
Hazard card back
The hazard deck is a deck of 28 cards introduced in FFG's Cosmic Conflict expansion. This deck is used when playing the Hazard variant, and adds unpredictable effects that change the rules of how encounters are played.
A new hazard deck of 26 cards is included in FFG's Cosmic Odyssey expansion. This deck contains new types of hazards, and can be used by itself or combined with the hazard deck from Cosmic Conflict.
Rules[]
To play this variant, shuffle the hazard deck and place it face down during setup. During the game, if any destiny card with a hazard warning is drawn for destiny (regardless of whether the destiny card was used or redrawn), then the offense must draw a hazard card before allies are invited and the players must follow its instructions. Only a maximum of one hazard card is drawn per encounter, regardless of the number of hazard warnings that were drawn during the encounter.
Types of hazard cards[]
- Temporary: Takes effect during the encounter and is discarded at the end of the encounter.
- Permanent: Stays in play permanently or until a specified condition is met. These are identified by a red banner that reads "This Card Remains In Play" at the bottom of the card.
- Semi-Permanent: Stays in play but is discarded if another semi-permanent (or permanent[1]) hazard is drawn. These are identified by a yellow banner that reads "Semi-Permanent" at the bottom of the card. Introduced in Cosmic Odyssey.
- Alt-Hazard: Provides an alternate action that the offense may choose to perform instead of playing out the encounter normally. These are identified by a label of "Alt-Hazard" instead of "Hazard" at the top of the card. Introduced in Cosmic Odyssey.
Sub-variants[]
Cosmic Odyssey introduced two optional sub-variants to the hazard deck variant. Instead of using hazard warnings on destiny cards to determine whether to draw a hazard, players may use one of the following:
- Extremely Hazardous: Draw a hazard card for every encounter. (Increases the chaos.)
- Procedural Change: If a player chooses to have a second encounter on their turn, draw a hazard card for that encounter. (Increases the amount of control that players have over the hazard deck.)
House rules[]
Temporal Anomaly[]
The Temporal Anomaly hazard causes the turn order of the game to reverse (e.g. if play was passing clockwise, it becomes counterclockwise). The Cosmodex mentions that this card is disliked by many players because it could make it so that one or more players simply never get a turn to be the offense before the game is over, especially at higher player counts. Because of this, it suggests a house rule to remove all copies of it from the hazard deck.
Notes[]
- Early printings of the Cosmic Conflict rules state that there are 29 cards in the hazard deck. This is incorrect: there are 28.
- The Cosmic Conflict rules and the 2018 FAQ disagree on when to draw a hazard card if a hazard warning is drawn for destiny. The Cosmic Conflict rules state that a hazard card is drawn before allies are invited (Alliance phase), but the FAQ states that a hazard card is drawn as soon as a destiny card with a hazard warning is drawn (Destiny phase). This is a significant difference for some hazard cards' effects, and means that alt-hazards have the potential to play out very differently depending on which rule the players follow. Cosmic Odyssey designer Jack Reda's stance on this is that hazards are supposed to be drawn before allies are invited, but the way he plays it is to draw the hazard during the Destiny phase because from his experience it is easier to remember that way; his final ruling is to play it whichever way your group finds best.[2]
References[]
- ↑ "How permanent and semi-permanent hazards interact in Cosmic Encounter" - YouTube video by designer Jack Reda. (This rule is not otherwise noted in the Cosmic Odyssey rulebook.)
- ↑ "Hazards from Cosmic Odyssey" - YouTube video by designer Jack Reda. "For me, it's hard to get used to the idea of, you're not drawing the hazard until right before alliances, because a lot of times we just forget... So we, actually, we sort of home-rule it that once we draw the destiny card with the hazard warning, we have the hazard right then. And if it's something that's like, 'oh, this is going to have a weird effect,' which is not pretty common, we just adjust. So, you play it however you want to play it... that's up to you."