Fan Designed Cosmic Expansion Set Discussion

Bill Eberle: I agree Zach; but when we add Jack's idea that cards only come from cards which have been played and discarded, we have something more to play with. I propose we invent a kind of void discard pile for the Joker (who's primary goal, after all, is “not to rule, but to satirize the universe” . . . so, when the Joker replaces an Artifact with a card from the Discard Pile, after the encounter, both cards disappear from the game forever. I'm also concerned that there can be too few Artifacts per player in a game; I'd add that any cards other than Attacks and Negotiates can be used to empower the Joker. (2 thumbs up)

Zachery Gaskins: Removed from the game? Interesting. I don't care too much about the Artifacts going away permanently since they are not vital to the flow of the game...and even if all 11 leave the game with the encounter cards they mimic, Joker (or might I suggest, Jester or Prankster) can alter the balance of encounter cards deliberately and drastically...

...except if you remove 22 cards from the game, you are left with 60 (5p)/62 (6p)/64 (7p)in the game. A Cosmic Quake is more likely to happen but it isn't going to be intractable; there are still 44 Encounter cards remaining to be drawn.

Now we're cooking. So as Loki...I mean Joker starts removing both Artifacts (including Zaps) and Encounter cards from the game, opponents will have to alter their card counting / probability schemes. *diabolical chuckle*.

Suppose that if he were to ever become Zapped, that all cards from the game in this fashion are immediately returned to the discard pile? This would give Joker a reason to Zap himself so he can reuse cards more than once.

But what happens if both Cosmic Zaps are removed? Power free-for-all for everyone? I'm 90% on board with that but I'm wondering how the Super might help him in a way that doesn't threaten the infinite Quake scenario.

Mark Hawkinson: Okay I can work with the idea of joker needing to swap cards, if he has more than just artifacts that he can use.

Mark Hawkinson: you could make the super return cards from the Cosmic void. (to Joker's hand) (1 thumb up)

Zachery Gaskins: If you allow any non-Encounter cards to be used as fuel for the power, you're looking at 27 cards (4-5p), 29 cards (6p), or 31 cards (7p) when there aren't Reward cards involved. If all of them get used in the way you describe, that takes the deck down to 28/26/24 cards, which (on the way down) will result in Cosmic Quakes and no one will get a full hand. You'd run into a Quake situation any time a player tries to draw, at that point, which we don't want.

Zachery Gaskins: As I'm analyzing this, removing cards from the game is useful to a point, but you'd reach a point where you'd be Cosmic Quaking quite a lot which would frustrate/annoy some people. But I do like the idea of an alien messing with the deck distribution.

Zachery Gaskins: ((Arbitrary thought: Perhaps Joker takes cards prisoner...can't use em but can release them when zapped or as part of a deal?? Sounds rather prankish to me.))

Jack Reda: I think removing just the copied card would be better. The non-encounter card that was revealed remains in the game. (2 thumbs up)

Zachery Gaskins: @Jack Reda : What happens hypothetically if all 55 encounter cards are eliminated?

Jefferson Krogh: Very cool idea. In a typical game, Joker will be the main player maybe 6 times at most. Removing 6 encounter cards from the game will not disrupt things overly much, but boy! Knowing that any encounter card you play may never be seen again that game could be fascinating. (1 thumb up)

Jefferson Krogh: @Zachery Gaskins: Cosmic Stasis! The game ends in a universal draw. (1 thumb up)

Mark Hawkinson: Haha!!!! I love it! Alternate idea: Make it so that cosmic stasis only applies to a certain number of cards. or Maybe make it so that Cosmic Stasis ends whenever there is a cosmic quake.

Bill Eberle: I like Jack's idea of just eliminating the encounter card (Attack or Negotiate card) which the Joker, thoughtfully looking through the Discard, decides to select, replace with the non-Encounter card and play. Note, occasionally there will be no cards in the Discard Pile, and the Joker will have no power. (2 thumbs up)

Sarah Ryan: Wow....this thread got busy ^_^ justcaught up and I have nothing to add except I like how its developed, it sounds really cool re the discard cards! The joker is quirky, and it adds some quirkyness, lol :-) (1 thumb up)

Bill Eberle: Ok, I've consolidated our ideas and created a new description for the Joker which we can start off with, and pick apart some more, tomorrow. http://www.ideabout.com/fan_design/in_progress/current_work.html (1 thumb up)

Sarah Ryan: Haha, thats pretty cool, hey Jefferson Krogh you got a mention over on Bill's page *clap clap* lol