Nightmare

Alert

Essence

Control

Support

Type

Power of Fear

Brings Nightmares to Life

As a bystander, when a leader does not commission you, or as an actor, during payoff after an alien wins in combat while you are losing, you may use this power to shroud a “horror” from your nexus into that alien’s nexus, linking the horror to that alien. You may only target one alien at a time, and you may not target an alien that already has a horror.

At any time, you may trigger a horror. If the horror is revealed with proper timing, the effect of the horror applies to the linked alien in place of the normal result.

Legacy: Whenever an alien without a horror loses an encounter, a random shrouded horror manifests in that alien’s nexus. Horrors automatically trigger when the timing is appropriate.

A mythical spawn of beasts scarcely seen for more than a moment, some theorize that the Nightmares only exist within the consciousness of living beings. It is hypothesized that their reign of terror will never truly end until all life is purged from the Cosmos. Scholars are divided as to whether such a result is their true goal or greatest fear.

Bystander: Commission or Actor: Payoff

Optional

Wild Flare

Whenever another alien establishes a base, you may discharge this flare to declare it to be a bad dream. Target a vacant planet or a planet that alien already occupies. The alien establishes a base on that planet instead.

Any: Any

Super Flare

When using your power, you may discharge this flare to target an alien that already has a horror, if the other conditions are met.

Bystander: Commission or

Actor: Payoff

Horrors

Missing Keys – If you are priming a driver as a leader, instead you are extracting pods from the forge and priming the first encounter pod you extract, gifting any other pods you extract to Nightmare (if possible).
Teeth Falling Out – If you are engaging in a clash as a leader, instead your driver’s might is halved (rounding up).
Seeing the Dead – If you are reviving a ship during warpfall, instead every other alien is reviving a ship.
Running But Going Nowhere – If you are accepting any sponsorships, instead you are declining all sponsorships.
Out of Fuel – If have fuel during your upkeep, instead you have zero fuel.
Naked in Public – If you are winning an encounter with other aliens, instead those aliens are winning without you. Your ships are rebounded.
Hot Mic Gaffe – If you are entering a voice channel, instead every other alien in the voice channel snatches a pod from you, and you cannot use voice channels this invasion.
Late For Work – If you are starting your warpfall, instead you are skipping your warpfall.
Falling Forever – If you are landing ships on a planet, instead those ships are being destroyed.
Being Chased – If another alien is aiming the gate at another alien’s system, instead they are aiming the gate at your system.

Modifications

Originally the power of Bad Dreams. Changed to “fear” to fit my one-word power name rule.
Original Nightmare can only use its power once per invasion. Removed to avoid having to remember past information.
Essence is originally called “bad dreams”. Changed to “horrors” to better fit with the theme of fear.
Minor change of the Running But Getting Nowhere horror to Running But Going Nowhere.
Changed Unprepared to Missing Keys to better capture the feeling of manifesting common bad dreams. Extracting pods from the forge represents desperately looking to find your keys when they aren’t where you last left them.
Out of Fuel horror changed to actually remove fuel, since fuel is a mechanic in my Cosmic.
In original Cosmic, failing a deal is considered a loss for both sides, which would not meet the requirement of Nightmare’s power. In mine, I had to specify that Nightmare must lose in combat to prevent Nightmare from quashing a deal to trigger its power.
Lost Your Way Home horror changed to Hot Mic Gaffe. Originally, the horror alters a deal to force one alien to receive only a snatched pod when they would receive a base. My version of Cosmic doesn’t generally offer base-related deals, and I needed to make the effect less niche to work better with my legacy. By basing the effect on voice channels, every bad dream will activate relatively frequently
Naked in Public horror originally applies to shared victories. I altered it to apply to wins with sponsors. It can technically still be used for its original effect, but the additional utility makes it less likely for Nightmare to hold it until the end.
Nightmare’s legacy causes horrors to manifest from losses, making all losses much more punishing than they otherwise would be. In comparison to Nightmare’s normal power, aliens will be aware of the impending horrors they are holding before they are activated, allowing them to plan for them. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Nightmare’s bad dreams can be avoided if you always commission Nightmare and never ally against them. While this is generally not feasible, you can also avoid Nightmare’s gaze by not being perceived as a threat. Since Nightmare can only focus on alien at a time, it will prioritize the biggest threat that doesn’t already have a bad dream.
Nightmare can trigger horrors with improper timing to simply burn through its pool and get to its other dreams faster. As a bystander, it can use its power up to twice in one encounter, though it will need to target two separate aliens unless it can burn the trigger in between the two activation phases.
Be on the lookout for Nightmare’s big three horrors: Naked in Public, Falling Forever, and Missing Keys. Missing Keys prevents you from relying on a 40 pod for a solo victory, Falling Forever will negate a victory as an invader, and Naked in Public can rob you of a win if you have any allies. At least nine horrors have to be triggered before you can see any duplicates, so bear that in mind if you are unsure how powerful your current horror is.
Once you receive a horror, you can no longer zap its effect. On the other hand, if Nightmare is zapped, the essence it was going to give you will be exposed and lost. After you have the horror, the only way to stop it would be to deactivate Nightmare’s power.
Even if you know for certain that you have Falling Forever, it is better to trigger it now than lose on purpose and allow it to trigger later.

Development Notes

Nightmare is another Parasite-type alien, using an incentive structure to deter aliens from not commissioning it. It also doubles as a Guerilla-type alien, where it discourages aliens from defeating it in combat. Since some of Nightmare’s horrors can rob victories from you, aliens have to be especially careful of winning as a defender, when winning only serves the purpose of stopping the opponent.
It is surprising to me that it took until the Eon Galaxy for an alien to receive the power of fear. Even more surprising is that it’s not in original Cosmic at all, as I made the decision to change it. A nightmare is a dream that induces fear in the person experiencing it, with the alien Nightmare designed as an alien that brings those bad dreams to life. While the essence of Nightmare could be themed around typical fears like heights, bugs, snakes, and darkness, I think the original power does a good job at matching the in-game effects to the flavor of common bad dreams.
One aspect I like about Nightmare’s fear theme is how the fear applies to the game in both a thematic and mechanical means. All of the horrors are themed around common bad dreams, but the game effects are potent enough that other aliens can fear receiving them. They can be scared into commissioning Nightmare or throwing an encounter against them, avoiding the nightmares out of fear or anxiety.
Generally I prefer to give the name of the essence the same name as the power, but I will make an exception if the terms are all fitting, such as the case with Assistant’s power to Help and receiving “requests” as its essence. The power to “help” is punchy and elegant, but “helps” don’t work well as a noun. Requests work well for the noun, but the power of “requests” isn’t as impactful. Similarly, the power of fear is highly evocative and satisfies my one-word requirement. Using “nightmares” as the essence name would also be fitting but redundant with the alien power. Bad dreams are an effective synonym for nightmare that fit well with the trigger’s system of occurring and then vanishing.
The core of Nightmare’s power is to manifest one’s darkest fears into reality, turning real life into a waking nightmare. In other words, these aren’t actually bad dreams. It is more like they are having a good dream only to wake up to realize that reality is imitating a bad dream. It’s a little weird thematically, so I wanted to go with “horrors” over bad dreams to better capture the idea of the terror happening while you are awake. The horrors being based around popular dreams adds something of a comical aspect to them, and it makes more sense than something like “phobias”, which would normally persist for a long span of time.
One other factor I didn’t like about the bad dream theming was the timing of them. Nightmare gives you a bad dream, meaning you “have” a bad dream until it triggers. But the horror only happens when the bad dream itself triggers, which would be when you wake up from the bad dream. Mechanically, it would be more like Nightmare gives you a good dream and you wake up to a reality based on a bad dream. I’d rather keep the “bad dream” factor as more of an unspoken connection from Nightmare’s name and the essence names.
In contrast to other aliens like Assistant and Alien, Nightmare’s effects are shrouded in mystery until they are revealed. Since there are 10 of them, it is very important for Nightmare to be a red-alert alien. Other aliens need to be aware what the possible options are and what to expect as certain ones are removed from the pool. Even so, Nightmare is still capable of surprising its target with an unexpected effect, demanding everyone to be wary of every horror still in the pool.
Naked in Public is perhaps the most impactful of all the bad dreams, depriving a win from an alien that can potentially transform a shared victory into a solo victory. As long as this bad dream has not been revealed, every alien has to be wary of going for a shared victory with Nightmare, unless of course they don’t have a bad dream in their nexus. Any alien that has a bad dream for a long time can rightly be suspicious that Nightmare is planning a last-minute rug pull.
Nightmare’s essence has a good spread of different timings. Missing Keys, Running But Going Nowhere, and Teeth Falling Out are leader-only. Seeing the Dead, Late for Work, and Out of Fuel are invader-only. Being Chased is bystander-only. Naked in Public, Hot Mic Gaffe, and Falling Forever are generally actor-only. As with other essences, some of the bad dreams are more impactful than others. Missing Keys and Naked in Public will have a much bigger impact in many cases than Late for Work or Seeing the Dead.
Naked in Public, Falling Forever, and Missing Keys are generally the most impactful bad horrors in the essence pool, capable of turning a winning encounter into a losing one. Falling Forever specifically stops invader wins, Naked in Public stops one alien when multiple aliens win together, and Missing Keys has a chance of backfiring.
Aside from other essence aliens, I would most compare Nightmare to Grudge and Animal, aliens who inflict punishment on those who don’t ally with them. Grudge destroys up to four ships, and Animal ravages one ship. Between the two, Nightmare acts more like Animal since it uses its power as a bystander instead of a leader. But the impact is more pronounced than Animal’s, like Grudge’s power. Since Nightmare and Grudge both strictly punish enemies, it makes sense that they have greater punishments. The way I see it, Grudge and Nightmare are big stick as leader and bystander, respectively. Animal is small stick and medium carrot. All three can participate in the same game and have just as much impact on the game state. Animal’s parties can offset some of Nightmare’s downsides
Even though my Nightmare’s power can be activated multiple times per invasion, I think the situation is niche enough that it doesn’t feel overpowered. In order for Nightmare to use its power twice, Nightmare must first be a bystander. Then, exactly one alien would need to not commission Nightmare, Nightmare would need to sponsor the other fleet, and then Nightmare’s fleet would need to lose. In such a case, Nightmare couldn’t target the same alien twice unless the trigger activated in between the two phases. Even though such a case is possible, it is avoidable and noteworthy as a risk if Nightmare is not commissioned. It wouldn’t allow Nightmare to reasonably spam out a bunch of bad dreams to cycle through its pool for one specific one, which would be the behavior I’d be aiming to curtail.