I'm somewhat interested in this game. Before reading the rules and maybe wasting my time I wanted to ask: How does the game work, what is it's theme (scifi ok, but more specific), how does it play, etc. Thanks for your answers.

Cosmic Encounter is my favorite game of all time.... one of the main reasons I like it is the sheer variety. This set comes with 50 different aliens, which makes for a huge number of combinations to see from game to game. It's also highly social, by which I mean you have to interact with the other players every turn... inviting each other to assist with challenges, or ganging up on the biggest threat. Alliances are very shortlived though, so it's very dynamic.

The mechanics of play are very simple- each main player plays a card (usually with a number on it), and adds it to the number of their ships (theirs and allies). The higher total wins. Simple, but then the aliens come into play. Each alien has the power to change, bend, or outright break the rules in some unique way, so you have to try and account for each other players alien power on every challenge. You also have to manage your hand carefully, as you may only have a limited number of "good" cards at any given point... do you give up a challenge on defense so you can hold onto your best card for when you attack?

This CE set also comes with a few other goodies that only add to the variety and scope of the game... Flare cards, which can enhance your own alien's power, or give you a taste of using someone else's. And these cards are not discarded after played. Tech cards, which can give you other benefits and abilities (one shot or continuous), but you have to pay for them buy setting aside some of your ships every turn.... this can weaken you defensively, so it's a gamble.

Finally, the coolest thing about CE is expansion. It's very easy to expand the game (in terms of more players, more aliens, more effects, more everything). I have been maintaining a website called The Warp that catalogs all the expansions (official and home made) over the years... there's so many, I couldn't begin to tell you how many. The game is worth the hype.

What do detrators say? That's it's too random and chaotic. Well, there's a grain of truth there.... there's a bit of randomness, but it isn't pure randomness in my opinion. You get a random hand of 8 cards, but there's an intelligent spread in the value of cards- and there's ways to overcome someone who has a good hand (through power use, and other cards). There's randomness in who you challenge, but that too is within a set number of targets, and after a certain period you can find yourself safe from attack for awhile, or start to predict who is likely to be challenged next. This is definitely a strategy game, but your strategy has to be flexible and fluid. You have to quickly adapt to changing circumstances. The game is top notch.

Some Cosmic Online players have compared it (very generally) to poker. Your hand is completely random (unless you're the Aristocrat), but so is your opponent's. As cards are revealed, you can rule out certain possibilities and play the odds. If someone plays a Negotiate, does this mean his hand is bad, or is he holding out on a better card? Reading your opponents and bluffing can play a huge part in the game.

I for one play it more as a strategy game and not get caught up in "Is he bluffing or is he not?" Others don't care if they win or lose but just like to see what interesting situations can arise and like to talk in character. The great thing about Cosmic is that all these different approaches work, and they can co-exist harmoniously in the same match.

Perhaps the biggest overriding factor for luck, even more than the alien powers themselves, is the social dynamic. While Cosmic works technically with 3, it is best with 4 or more. The silver tongue will definitely have an advantage if he can convince the other players that the Virus has too good of a hand and shouldn't be invited to ally, etc. A good hand can only take you so far if the other players recognize you have a good hand and co-operate.

Reading the rules is a good start, but unless you have the aliens in front of you, you don't really know what the game is because all the aliens break the rules in some way. The way I got a group of my friends interested in the game was I briefly described the rules as The Warp has in the post above, but after every single rule add "Except the [alien name]". If it's destiny, there's Dictator and Will. If it's drawing a new hand, it's Mutant. If it's pod discard, it's Filch or Clone. Ships going to warp, Healer or Zombie. Etc. Every single rule has some alien who completely disregards it, and this changes the game drastically. The rulebook is just a general framework for a game, with the game itself being dictated by the aliens drawn for one match.

Cosmic allows for a lot of possibilities because of its inherent randomness, but this just informs what kind of game you will be playing because even if by an extremely odd chance you get all the same aliens twice in a row (never happened for me after many, many games), you will still have very different hands, you'll attack different players, and you'll get invited into different alliances. There are lots of factors that prevent this randomness from being pure chaos, and this is what makes it a game worth playing again and again. "No two games are alike" has become an almost necessary description in the gaming world to interest players, but this is the game that started it all -- and still the game that does it best.

If you want to get a good idea of what the game is like, your best option is to go to cosmicencounter.com and play a few rounds. If the six free aliens aren't enough variety for you, a day pass with all the member aliens (35 of them at the moment, I believe) is just 99 cents and should give you a good idea of how the game is, though the FFG version will of course have more aliens, more cards, and slightly different rules.

Great game, indeed. I own a copy during Lucca Comics, november 1st here in Italy. Imagine mayfair edition (1991) without errors and misunderstandings, not a simple reprint. Easy to play, fast and infinite possibilities with alien powers, tech, artifact and flares cards that alter game mechanics. Every game is always different.

Thank you for your answers. I think this game would be an interesting addition to my collection and my gaminggroup will like it.