Cosmic Coasters
Encyclopedia
Cosmic Coasters is a board game
designed by Andrew Looney
and published by Looney Labs
.
In 2002, Cosmic Coasters won the Origins Award
for Best Abstract Board Game of 2001.
The game is played on custom bar coasters
bearing the image of a Galilean moon on one side and a rules summary on the other. The coasters are designed for use as actual coasters as well as game boards, and the game does not use anything unlikely to be in a bar (such as dice
).
with four "factories", four "control points" and one "teleporter". Each player takes seven distinctive counters - for example, coins of the same denomination - and places them on their coaster.
Players take turns to move. Each turn, they may Teleport, Build, or Move.
Teleport:So long as a player is the only player to control (have a counter on) two or more of the control points on a coaster, they may teleport a counter from that coaster's teleporter onto another coaster, or out of the game. If they teleport onto another counter, that counter is destroyed.
Build:So long as a player controls the two control points adjacent to an empty factory, and they have spare counters, they may put one of their spare counters on that factory.
Move:The player may move one of their counters to an adjacent space. If the space is occupied, attacker and defender play one round of "Rock, Paper, Scissors
" to determine the outcome:
Each player has a special power, depending on their coaster. The first player to teleport a counter back onto their own coaster wins.
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
designed by Andrew Looney
Andrew Looney
Andrew J. Looney , better known as Andy Looney, is an award-winning game designer and computer programmer.- Biography :...
and published by Looney Labs
Looney Labs
Looney Labs is a small game company based in College Park, Maryland, USA. It is named after its founders, Andrew Looney and Kristin Looney.- Card games :...
.
In 2002, Cosmic Coasters won the Origins Award
Origins Award
The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...
for Best Abstract Board Game of 2001.
The game is played on custom bar coasters
Beermat
A coaster, drink coaster, beverage coaster, or beermat, is used to rest beverages upon. The main purpose is to protect the surface of a table or any other surface where the user might place their beverage....
bearing the image of a Galilean moon on one side and a rules summary on the other. The coasters are designed for use as actual coasters as well as game boards, and the game does not use anything unlikely to be in a bar (such as dice
Dice
A die is a small throwable object with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers...
).
Gameplay
Each coaster represents a space colonySpace colonization
Space colonization is the concept of permanent human habitation outside of Earth. Although hypothetical at the present time, there are many proposals and speculations about the first space colony...
with four "factories", four "control points" and one "teleporter". Each player takes seven distinctive counters - for example, coins of the same denomination - and places them on their coaster.
Players take turns to move. Each turn, they may Teleport, Build, or Move.
Teleport:So long as a player is the only player to control (have a counter on) two or more of the control points on a coaster, they may teleport a counter from that coaster's teleporter onto another coaster, or out of the game. If they teleport onto another counter, that counter is destroyed.
Build:So long as a player controls the two control points adjacent to an empty factory, and they have spare counters, they may put one of their spare counters on that factory.
Move:The player may move one of their counters to an adjacent space. If the space is occupied, attacker and defender play one round of "Rock, Paper, Scissors
Rock, Paper, Scissors
Rock-paper-scissors is a hand game played by two people. The game is also known as roshambo, or another ordering of the three items ....
" to determine the outcome:
- Attacker wins - The defender is removed and the attacker moves into the space.
- Tie - The defender is removed but the attacker does not move into the space.
- Defender wins - The defender is not removed and the attacker does not move into the space. The turn is wasted.
Each player has a special power, depending on their coaster. The first player to teleport a counter back onto their own coaster wins.
External links
- Looney Labs' official Cosmic Coasters homepage