Q and A

Q and A Shane Evan Winter @ ewinter@portlandbj.com Jan 20, 1998 16:35 How I found this page: Webcrawled my way here How long have I played CE?: Between 1 and 5 years. Questions about CE: What's the buzz, tell me what's a happenin' with CE. Is there talk of it being produced again? Currently there is an online version that can be played at www.cosmicencounter.com, and depending on how popular that is, CE may return to the market is some form. Sort of like Board Game Rebirth. David Vander Ark @ dvanderark@worldnet.att.net Mar 18, 1998 15:32 How I found this page: Aaron Fuegi's page How long have I played CE?: Between 1 and 5 years. Questions about CE: Any idea where I can get a copy of the game with the expansions? My set is the West End Games intro set with only 20 powers and a small deck of cards. Good luck trying to find one in a store. Your best bet is to watch the Newsgroup for someone selling a copy. Vaughan Ellis @ hangfire@teksupport.net.au Apr 15, 1998 05:46 How I found this page: Someone else's page led me here How long have I played CE?: Between 1 and 5 years. Questions about CE: On the compromise card, you have make a deal OR take consolation. Making a deal is easy to figure out. But what is consolation and how do you work it into the game. Thanks. A typical deal consists of trading one of your bases for one with the person you are dealing with. You can also trade cards at random, or try and come to a mutual agreement on some future event (like allying with or against someone down the road). One thing is certain, you can't trade more than one base in this manner (typically). About this web site: mangoose @ mangoose@wanadoo.fr Jun 13, 1998 22:19 How I found this page: Search Engine What CE sets do I have?: Mayfair Simply Cosmic How long have I played CE?: Less than one year. Questions about CE: I AM FRENCH AND I HAVE A OLD VERSION OF THIS FANTASTIC GAME. I'D LIKE TO KNOW HOW I CAN USE COMET. Using an older version of the game will force you to use some kind of proxy card. For example, if you have blank cards, you can shuffle them into your Destiny Pile. Of course, if you are using the Eon Version, then you have a pile of Star Discs as your Destiny Pile, so you'll have to use something else- maybe Stardiscs of a color not in play. Then you just refer to a list of Comets, and randomly select one to be in effect, and draw a new Destiny Disc to determine the challenger. Give that a try. About this web site: VERY NICE BUT I HAVEN'T THE TOTALITY OF THE RULES Jim Miller @ Maxwell994@aol.com Jul 20, 1998 03:46 How I found this page: Random surfing What CE sets do I have?: Mayfair CE How long have I played CE?: Between 1 and 5 years. Questions about CE: Is there any way to get "More Cosmic Encounter" online? The Newsgroup frequently has copies for sale or auction. Keep looking! About this web site: Marc A. Ripley @ marc_ripley@hotmail.com Sep 14, 1998 14:19 How I found this page: CE Online What CE sets do I have?: Mayfair CE and More CE How long have I played CE?: Since Eon was in business. Questions about CE: About this web site: Good information Marek Ctrnact @ m_ctrnac@comenius.ms.mff.cuni.cz Sep 23, 1998 05:50 How I found this page: Search Engine What CE sets do I have?: Mayfair CE How long have I played CE?: Less than one year. Questions about CE: I got a hold of Mayfair CE. However I don't have MCE and I don't even know if I can get hold of it here (Czech Republic). Even the one copy of CE I have is probably the only one in this country. Therefore I would like to know if there are descriptions of MCE powers and flares somewhere - I have Eon descriptions but these are not necessarily the same and the flares are off too. Can you give me some help as about this? I am in the process of adding descriptions for all Eon and Mayfair powers and flares... as this is a huge undertaking, it will take some time. Would your PostScript files work on my Canon printer? There should be some sort of emulation, you know... The Post Script section is also undergoing an overhaul, so stay tuned. Why is there in the Reverse Hex section that Binary hex has two stars and five planets when it has actually six planets? There are actually TWO Binary systems, one with five, and one with six- take your pick. Is Binary player required to use his appropriate power when he is challenged? I played with this variant and it seemed good, actually. Yes, the side of the system with that power/ About this web site: I consider it great! I take my copy of CE wherever I go and teach new players to play it. Therefore I have not much use for your expansions, because I never play with players experienced enough. Reverse Hexes - that's as far as I got. But gradually, I would like to try your expansions. All well for you! Joel Yoder @ jntyoder@nwu.edu Oct 7, 1998 10:24 How I found this page: Aaron Fuegi's page What CE sets do I have?: A combination of sets How long have I played CE?: Between 1 and 5 years. Questions about CE: Planning on putting more of the extended powers, cards, hexes, rules, etc. in PostScript format anytime soon? Yes... very soon. About this web site: Great site. There is a ton of information here. Thanks for helping to keep the game alive. Anonymous @ JMMWURLD@Aol.com Oct 21, 1998 01:27 How I found this page: Random surfing What CE sets do I have?: Mayfair CE and More CE How long have I played CE?: Between 1 and 5 years. Questions about CE: Which version of the game is considered more fun and more strategic, holding onto flares, or discarding them after one use? Are there any good ways to adapt the Mayfair variety of the game to holding onto flares without using lucre? Where can you purchase cards with the same backings as the Cosmic cards so you can create your own cards? I prefer the old version, but many of those flares are just too powerful to hold onto. One player suggested holding one flare at a time, and then replacing it when you want to retain another one. There is surely more strategy involved with keeping flares. As far as adapting Mayfair flares, many of them should work all right as "retention" flares, but some will obviously have to be one-shot (and there were a couple of one-shot Eon Flares anyway). About this web site: Excellent web-site. Paul Klarich @ Nov 8, 1998 22:42 How I found this page: Aaron Fuegi's page What CE sets do I have?: All CE sets How long have I played CE?: Since Eon was in business. Questions about CE: I'm listed as 1 of the contributors to Eon's CE. If you can, play Eon's version (more structure & a lot of variety). I've eliminated some powers from home use & added some from Mayfair & from the internet. A lot of new ideas for powers would make better moons than powers. Weed out the duplicates or weak powers. CE is the best game for the near infinite combination of powers, moons, flares & cards. It was the best investment my mom ever made (I was a teen at the time with a Starlog magazine. It took some prodding but she finally gave in.) You just can't get tired of it. I don't know why it didn't make it into the mainstream of games like Monopoly. CE rocks. Amen, brother. About this web site: Cool web site. Clinton Randel Paris @ crparis@ior.com Dec 2, 1998 07:55 How I found this page: Search Engine What CE sets do I have?: Eon original set and expansions How long have I played CE?: Less than one year. Questions about CE: Being an Eon player, I've never been privy to the Comets thrown in by Mayfair. Can you provide or point me toward a list of the comets and their effects? I am similarly curious about Special Destiny cards. Any help would be appreciated.. A more thorough section will be added to the Body of the Warp, along with new cards, but here is a basic rundown: Comets: These cards appear in the Destiny Pile and give the next challenge some parameters... Example: No one may play a challenge card higher than 15 or lower than 0.... or: If only one main player plays an odd challenge card in this challenge- then that player wins, despite the results. Special Destiny: These cards force you make a challenge in a certain way (rather than just giving a color). Example: Attack the player to you right... Attack the player with the most cards in their hand... Attack the most plentiful color in the Warp- if you win you gain a base in that player's system, if you lose then that player frees all their tokens.. About this web site: Great site! Lots of great resources!! :) David Landes @ david k. landes@ac.com Dec 14, 1998 14:18 How I found this page: Random surfing What CE sets do I have?: Mayfair CE and More CE How long have I played CE?: Since Eon was in business. Questions about CE: Since the "Sniveler" superflare enables the Sniveler to act AFTER the game has been won (the icon indicates that it occurs in the change of turn phase) this should mean that other edicts/flares/powers can be played/used after someone wins up to and including the change of turn phase? (One scenario we have in mind is that someone can hand zap themselves after the victory in the hopes of getting a card which will enable them to steal victory back from the winner) We tend to allow anything anyone can try to pull off after someone has won the game... there is a sort of Frozen time as everyone searches through their hands looking for that one card that will undo the win (yes, we are gluttons, and enjoy prolonging the game as long as we can). Other houses like to end it the moment someone has 5 bases (or whatever). The thing is, we often play alternate win conditions, so allowing someone to act "after" the win seems to make a certain amount of sense. About this web site: Phenomenal job!! Cort Stratton @ cort@andrew.cmu.edu Dec 18, 1998 09:55 How I found this page: Search Engine What CE sets do I have?: Postscript set from Internet How long have I played CE?: Less than one year. Questions about CE: SO I spent about a week tracking down all the necessary PostScript files, printing them out, having them photo- copied onto cardstock for durability...but last night, I finally had a complete version of Cosmic. By now, several of my friends were curious as to what this game was that had consumed all my free time for the past week, printing and cutting, etc. So I taught them how to play, and we had two quick games. They were both immensely fun, but we sort of made a few things up as we went along, and I was hoping you could give us the official ruling on them. Okay, first of all, Kickers: how are they played, and wha exactly do they do? I know it's something about multiplying the value of your challenge card or something, but I've never heard the details. Secondly, I've accumulated about 50-60 powers and their corresponding Flares. I have all the Flares (combination of "one-shot" and "permenant") in a separate deck at the beginning of the setup, and after everyone chose their Power I added the four corresponding Flares to the challenge deck, as well as 16-20 other random Flares. As gameplay progressed, the Flares caused no end of confusion, as nobody knew when to play them or how long they lasted. I remembered reading in your Flare Rules section that all Flares are now one-shot, discard-after-use affairs, so I decreed that everyone should attempt to reinterpret the Flare text to mean that they're one-shot Flares that you can play whenever you want. This led to more problems than it solved, as we quickly learned that several of the Internet Flares just can't be one-shot. Moreover, the Flares that were NOT listed as one-shot, if they are actually meant to be played once and permenantly left in play, would in my opinion be INSANELY powerful, once everyone started accumulating three or four of them. So what would you recommend as a definitive ruling on Flares? At this point I'm tempted to just leave them out of the game, but they add so much variety to play that that would be quite a shame...I'm also considering a house rule that you can only have one "permenant" FLare in play at a time, and to play a new one you must discard the old. Would that be reasonable? Any help would be appreciated. Lastly, a minor question: what happens if, after all is said and done, the players' totals in a challenge are equal? We decided to treat this as if both players had compromised, but wondered if there were something we were missing. Thanks for any help you can give us, we really appreciate it! About this web site: GREAT compendium of information! This is definitely the most complete CE site out there! Brian Hoare @ brian@reel.co.uk Dec 21, 1998 04:32 How I found this page: Search Engine What CE sets do I have?: A combination of sets How long have I played CE?: Less than one year. Questions about CE: Is it possible to zap AntiMatter between calculating total scores and the calculation of the winner. e.g. I attack AM with 2 tokens and play a 7. AM defends with 4 token and plays a 7. After cards are revealed I have 9, she has 3 so she wins. Can I zap her so that high score wins or will it also affect calculation of scores so she wins again 9-11 Depending on how strict you are with timing, yes you can Zap her... but as you yourself noticed, AM would still win in that scenario. If instead, you played a 15 or something, then after you Cosmic Zapped her, you would win. The rules state that the CZap must be played as the person is about to use their power- but this can be vague at times... We allow a person to play the Cosmis Zap at any time in the challenge... they may play it pre-emptively and say "we'll get this out of the way now, you can't use your power"... this is more effective against someone like Mind rather than AM... or we allow a person to play it when cards are flipped over, or later. As long as it is still relative to the challenge. About this web site: Loads of useful and interesting (nice to read but I won't use) stuff. Great presentation! Mark @ UK @ n/a Feb 21, 1999 13:28 How I found this page: CE Online What CE sets do I have?: Eon original set and expansions How long have I played CE?: Since Eon was in business. Questions about CE: Would anyone be interested in the review of CE by Fred Hemmings in White Dwarf #7 (June/July 1978)? Raymond Ng @ raymondn@scf.usc.edu Feb 23, 1999 03:24 How I found this page: Newsgroup referred me What CE sets do I have?: Mayfair CE How long have I played CE?: Never played it before. About this web site: Very good. Ashley Cook @ acook@key.net.au Mar 1, 1999 02:44 How I found this page: Newsgroup referred me What CE sets do I have?: A combination of sets How long have I played CE?: Since Eon was in business. Questions about CE: Our family has been playing for 20 years - me at Uni, and now with our kids. Best game ever invented, and I can't believe it is out of print. I once gave away an original Eon set with the 6 Eon expansions, and that family never play it! About this web site: I've only just found your site, and the kids are excited about all the new powers. I'm enjoying the history. Steve Gawin @ meeba@excite.com Apr 11, 1999 06:19 How I found this page: Random surfing What CE sets do I have?: None How long have I played CE?: Less than one year. Questions about CE: I would like to purchase a copy of cosmic encounter, preferably one made by eon Kevin Worth @ kworth@bigfoot.com Apr 18, 1999 16:03 How I found this page: Newsgroup referred me What CE sets do I have?: A combination of sets How long have I played CE?: Less than one year. About this web site: I really like the Hazards you created, especially matching them up with a deck of cards. Plus I'm anxious to try Cosmic Monopoly ;) ROLAS @ May 5, 1999 03:02 How I found this page: Random surfing What CE sets do I have?: None How long have I played CE?: Never played it before. Daniel Lambach @ schabrackenschriller@gmx.de Jun 23, 1999 09:46 How I found this page: Random surfing What CE sets do I have?: Eon original set How long have I played CE?: Less than one year. Questions about CE: Say, do you know if the expansions for the original Eon's CE game are still in production (fat chance), or if they are available anywhere else, if not? Thank a bundle, DanieL Your best bet for finding anything these days is the auction web sites. Chuck Henry @ windrant@northnet.org Jul 28, 1999 09:47 How I found this page: Random surfing What CE sets do I have?: None How long have I played CE?: Never played it before. Questions about CE: I'm looking for a copy of the game. (I played once years ago) and I'm wondering what I can do since Mayfair isn't printing them anymore. Some sites say I should get Simply Cosmic and the More Cosmic Encoutners set and use them together. Is this a good idea? Does this work and how hard is it to fuse them together? Thanks in advance! Combining them should be fine. I recommend it. Steven Go @ sggo@cctr.umkc.edu Aug 9, 1999 21:22 How I found this page: CE FAQ What CE sets do I have?: None How long have I played CE?: Never played it before. Questions about CE: I am thinking about buying a Westend games version of Cosmic Encounter. However, I've heard that it cannot be used with the "More Cosmic Encounters" Mayfair expansion becuase the card backs are different. Is that true? Also, which set (Eon, Westendgames, Mayfair) would you recommend to a newbie? Actually, you can probably still combine the sets. We have several sets combined, and no one seems to mind. As far as teaching someone the game, we have found the Mayfair edition to be pretty well designed for this.