships and end their campaign.

Certain aliens have “special offers” on their alien bio which allow them to perform specific tasks in exchange for influence during negotiations. If an alien has a special offer, either alien in the negotiation may request it and pay the cost.

Consult the Negotiation section in Invasion Protocol for the list of valid negotiation options.

Winning and Losing

After the winners and losers are determined, the “crash” causes the loser to endure casualties, unless the winners won peacefully. Any surviving ships from the losing fleet are rebounded, returning to existing bases. Winning ships are entitled to rewards, depending on their role in the encounter. If an invader or foreward wins, they use their committed ships to establish a base 0n the target planet. If they already have a base on that planet, they add their ships to that base.

An invader may continue their campaign as long as they have both their flagship and fuel. The flagship is destroyed if an alien loses all of its ships as casualties. A new flagship will be manifested during the next orientation.

Bases

In Cosmic Encounter, bases represent the power of your empire. A base is indicated by one or more ships stationed on a single planet. Any number of ships may be stationed in a base, but there may only be one base per planet. If all ships are removed from a base, the base is destroyed.

There are two types of bases: home bases and foreign bases. Home bases are on your own planets while foreign bases are on the planets of other aliens. Each alien begins with 5 home bases, one on each planet. In a 4-alien match, each alien wagers 4 planets and starts with 4 home bases instead. Each home base grants an alien 1 authority, which is utilized for negotiation and power preservation. Bases can be difficult to retrieve if lost, so it is important to protect them.

Foreign bases are gained primarily by winning invasions and supporting invaders. Foreign bases grant no authority. Instead, each foreign base grants 1 dominion. In Cosmic Encounter, the win condition is to gain 5 dominion (4 if 4 or fewer aliens in the match). The lose condition is to lose all authority, which will result in elimination. 3 authority is required in order to maintain use of your alien power. If multiple aliens obtain enough dominion at the same time, all of those aliens win together.

Elimination

If an alien has no remaining home bases, they are eliminated from the game, regardless of how many foreign bases they have. After being eliminated, that alien’s destiny is removed from the pool, preventing any more aliens from establishing a base in that system. Any foreign bases currently in that system remain and continue to provide dominion.

After an alien is eliminated, they activate their “legacy”, an alien-specific aspect which applies to all remaining aliens for the remainder of the match. The legacy of an alien is written on their alien bio sheet.

Powers

Alien powers are at the core of what makes Cosmic so infinitely replayable. Each alien has their own unique alien power. The same power cannot exist twice in the same match and has been structured to avoid such a situation. Each power has its own timing that allows it to activate, based on role, phase, and condition. For instance, Virus’s power activates during the encounter phase when Virus is a leader. The power is mandatory, meaning it always activates whether or not Virus chooses to do so. Contrarily, Machine’s power activates during upkeep when Machine is the invader. That power is optional, meaning Machine has the choice to activate it or not.

Every power has one more “use” clauses, which are italicized in the alien bio as either “use” or “may use”. A “use” clause means the power is mandatory, while a “may use” clause means it is optional. The “use” clause denotes the times when a power is being “used,” which is important to know because these are the only times when a power can be zapped. Some aliens have supplemental aspects of their power which cannot be zapped directly, such as Macron’s ships having 4 might and 4 size. While these aspects cannot be zapped directly, when a power is deactivated, all aspects of it are deactivated. So if Macron is zapped while using its power, its ships will not have 4 might and 4 size until the power is reactivated.

At the start of a match, all alien powers are hidden from other aliens, with the nexus hidden from view. The “nexus” is where the alien bio is stored, along with other aspects related to the power such as Warrior’s experience and Miser’s hoard. When an alien “uses” their power for the first time, their power becomes public, along with their nexus.

An alien’s power and name are synchronized, meaning if you have one you have the other and vice versa. This is important to note when dealing with flares and power-stealing powers. When a flare is utilized, the alien will either use the wild flare or the super flare depending on their name. If their name matches the flare, the super flare will be used. Otherwise, the wild flare will be used. For instance, Loser will use the Super Loser flare but the Wild Parasite flare. Plant uses the Wild Parasite flare as well, but if it uses its power to steal Parasite’s power, it will use the Super Parasite flare instead, as the name is stolen along with the power.

Alien powers require authority in order to maintain, meaning aliens need to keep their home bases alive. An alien with 2 or less authority has its power deactivated during upkeep. An alien can regain their power by getting back to 3 or more authority. An alien that has lost their power also loses its name, meaning it can only use wild flares.

Pods

Pods are the primary weapons utilized by aliens during an encounter. Pods are divided into encounter pods and support pods.

Encounter pods are the type of pods which may be primed as drivers during approach. They are primarily utilized to gain advantage during encounters and have little use outside of encounters.

  • Attack Pods: Red pods which have a numerical value. Using an attack pod will turn a fleet into a brigade. Attack pods have might equal to this value.
    • 2-D Attack Pods: Special attack pods with two numerical value. If a hazard occurs, its might is equal to the right value. Otherwise, its might is equal to the left value.
    • Slime Attack Pods: Special attack pods unique to the mutant pool. Slime attack pods remain in the flagship during the invasion they are primed and add their might to the user’s next invasion when acting as the leader. They are scrapped after applying their might in the second invasion.
  • Negotiation Pods: Green pods which have a value of N. Using a negotiation pod will turn a fleet into an envoy, allowing it to receive compensation if destroyed in combat or negotiate with an opposing envoy.
    • Special Negotiate Pods: Negotiate pods obtained from the dark forge which add additional advantages to the user. Each special negotiate has one effect that applies during combat and one that applies during negotiation. They come in five different flavors:
      • Renowned
        • Combat: Can request a resupply instead of compensation.
        • Negotiation: Gain 2 additional authority during negotiation.
      • Crooked
        • Combat: Opponent must pay additional compensation equal to your bribe.
        • Negotiation: Can discharge lucre to gain 1 authority per lucre.
      • Stubborn
        • Combat: Your flagship is impervious this encounter.
        • Negotiation: Your demands cannot be negated.
      • Innocent
        • Combat: Gain double compensation.
        • Negotiation: You may request a base in the opponent’s system for 1 authority as a special offer.
      • Aggressive
        • Combat: Your opponent suffers casualties equal to your casualties instead of paying compensation.
        • Negotiation: Your opponent loses double ships if the negotiation fails.
  • Poison Pods: Purple pods which have a value of P. Using a poison pod will turn a fleet into a trojan. If a poison pod is in a leader’s cache during arrival, that alien must destroy one of their ships. Consult the alien Poison in My Aliens for more information about poison pods.
  • Morph Pods: Rainbow encounter pods with a value of M. Using a morph pod will produce a value which matches the printed (aur) value of the opposing encounter pod. Morph pods can give a fleet any nature.
  • Intimidate Pods: Gray pods with a numerical value. Intimidate pods may be primed by any actor during arrival. These pods will be broadcasted in addition to the driver. If opposed by a brigade, the intimidating fleet will become a brigade. If opposed by anything else, the intimidating fleet will become an envoy.

Support pods cannot be primed as an alien’s driver, unless an aspect permits it. Instead, they are discharged during other phases. The timing depends on the specific pod.

  • Artifact Pods: Blue support pods which have different effects and different timings depending on the specific artifact type.
    • Cosmic Zap: An artifact pod that zaps another alien. Can be discharged during any phase, but only when a power is being used.
    • Flare Zap: An artifact pod that zaps a flare, scrapping it. Zapped flares are not automatically recharged. Can be discharged during any phase, but only when a flare is being discharged.
    • Ship Zap: An artifact pod that vaporizes a specific ship in any system. Can be discharged during any phase.
    • Cache Zap: An artifact pod that forces any player to scrap their cache and receive a resupply. Can be discharged when an alien is in their own system. Does not affect lucre pods.
    • Omni Zap: An artifact pod that can use the effect of any other “zap” artifact. The user must destroy one of their ships to activate this pod. Can be discharged at any time it is valid to use their chosen “zap” artifact.
    • Warp Key: An artifact pod that revives all ships in the warp. Can only be discharged by the invader during warpfall. Called “mobius tubes” in the base game.
    • Force Field: An artifact pod that can target and remove any or all sponsors from either fleet, rebounding those sponsors’ ships. Can only be discharged during arrival.
    • Ionic Gas: An artifact pod that negates all boons and compensation this invasion. Can be discharged whenever alien(s) would receive a bonus or compensation.
    • Scrambler: An artifact pod that scrambles destiny, consuming the charge that was manifested. Can only be activated during destiny. May be activated a second time during the same destiny phase, before getting scrapped.
    • Plague: An artifact pod that targets one alien. That alien must scrap one pod of each color and three ships of their choice. Can only be discharged during launch.
    • Finder: An artifact pod that allows an alien to search any other alien’s cache for a specific pod. Can only be used during launch.
    • Space Junk: An artifact pod that can claim one pod from another alien’s exhaust. Can only be used during upkeep.
    • Rebirth: An artifact pod that allows an alien to create any number of home bases. Can only be used during warpfall as an invader.
    • Solar Wind: An artifact pod that reverses rewards for invading and defending fleets. Can only be used during payoff.
    • Victory Boon: An artifact pod that gives the defender a bounty as if they were a backward. Can only be used during payoff after the defender wins in combat.
    • Third Eye: A Mutant-specific artifact that lets a user shroud drafted or snatched pods in stasis and redraft. Pods in stasis return to the source after this pod resolves. Can be played whenever the user drafts pod(s).
    • Prehensile Tail: A Mutant-specific artifact that lets you snatch one pod from your opponent. Can only be used during arrival.
    • Restless Leg: A Mutant-specific artifact that lets an invader invade once again after losing an encounter or running out of fuel. Can only be used during upkeep.
    • Snot Rocket: A Mutant-specific artifact that turns any attack pod into a slime attack pod. Can only be used during encounters.
    • Cloudy Mind: A Mutant-specific artifact that lets you keep your primed pod shrouded until after crunch. Can only be used during contact.
  • Flare Pod: Yellow support pods which each contain a fragment of power from a given alien. An alien whose power does not match the flare’s will use the Wild Flare effect. An alien whose power matches the flare’s will use the Super Flare effect. An alien can only play one flare per invasion, each flare may only be played once per invasion, and flares are automatically recharged after discharge.
    • Burnout Flare Pod: A sub-type of flare that is not recharged during upkeep. Burnout flares go to the exhaust of their source alien, if that alien is participating in the match. When placed in the exhaust of their source alien, they change from wild to super, meaning they are no longer burnout flares.
  • Distress Pod: Pink support pod, which may be primed during crunch in order to request emergency assistance from the Federation during the encounter. Any actors may prime distress pods for their fleet only. Distress pods are discharged before combat/negotiation begins. Any number of distress pods may be primed. There are four types of distress pods.
    • Reinforcement: Provides additional might to the specified fleet. After discharged, will add a random amount of might, ranging from 03 to 10.
      • Special Reinforcement: Provides additional might based on a dynamic aspect, such as number of ships in the warp.
    • Escape: Rebounds a number of ships from your fleet. Ships rebounded are specified by the user.
    • Therapist: Converts your own fleet to an envoy.
    • Assassin: Snipes committed ships from either fleet, equal to the user’s influence.
    • Patrol: Negate any pods in the encounter, except drivers. You choose which pods to negate.
  • Kicker Pod: Orange support pod which may be primed by a leader during approach alongside an encounter pod. Kicker pods multiply the value of primed encounter pods.
  • Rift Pod: Black support pod with a value from 01 to 05.  Can be played during any warpfall to revive ships, gain pods, or establish colonies equal to the pod’s value. If a rift is taken from an alien’s cache and not immediately scrapped, the rift detonates. A detonating rift forces the holder of the rift to scrap ships of their choice equal to the rift’s value and scrap the rift.
  • Intimidate Pod: Gray support pod with a values ranging from -09 to 39. An intimidate pod may be primed by any actor during arrival. If so, the pod is primed in addition to the driver. If the enemy leader sends a brigade against the intimidate pod, the intimidating fleet becomes a brigade. Otherwise, the intimidating fleet becomes an envoy.
  • Lucre Pods: Golden pods with gold backings used as currency. One can be discharged during upkeep to purchase various services. Generally obtained from the Federation directly, rather than the forge or dark forge. Lucre pods are not scrapped during a resupply.
  • Essence Pods: Unique support pods owned by certain aliens as part of their power. Stored in a secret area separate from the main cache to prevent other aliens from seeing or tampering with them.

The Forge

The “forge” is the primary source of pods within a match of Cosmic. When pods are drafted or extracted, as well as when resupplies are handed out, the pods are constructed in the forge and gifted to aliens as appropriate.

The forge has a set “pool” of aur that determines which pods can be drafted. When drafting a pod, a random chunk of aur will be chosen to make the pod. Once that aur is out of the forge, that specific aur cannot be used to make more pods until the pod is scrapped. At that point, the aur returns to the pool and be used to make a new pod. This means that holding onto a pod will keep it out of play, while getting rid of it means that someone else can potentially obtain it.

In the case where the pool is completely consumed and someone needs to draft a pod from the forge, a pod created from random aur outside of the pool will be created, inflating the size of the pool for the rest of the match.

Lucre

Lucre (LCR) is the primary form of currency in the Cosmos. When resources are lacking, lucre can be spent to get more. Lucre is a special type of support pod that is stored in an alien’s cache alongside other pods. The gold back allows it to be easily identified, allowing another alien to target it when receiving compensation. Lucre is intentionally designed to obtain, primarily only received through resupplies for most aliens. Lucre can only be spent by actors during upkeep. It can be used to provide emergency resources during a campaign when running low or get additional resources ahead of time. In a standard match, each alien starts with 2 lucre. Lucre can be discharged in order to make one of the following purchases. Spent lucre returns to the Federation’s treasury, allowing more to be obtained. The following services can be purchased from the Federation during each upkeep:

  • Revive a ship – 1 LCR
  • Draft a pod – 1 LCR
  • Draft a dark pod – 2 LCR
  • Establish a home base – 3 LCR
  • Request a resupply – 4 LCR

To perform an invasion, the invasion follows the Invasion Protocol, the system of etiquette which all aliens abide by. The protocol consists of a series of eight phases that are carried out in order by the invader. Those phases are: Warpfall, Destiny, Launch, Rally, Approach, Encounter, Payoff, and Upkeep.

Orientation

Before an invasion officially begins, the Orientation phase occurs at the beginning of an invader’s turn. Since it only occurs once per turn and not once per invasion, it is technically not part of the invasion protocol. During this phase, the invader receives two fuel cells and gains access to the Gate. if necessary. During this phase, an invader may also choose to voluntarily end their campaign before it begins, ending the invasion and moving to the next alien in the cycle.

Warpfall

To signal the beginning of an invasion, warpfall occurs. The warp partially deteriorates for the invader, reviving one of their ships.

Destiny

Once the invader has fueled up their flagship, the gate uses its Destiny matrix to determine who will act as the defender in the current invasion. Destiny will manifest a color. The defender prepares their flagship and receives access to the gate. In addition, each color must be selected three times before a color may be selected more than three times.

  • Color: The defender will be the alien whose color matches the one shown. Destiny will never produce the invader’s color.
    • Rainbow: Rainbow destiny is a unique color which allows the invader to choose any alien to be the defender, except themselves.
  • Hazard: If the destiny cloud has the hazard symbol, a Hazard will be in effect this invasion. This only affects the invasion if the match is hazardous.

Launch

With both the invader and defender prepared, the invader aims the gate to determine the target planet in the defender’s system. Only planets in the defender’s system may be targeted, unless the invader wishes to target their own system.

Regardless of destiny, an invader may target a planet in their own system. If the defender has a foreign base in the invader’s system, they may target a planet with the defender’s base and have an encounter against them there. They may also target an unoccupied planet in their system, consume one fuel, and establish a home base on that planet, ending their invasion. Invaders gain no dominion from establishing new home bases.

During this phase, leaders with no encounter pods receive a resupply. This should ensure that both the leader and defender have enough pods during the encounter. The invader can only request a resupply while in their home system, which is generally only the first invasion.

Rally

After the chosen system is decided, the invader and defender may call upon the remaining aliens for assistance. First, “commission” occurs. The leaders select the colors of the aliens they wish to commission to join them, granting them access to their side of the gate. Then, “sponsorship” occurs, where each invited alien may choose to sponsor one of the fleets that invited them. Commissions are public, while sponsorships are private until the next phase.

Approach

The approach phase begins with “arrival”, where the invader and all sponsors (on both sides) enter the target system. This is when sponsors reveal who they supported and how many ships they committed.

After arrival, the invader and defender each choose an encounter pod from their cache and “prime” it, shrouding it in their flagship. These primed pods are the leaders’ “drivers” and will determine the intent of their fleet, as well as greatly affecting their fleet’s might. If a leader cannot prime a driver due to lack of resources, they must reveal their cache in order to continue to the next phase without a driver. Their fleet becomes disorganized, meaning it will mimic the intent of the enemy fleet.

Encounter

The encounter phase begins with “contact”, where the drivers primed during the approach phase are revealed, confirming the intent of the fleets. The encounter takes a different form depending on the two types of fleets deployed:

      • Brigade vs. Brigade: A clash occurs. The fleet with the higher might wins. If the winning fleet wins peacefully, the losing ships are rebounded. Otherwise, they are destroyed as casualties.
      • Brigade vs. Envoy: A massacre occurs.
      • Envoy vs. Envoy: A negotiation occurs. See section on negotiation for more info.
      • Brigade vs. Trojan: An infection occurs.
      • Envoy vs. Trojan: A negotiation occurs. If the deal is cancelled, only the trojan side loses.
      • Trojan vs. Trojan: A cataclysm occurs. Both fleets lose.
      • Morph vs. Morph: A cataclysm occurs. Both fleets lose.
      • Stooge vs. Stooge: A slapfight occurs. Each leader destroys one ship in their fleet for each ship in the enemy fleet. Fleets with ships remaining win. Fleets with no ships remaining lose.
  • Regardless of the combination of fleets, the encounter will take the form of either combat or negotiation. After intents are determined, the “crunch” occurs, allowing both fleets to prime distress pods as a means of calling for help at the last minute.
      • Combat: Fleets with might attack one another.
        • Clash: Higher might wins the encounter. Lower might loses the encounter. In a tie, defender wins. If neither fleet has more than 0 might, the invader wins peacefully.
        • Massacre: Brigade wins the encounter. Opposing fleet receives compensation equal to ships lost.
        • Infection: Brigade wins unless the brigade’s driver might is more than double its fleet’s total ship might. Otherwise, the trojan wins via massacre.
        • Tragedy: Both fleets automatically lose.
      • Negotiation: Both leaders make demands, in order to make a deal. Both sides must accept all demands or both fleets lose the encounter. Negating a demand must be done at the time the demand is made. Otherwise, it is confirmed. When a negotiation fails, only the leaders’ ships are lost. Sponsor ships are rebounded, returning to their other bases.
        • When negotiating, valid demands that can be made include:
          • Revive 1 ship – Costs 1 authority per ship
          • Draft 1 pod – Costs 1 authority per pod
          • Probe opponent’s cache – Costs 2 authority
          • Request 1 specific pod from opponent – Costs 1 authority per pod
          • Peaceful Victory – Costs 1 authority plus 1 per dominion. (Invader only)
          • Remove a sponsor from the encounter – Costs 1 authority per alien
          • Perceive opponent’s cache – Costs 1 authority
          • Special Offers – Consult alien bio
          • Cancel negotiation – Costs 2 authority
          • Negate a demand – Costs 2 authority
  • The encounter phase ends after the winner(s) and loser(s) are determined.

Payoff

After the encounter is over, the winner(s) of the encounter receive rewards and the loser(s) of the encounter receive penalties. The winning invader and supporters establish new bases, and other surviving ships return to their existing bases. The payoff phase begins with “crash” where the losers’ ships are destroyed as casualties, compensation is paid out, and pods discharged during the encounter are scrapped. Then, the winner(s) receive any rewards they are entitled to obtain, including bases, bounties, or any terms agreed upon during a successful negotiation.

Upkeep

It is determined whether the invader will continue their campaign or if the gate will transfer to the next alien in the cycle. Determine whether aliens will be active or inactive next invasion based on their current prestige. If the invader continues their campaign, they continue from their current system. Dominion check also occurs during this phase, to determine if any aliens are capable of performing a takeover and winning the match. Aliens can spend their lucre during this phase.

In addition to the basic rules, there are also special “dimensions” that can be added to modify a match further. Dimensions are modular, meaning they can be added and removed at will to any match, allowing for any combination of them to apply at once. Each dimension has an associated adjective, which refers to the ring where the match will take place. The default Federation-approved type of match is Nuclear Normal.

  • Armed: Dual-pod combat in effect.
  • Clean: No poison pods in the forge.
  • Commercial: Forge showcase in effect.
  • Cursed: Three random legacies in effect.
  • Decrypted: Aliens can communicate freely.
  • Defensive: Space Stations in effect.
  • Expensive: All lucre costs are doubled.
  • Familiar: Powers begin revealed.
  • Formal: Enable the Federation deck.
  • Galactic: 8-alien match. Uses the larger forge pool.
  • Garbled: Disable text channel.
  • Generous: Free resupplies replace two of the pods with lucre. Purchased resupplies contain 8 pods as normal.
  • Green: Green-alert aliens only
  • Haunted: Two random legacies in effect
  • Hazardous: Hazard warnings are in effect.
  • Heartless: Aliens may not request resupplies due to having no encounter pods.
  • Hi-Tech: Technology is in effect.
  • Huge: 7-alien match. Uses the larger forge pool.
  • Illicit: Dark Forge is in effect.
  • Large: 6-alien match.
  • Memorial: Random legacy in effect.
  • Mute: Disable voice channels.
  • Normal: 5-alien match
  • Nuclear: Flare pods added to the forge.
  • Official: Enable Scoring system. (Used for tournament matches).
  • Tiny: 4-alien match
  • Toxic: More poison pods added to the forge. (2 per alien)
  • Two-Faced: Dual powers in effect.
  • Unstable: Morphing powers in effect.
  • Wealthy: Lucre pods are placed in the forge (2 per alien).
  • Yellow: Green and yellow aliens only.

My Edicts

When designing a game, it is important to have a clear set of principles to help guide the process. Design is the process of making a series of choices, and the key to making any choice is limiting available options. As the majority of my work for Cosmic is done around alien powers, I have come up with a set of 10 “edicts” which dictate the main focus of my design. Aliens that I most seek to tweak are ones that violate one or more of these edicts in some way, and aliens that have issues unrelated to these edicts create new avenues for me to improve my understanding of Cosmic’s game design.

1. Every power should be valid in all situations.

In Cosmic, there are restrictions that certain aliens have with one another, preventing them from being used together. Most notably, aliens that copy “Game Setup” aliens have to be redrawn. For a game designed to maximize its permutations, I find such hardcoded restrictions to be both limiting and immersion-breaking. As part of my Cosmic, I create additional rulings that allow every alien to be permissible regardless of the situation. In my Cosmic, a game featuring Healer, Masochist, Oracle, Gambler, Sorcerer, and Magician is perfectly valid.

2. No power should make another power redundant.

With hundreds of aliens on the table bearing every possible advantage one could imagine, it is natural that some would end up similar to one another. Balancing all of them would simply be an impossible task, and the imbalance of it adds thematic credence to the idea that they are aliens from different planets who grew up under completely different circumstances. However, if a power is strictly superior to another, it removes the need for a player to ever want to choose the latter. My design philosophy looks to ensure that every alien brings something unique to the table. If I want a new “gets more ships” power, I have to consider how it relates to Roach, Symbiote, and Horde, so that it is not replacing any of them in utility.

3. Every power should give a player interesting new choices.

What makes a game mechanic interesting is its ability to influence player choice. A game without choice is merely a movie, as all players are simply spectating. For the powers to disrupt the base game, they need to inspire players to do things that they wouldn’t do if they didn’t have that power. Warrior might throw an encounter for more experience points. Pacifist might seek more rewards since it can’t gain compensation. Grudge might invite more allies to dissuade them from joining the opponent. A mandatory power that simply adds 20 to someone’s total as a main player is a poorly made power, not because it is too weak, but because it involves no choice. The +20 will take effect no matter what the player does. It might inspire them to invite fewer allies since they don’t need them, but that is simply railroading the player to a particular playstyle. If anything, it is a reduction of choice. This power idea could be improved simply by making the +20 situational, such as requiring the player to discard 3 different types of cards. The player will need to apply effective resource management and decide when is the best time to use its power, rather than blindly using it whether it wants to or not. Regardless of implementation, the end goal should be to produce interesting choices.

4. Every power should be noteworthy to other players.

Similarly, a power from one player should influence the player choice of other players. If a power can be completely disregarded by all other players, it will cease to feel like a power at all. True power cannot be ignored, so every player should have some degree of influence, even if the percentage of influence is totally lopsided. That boring +20 power would wholly satisfy this edict, as that kind of combat power cannot be overlooked. That same power that grants +2 though? Not so much. This is not to say that a power needs inherent might to be relevant. Philanthropist, Healer, and Machine are all crazy noteworthy despite having no particular skill in combat. Instead, they weigh their own special advantages to gain the upper hand against aliens that might be stronger in one-on-one bouts. Part of the theming of my Cosmic is that the aliens that are currently participating are simply the ones that have survived to this point. Therefore, I want to make sure it is self-evident why these aliens are the ones that have made it this far.

5. No power should deprive another player of all choice.

Just as no power should be irrelevant, no power should be too overwhelming. Due to Cosmic’s inherent balance, it is difficult to make a power that is “too strong,” but powers can be poorly designed if they take agency away from the other players. More descriptively, powers should not put players in a state of helplessness, where they have no recourse to counter, regardless of strategy, social skills, or even luck. An alien power that immediately wins the game upon their turn starting, for instance, is no good. Assuming that player were to go first, the entire game would be decided by whether the other players draw a Cosmic Zap card. As a less extreme example, consider a power that can target and remove another player’s ships from an encounter, like a Force Field. This power is dangerously abusable, as it can potentially target the same player every round and prevent them from joining any encounter. Even if it only targeted allies, the restriction of only being able to gain colonies as the offense would certainly make for an unenjoyable experience, and powers need to be tailored such that they are still enjoyable with the most malicious player at the helm.

6. No power should be counterbalanced by being lucky.

Cosmic’s design is meant to balance strong powers with social power and luck. While the former gives players a choice in the matter, the latter can favor anyone. If an entire game is determined purely by luck, the resulting victory becomes cheapened. The game could have been abbreviated to a single dice roll. No power should be designed in such a way that a player is required to draw a specific card or have another unlikely circumstance occur by chance to stop it. As a major example, no power’s limitation should be Cosmic Zaps. There are only two Cosmic Zaps in the deck, and they can be zapped by one of the two Card Zaps. There are no universal strategies in Cosmic to specifically get a card you need, so powers should be designed with the possibility that those Zaps are never drawn. Where I am more lax about this edict is when the degree of luck needed is not as severe, such as needing an N card to stop Pacifist. Negotiate cards are much more common and therefore easier for everyone to attain. There are options for players who lack an N to obtain one, making it acceptable.

7. All powers should provide some advantage to winning via the normal method.

Cosmic Encounter’s normal victory condition is to obtain five foreign colonies on enemy planets. The powers act as specific means of cheating to achieve this one goal. Over the course of its history, the game also introduced “alt-win aliens”, who try to win via alternative means. While I am not strictly opposed to alt-win aliens in concept, my design philosophy does clash with many of them. Many of the aliens forego a typical cheat in pursuit of their alt-win objective. This means that the user of the power either has to choose to win the normal way without a power or win their alternative way without a power. The only real advantage they receive is the “soft” advantage of using their alt-win condition as a threat to make progress toward the normal method, and sometimes those two goals can be mutually exclusive. At the very least, I opt to revise alt-win aliens so that a variant is available which keeps the theme in pursuit of the standard objective.

8. No power should require memorizing information.

This edict I pulled from the actual Cosmic devs sometime back. When a power forces players to recall past information, it adds an unnecessary wrinkle that can give certain powers an unfair advantage or disadvantage dependent on who needs to do the remembering. Even worse, different players can remember things differently and disagree on the actual value, resulting in a conflict that cannot be resolved objectively. It could be resolved by writing things down, but Cosmic was carefully designed such that external materials are not necessary for any of the game’s aspects. As a general rule, players shouldn’t be required to remember anything that happened outside of the current phase. For instance, requiring players remember that Loser just declared an upset or Visionary remembering the answer that was just given to them are both acceptable. Remembering past actions can have strategic advantage, such as when seeing players’ hands as the Mind or remembering how many Cosmic Zaps have been played so far, but no game aspect should be based around it. No Quizmaster power that holds someone’s ships hostage unless they can name the last two played encounter cards that were played by Oracle.

9. Every power must be as thematic as reasonably possible.

While the utility of every power is the top priority, it is highly important to me that the power embody what the alien represents. The Oracle has the power of foresight, the ability to see the future. This is represented by their ability to wait until the opponent plays a card face-up before they play theirs, as if the player gained that ability to see into the future. It is a beautifully elegant power that works both thematically and pragmatically. Compare that with the nebulously themed Tripler or the horrendously themed Patriot, who lack that same feeling of harnessing a particular flavor of power and converting it into a special ability. While it is no good over-complicating a power just to force it to fit a theme, it is worth exploring other options when a power and its alien name don’t quite match up, as well as when the theme itself is rather weak.

I also apply this rule to modifying the effect of flares. As I interpret it, wild flares are what one would get if the actual alien power were bottled up and mass-produced. Using it is like having the actual power for a split second, without any of the biological baggage that might otherwise come with the power. Not as strong, but possibly more versatile. In terms of the super flare, I think of them as supercharging the original power, granting them temporary access to their “true form.” They should embody the sense of “overflowing” with power, resulting in something incredibly strong while lacking sustainability.  

10. Every alien should have a one-word name.

This last edict is a personal stylistic choice of mine. Historically, Cosmic alien names are all one word. I find it to be sleeker and punchier than the two-word aliens that were added later, and I find it more appropriate for lore reasons. It is unlikely that all of these aliens speak the same language, so they would likely each refer to themselves in their own language using words we may lack the the ability to pronounce. As part of a research initiative to catalogue each of the Cosmic aliens, it makes sense that they would give each one such a simplistic identifier, given the sheer number of them. The use of two-word names suggests to me that the ones making the index have run out of one-word names, which I reject as a possibility by finding a suitable replacement for all two-worders.

Related to this edict, it’s also a rule that power names are no more than two words. While ideally I would like power names to have the same naming convention as alien names, there are some power ideas that need two words to properly express them. In the interest of simplicity, I want to restrict power names to two words at most. Ideally, I’d also like to make all powers either the power “to verb” or the power “of noun”, but each one works well enough in different situations to warrant using both.

My Terminology

Cosmic has had many iterations, and as a result, its terminology has widely varied between releases. Ships were once ‘tokens’. Pods were once ‘cards.’ Lucre was once a game mechanic, as was the Praw. Since I am designing my own Cosmic, Cosmic veterans could easily get confused if I start calling a planet a “geothermite” without explanation. Therefore, I wanted to have a section that clarifies my vocabulary, with a brief explanation as to why I named it as such for reference. As with any other aspect of my Cosmic, feel free to pick and choose any terms you like and ignore the rest. In any case, this section should help with your reading comprehension on this site.

  • Abandon: To remove all stationed ships from a base, rebounding the ships to your other bases.
  • Abduct: To take a specific aspect, bringing it under your control. Abducted ships may only be utilized as specified by the aspect that abducts them. Abducted pods go to your cache, unless otherwise specified. When abducting pods, you probe the cache to choose one. Otherwise, you would be snatching them.
  • Actor: Refers to an alien that is involved in an invasion, either with the invading or defending fleet.
  • Active: Refers to a power which is not zapped.
  • Alert: Classification metric used to determine the complexity of a power and how difficult it is to wield. Green is the easiest, yellow is the second easiest, and red is the hardest.
  • Ambush: An impromptu invasion with a predetermined invader and defender. Starts at the launch phase. Considered part of the previous turn, even if it is not the invader’s turn. After the ambush ends, the invader’s turn continues as normal, starting from the warpfall phase.
  • Alien: An individual participating in a match.
  • Ally: Refers to an alien on your side during an invasion.
  • Aspect: Catch-all term referring to any game element or effect.
  • Assimilate: To steal another alien’s power and make it your sub-power. The assimilated alien loses their power until the assimilation wears off.
  • Aur: The raw material used by the forge to fabricate pods.
  • Authority: An alien’s authority is equal to the number of home bases they have. It denotes their power level, as well as their reputation for being immortal/unbeatable/divine. Authority determines how many demands an alien may make in a negotiation. Losing all of your authority results in your elimination from the match. Aliens need at least 3 authority to be recognized by name.
  • Backer Boon: A boon received after winning an encounter as a backer. Each backer gains one boon for each ship they committed. Backer boons are paid out by the Federation, rather than the defender.
  • Backward: A term for a sponsor siding with the defender. Also called a “backer.” The opposite of a “foreward.” It’s like a “ward” for your back.
  • Base: One or more ships belonging to one alien on a single planet. Home bases are in an alien’s own system. Foreign bases are in foreign systems. Each foreign base grants one dominion to its owner. An alien requires at least three home bases to stay active. Changed this from ‘colony’ for thematic reasons. It makes more sense to me that a ‘base’ can act as a node for power generation as opposed to a settlement, and my Cosmic sets bases to feel more permanent.
  • Beacon: Aspect used to secretly prime a number to be revealed. Most commonly used by invader and supporters to prime how many ships they will commit to the invasion.
  • Blaster: Aspect used to discharge encounter pods during a match. The flagship has the great blaster that can be used by leaders only to discharge encounter pods. Each alien has their own personal blaster which can discharge support pods.
  • Blitz: An encounter outcome where one fleet automatically wins via combat. If both fleets blitz, the combat is resolved through the normal encounter procedure. Blitzing can generally only be performed under special conditions.
  • Bonus: A special reward granted for completing certain tasks, providing lucre to the recipient.
  • Boon: A special reward granted for completed certain tasks. The receiver of a boon may either draft a pod or revive a ship. Cannot draft a pod from the dark forge from a boon.
  • Bribe: Lucre primed alongside encounter pods during approach. If the opponent loses, they get all primed lucre. Otherwise, the lucre is rebounded. Bribing can be an effective tool to force negotiations.
  • Brigade: Refers to a fleet with numerical might. A brigade with zero or less combat potential cannot win an encounter through combat and may be used as an envoy if the enemy fleet also has no might.
  • Broadcast: To send a message in the public text channel, visible to all other aliens.
  • Burnout: Refers to a flare which does not automatically recharge after discharge. When in the exhaust during upkeep, it goes to the alien whose name matches the flare. If that alien is not present, the flare returns to the forge. A zapped burnout flare is still sent to the exhaust.
  • Bystander: Refers to an alien that is not currently involved in an invasion. Bystanders can become supporters during the contact phase.
  • Cache: Refers to the storage of pods an alien has at their immediate disposal, unrelated to their power. Renamed from ‘hand’ to add immersion.
  • Campaign: Refers to an alien’s chance to utilize the gate to invade other systems as the invader. Replaces the word “turn” from the original to add immersion.
  • Capacity: Limits the number of ships that can fit in a gate. Default capacity in the gate is 4.
  • Casualty: Refers to a ship lost as a penalty for losing the encounter. By default, all committed ships and flagships in a fleet are destroyed as casualties due to losing combat or a failing negotiation. Ships have to be destroyed to be counted as a casualty.
  • Claim: To add a pod to your cache from somewhere outside your cache. Claiming a discharged pod automatically recharges it.
  • Clash: A possible iteration of combat where both fleets attack. The fleet with the higher might wins.
  • Coexist – To occupy the same planet as another alien.
  • Combat Calculation: Occurs during the assault phase when there are two live brigades. The might is tallied up on each side to determine the combat might for each fleet. Generally, the higher might wins.
  • Commission: A request to another alien to join your fleet this invasion during rally.
  • Commissioner: Refers to a leader who commissions a bystander.
  • Commit: To send a ship into an encounter.
  • Compensation: A cost which is paid by the winning leader to the losing leader during crash, to compensate for a massacre. The losing leader snatches one pod for each lost ship. Compensation is still paid if casualties were captured or vaporized. If winning leader does not have enough pods, additional pods are drafted. Sponsors do not receive compensation, as they are more like the “bodyguards” of the envoy. Not strictly peaceful.
  • Consume: To spend a consumable resource, vaporizing it. Often done with tokens.
  • Cosmic Quake: A rare event resulting in all caches and shrouded pods being immediately scrapped. Only certain rare game events can trigger a Cosmic Quake. In original Cosmic, this occurs when deck runs out of cards. My version of Cosmic has more pods and fewer effects that can trigger it, so the event is rarer.
  • Cycle: Refers to a single rotation where each alien gets one turn as invader.
  • Dark Pod: A pod drafted from the dark forge. All dark pods have a slightly darker hue than the standard variety, allowing them to be identified despite being secret. Dark Pods may be more or less valuable than standard pods.
  • Dark Forge: The “underground” forge containing experimental pods not officially approved by the Federation. Used in matches that are “off the table.” Pods from the dark forge can be requested during negotiations or by spending lucre during upkeep.
  • Deactivate: To render a power inactive. Powers are also deactivated if the alien has 2 or less authority at the end of upkeep. Zapping an alien causes a temporary disruption of the power, though it is distinct from deactivating it.
  • Deal: The actions agreed to be carried out as part of a successful negotiation. Once a deal has been made, the terms of the deal must be done by all involved parties.
  • Defender: Refers to the alien leader opposing the invader during an invasion. As one of the leaders during an encounter, the defense gets their own flagship from the Federation and attempts to repel the invader. The defender receives no prize for victory. They merely avoid the loss of its home base on the target planet and the opposing fleet from gaining victory points.
  • Demand: Aspect of a negotiation that is offered to make a deal. Accepted demands must be carried out during the payoff phase. All demands must be accepted in order for the deal to be successful.
  • Destiny: A mysterious aspect that programs the gate each invasion to randomly determine the defender. During the destiny phase, destiny manifests, taking the form of a color. Each color corresponds to one of the systems in the match. There is also a wild destiny, identified as a rainbow destiny color, which allows the invader to choose any other alien to be the defender. Each color has three charges, with one charge of each color having a hazard. The destiny matrix will never produce the invader’s own color. The base game has a deck of cards for determining destiny, but with my Cosmic’s digital incarnation, I opted to create a program that generates it instead. I prefer having as few “heaps” as possible for simplicity sake, and all destiny-based aspects work just as well as long with a program as long as each destiny cloud has limited charges. Using the program, these charges can be more clearly visible.
  • Deploy: To reveal a particular type of fleet.
  • Destroy: To send a ship to the warp.
  • Discharge: To use the effect of a pod. Most pods are scrapped after being discharged. Encounter pods must be primed to be discharged for combat.
  • Display: To publicly place an aspect somewhere. The opposite of “shroud”.
  • Disrupt: Refers to a power being disabled for a set amount of time. Zapping and deactivation are both forms of disruption, but zapping always wears off at the end of upkeep. Deactivation ends at the end of upkeep if the alien has sufficient authority to regain the power.
  • Dominion: An alien’s dominion is equal to the number of foreign bases they currently have. Winning a 4-alien match requires 4 dominion. A 5 or more alien match requires 5 dominion. Some aliens have alternate means of obtaining dominion.
  • Draft: To construct a new pod in the forge and add it to your cache. Used in place of “draw” for immersion.
  • Draw: An encounter result where neither side wins or loses. Neither side gets any rewards, and no casualties are suffered.
  • Driver: Refers to the “main” primed encounter pod during an encounter. Determines the intent of a fleet. Named as such because it acts like autopilot for the fleet, “driving” the ship to victory, as well as acting as the driving force of the encounter. Needed a less wordy term for “main primed encounter pod.”
  • Dual-Pod Combat: A variant of Cosmic where two drivers are primed instead of one, a primary driver and a secondary driver. Only the primary driver is considered the “driver” for aspects which affect the driver, but both pods apply to the fleet. In the event of mismatched drivers, trojans take priority over envoys which take priority over brigades. Aliens may request resupplies when they have only one encounter pod.
  • Dud: Refers to a brigade with zero or less might. Equivalent to a stooge.
  • Dump: To scrap an entire cache. Dumping is required when receiving a resupply, unless otherwise specified.
  • Duplicate: To create a physical copy of an aspect, keeping both in play. Only possible in the digital form my Cosmic is meant to be played in.
  • Eliminate: To remove an alien from the match. Elimination is permanent and cannot be undone by another game effect. Eliminating an alien triggers their legacy, an effect which persists until the end of the match.
  • Encounter: Refers to the conflict that occurs between the invading fleet and the defending fleet during an invasion. An encounter can result in a win for either side, a win for both sides, a loss for both sides, or a draw. An encounter can take the form of combat or negotiation.
  • Enemy: Refers to an alien on the opposing side of an encounter.
  • Envoy: Refers to a fleet with an intent to negotiate. A brigade with no might may be used as an envoy if opposed by a fleet with no might.
  • Escape: An outcome that may occur during combat if either side reveals an escape pod during crunch. That fleet rescues their ships from the encounter. If opposed by a lethal brigade, one rescued ship is destroyed for each alien in the escaping fleet for every 10 might the opposing fleet has. If one fleet loses all engaged ships, they lose the encounter. If both fleets have surviving ships, both sides win.
  • Established: Refers to a planet where you have a base (home or foreign).
  • Evacuate: To force ships to abandon a planet.
  • Exhaust: Collection of pods that have been discharged by an alien that encounter. During the bookkeeping phase, any pods in the exhaust return to their forge, unless they have been recharged.
  • Extract: To retrieve a pod from the forge without drafting it. Extracted pods are scrapped after the aspect that extracted them resolves, unless otherwise stated.
  • Federation: Refers to the in-game entity that provides pods to aliens and maintains order amidst the conflict. In-universe, the Federation arbitrates encounters, approving both the encounter itself and its outcome.
  • Feint: A type of encounter pod which is not an attack pod.
  • Fiat: Special rule that alters the makeup of the ring where the match takes place.
  • Flagship: Unique ships used by leaders during encounters. A flagship is required to perform an invasion or defend against another flagship. Flagships require special fuel in order to travel through the gate. Leaders can produce an infinite number of flagships, but only one per encounter. Also called a ‘mothership.’
  • Fleet: Refers to one side of an encounter.
  • Forge: The construct owned by the Federation that fabricates pods during matches. Replaces “deck” in the base game to add immersion. If the forge runs out of aur, pods cannot be drafted, and aliens cannot request a resupply. My version of Cosmic has no “discard pile”, as my version of Cosmic returns scrapped aur directly to the forge.
  • Foreward: Another term for an offensive supporter. Like a “ward” for the one moving forward.
  • Free: Refers to ships which have not been lost. Ships which can be or are committed. Generally ships which are stationed in bases or in the gate.
  • Fuel Cell: Resource required for the invader to send the flagship through the gate. Measured in cores. Each invader given two fuel cells per turn.
  • Gate: The transport device provided from the Federation to allow ships to travel through hyperspace without jumping. Used by the invader and all supporters during the contact phase to enter the targeting system. Flagships require one fuel cell to travel through the gate.
  • Gift: To give a pod to another alien. A gift cannot be refused.
  • Hail: To enter an alien’s voice channel and speak with them directly.
  • Hazard: An aspect triggered by certain destiny clouds if a match is hazardous. Causes the resulting invasion to operate under different rules.
  • Hazardous: Refers to a match that can produce hazards.
  • Hidden: Refers to an aspect that cannot be seen. Aspects can be selectively hidden, such as when shrouded, or universally hidden, such as when sealed.
  • Human Test: An unofficial metric used to gauge combat effectiveness. Based off Human’s guaranteed 4 might it adds to every combat. To pass the test, the alien’s combat potential must average the +4 per combat.” This metric can be passed by having +4 or more as actor, +8 or more as leader, or +16 or more as invader or defender.
  • Inactive: Refers to an alien power that is not usable. An unstable alien power becomes inactive if they are zapped or have two or fewer home bases during the upkeep phase. An inactive power becomes active during the upkeep phase if they have three or more home bases. An inactive alien’s name is treated as Null.
  • Impervious: Refers to ships which cannot destroyed, captured, or vaporized. If they would be, they are rebounded instead.
  • Infection: An encounter result when a brigade opposes a trojan. During an infection, if the brigade side discharged a driver with higher might than the number of committed ships, the infection side wins. Otherwise, the brigade wins.
  • Intent: Refers to the purpose of a fleet in an encounter. A fleet may have intent to attack, negotiate, retreat, or poison their opponent.
  • Invader: Refers to the acting alien of the turn. As one of the leaders of the encounter, the invader receives a flagship and targets a planet in the defense’s system in the attempt to establish a base on it, using ships they send into the gate.
  • Invasion: Refers to a single attempt for an invader to establish a colony on the defender’s planet. An invasion consumes one unit of fuel and requires a functional flagship. An alien can have as many invasions in a turn as fuel units as long as their flagship is still in working condition. Normal turns last for two invasions at most.
  • Isolated: Refers to a ship being alone in a location, without other ships of the same color.
  • Jump: To move your ships between bases without use of the gate. Requires powers, flares, or other aspects to do so.
  • Land: To place ships on a planet, either establishing a base or adding ships to it.
  • Leader: Refers to one of the two main aliens during an invasion: the invader and the defender. The leader controls a flagship and may request supporters during the call phase.
  • Legacy: An alien-specific effect that activates if an alien is eliminated from a match. To be a valid legacy, it must still have an effect if activated at the beginning of the match, even if that alien is not in the current match. A legacy cannot be active if its corresponding alien is participating in the match. The idea is that it is enacted to honor their elimination/death. Legacies only exist in my version of Cosmic, as original Cosmic has no elimination.
  • Lethal: Refers to a brigade with enough might to participate in a clash. Lethal brigades generally have more than 0 might.
  • Lucre: A special type of pod used as currency within the Cosmos. Used to purchase various resources. When paying compensation, lucre can be gifted instead of having pods ravaged. Lucre may only be spent during orientation and upkeep.
  • Lose: Losing an encounter generally involves being defeated in combat or failing a negotiation. When losing an encounter, you generally lose your flagship and all ships in your fleet as well, unless the loss was peaceful or you managed to escape. Losing a ship refers to any time one of your ships is destroyed, abducted, or vaporized, so that it is no longer a free ship. By default, an aspect which causes the “loss” of a ship destroys it, unless another aspect causes it to be abducted or vaporized. Ships can also be lost outside of encounters via other aspects such as Shadow’s power.
  • Manifest: To generate a power, pod, destiny, etc. from the Outer Realm. When manifesting an element, the original is copied, preventing manifested elements from ever running dry like the forge.
  • Mark: An aspect produced by certain alien powers which causes lasting effects. Each mark is alien-specific to prevent them from getting confused with one another. Can be consumable or permanent. Exists in a finite quantity. The equivalent of tokens in the base game. Stored in the nexus.
  • Massacre: A possible iteration of combat where only one fleet attacks. That brigade automatically wins the encounter, destroying the opposing fleet.
  • Match: A single “game” of Cosmic Encounter, named as such to make the naming less “gamey”. Chose ‘match’ because the Federation “matches” aliens together for territory conflict. Setup is performed at the beginning of each match.
  • Might: Refers to the total value of a fleet in an encounter. Might can be positive, zero, or negative. A non-numerical value has zero might. At least one might is required in order to engage in a clash.
  • Mill: To scrap a pod directly from the forge.
  • Morph: To alter the discharge value of a pod. Also refers to a morph pod, which does the same. Does not change the aur value of a pod.
  • Nature: The nature of a fleet determines its behavior during an encounter. The four natures are brigade, envoy, trojan, and disorganized.
  • Negotiation: An event that takes up the optional negotiation phase in an encounter. The envoy with more authority has leverage. The fleet with leverage proposes terms for a deal. Possible terms include a peaceful victory for the offense, gaining a bounty equal to ships in the encounter, gaining pods from the offense equal to bases gained, removing an enemy’s ships from the offense, receiving a free resupply, probe an enemy’s cache, or any alien-specific “special offers” that can be requested during negotiation. If both fleets accept the terms, the terms are carried out. If the terms are not accepted, counterproposals may be offered before time expires. Either fleet may cancel the negotiation at any time. If a deal is not made before time expires, both fleets lose the encounter, and both leaders’ committed ships are destroyed. Sponsor ships are rebounded. The negotiation system was greatly reworked from the base game to encourage less mindless negotiation procedure and decrease the sense of helplessness created by letting two players negotiate for free bases. I wanted negotiations to still take a minute or less, but I also wanted to give aliens more options than what they usually see. No one likes to see a match decided by two aliens deciding to give each other the win and losing because you don’t have a quash to stop it.
  • Neighbor: The alien that is to your immediate left or right in the ring. Your leftmost neighbor is to your left, and your rightmost neighbor is to your right.
  • Nexus: The location where home bases connect to the main core to fuel an alien’s power. Many aliens store elements related to their power in their nexus or place elements related to their power in the nexuses of other aliens. If the nexus loses power, the owner loses access to all objects stored within the nexus unless otherwise specified. Called the “alien sheet” in the base game.
  • Offer: To potentially give an aspect to another alien. That alien may accept or refuse the offer. Offers are made during negotiations to make deals, as well as outside of negotiations as part of certain aspects such as Fido’s power.
  • Opponent: Another term for the enemy leader.
  • Outer Realm: Alternate dimension which exists outside of the Cosmos. Origin point of destiny. Certain effects can reach into the outer realm to manifest pods, powers, flares, destiny, etc. In the base game, this is essentially the “game box,” where game effects from outside the game are brought in.
  • Payee: The alien that receives compensation.
  • Payer: The alien that pays compensation.
  • Peaceful: Refers to an encounter that results in no casualties. Winning aliens get rewards as normal, and losing ships are rebounded.
  • Persistent: Refers to a power that cannot become inactive during upkeep, regardless of home base count. The opposite of unstable. Powers are not persistent unless specified as so in the alien bio. Persistent aliens can still be eliminated if all home bases are lost.
  • Phase: A step required to be performed during an encounter. Each encounter consists of the same predetermined phases that are performed in the same sequence.
  • Planet: Each alien starts a match with 4-5 planets of their alien color, depending on the number of aliens.
  • Pod: A device that is used in order to influence the result of an encounter. Renamed from ‘card’ to add immersion.
  • Poison Damage: A negative effect that occurs when a leader has a poison pod in their cache during approach. That leader must ravage one of their ships, regardless of the number of poison pods they are holding.
  • Power: Refers to an alien’s unique ability that permits them to break one or more rules in a standard match. Every power is capable of being zapped, with unstable powers also vulnerable to being shut down and stolen.
  • Power Dynamic: Refers to a special interaction between two aliens which requires their powers to work slightly differently from normal. Added to prevent powers from being incompatible or making things unfair for one or both aliens.
  • Prime: To prepare an aspect in secret in preparation of discharging or revealing it. Generally used during encounters to prepare encounter and distress pods. Beacons are also primed to shroud how many ships will be committed.
  • Private: An aspect that is not public. Its value may not be viewed by anyone other than its owner.
  • Probe: To view an aspect as if it were public. The aspect remains hidden to other aliens who cannot already view it.
  • Provisions: Rations granted from the  Federation at the start of a match. Each participating alien is granted the necessary ships and pods needed to begin the match, and ships are arranged on home planets which have been deemed habitable by
    the Federation. The number of ships and planets can vary depending on the number of aliens.
  • Public: Can be freely viewed by all other aliens. Contents of the exhaust are public, as well as discharged pods. In the base game, public pods are called “face-up cards.”
  • Queue: The order that aliens will act in when multiple actions occur at the same time. Standard queue is invader -> defender -> foreward -> backward -> bystanders, clockwise, starting from the left of the invader.
  • Ravage: To destroy ship(s) or pod(s) “randomly.” If ships are ravaged, the owner chooses which ship(s) to destroy.
  • Rebound: To return a ship to its owner’s existing base.
  • Recharge: To claim a discharged pod from any exhaust, granting it another use. Most discharged flares are automatically recharged during upkeep.
  • Reconnected: Refers to a disconnected alien with three or more bases during the bookkeeping phase.
  • Relay: To send private information to another alien that remains private to all others. One example is to show a pod in your cache to another alien.
  • Release: To “free” abducted ship(s). Released ships are rebounded if possible. Releasing a ship may or may not make the ships “free”, as ships can be released to the warp or another aspect where they are not free.
  • Rescue: To prevent a ship from being destroyed, returning it to the owner’s existing bases.
  • Resolve: Refers to an aspect completing its effect. When an aspect resolves, its effect has officially applied and can no longer be negated.
  • Resupply: Occurs when a leader has no remaining encounter pods in their cache during any launch phase. The alien’s existing cache is scrapped, and a new set of pods are drafted from the forge. The alien must be in their home system to receive a resupply. Other aspects may also grant resupplies outside of the launch phase. A resupply generally consists of 6 drafted pods, plus 2 lucre pods. Original Cosmic resupplies the invader at the start of the invader’s orientation phase, or whenever one is needed by the defender. Resupplies are limited to one per invasion per alien.
  • Return: To gift something back to the alien it was snatched or abducted from.
  • Reveal: To turn a private aspect into a public one, allowing all aliens to view it.
  • Revive: To retrieve a destroyed ship from the warp.
  • Reward: A prize granted for winning an encounter. The invader and forewards each establish a base on the target planet with their engaged ships. Backwards gain a bounty equal to the ships they sent. The defender gains no reward for victory unless otherwise specified.
  • Rewind: To revert an invasion to a previous phase.
  • Ring: The circle of systems that denotes the rotation for a match. Aliens have set positions in the ring and can only change positions if an aspect permits it.
  • Rotation: The turn order that determines which alien acts as the invader. By default, the rotation is determined clockwise.
  • Sacrifice: To destroy one’s own ship(s).
  • Scramble: To negate an aspect (destiny, pod draft, power, etc.) and and replace it with a random equivalent, retrieving the replacement from the appropriate source.
  • Scrap: To send a pod to your exhaust.
  • Seal: To place an aspect so that it is not public to anyone. A sealed aspect can be viewed by no one, not even its owner.
  • Secured: Refers to a planet where only you have a base (home or foreign).
  • Setup: Event that occurs at the beginning of a match. The Federation hands out provisions, and alien bios are manifested.
  • Ship: A standard-grade vehicle capable of low-level space travel owned by a specific alien. Not capable of hyperspace travel without assistance from the gate. Used to establish bases and construct fleets. Generally, each ship adds 1 might to a fleet. Each alien starts with 16-20 ships of their faction color, depending on the number of participating aliens in the match.
  • Showcase: Visible, constructed pods that reside next to the forge. When drafting pods, showcase pods may be taken instead of forge pods, meaning you will know the value but so will everyone else. The showcase is replaced with new pod during upkeep.
  • Shroud: To place a pod so that it is not public. No one can see shrouded pods except their owner, unless another aspect allows them do so. The opposite of “display.”
  • Singularity: A situation where two fleets discharge a morph pod, causing both fleets to lose the encounter.
  • Size: Refers to how much space in the gate a ship takes up when determining capacity. 1 size takes up 1 capacity. By default, Federation-grade ships have 1 size.
  • Slapfight: Refers to a combat between two stooges. Also called an “embarrassment.” Both leaders destroy their ships one at a time until only one side has ships remaining. Fleet(s) with ships remaining win. If both sides lose all ships, both sides lose. A primitive, brutal form of combat deserving of mockery that the invention of pods has thankfully rendered mostly obsolete.
  • Snatch: To take another alien’s pod randomly. Most commonly performed when collecting compensation.
  • Snipe: To target and destroy specific ships or pods. While sniping another alien’s pods, probe their cache. When sniping ships, you may snipe any free ships.
  • Special Offer: A unique alien-specific offer which may be made during negotiations.
  • Sponsor: An alien who agrees to participate in an invasion during the rally phase. A sponsor sides with one of the two leaders, generally providing the might of 1-4 of their ships to help that leader’s fleet. After a standard encounter, the sponsor receives rewards if their fleet wins and penalties if their side loses.
  • Standoff: A possible iteration on combat where neither fleet attacks. Can result in a negotiation if both fleets agree. Otherwise, results in a draw.
  • Stasis: To set a ship, pod, or other element aside. Elements in stasis are sealed.
  • Stationed: A ship which is guarding a base. A base with no stationed ships is automatically destroyed.
  • Stooge: Refers to a fleet with no driver. A stooge will mimic the behavior of the enemy fleet.
  • Sub-Power: An alien power that an alien may have in addition to their base power. Aliens may have any number of sub-powers, but only one main power.
  • Surrender: A leader gives up an encounter to their opponent, resulting in a normal or peaceful victory. Aliens can only surrender when an aspect allows it, as there is no “surrender pod” in the current game.
  • System: Refers to an alien’s collection of planets they have wagered to buy into the match. A system consists of four planets if four aliens participate and five planets if five aliens participate.
  • Text Channel: A public means of communication used to communicate with other aliens normally. The text channel allows for information to be passed around that can be retained, allowing players to retain any information as long as they share it publicly.
  • Timing Rule: Refers to an aspect which determines the order that aspects activate when they occur simultaneously due to timing. Order is Legacies -> Invader -> Defender -> Forewards -> Backwards -> Bystanders. If there is a tie between roles, it is broken by who is first to the left of the invader.
  • Transform: To make your power and name match another alien’s. Since the same power cannot exist twice in the same game, accompanying aspects remove the original from play after transformation.
  • Trojan: Refers to a fleet with a value of P. Considered an envoy if opposed by an envoy. Considered a viable brigade if opposed by a brigade.
  • Turn: A period of time consisting of one or more invasions, where the same alien continues to act as the offense.
  • Type: Personal classification system used to group alien powers by function. There are 9 different types of alien powers. Alien powers can be more than one type.
    • Resource: Power designed to gain pods and/or ships.
    • Combat: Power designed to gain might or reduce the opponent’s might in combat. To qualify as a combat power, the alien has to pass the “Human test.”
    • Control: Power designed to restrict the choices of other aliens or give the user more control.
    • Diplomacy: Power designed to gain advantages in negotiation or compensation.
    • Destroy: Power designed to destroy caches, ships, bases, planets, pods, aliens, etc.
    • Support: Power designed to assist other aliens, gain sponsors, or gain invitations.
    • Info: Power designed to gain information.
    • Invasion: Power designed to gain more dominion or invasions than normal.
    • Meta: Power designed to affect alien powers or disrupt the normal phase cycle.
  • User: Refers to the alien wielding a power or pod. Self-referential term.
  • Vacant: A planet with no ships on it.
  • Vaporize: To destroy a ship to the point where there are no remains to enter the warp. Changed from “removed from play” for immersion.
  • Voice Channel: The mechanism used to restrict information and communication in my Cosmic. Leaders and their sponsors enter the same voice channel during arrival. Aliens in the same voice channel may speak directly, but no one else may hear them. During negotiation, the two leaders enter the negotiation voice channel by themselves to make their demands.
  • Warp: A mysterious rift in space that stores the remains of ships after they are destroyed. Ships may be revived from the warp through certain means. Each regroup phase, the Federation provides a free ship revival for the acting invader.
  • Win: Refers to success in an encounter, granting the fleet rewards. A peaceful win in a win that does not result in penalties for the losing side. Generally, the invader and supporters receive a base after winning, unless they successfully retreated or negotiated a deal that did not demand a peaceful victory. The defender receives no reward from a win, but its supporters receive a bounty equal to their engaged ship count.
  • Withdraw: To retrieve lucre from the Federation’s treasury. Backwards withdraw lucre as a result of their victory bonus.
  • Zapped: Refers to a pod, ship, or alien that has been negated. Zapping a pod scraps the pod. Zapping a ship vaporizes the ship. Zapping an alien disrupts the power, making it unusable for the remainder of the encounter without deactivating it.

The Federation provides the aur that is fabricated into the various pods that aliens draft and utilize during invasions. The aur contained within the forge can be customized to fit the CE. More aur can be manifested during a CE to expand the forge. A pod fabricated in the forge will be based on the aur that forged it. When a pod is scrapped, it will return to its original aur value, regardless of its value when discharged.

Standard
(85 plus 8-24 flares):

Attack -07: 1
Attack -03: 1
Attack 00: 1
Attack 01: 1
Attack 02: 2
Attack 03: 1
Attack 04: 4
Attack 05: 1
Attack 06: 6
Attack 07: 1
Attack 08: 6
Attack 09: 1
Attack 10: 4
Attack 11: 1
Attack 12: 2
Attack 13: 1
Attack 14: 2
Attack 15: 1
Attack 18: 2
Attack 20: 2
Attack 23: 1
Attack 30: 1
Attack 40: 1
Morph: 2
Negotiate: 12
Poison: 3
Cosmic Zap: 2
Flare Zap: 2
Ship Zap: 1
Finder: 1
Warp Key: 1
Scrambler: 1
Force Field: 1
Ionic Gas: 1
Plague: 1
Reinforcement: 2
Escape: 3
Therapist: 2
Assassin: 1
Patrol: 1
Flare: Each alien’s flare and one additional flare per alien in the match.

Large (For Huge and Galactic matches)
Includes the Standard forge, plus 24 more:

Attack 00: 1
Attack: 02: 1
Attack 04: 1
Attack 06: 2
Attack 08: 2
Attack 10: 2
Attack 12: 1
Attack 20: 1
Attack 30: 1
Negotiate: 5
Morph: 1
Reinforcement: 2
Flare Zap: 1
Cosmic Zap: 1
Force Field: 1
Ionic Gas: 1

The dark forge is a second forge provided by the organization known as the Underground. It provides aliens with experimental pods which aren’t officially approved by the Federation. The dark forge may be enabled in a CE if all participants agree. Pods from the dark forge have a unique dark tint to them, allowing others to identify them without seeing their aur value, similar to lucre. Pods from the dark forge return to the dark forge after being scrapped.

Standard (65 pods):

Attack -08: 1
Attack -07: 1
Attack -01: 1
2D Attack 02/20: 2
2D Attack 03/30: 1
2D Attack 12/21: 1
2D Attack 21/12: 1
Attack 10: 2
Attack 12: 3
Attack 14: 1
Attack 20: 1
Attack 23: 1
Morph: 2
Negotiate: 2
Poison: 1
Crooked Negotiate: 1
Stubborn Negotiate: 1
Renowned Negotiate: 1
Innocent Negotiate: 1
Aggressive Negotiate: 1
Cosmic Zap: 1
Warp Key: 1
Pod Zap: 1
Cache Zap: 1
Ship Zap: 1
Omni Zap: 1
Rebirth: 1
Solar Wind: 1
Victory Boon: 1
Finder: 1
Space Junk: 1
Kicker x-1: 1
Kicker x2: 3
Kicker x0: 2
Kicker x3: 2
Kicker x4: 1
Rift 1: 1
Rift 2: 2
Rift 3: 3
Rift 4: 1
Rift 5: 1
Intimidate -09: 1
Intimidate 19: 1
Intimidate 29: 1
Intimidate 39: 1
Reinforcement (Ships in Home System): 1
Reinforcement (Ships in Warp): 1
Reinforcement (Ships in Fleet): 1
Escape: 1
Therapist: 1
Assassin: 1
Patrol: 1

My version of Mutant manifests its own pods instead of lifting them from other aliens or the forge. As such, it has its own pool of pods, a mix of vanilla, dark, and unique. A Neapolitan of pods. Pods marked with a ? can be any number within the range that has a valid pod. The odds of drawing a pod are weighted based on its value.

(30 Pods)

Slime Attack ?(5-20): 5
Third Eye: 1
Beating Heart: 1
Restless Leg: 1
Prehensile Tail: 1
Silver Tongue: 1
Attack ?(1-40): 5
Negotiate (? Type): 3
Distress (? Type): 3
Poison: 2
Kicker (x0-x4): 1
Rift ? (1-5): 2
Rebirth: 1
Warp Key: 1
Morph: 1
Mutant Flare: 1

  • Ship design in my Cosmic makes use of a “ring” instead of the traditional ufo disc shape. This allows them to be stacked on top of a “node” on the planet or flagship. When this node has no ships on it, it is de-powered and therefore worthless. In this way, the ships visually act as energy sources for the ships and bases, helping to explain why they are needed to power them. In addition, when committing ships, they can be stacked onto the node and placed all at once into the encounter instead of placing them one at a time.
  • Aliens can only verbally communicate with their allies during an encounter. All aliens can communicate via text at any time. During a negotiation, leaders can communicate with each other verbally. Bystanders cannot communicate verbally or hear actors. All text messages are visible to all players, as the chat is public.
  • An alien that loses three home colonies will have their power disconnected. An alien that loses all home colonies is eliminated from the match. After being eliminated, bases in the system remain, but that alien can no longer be targeted for invasions, and their destiny color will be removed from the pool. That alien’s legacy is also enabled. An alien is also eliminated if it becomes impossible for them to win the match, such as if 16 of their ships are vaporized in a 5-alien bout.
    • What if an alien loses all of their home bases as they gain their last foreign base? Like if they defeat Grudge as a foreward and Grudge destroys their last home base as they land on the target planet? I would imagine in such an instance, it should still count as a victory, since they meet their win condition at the same time as hitting their lose condition. It is less frustrating that way.
    • What I like about this design is that a player can get closer to their lose condition while also getting closer to their win condition. Losing too many ships can start eating into your win condition, but even losing your power doesn’t necessarily mean you are out of the game.
    • I originally had it so eliminating an alien gives all other aliens 1 dominion, but I don’t like what this adds to the game. It means an alien with 3 colonies can gain 2 dominion at once by eliminating another alien, immediately winning the game. It also means an alien could be forced to avoid eliminating a threatening alien since it would automatically give someone else a win, even if they’re not invited.
  • An invader’s turn ends if the invader runs out of fuel. If an invader’s flagship is destroyed, all fuel inside it will be lost. This is mostly the same as original Cosmic’s design, only with the tangible resource of fuel that can be saved for a later campaign.
  • Aliens may only request a resupply as a leader while your flagship is in your own system. This means a defender can request a resupply at any time, but the invader can only do so before the contact phase. I wanted to remove the rule that automatically ends encounters when the invader runs out of encounter pods.
  • Considering a disposable type of ship called a drone that gets vaporized after an encounter and provides no compensation or rewards. Tried to apply it alongside distress pods, but it felt out of place. Putting the concept aside for now.
  • Considering applications of lucre, a currency system from older versions of Cosmic that didn’t quite work in its original form. Being able to buy pods and ships made it trivial to obtain either, reducing the value of powers like Zombie and Gambler who specialize in leveraging ship advantage. Want to come up with other things for lucre to be spent on instead, such as my museum mechanic.
    • My current incarnation of lucre is meant to give aliens options from their starting supply. By replacing two of the starting eight pods with lucre, aliens are more quickly able to trigger a resupply if desired, or transition it to the regular starting size of 8 during upkeep. The larger purchases of requesting a resupply and establishing a home base can normally only be obtained by receiving the second resupply, allowing aliens to hoard their lucre to obtain those later (since lucre is not scrapped when receiving a resupply). However, lucre is highly vulnerable to compensation if not spent early, creating a potential for risk and reward.
    • I specified lucre to be spendable both from orientation and upkeep to allow players to immediately spend their lucre if they just want to start normally while also allowing invaders to still obtain emergency funds with it in the middle of a campaign.
  • If an alien does not have a valid pod during approach, they may reveal their cache to progress the encounter without priming a pod. Their pod will be treated as a 00 attack pod. Their cache will remain revealed until the end of the cleanup phase, and they may not request a resupply while their cache is revealed.
  • By my rules, an alien cannot zap themselves. This is to prevent situations like Human with 4 bases, where they can force a solo win with no one being able to stop them. Pulling off a team win this way is more impressive since communication is more limited in my version.
  • When an alien copies/steals a power, all aspects of the power are copied with it. For instance, stealing Miser’s power will take their current hoard, as opposed to generating your own as per the setup clause.
  • When an alien transforms into an alien from the Outer Realm, such as through Reincarnator’s power, they invoke the Setup clause as if it were the beginning of the match. This doesn’t work for all aliens, so I plan to make a list of exceptions to follow, to make sure all alien powers make for valid transformations.
  • When inviting an alien as a sponsor, the leader can restrict the gate size to reduce the maximum number of ships sponsors can commit. Sponsors can send any number 1-4, but this helps to restrict potentially powerful aliens like Disease who might be considered too unreliable to invite. I imagine such a mechanic wouldn’t get much use, so having 4 set as the default would let aliens ignore it for the most part unless they need it.
  • Reconsidering having the power check only occur during upkeep. It makes sense for the de-power to occur at that time, but maybe power can be regained earlier. It creates an awkward situation where a leader can have enough authority to use their power but can’t actually use it because upkeep hasn’t happened yet. A Rebirth artifact doesn’t actually restore use of your power, for instance.
  • During combat, ship capturing takes precedent over ship destruction. The captured ships are not “casualties.” Also, as a general rule (to avoid having to put this in every alien bio that captures ships), captured ships do not have their special properties such as Macron’s size and Parasite’s might sapping.)
  • Reinforcements have always bugged me as a feature, but I still see them as highly useful for encounter disruption. The fact that they are the only non-encounter pod with numbers on them can easily confuse new players into using them as encounter pods, and I don’t like how they make the resolution to a close encounter turn into a game of “does anyone have a reinforcement pod?”, with the answer determining the winner. The changes I made to reinforcements with my distress pod mechanic are designed to correct these issues.
  • The “timing rule” for simultaneous aspects also applies to my version of Cosmic. The order goes  Legacies -> Invader -> Defender -> Forewards -> Backwards -> Bystanders (Starting from Left of Invader). For instance, Calculator vs. Volt with a 10 vs. 8 pod, respectively. If Calculator is the invader, the equalize will resolve first, resulting in values of 2 vs. 24. If Volt is the invader, the supercharge will resolve first, resulting in 10 vs. 14.
  • Currently, free resupplies occur during the launch phase, with invaders and defenders receiving them at the same time. Invaders cannot receive them if they are not in their home system. The question is whether these resupplies should be forced or optional. Certain powers like Monk and Doppelganger would be damaged by being forced, so they would need clauses that make them immune to this rule. If there is some kind of exploit that benefits a certain alien from being able to operate without pods, it would damage the experience. Most aliens are strictly inhibited by having no pods, so I need to make sure I am not overlooking anything before cementing the rule.