The terminology of Cosmic Encounter underwent a significant change upon the publication of the Avalon Hill edition and another minor change upon the publication of the FFG edition.
Below is a list of Eon/Mayfair terms and their current counterparts. Note that the FFG edition does not capitalize the names of any of its game terms, e.g. "Reinforcement" in Mayfair/AH became "reinforcement" in FFG. Such changes are not listed here unless the underlying word was changed as well.
List of terms[]
| Eon/Mayfair | FFG |
|---|---|
| Alien Power card | alien sheet |
| base | colony |
| challenge | encounter |
| challenge card | encounter card |
| Compromise | negotiate |
| cone | hyperspace gate |
| consolation | compensation |
| defensive (main) player | defense |
| Destiny Pile | destiny deck |
| Edict | artifact |
| external (base) | foreign (colony) |
| offensive (main) player | offense |
| planet hex[1] | system |
| Star Disc[2] | (See note) |
| system hex[1] | system |
| token | ship |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Called "hex" because the planets were printed together on a hexagonal board.
- ↑ A Star Disc is a large round token with one side in monochrome and the other side in a player color. In the Eon edition, three from each player were shuffled to create the destiny pile, and one was kept in each player's system to indicate the system's player color (as the planets were all printed in monochrome).