Okay, so I know this just came out, ad we've hardly had anytime to play it yet, but let's get to the point on everyone's minds. Expansions. How are they going to be done. As far as I can tell, they will be done one of two ways.

First way is small box expansion, ala Arkham Horror's Curse of the Black Goat, King in Yellow and Dark Pharaoh. This would most likely include 8-12 new Aliens and flares, one new player color, with destiny cards, ships, planets and a marker token, a few more encounter cards and maybe a few new tech cards. They may also devote one entire small box for things like moons or lucre.

The Second way is the big box expansion, ala Descent's Well of Darkness, Alter of Despair, etc... This would have multiple aliens, maybe even in te 20 range, with a lot more content and added mechanics.

So, seeing how these are the two most prevelant forms of expansion , which one would you rather? I personally like the idea of small box ones released in a fairly shorter timespan. Though the big box expansions are nice and have a ton of stuff, I feel like it takes forever to put one out. What are your ideas? Would you rathre a big box, small box or something entirely different?

I am fine with either- though I expect the smaller ones will be easier to do, less expensive, and more flexible (they will also seem more obviously like expansions, and avoid the problem More Cosmic had- people got it thinking they could start playing with it!)

But yes- expansions are certainly on my mind, and I am already eagerly anticipating them.

I'd prefer the smaller expansions myself.
More so to keep the price affordable.
It's easier to spend $15-$20 on something extra.
Where as spending $60 would be something I'd save
up for and possibly put on the back burner for a while.

I'd like smaller expansions too, mostly for the speed at which they could be produced, relative to a larger expansion. And while I'm posting my 'druthers, I'd like to see distinctive colors for new systems (the planets need to be distinct from similar colors as well as the ships). I'd suggest that if the number of players is to go beyond 6, that Black and White are used. That would also help my red/green colorblind friends in a 5-player game.

Oh, and blank, printable cards! If we could have those, we could more easily do home-brew aliens!

RobertDG said:

excellent idea!! love it.

RobertDG said:

A good idea might be to include a new player color with each expansion, and have one that is just blank cards, (A few tech cards, several alien cards, and some standard cards, with at least enough for the flares) and White player elements, so that people could use paint/marker to make that what ever colors they needed, (make an easy way for the color blind to expand, or for people that REALLY need pink and taupe for example to get their pieces.)

As a small expansion, Lucre + lucre powers would probably be sufficient, though with blank alien cards + flare cards, it may be that most lucre fans would be able to build there own, with poker chips. I like lucre and would get the expansion, but it seems that many do not, so it might not pass financial muster.

The best way to get lucre in an expansion is for the game and its other expansions to do very well... so start giving out CE to all your friends...

I will like to see the 6th player next, along with a mixed bag of old and new. Keep the new stuff coming!

My wishlist would include:

1. New aliens;
2. At least one new mechanic (similar to the way tech is new) ... and I think a careful reading of the rulebook actually mentions what this might be. ;
3. Blank cards of all types;
4. Alternate winning conditions and/or some scenarios ... there's other ways to play CE than just "first to 5."

What's not on my list:

1. Lucre. I'ver just never felt CE needed an economy;
2. A sixth player. The last time I had six people available for a game was the 12th of Never. But I realize I'm in the minority here.

I'd love to be able to play with at least 10-12 players. The way they've done the planets separately, so that you can configure them any way you want without having to rely on a board, is a great idea. I became accustomed to playing with 10 players and then we increased it to 12. FFG is one of the best companies "fixing" games today (Arkham being the best example). I just Looove expansions for CE. Mayfair did a great job in the alien powers (over 100 of them) and when you combined the base game, expansion and the simpler version of the game they published as "simply cosmic", you were able to play with up to 10 players at the same time. It was a hoot.

Please FFG, bring CE to at least 10 more players.....and lots and lots of cards and alien powers

TheDukester said:

And what pages in particular might provide us with some insight on this forewarned new mechanic?

It's not so much an "insight" as it is a direct statement. See page 7, specifically the "Note" on the right side of the page.

My wish list for expansions:

1. More aliens (of course)
2. More cards
3. I always like Lucre, but would prefer the Mayfair rules.
4. Moons, asteroids, comets, etc. How about a "celestial bodies" expansion?
5. Who am I kidding... I will buy anything that comes out.... (Although I really like the idea of alternate endings and themed scenarios that has been mentioned.)

Edit: does anybody know why this forum kicks me all the way out the main FFG Forums index whenever I post something? It's kind of annoying....

I will be very excited to see Hazards implemented. It seems from the rules that they'll be brought in slightly differently from how I have been using them. In our games, you only go to the Hazard deck if you plan to make a second encounter on your turn. Then you must draw one Hazard card, which can make the encounter more difficult, or force you to do certain actions, or can give you a bonus if you do certain actions... lots of variety. I am speculating that it will simply be a mechanic that uses a Hazard logo on Destiny cards, and when you get one, you flip over the Hazard card. And based on THAT, I am guessing we'll see Comet effects and Reverse Cone kinds of things in the Hazard deck itself (plus hopefully some other juicy tidbits). All speculation, mind you.

And Ken, I can't say why you get zapped after each post. But keep posting... don't let them get you down!

Rubric said:

You've been plagued. Clearly.

Edit ... duplicate post.

Wow, seriously , Fantasy Flight: these are about the suckiest forums imaginable. I've held my tongue up until now, but this is the most user-unfriendly messageboard system I've ever used.

TheDukester said:

Not to derail the expansion thread, which is a very interesting and important topic, but... I AGREE!!! I've held my tongue too, because I thought it was just me. You wouldn't know it, but I have actually typed out about 6 to 8 posts. Of course, you can only find 3 or 4 of them, because the rest disappeared.

They're the slowest forums I've seen since the late nineties. They inexplicably shoot me off to a page that is far far away whenever I post something. And they're ugly. (Sorry, I like white screens. With black letters. I can live with blue letters.) Maybe there's a way to change the color scheme, that I'm not aware of. But even if there is, I'm sure I didn't miss the "speed up the forums" button.

Okay, I feel better now (at least until I press the submit button).

Now, expansions.... I want a big box expansion that is FULL of small boxes. How's that?

I am already looking forward to expansions for this game as well, although fairly new to CE, I can see the potential that it has in this respect. Bear in mind that any ideas I have (for the most part) are based on what I've read up on and not all based on personal experience. But I think I'd like to see:

1. More Aliens (obviously), especially a few more with alternate win conditions

2. Lucre, although this is a mixed bag for people, I think including it provides more variety and options that I will play with sometimes

3. Moons

4. Alien weaknesses, but I think they are called 'Bad Powers' on other sites, maybe a deck so that they can be mixed and matched if desired.

5. Hazards

6. 1 to 3 more players, a 6th player would suffice, but I'd be happy if it expanded to 8 (there are 7 Grudge tokens) --- but that also means I'd probably have to spring for at least 3 expansions, each increasing the players by 1 plus a few more additions

7. Maybe a few more additions to the Destiny Deck, either a few more Specials, but I'd really like to see something that lessens (a little) the random of where you attack, occasionally allowing players' the ability to choose where and to whom they will attack --- including 3rd party colonies in another's system (i.e. -- you are red, attacking green on blue's planet), however, I was already thinking about using that option with the Wild cards.

8. And I could use a real ship for the Prometheus instead of a chit, but that I might be able to do on my own.

Definitely looking forward to the expansions. I assume we'll see more of the various Alien Powers (new and old) in any expansion, so besides that my wish list includes:

Most of all: additional players . Our group averages 6 players on a given night; sometimes more. Right now, we usually have to kit-bash with previous CE games to play.

With more players, a bigger challenge deck obviously.

Moons, absolutely. (A chance to bring in new ideas and drop a few too.)

Some of the Edicts that didn't make it yet.

I might not be in the majority, but I enjoyed using Lucre. There were some fun Alien Powers associated with it. The cry of "Lucre Raid!" was always good for a laugh.

Would love to see special Destiny card or mechanic that would allow challenging more (or all) bases on a planet (so no bystanders). Particularly when reclaiming a home base.

I wasn't a big fan of Kickers for who won a challenge. But I did like how they affected rewards, compensation, etc. Maybe new Edicts that could mirror some of those effects.

And I agree that the best chance of more Cosmic goodness, is to make sure CE gets great sales numbers. Hey, tis the season. So pick up a few copies, wrap 'em up and pass them out!!

I wouldn't mind seeing Lucre eventually... it's never gonna win a popularity contest- but there are a lot of people that actually do like it, and play with it in every game. That said, I can easily wait for that one to come out WAY down the road. I always like Moons better, and would prefer to see them sooner than Lucre, but only with the same level of treatment they got from Mayfair. I would also love to see Blue Moons added in- and yes, I'm biased, but it's a great addition, even if it wasn't mine.

More aliens has to top the list, with more players a close second.

I know we'll be seeing Hazards at some point, since they've essentially said so in the rules- but I suspect it will be a more flexible version of it. So, I think having something in their that let you attack a player in someone else's system is a fun idea, but I would associate some cost with it.

The one thing I will be most curious is new ways to play with the planet set up... adding some new planets that mix in to your sytem- making something of a hybrid out of the old Reverse systems like Gas Giant and Rings. Imagine every player having something like the Gas Giant in his or her system, or a slew of specialized planets. That would be awesome.

My wish list:

1. More aliens - 20 or so would be fine, definitely including the classics of Chronos, Empath, and Laser, but also Sniveler. Gerald Katz's simple revision of Worm (which actually makes it a power, albeit still a fairly weak one) would be nice, because it does something pretty cool. Terrorist (even though it would be re-named) would be good, and other Cosmic aliens.

2. A sixth player, but also a card for Zilch, too. Zilch -which allows a 7th player to kibitz and interfere - is awesome. Try it, you'll see. Shark may be too disruptive, but Zilch is a great way to get a 7th player in.

3. I like Lucre, and would love to see it, plus the associated powers that were rather good - Dragon, in particular.

4. Moons - Mayfair's system of classifying them was good.

The Warp said:

5. Yes, Reverse systems - totally! Great idea!

Perhaps a Tech or Alien could be made that enables planets to somehow be captured or swapped to make use of the free-floating planet system. Or a variant could be made where planets rotate between players or "orbit" the Warp like a sun, even though each player is supposed to have his own solar system. Or if the sun / star disc did make its return in an expansion, your planets could orbit around it between turns, with planets only being attackable in the front position or something like that. I liked the idea of the star disc in the original game and always wished it had been more central to the game or at least better integrated than as a place to put captured tokens or other miscellaneous stuff.

New aliens and more players would be the obvious additions that would be pretty hard to screw up considering how well the base set was done. I recently played 6-players using sticky notes for planets, M&Ms for ships, and special destinies as the destiny color, ignoring special text. While they were the most delicious Cosmic ships I've ever eaten, having actual components will be nice. I'd like to see a continuation of the approach of mixing new and old. So many good Eon aliens await reincarnation.

Lucre is the one aspect of the old game I never played with, so I can't say anything on it, but I think all the expansion stuff from the old game could be reworked considerably to fit the new game, and I trust it won't just be copied and pasted from what we've seen already.

More variants, but simpler ones than Tech that don't require more cards. An official list of which aliens are allowed together for multiple powers games.

Inflatable Cosmic players with advanced AI and who laugh at all my jokes.

Thanks in advance.

Adam said:

I added a couple new aliens to the Warp that essentially do both things you suggested up there. Shift and Focus. redamedia.com/warp/anypower.php3

Ah, those are great! Focus seems a lot like Worm. I wonder if the two powers could be combined without being too complicated. Checked out the Tech aliens, too, while I was at it. I hope to see some of this in an expansion. The new game looks much too pretty for me to add aliens written on scraps of paper.

I'm new to CE, but i can't see a big expansion like AH DH or SC BW. Okay they could put another 5 Players to it, and add some new new stuff, but thats the only way i can see enough tiles to sell a big expansion.

Oh there's quite a bit that could be put in a big box... I think we may get to a mid-sized box, in addition to some smaller ones, but it won't be for lack of potential add-ons.

Vincent_V said:

There isn't that many tiles in the game and they still charged $60 (although I think it's worth it), Android costs the same with 10 times the number of components --- so I don't think that's an issue. What may be the issue is how many 1 time $50 big box expansions they'd sell compared to 3 $25 small expansions spread out over a period of time.

You know I'll spring for it either way, most big fans of the game will, but the casual player --- Does he care about having 8 players, or will he possibly only want up to six? How many additional mechanics (moons, lucre, etc.) would he be interested in? --- What I'm getting at is, would he be willing to buy 1 big box that may include a lot of components he's not interested in, or be able to choose from available expansions that has exactly what he's looking for.