Twitter: power to tantalize

Check out that intriguing Twitter entry from Peter Olotka! Hokey smoke!

Maybe if we're nice, Peter will share. If we're nice ... and if we all agree to play lots of Cosmic Encounter Online.

Replace "Small World" with "Cosmic Encounter"

I'm back to dreaming of one day playing Cosmic Encounter on the Apple iPad.

Saturday's announcement that Days of Wonder's Small World boardgame was being released in a digital version in the iPad App Store ($4.99; here's a handy link) was a welcome surprise. Not only is Small World a pretty fun little game on its own, but it shares a number of features — light basic rule-set, races with variable powers, social aspect, etc. — with a game we have discussed quite a bit around here.

Small World serves as proof that interesting boardgames can be done for the iPad (and, peeking into the future, for whichever directions mobile computing takes in the next few years). This isn't yet another app for hearts, or poker, or a Yahtzee variant — it's a beautiful recreation of a very popular boardgame. It can be done, and it can be done well.

So why not Cosmic Encounter? Well, as Cosmic Encounter Online owner Peter Olotka is quick to point out, time and money are two big factors. But those are hurdles that can be overcome — they might not be easy, but they can be conquered. And, once they are, I really see no reason at all why we won't someday be playing CE on our iPads. Picture the following set-up:

• Cosmic Encounter app: $4.99 for a base version with 10 to 16 aliens;
• Alien expansion packs: $1.99 (or maybe 99 cents) for maybe four to six more aliens;
• Large expansion packs: $3.99 or $4.99 for a major addition such as moons or lucre; $2.99 or $3.99 for a mega-pack of 15 aliens.

That's all off the top of my head. It seems like a win-win to me: the owners of the CE brand can generate some much-needed revenue beyond CE Online; veteran CE players will feel like they've died and gone to heaven; newcomers — and there would be hundreds, at least — will experience a classic game for the first time.

Update: Major slowdown; posts will be infrequent

No long speeches ... just a notice that maintaining a low-key gaming blog has been forced way, way, way down my priority list due to Real Life concerns.

I do not know when — or, frankly, if — this blog will be updated again. For now, I will leave it open for searching and archive purposes.

(Update 3/5/10: The blog, generally, is still a low priority, but I'm going to post interesting items if the seem worthy. For now, I'd guess that will mean no more than two or three posts per month. So, it's not "dead" ... just "slow.")

No one is dying or anything dramatic like that; it's just priorities.

May your Viruses always multiply by 4.

— Duke

Cosmic Encounter: the fifth game you MUST own

Seriously. It says so right here in this list of "The 10 Games Everyone Should Own."

The highlight:

It’s ripe for expansion, it’s rarely longer than 90 minutes, and the shifting, conditional alliances always make for some exciting table talk and good laughs. It’s everything a hobby game should be — fun, imaginative, challenging, and interactive.

The Dune boardgame also gets a shout-out as the "... best game ever published ..." (yikes!) but author Michael Barnes rightly doesn't include it in his list, which is focussed on games that are either still in print or else attainable with a minimum amount of effort.

Mystery boxes revealed; zero relevant news

So that third mystery box over at Fantasy Flight Games turned out to be some sort of bizarre you-got-your-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter combination of BattleLore and A Game of Thrones.

Personally, it would be impossible for me to be less interested in this item. I mention it only because it serves as sort of an official end to the speculation: none of the three mystery boxes had the slightest thing to do with Twilight Dune: Dinosaur Ninjas, Borderlands, or Cosmic Encounter.

Bleh.

My God ... Cosmic Encounter is full of stars!

It looks like the Cosmic Encounter creativity bug has bitten some of the usual suspects. Two major homebrew projects are currently getting a lot of reaction over at the self-proclaimed Leading Boardgames Site, and both are pretty neat (both are what might be called "planet-based," too, which is kind of interesting). Anyway, point that clicking thing at these links for Cosmic Stars and Planetary Profiles.

As an aside, I'll add that I really enjoy this direction for CE variants. As I've made clear elsewhere, I am pretty much over the whole "homebrew alien" thing; we just don't need a 37th variant of Pacifist. In fact, I'm actively boycotting any discussion at any site regarding homebrew aliens — I just literally skip right over those threads. Bleh. I've got your Macron variant right here, pal!

But adding entirely new concepts to the game — especially those that have been playtested at least a little bit — is definitely something TheDukester can support.

It's the player aid that ate Cincinnati

What's great about Toomai's Timing Sheet for Cosmic Encounter is that it's so ... extreme. In a very literal sense, it attempts to detail every possible action and reaction for every Cosmic Encounter alien, step by step, as the phases of every turn progress. In a more "meta" sense, though, it's a wonderful look at just how much "the game that breaks its own rules!" really does do just that.

The real comedy, of course, comes from the fact that anyone showing this sheet to a new CE player would cause that player to flee madly for the nearest exit (probably muttering something about CE being "10 times more complicated than Arkham Horror"). But, as we all know, Cosmic really isn't that bad, once a few simple rhythms are learned — and it's not like all 70 aliens are involved at once.

Anyway, be sure to click on the image here to see it a bigger, more readable size. It's worth admiring the sheer scope of the thing ...

Quite possibly the world's geekiest shirt

(Not that such a thing stops me from wanting one, of course ...)

You've got to love getting two solid gaming references for the price of one shirt. And the "flow" line is bigger than just the Dune book: I've never played a single game of the Dune boardgame, FTF or online, where "The spice must flow" wasn't uttered by someone or other.

It's also nice that even the little details are right. For instance, that's a regulation-size Settlers of Catan board pictured.

(Tip of the fedora to Cosmic Encounter player Bioball for the heads-up)

First look at our 20 new alien friends

As usual, a good starting point for all things Cosmic Encounter is The Warp — not the place where your lost ships go because you're playing like a bonehead, but the actual person. Much like he did when the Fantasy Flight Games base set arrived, Jack Reda has provided his initial thoughts on the 20 new aliens found in Cosmic Incursion.

It's well-written, it's got pretty formatting, and it's worth a read.