Sorry, just wanted to know : how was the previous reward deck from older versions ? had it a different back ? because I just read the CI rules, today, and I understand you can NOT really bluff with such cards as the rewards cards, because their back is different... that kind of... seems "disappointing" to me, so I wanted to know from older versions players if that is not such a big matter ?

I mean, for instance, did they use to put them in the whole cosmic deck as the variant seems to suggest ?

The original Reward deck had the same back art, but you could easily tell from the face that it was part of the separate deck. This deck was never just shuffled into the normal encounter deck, because it would make the deck too big. My original Reward deck had about 45 or so cards in it, which is more than the one in CI (on top of which, the normal encounter deck was already bigger than the normal encounter deck for the FFG version of CE, containing kickers and special encounter cards). The original Reward deck did have a lot of unique cards in it that couldn't be obtained in the normal deck, and was mostly composed of good cards. It didn't have Rifts, but had other cards that were less desirable to get, making it a minor risk of always drawing from the Reward deck. It was a great way to introduce new cards to the game without greatly affecting the distribution of cards in the normal deck.

Well, to be fair there never was an *official* rewards deck in any of the older versions.

The rewards deck concept has been kicked around the fan community for a while and has taken on various forms with various groups. The version on Jack's website (and apparently the one he plays) are as he described.

This is the Rewards Deck's first apperence as an official variant.

Ok thanks.

Still, you didn't tell me about the without-any-surprise of the different backs of these cards ? does that effect the atmosphere of the game ? like "ok, then, I might play thiiiiis card... oh ****, you can see its reward-back, forget it then".

I really don't foresee the use of encounter cards from the reward deck being a very big factor. The highest card there is a 23, and there are quite a few low cards. It's all of the non-encounter cards from the reward deck that are the ones most players will want. Crooked deals will be nice, but it's still going to result in a loss more often than not. My reward deck had an Attack 42 in it (with text explaining that if you play the 42 and lose the encounter, your ships are eradicated), and it also had a -10. There's lots of good stuff in there, but it isn't all necessarily great... you still run a risk when you draw from it of getting stuff you don't need. dun dun DUN