Cosmic Eons by Fantasy Flight Games
“Excuse me, sir. I see you’ve only got one ship stationed on this here planet of ours. Well, around here we call that vagrancy, and it’s illegal. So I’m sorry sir, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to write you a ticket.”
The galaxy of Cosmic Encounter, like most galaxies, is constantly changing. Just when you think you’ve explored every corner of it and met most of its aliens, you turn around to find that a new star system has just materialized, full of new species with astonishing, wildly unique customs. You’ve learned that when interacting with a strange alien for the first time, its best not to reveal all of your hand at once.
If you want to establish colonies in these recently-formed parts of the galaxy, you’ll have to be conceal your true intentions, negotiate with cunning, and be careful not to put your foot into cross-cultural quicksand—or into your mouth.
Cosmic Eons, an expansion for Cosmic Encounter, introduces new aliens with abilities unlike any you’ve dealt with so far, but it doesn’t stop there. This expansion features the Hidden Alliances variant, which enables you and your opponents to reveal simultaneously whose side you’re on. With this simple mechanical twist, Cosmic Eons promises not just to open up a new part of the galaxy, but to change how you play the game.
30 aliens in Cosmic Eons
AI - You have the power to Think Ahead
Alien - You have the power to Traumatize
Anarchist - You have the power of Chaos
Architect - You have the power to Build Towers
Assistant - You have the power to Be Helpful
Bleeding Heart - You have the power of Rapport
Cloak - You have the power to Act Unseen
Coward - You have the power to Flee
Crusher - You have the power to Crush
Emperor - You have the power of Tribute
Evil Twin - You have the power to Blame
Fire Dancer - You have the power to Awe
Hunger - You have the power of Extra Helpings
Hypochondriac - You have the power of Anxiety
Klutz - You have the power of Clumsiness
Maven - You have the power to Be Right
Moocher - You have the power to Barge In
Multitude - You have the power of Exponentiation
Nanny - You have the power of Consequences
Nightmare - You have the power of Bad Dreams
Oligarch - You have the power of Greed
Pack Rat - You have the power to Collect
Particle - You have the power of Quantum Entanglement
Peddler - You have the power to Sell
Perfectionist - You have the power to Be Finicky
Pretender - You have the power to Take Over
Sheriff - You have the power to Ticket
Surgeon - You have the power of Surgery
The Cult - You have the power of Allegiance
Tortoise - You have the power to Dawdle
COMPONENTS
30 Alien Sheets
85 Cards including:
30 Flare Cards
55 Essence Cards
37 Alien Tokens
6 Alliance Dials
Tom’s favorite alien: The Sheriff! But he also liked the Hypochondriac and Nanny. Dice Tower judgement: “For experienced players, excellent!”
The Dice Tower plays Cosmic Encounter, live! They give the Cosmic Eons expansion a real world playtest here.
Jack Reda’s in-depth look at the 30 aliens, essence cards, alliance dials, and overall thoughts.
“I can highly recommend Cosmic Eons if you’re into the original. My only regret is that I don’t play this game as much as I’d like.” - Wolfie, iSlaytheDragon.com
Read Review
Designer's Diary - by Bill Eberle & Peter Olotka
Now, Peter and Bill, who first breathed life into the original six aliens that occupied a then-unnamed science fiction game, have re-emerged following decades of exploration through the cosmic warps of time and space. Accompanied by Peter’s son Greg, they have brought with them a class of 30 aliens the likes of which you have never seen before.
Be prepared to be abducted and traumatized by the Alien, be foiled by an Anarchist that does away with rules altogether, see planets disappear into the Architect’s tower, experience befuddlement by the secret changes of the Cloak, try to soothe the Hypochondriac, and squirm under the oppression of the Oligarch.
Peter and Bill put their journey this way: “Since the early days, new Cosmic Encounter aliens have been steadily creeping into the game, accompanied by dozens of features and more players. Cosmic Dominion, the fifth expansion, was designed and completed by the fans of Cosmic Encounter in 2014. It added 30 new aliens, bumping the total to 165. Cosmic Dominion is considered a tour de force for its creative and meticulous design.
For us, an unexpected upshot of mobilizing the fan design experience was that we became re-excited about creating new Cosmic Encounter content and pitched FFG with the idea of releasing an “original designers” collection of very different aliens into the Cosmic arena. Over time, as aliens and features were added it became harder for designers to create unique experiences. But having been energized by the brilliance of the fans’ Cosmic Dominion expansion, we still wanted to do a new Cosmic Encounter design.
What to do? We set out to create an alien collection that broke the rules so completely that players would have to actually create their own solutions to conflicts. We loved it!
But our first attempts were so far off the charts that play testers cringed. Fantasy Flight wisely directed us to tighten things up so we tried and failed again. The solution was to bring back the three superhero Cosmic fans who led the Cosmic Dominion design effort: Bill Martinson, Jack Reda, and Jefferson Krogh. Thanks to their efforts, virtually all of our original 30 Cosmic Eons aliens survived the makeover with original intent intact. Enjoy!”
Special thanks to Fantasy Flight Producer Jason Walden for tossing Essence Cards into the Cosmic brew! It’s not all that easy to craft a super feature for a 43 year old game. And our undying appreciation for the massive contributions from the Cosmic Fans who were the lead designers of Cosmic Dominion, Bill Martinson, Jack Reda, and Jefferson Krogh.
“Rumblings of universes to come began in 1972 when Peter Olotka, Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge, and Bill Norton came together as a game design cooperative: Future Pastimes. It was a rather long fuse, but the resulting BANG was definitely BIG, for in 1977 . . . [they] produced one of the most identifiable games in the hobbyist industry.”
~ Hai Kulture, Foundation Gaming: Encountering the Cosmos