Cosmic Encounter!

Once someone discovers how much I enjoy playing games, I invariably get asked "What's your favourite?" The answer is easy, but it's problematic in that most people have never heard of the game unless they are experienced gamers. The answer, of course, is Cosmic Encounter.

Cosmic Encounter was first published in 1977, the same year that the first Star Wars film was released. It was a good year to be into science fiction, especially if you were also into "hobby gaming".

Except that I didn't discover the game in 1977. I'm pretty sure I was first exposed to it when I was visiting Bruce Packard and his family in the summer of 1982 - though my memory of the exact time (or even the exact year) is a bit hazy. I quickly became enamoured of the game - buying it and all its expansions - and started introducing it to all of my friends at The Ohio State University. In fact, the first organised (as in regular gatherings) game group I hosted, which was during this period, was called The Cosmic Encounter Group.

I've loved playing the game ever since, and nothing has ever come close to replacing it as my favourite game. However, the are many, many (many, many!) more games released now than there were in the 1980s. Consequently, Cosmic Encounter is just one of a huge number of choices for gaming today. And, the wide range of games means that gamers are much more factionalised in their preferences. Thus, it's actually harder for me to get "Cosmic" to the table and play it as much as I would like. Fortunately, I really enjoy a lot of other games, so it's not really a problem that I get to play some of them much more than Cosmic Encounter.

The main claim to fame that Cosmic Encounter had (and has), and what made it years ahead of its time in game design, was that each player would be assigned a different alien race, each of which would have an unique power - that is, an individual way of breaking the rules. And, since there were lots of different aliens, each game would bring about different combinations of powers.

Cosmic Encounter has been in and out of print over the last 31 years. The definitive edition was the first one, which was published by Eon Products, the company formed by the game's designers. After they went out of business, West End Games put out a so-so edition for a short time, but it lacked many of the elements that comprised the original Eon game and its nine (!) expansions.

Then came the Mayfair edition. It included *everything* from Eon, plus some more stuff! However, they tweaked a bunch of stuff (mostly for the good, but not always) and made one major change - Flares, cards that were associated with the alien powers and gave additional abilities, were discarded upon use. In the Eon edition, Flares returned to your hand and were re-usable, which was very cool. Despite this, the Mayfair edition became the one that I regularly played. This is because it was available (and my Eon set was starting to suffer from its many playings) and I actually liked a lot of the new stuff they added.

Eventually Mayfair lost the license. Avalon Hill put out a set, but it was limited to four players (Cosmic is best with five), only featured the basic game and was never expanded.

Now, there's a new edition available! Fantasy Flight Games got the license and Kevin Wilson, an experienced game designer and a devotee of the Eon version, was the developer working with the original designers. And it looks like they've really done it right!

So, ultimately, this post is just to tell you that I am once again excited about playing Cosmic Encounter!

Unfortunately, I pre-ordered a copy from Amazon.com and they have been very slow about getting them shipped out. It's now on its way to my American address, which means it didn't make it in time for Ann to bring it back to Australia with her.

Oh, well. I look forward to picking it up in April when I travel to the USA for The Gathering of Friends. And, as it's likely that Kevin Wilson will also be attending, I'm hoping to get a few games in with him.

Holidays: 2 - GWAN: 0

The holidays win!

GWAN (typically pronounced "Gwahn", or kind of like what I think someone from The Bronx would sound if they were saying "Go on!") stands for Gamers Without A Name, which is the name of the weekly gaming group that I host at our home. We gather every Wednesday at 7:00 PM and game until everyone leaves.

Although I would love to do more gaming with all of the good friends I have here in Brisbane, I work to keep the group down to a manageable size (generally 3-6 players) so everyone can game together at one table. Even though the weekly email goes out to 20 people, most of those are individuals who came in the early days but haven't been seen in a long time, or were pretty regular until they moved out of the state (or, in some cases, the country).

We have 3-4 regular attendees, counting myself, and two kind-of-regular attendees, so I'm mostly able to attain my desired number of players. But occasionally I get a little stuck.

Like last week. I finally realised that GWAN's weekly gathering was going to fall on Christmas Eve. Hey, *I* was available and interested in gaming! But I figured the others would have family affairs to attend. So I sent out an email to see what sort of availability people would have on Monday or Tuesday. The result: Trevor - the most faithful attendee other than myself - was happy to play on Wednesday and no one else was available on any other day!

But, since Trevor and I don't really play two-player games, GWAN was cancelled on account of Christmas. (Just another reason for me to like the holiday so much....)

This week, I figured my enthusiastic gamers would enjoy ringing in the New Year with games. In the past I've held special New Year's Eve gaming events, sometimes going for 24 hours (12 noon December 31 to 12 noon January 1). But this year I was just aiming for a regular GWAN event - which often goes past midnight, anyway.

You already know the result: Trevor and I were totally ready, but no one else was. (Though Ann might have been able to play a game. But she's still experiencing jet lag and is falling asleep this week around 8:30 PM.) So GWAN was cancelled on account of New Year's Eve.

Like I said, the holidays win!

Still, I wonder what the gamers I know in Cleveland, Ohio will be doing on New Year's Eve, or the guys down in Sydney....

Anyway, I do want to take a moment to sing the praises of Trevor! He's pretty much always been there for GWAN, and I really appreciate that. (There is a certain irony here, though, in that Trevor is the only group member without internet access, so he'll probably never see this.)

A revolving door of partners!

This post is not as salacious as perhaps the title suggests. I was originally going to call it "Hooray! Ann is back! (And I have new games!)", as Ann returned yesterday from her 3-weeks-plus holiday with her family back in the USA.

But I thought it was interesting that as Ann left for her trip, Peter Hawes' partner arrived back from her overseas holiday. And, when Ann returned, John Farrell's partner started her overseas holiday! Coincidence? Or is something else going on?

Similarly, just after Tom Felber - a Swiss gamer who was living in Brisbane for a few months as part of an amazing around-the-world adventure - left the city, I was contacted by Adam Polkinghorne, a Brisbanite gamer who had just returned to the city after living in Switzerland for six years!

Gnomes of Zurich? Wheels within wheels? Machinations against The Secret Bread Empire? Mysteries abound!

Anyway, it's great having Ann back, as I prefer sharing life with her to not sharing life with her. At the same time, I enjoyed my solo time while being on a break from work, where I could do (or not do) pretty much whatever, whenever I wanted. Sure, I didn't get done a lot of the ever-present "projects" I was planning to get to, but that's hardly new in my life....

We had a nice Christmas gift exchange - I teched her up and she geeked me out - followed by a wonderful holiday pizza, and then we caught up on a little TV before she fell into a jet-lag sleep. She's back to work today. Fortunately, I'm still off for another week!

One very cool thing about Ann travelling to the USA is that it gives me the opportunity to buy games cheaply and then have them brought to Australia for free. Here's what Ann was kind enough to lug back for me:

Agricola Animeeples and Vegimeeples (for pimping out my copy)
Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game (great gaming for paranoids!)
Clue Express (checking out the various Express titles)
Dirty Deutsch (a card game that teaches you how to swear in German!)
Dominion (Ann digs it, so I hope to get a lot of games played)
Frank's Zoo (I game away my last copy of this classic; I'm glad to have it back on the shelves!)
Glory To Rome (excited about this; good buzz and it's supposed to be similar to Race For The Galaxy)
The Mother Lode Of Sticky Gulch (in support of Scott Starkey, because I like his Stocking Stuffers)
Race For The Galaxy (a new copy so the cards are as pristine as the ones in the expansion)
Race For The Galaxy: The Gathering Storm (woo hoo!)
Time's Up! Deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition
Time's Up! Title Recall

Unfortunately, my copy of Fantasy Flight Games' new edition of Cosmic Encounter - the greatest game ever - was shipped to our American address after Ann left. So, I guess I'll be bringing that back when I go for The Gathering of Friends in April.

Time to start focusing on getting some games played....

My Gaming Autobiography

In June 2006, I was honoured to be invited to join an invitation-only mailing list for discussing boardgames. Many of the members are individuals I have been reading since I first got exposed to Eurogames and the internet gaming community. Their writings have been influential in my knowledge and the formation of my gaming preferences.

The group is structured such that individuals are nominated for membership and then current members have the opportunity to cast a vote. As long as X number of members don't "put a black ball in the bag" (metaphorically speaking), the person is accepted to join the group. I was accepted and awaited the official email invitation that would allow me to access the group's posts. I was then told that each person needed to submit a gaming biography of some sort. A trifle, really, as it could be anything from a few sentences to whatever I wanted.

Ah, but getting something *written* (and something that needed to be submitted and approved). My Achilles' heel. My sword of Damocles. Something I've struggled with all my life.

Well, I got it written and submitted 21 months later.

Yes, I wrote "21 *months*" - one year and nine months later - March 2008. Crazy, eh? I certainly think so. In any event, I have no reasonable or sane explanation for the delay. I can only say that it is not without precedent in my life.

(sigh)

Anyway, the group decided to hold another nomination vote, and this time X number of members "put a black ball in the bag" and I was rejected. I can imagine the 21 month delay didn't exactly help my position. It could very well have been seen as a "diss" of the group, though that was never my desire or intention. In any event, I see the rejection as being primarily my responsibility; since, if I had written and submitted anything 21 months earlier, it would have all been a non-issue and I would now be quietly reading the posts of individuals I find interesting and informative. (I don't imagine I'd be writing very many posts of my own, though...)

The rejection was quite an emotional blow. That continues to soften as the months pass and it becomes just one of those things that I accept while I keep moving forward. There is the tiniest bit of solace in that I believe I may hold the unique position of being the only individual who has been both accepted *and* rejected by the group.

I just wish it had been the other way around.

---

I guess I should actually get to the topic of this blog entry! If you're interested in my personal gaming history, here's what I wrote:

---

I have gamed all of my sufficiently conscious life. One of my earliest memories is being taught, with my brother, how to play Monopoly by our babysitter.

(Although it’s not one of my favourites, I still like Monopoly and would happily play it if I could find three like-minded individuals. Part of it is nostalgia, part of it is cultural iconography, and the rest is that I like the aspects of valuing/negotiating/trading and probability management. I am Euro-minded enough to think of ways to make it a faster and “better” game, though.)

My childhood included the typical American boardgames of the ‘60s and ‘70s: Booby Trap, Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots, Clue, Chutes & Ladders, Stratego, etc. My mother taught me how to play chess but I’ve never been particularly good at it. (I was in the chess club in high school - was even president for a term - but that was just for the social aspects. How geeky is that?!)

My family also enjoyed traditional card games, so I played a fair amount of Euchre (a classic game in the Midwest), Rummy and Hearts. To this day, I admire and enjoy all sorts of card games, traditional and otherwise, for their variety, versatility and portability – so many ideas and so much fun in such small packages!

In middle school and, especially, high school, I became increasingly exposed to and involved in “hobby games” - typically sold in hobby stores and specialty game stores. That is when role-playing games entered my life. It started with Metamorphosis: Alpha (which became Gamma World), and that led to obsessively buying and collecting and reading all sorts of RPG systems. But the “one game to rule them all” for me at that time was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

I never considered myself a “serious” role-player, but I did enjoy playing with my friends. However, I got out of role-playing in college, when I determined it was taking WAY too much time for too little gain. (Oh, to remember those carefree days of youth when time never seemed to be an issue!)

I was always playing boardgames during this time, and when I was at college, gaming was a major social pastime. The same interests that brought me to role-playing - science fiction, fantasy, and generally all things geeky (though the current use of that term had not yet been coined) - also affected my choice of other games. The expansion of the hobby games market brought a number of new games to my attention. Five of these deserve special mention:

1. Cosmic Encounter was the greatest of these. A friend introduced me to it in 1982, and it was a revelation. Contained chaos! Drama! Special powers! I loved it and still do. It has been my #1 game for more than 25 years.

2. Illuminati. Again, special powers! I love the theme and the execution of the game. I would happily play this game today, but it’s harder to get it to the table, due to the game’s length, the “hit the leader” element, and the potential for emotional turmoil (due to the availability of back stabbing or people just not playing the way *you* think they should).

3. Talisman. Yet again, special powers! Bought it, played it, and my brain exploded (in a good way). This satisfied the “campaign” aspect of role-playing for me, in way less time. I got all the expansions, but ultimately ended up not using the expansion boards (except for the Dungeon) and just mixing the cards into the adventure deck. Nowadays, having been exposed to the Euro gaming aesthetic, and having played many other fantasy boardgames, I’m no longer as enamoured of Talisman. But, oh, the fun I had back then!

4. HeroQuest. The dungeon crawl game that was sooo much better than TSR’s Dungeon. I usually played the role of Zargon, the evil DM. That’s probably because I’m a control freak and/or my friends were too lazy to read ahead…

5. Dune. My love for Cosmic Encounter led to playing all things designed by the guys at Eon (though this game was published by Avalon Hill). I loved the book when I read it at university and the game catches the world and story of the novel perfectly. This is still a favourite, but it’s hard to get six motivated players for it these days.

Those five games, and many like them – this period was the heyday of Games Workshop’s boardgames, after all - were the staple of my gaming diet for many years.

The next big change was Magic: The Gathering. I went to the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in San Francisco shortly after Magic had been released at Gen Con in 1993. All I knew at the time was that a lot of people were enthusiastically playing a card game (yes!) about casting spells (yes!) in a fantasy setting (yes!). I was *interested*. So, I started talking to the players and discovered that you didn’t get all the cards when you bought the game (ugh), it was collectible without bubblegum in each pack (ugh), and you were supposed to play for “ante”, where the winner would take one of the loser’s cards (ugh!). And that’s how I failed to get in on the Magic craze at (or near) the beginning.

Which didn’t stop me from obsessively getting into the game shortly thereafter when it infected my game group. We played the game a tremendous amount. Then, over a number of years I (1) purchased a LOT of cards, (2) realized I was organizing the cards way more than playing with them, (3) sold my entire collection for a bit of money ($5,000), (4) bought a few decks and booster packs just to do some playing, (5) started obsessively buying complete sets (1 of each card) - and I still have one of every card from Unlimited through some point after the Mirage Cycle (or Unglued or somewhere around there) - and then (6) I stopped doing that and never seem to play any more.

I was never particularly interested in, or very good at, building decks. I always preferred to play Magic like a boardgame - open the box and play the game – which usually meant random card drawing or preconstructed decks.

I also enjoyed other CCGs, with the most prominent ones being On the Edge and Net Runner. I’ve still got a lot of cards and sets of a bunch of games, waiting for that period where I actually have the time and opponents to play them…

Which finally brings us to Euros (or German games or designer games or whatever). I played my first one in 1996 during my only (so far) trip to Gen Con Indy. Some folks in an open gaming area asked me if I wanted to play “a cool boardgame from Germany” - Settlers of Catan. I played and it was “OK”, but no big deal. Once again, my first impression was not an accurate predictor of what would eventually become an active obsession.

It was not until I moved to Sydney, Australia in 2000 and, through the chance that favours prepared minds, became part of Pat Brennan’s Pymble Gaming Arena (PGA) group. That opened the doors to many, many new games, as well as the BoardGameGeek website and the Spielfrieks email group.

I had moved to Australia with three suitcases filled with clothes and essentials. When I moved back to the United States in 2002, I had to ship 15 boxes, mostly filled with games. While living in Cleveland, I bought (and played) many, many more games to the point where all the shelves lining the walls of a long room were overflowing. When I moved back to Australia in 2005 - this time to Brisbane - I reduced the number of games, but still put the bulk of the collection into air-conditioned storage in Cleveland. So I’m currently working very hard to make do with a smaller collection - playing the quality games more often - but the number of games I own is still growing…

The great thing about gaming is that it is a social activity. Consequently, I have always sought out and/or formed groups that would allow me to have a steady supply of gaming experiences. When I lived in Sydney, in addition to Pat Brennan’s PGA, I also hosted the weekly group Queen’s Birthday Gamers (QBC). When I moved to Cleveland, Ohio, my wife, Ann, and I hosted The Games Project (TGP) each week. In addition, I was active in the Cleveland Boardgamers Meetup Group, which met once a month at first, but eventually became four times a month. Now that we’re in Brisbane, Ann and I host the weekly group Gamers Without A Name (GWAN), and I also attend the twice-monthly public gathering, Critical Mass, as well as participating in a number of other ad hoc gaming events.

Although I am open to, and play, a wide variety of types of games, I tend to prefer those that are lighter and provide opportunities for laughter. I also really enjoy games that encourage me to think in new and unusual ways. The emphasis on innovative mechanisms within Eurogames is great for me. I look forward to a future of ongoing unbridled joy from gaming!

Merry Christmas! and I'm Not Dead Yet! (A letter to my friends and family)

As I start to type this, it's 7:12 PM on Wednesday, 24 December 2008 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Merry Christmas Eve!

Ann is visiting with her family for the holidays in Versailles, Ohio, USA. It's cold, icy, windy and dark there, but she's cosy and warm in the familial love of her surroundings.

I'm doing my usual hiding-from-the-holidays. Here it's warm, dry and sunny - though we're expecting some rain for the holidays (Christmas and Boxing Day) and the weekend. We've just passed the summer solstice, so we're getting the maximum sunlight; it's light outside as early as 4:30 AM! I'm content - happy, even - to be in a warm climate with the time to think my thoughts and to reconnect with the love I feel for my many friends and family members.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas (or other holiday of your choice) and a joyous new year. May peace prevail.

Thank you for being such a valued part of my life.

---

Of course, some of you might be asking "Kevin who?"

I've never been very good at correspondence or keeping up with those I care about who are not in my immediate environment. As I have become older - and, perhaps, having moved to the other side of the world - I've just become worse. It remains a difficulty. Though, after forty-some years, I'm more willing to accept that this is just how I deal with the world. (See my previous blog entry for more on this.)

So I wanted to take a moment to tell you a little bit about what's been happening in my life and, perhaps, start the process of reconnecting with those who are distant to me.

LOVE: Ann and I remain happily married. We celebrated our five-year anniversary this year. I think we're very compatible - similar enough in our approach to things to share much and to avoid major difficulties, and different enough to keep things spiced and to support each other in our weaker areas. I continually feel I am a very lucky man to have her in my life.

GOAL: I've wanted to establish dual citizenship (USA and Australia) ever since I fell in love with and moved to Australia in 1999/2000. One of the main pursuits of living in Australia this time is to work toward that goal. We accomplished a very important step this year by obtaining "permanent resident" status from the Australian government. That was the hard bit. Now we just need to have lived in Australia long enough to meet the requirements to apply for citizenship. That should happen for me around October 2009 and February 2010 for Ann.

WORK: I continue to be a trainer for New Horizons Computer Learning Centre, a training company with franchises around the world. I specialise in Microsoft networking (Windows 2003 and 2008), database management (SQL Server) and messaging (Exchange Server). I'm working for the company that holds the franchise for Australia, which is the same company I worked for in Sydney from 2000 to 2002. The difference is the manner in which I train.

New Horizons has pioneered a new way of training, which we call The Walk-In Classroom or Mentored Learning. It brings together the best elements of both traditional instructor-led training and self-paced training. The short description of this is that the lecture/presentation part of the course is provided via pre-recorded video (that is, not by me), but you still have a live instructor to provide guidance, answer questions, process discussions, etc. (which is what I do).

My experience is that it's a win-win situation for the student (more personalised training and greater focus and motivation) and the training company (much more efficient management of resources). It's provided a different challenge for me for the past three years. On one hand, it's "easier" because I'm not "on"/performing all the time, like I am when I do traditional instructor-led training. On the other hand, it's "harder", in that the questions the students ask me are truly "random access", as I'll typically have several students that are doing entirely different courses at the same time.

I enjoy the people I work with, my colleagues are friends and my direct boss is an honest and reasonable person, so that's all good.

PLAY: I'm still playing lots of games, hosting a weekly group and typically attending another gaming event each week. I keep track of the games I play and earlier this year, I realised I had played over 1,000 different/distinct games in my life. That number will keep going up, as I continue to enjoy the process of learning new games and lots and lots of new games keep coming!

I still enjoy seeing films, but I'm nowhere near as active as I used to be. I think that an increase in gaming time has led to a decrease in film-watching.

Also, Ann and I have been watching complete seasons of television shows. That eats up a lot of our free time, but we enjoy it!

OK, that's where I'm at these days. What about you?

I'm virtually asocial!

I was thinking the other day about the irony of being a social/talkative person who spends a LOT of time on the internet but seems almost incapable of participating in any sort of digital correspondence (email, forums [fora], this blog, etc).

I also have the similar irony of being a highly enthusiastic gamer (meaning primarily board and card games) who enjoys computers but doesn't really do any computer gaming, including computer versions of board and card games I like.

One thing that works to both of these is that I truly prefer dealing with people in person. Feedback is more immediate and it's much easier to determine what someone is communicating when you can hear the tone of their voice, see their body language and look into their eyes.

Talking on the phone doesn't give me everything I appreciate about direct contact, but it gives enough that I can do it pretty well. Of course, the time difference between Australia and the USA works against the spontaneity of the communication (for my American friends and family).

But the real crux of the matter for me is talking vs. writing. I'm pretty comfortable with talking. (Some - many? - of my friends would say I'm too comfortable...) As an instructor/trainer, I've made my living off of it for a number of years. I like that I can get paid for using my mind and my mouth (because it's quite obvious to me that my body and my physical skills are not going to bring in much!).

Writing, though, I'm not quite so comfortable with. In fact, I have a near-phobic response to it. This has caused significant stress in my life over the years and cost me a number of opportunities that I would have liked to have been able to actualise.

It's not necessarily the composition part. I tell my highly prolific friend, John Farrell, that I have a *great* blog that I work on all the time; however, it's all in my head! I'm almost always translating my experience into blog entries. After all, that's just "talking" (in my mind).

It's the process of converting the imagined to the actual. That process is very slow for me and involves a LOT of re-reading what I have written so far. It's like: 1-1-2-1-2-3-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-5... Slow and painful. And it never "sings" like it does in my head.

And the written word is king when it comes to communicating on this glorious thing called the internet. So I sit on the sidelines, reading a ton but writing almost nothing - virtually asocial.

asocial [ey-soh-shuhl]
–adjective
1. not sociable or gregarious; withdrawn from society.
2. indifferent to or averse to conforming to conventional standards of behaviour.
3. inconsiderate of others; selfish; egocentric.

Yep, that's me on the internet - though #3 could be interpreted a little more harshly than I think is true. I prefer this term to "antisocial" because I'm not opposed to communicating; it's just difficult for me.

But I can be fun in person!