Manual — Cosmic Encounter: Cosmic Eons

The Cosmic Eons expansion includes 30 new alien races and flares designed by some of the original creators of Cosmic Encounter ® and Cosmic Encounter Online: Bill Eberle, Peter Olotka, and Greg Olotka. This expansion also includes new alien essence cards, new alliance dials, and several other new tokens and markers. All cards from this expansion are marked with the Cosmic Eons expansion symbol to distinguish these cards from those in the base game.

Game Components
This section describes how to incorporate the Cosmic Eons expansion into the Cosmic Encounter ® base game. Prior to game setup, follow the steps listed below.
1. 30 Alien Sheets: Add the new alien sheets to the stack of available alien sheets.
2. 30 Flare Cards: Shuffle the new flare cards into the existing deck of flare cards.
3. 55 Essence Cards: Set the essence cards to one side of the play area.
4. 37 Alien Tokens: Set the special alien tokens to one side of the play area.
5. 6 Alliance Dials: Assemble the dials as described to the right.

New Rules:
Essence Cards
Several aliens begin the game with a new component called essence cards. Each of these aliens has an essence symbol on its sheet and its own set of essence cards which enhance its power.

Aliens with Essence Cards
• Alien 9 traumas
• Anarchist 8 disruptions
• Assistant 6 helps
• Nanny 8 consequences
• Nightmare 10 bad dreams
• Oligarch 5 privileges
• Sheriff 9 tickets

Before playing as an alien with essence cards, shuffle that alien’s essence cards and place them facedown as a set. Then, draw three cards from that set as your essence card cache. When referred to by game effects, a set of essence cards is not considered to be a deck and a cache of essence cards is not considered to be a hand. Cards in a player’s cache are kept separate from the set and kept secret from all other players until played.

Players will always maintain a cache of three cards; each time players play or are forced to lose an essence card from their cache, they replace that card by taking the top card from their set and placing it in their cache. Any essence cards that are played or lost are kept in a faceup unavailable pile. When there are no essence cards left in a set, that player shuffles his unavailable essence cards to form a new set.

When an alien sheet with the essence symbol is lost or flipped facedown, all essence cards still in the game belonging to that alien are returned to that player’s unavailable pile.

Players can always look at their cache as well as essence cards they have played on another player. Players who have been given essence cards may not look at them if they are facedown.

Alliance Dials
The six alliance dials are used with the Hidden Alliances variant described below. Assemble the dials as shown to the right, firmly snapping together the two plastic connectors.

Variants
This section contains rules for a new variant that players may enjoy using.

Hidden Alliances
Variant
This variant is recommended for games with four or more players and allows all players’ decisions during the Alliance Phase to be revealed simultaneously, creating a more suspenseful situation with opportunities for persuasion, misdirection, and betrayal.

During each encounter, after both main players have invited allies, each player who is eligible to become an ally picks up an alliance dial and rotates it to indicate both the side that he or she is joining and the number of ships he or she is committing, as follows:
• The number of dots in the window on the hyperspace gate end of the dial indicates the number of ships a player is committing to the offense.
• The number of dots in the window on the planet end of the dial indicates the number of ships a player is committing to the defense.
• A dash (–) in both windows indicates that a player is not committing ships to either side.
• A star is used to show special cases, as presented on individual alien sheets or cards (e.g.: using the Plasma Thrusters tech card).
• The rectangular card icon on the dial is used in the Foreign Aid Option, as described on the following page.

Each player who is eligible to ally must rotate his or her dial to one of the positions listed above, even if he or she does not intend to join the encounter. This keeps decisions among all players secret. Players are allowed to make claims out loud about the positions of their dials, whether true or not.

Essence symbol on Alien sheet
Start Turn
Regroup
Destiny
Launch Alliance
Planning
Reveal
Resolution
Start Turn
Regroup
Destiny
Launch Alliance
Planning
Reveal
Resolution
Start Turn
Regroup
Destiny
Launch Alliance
Planning
Reveal
Resolution

sheets or cards e g using the Plasma Thrusters tech card The rectangular card icon on the dial is used in the Foreign Aid Option as described on the following page Each player who is eligible to ally must rotate his or her dial to one of the positions listed above even if he or she does not intend to join the encounter This keeps decisions among all players secret Players are allowed to make claims out loud about the positions of their dials whether true or not Essence symbol on Alien sheet Start Turn Regroup Destiny Launch Alliance Planning Reveal Resolution Start Turn Regroup Destiny Launch Alliance Planning Reveal Resolution Start Turn Regroup Destiny Launch Alliance Planning Reveal Resolution

Optional As Any Player
you have the power to Consequences. When you are not a main player, after alliances are formed but before encounter cards are selected, you may use this power to “motivate” one or both main players. To motivate a player, give him or her one negotiate card from your hand to add to his or her hand, and give him or her a consequence from your essence card cache to place faceup next to his or her alien sheet. If a motivated player reveals a negotiate card, carry out the incentive; the consequence card is returned to you and you receive one reward. If a motivated player does not reveal a negotiate card, carry out the punishment and leave the consequence card in place to mark the timeout.

A player in a timeout may not participate in the game in any way or communicate with other players, nor may other players communicate with the player in the timeout. If that player is the offense, his or her turn ends. If that player becomes the defense, the offense draws destiny again. At the end of the timeout, the player returns the consequence card to you. In any case where play cannot progress because of timeouts, all other players’ consequence cards are returned to you.

Whenever one or more other players discard negotiate cards, you may use this power to retrieve one of those negotiate cards and add it to your hand. You play and discard negotiates normally.

The Nannies are engaged in a time-out campaign throughout the Cosmos.

Nanny
Motivates
Gate piece
Number wheel
Offense
Defense
®

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After selecting positions on their dials, players place their dials facedown in front of their alien sheets. When the dials of all eligible players are in front of their alien sheets, all of them are revealed simultaneously. Those who have chosen to ally send their ships to the encounter according to the position of their dial.
In special circumstances where the alliance dial cannot show enough information to indicate a player’s intentions (e.g., when using the Yin-Yang alien in Cosmic Dominion), the player dials the star into an appropriate window. After all of the dials are facedown in front of alien sheets, but before they are revealed, the player with such a special circumstance announces his or her choice out loud.
Foreign Aid Optional Rule
This optional rule allows non-main players to send cards to main players as foreign aid using their alliance dials. Non-main players must position their dial even when they have not been invited to ally. Any non-main player, invited or not, may position his or her dial to show the miniature card for either the offense or the defense. When the dials are revealed, each player who chose to send foreign aid secretly offers one card from his or her hand to the chosen main player. The main players review their foreign aid offers and must accept or reject each one. If a card is rejected, it is returned to the offering player. If a card is accepted, the offering player immediately gains one reward and the main player may also invite the offering player to send a specified number of ships (subject to all applicable limits) to become his or her ally.
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Credits
Cosmic Encounter Design: Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge, Peter Olotka, and Bill Norton
Expansion Design: Bill Eberle, Peter Olotka, and Greg Olotka
Expansion Development: Cosmic Fans Bill Martinson, Jefferson Krogh, and Jack Reda, with Jason Walden
Producer: Jason Walden
Editing & Proofreading: Julia Jannace
Graphic Design: Chris Hosch
Graphic Design Manager: Brian Schomburg
Alien Art: Felicia Cano
Art Direction: Zoë Robinson
Managing Art Director: Andy Christensen
Production Coordination: Marcia Colby, Jason Glawe, Liza Lundgren, and Johanna Whiting
Production Management: Megan Duehn
Quality Assurance Coordinator: Zach Tewalthomas
Executive Game Designer: Corey Konieczka
Executive Game Producer: Michael Hurley
Creative Director: Andrew Navaro
Publisher: Christian T. Petersen
Playtesters: Delvin Allen, J.F. Beaudoin, The Boskone 2015 fans, Tess Boutin, Lila Boutin, Rob Burns, Barak Dickman, Phil Fleischmann, Molly Glover, Julia Jannace, Adam McLean, Carsten Muncheberg, Pasi Ojala, Chad Reverman, Ed Vreeland, Chris Wilczewski, and Brandon Zimmer.
A very special thank you to all the beta testers for their valuable insight into all things Cosmic.
© 2016 Fantasy Flight Games. Published under license from Eon Products, Inc. Cosmic Encounter is a registered trademark of Eon Products, Inc. Fantasy Flight Supply is a trademark of Fantasy Flight Games. Fantasy Flight Games and the FFG logo are registered trademarks of Fantasy Flight Games. Fantasy Flight Games is located at 1995 West County Road B2, Roseville, Minnesota, 55113, USA, 651-639-1905. Actual components may vary from those shown.
Made in China. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT A TOY. NOT INTENDED FOR USE BY PERSONS 13 YEARS OF AGE OR YOUNGER.
Designers’ Diaries
February 16, 2016
Now, Peter and Bill, who first breathed life into the original six aliens that occupied a then-unnamed science fiction game, have re-emerged following decades of exploration through the cosmic warps of time and space. Accompanied by Peter’s son Greg, they have brought with them a class of 30 aliens the likes of which you have never seen before.
Be prepared to be abducted and traumatized by the Alien, be foiled by an Anarchist that does away with rules altogether, see planets disappear into the Architect’s tower, experience befuddlement by the secret changes of the Cloak, try to soothe the Hypochondriac, and squirm under the oppression of the Oligarch.
Peter and Bill put their journey this way: “Since the early days, new Cosmic Encounter aliens have been steadily creeping into the game, accompanied by dozens of features and more players. Cosmic Dominion, the fifth expansion, was designed and completed by the fans of Cosmic Encounter in 2014. It added 30 new aliens, bumping the total to 165. Cosmic Dominion is considered a tour de force for its creative and meticulous design.
For us, an unexpected upshot of mobilizing the fan design experience was that we became re-excited about creating new Cosmic Encounter content and pitched FFG with the idea of releasing an “original designers” collection of very different aliens into the Cosmic arena. Over time, as aliens and features were added it became harder for designers to create unique experiences. But having been energized by the brilliance of the fans’ Cosmic Dominion expansion, we still wanted to do a new Cosmic Encounter design.
What to do? We set out to create an alien collection that broke the rules so completely that players would have to actually create their own solutions to conflicts. We loved it!
But our first attempts were so far off the charts that play testers cringed. Fantasy Flight wisely directed us to tighten things up so we tried and failed again. The solution was to bring back the three superhero Cosmic fans who led the Cosmic Dominion design effort: Bill Martinson, Jack Reda, and Jefferson Krogh. Thanks to their efforts, virtually all of our original 30 Cosmic Eons aliens survived the makeover with original intent intact. Enjoy!”
—Peter Olotka
Special thanks to Fantasy Flight Producer Jason Walden for tossing Essence Cards into the Cosmic brew! It’s not all that easy to craft a super feature for a 43 year old game. And our undying appreciation for the massive contributions from the Cosmic Fans who were the lead designers of Cosmic Dominion, Bill Martinson, Jack Reda, and Jefferson Krogh.
“Rumblings of universes to come began in 1972 when Peter Olotka, Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge, and Bill Norton came together as a game design cooperative: Future Pastimes. It was a rather long fuse, but the resulting BANG was definitely BIG, for in 1977 . . . [they] produced one of the most identifiable games in the hobbyist industry.”
~ Hai Kulture, Foundation Gaming: Encountering the Cosmos

to Fantasy Flight Producer Jason Walden for tossing Essence Cards into the Cosmic brew It s not all that easy to craft a super feature for a 43 year old game And our undying appreciation for the massive contributions from the Cosmic Fans who were the lead designers of Cosmic Dominion Bill Martinson Jack Reda and Jefferson Krogh Rumblings of universes to come began in 1972 when Peter Olotka Bill Eberle Jack Kittredge and Bill Norton came together as a game design cooperative Future Pastimes It was a rather long fuse but the resulting BANG was definitely BIG for in 1977 they produced one of the most identifiable games in the hobbyist industry Hai Kulture Foundation Gaming Encountering the Cosmos

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