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.