COSMOS (2024) Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Card Explanation
• Overview
• Preparing a Round
  • Number of Cards
• Turn Sequence
• Who Wins the Trick
• Collision
• Black Card Restrictions
• Big Bang
• End of the Game
• Void (Additional Rule)

Contents

• Cards: 65 pieces (56 Planet Cards, 8 Black Cards, 1 Break Card)
• Planet Cards: 14 pieces of 4 suits — Saturn, Earth, Sun, Moon (1, 2, 3, 9: 1 piece of each; 4, 5, 6, 7, 8: 2 pieces of each)
• Black Cards: 8 pieces of 1 suit — Collapsar (1 to 8: 1 piece of each)
• Break Card: 1 piece

Card Explanation

• Planet Cards / Black Cards: each shows the Card Value and the Suit and icon.
• Break Card: Front: After Break. Back: Before Break.

Overview

Each player in turn plays a card from their hand. Once everyone has played a card, the player who played the "best card" takes all the cards on the table (this set of cards is called a "trick"). The goal of the game is to take as few tricks as possible in each round while using the unique mechanism called "Collision".

Preparing a Round

1. Place the Break card, face down, in a place visible to all players.
2. Shuffle the remaining cards, face down, then reveal the top four cards and place them in view of all (these four cards are not used in games with an even number of players).
3. Deal the remaining 60 cards equally among the players.
4. Each player keeps their cards in a hand the others cannot see.
5. In the first round, the first player is chosen at random. From the second round on, the player who has accumulated the fewest tricks becomes the starting player.

Number of Cards

Players	3	4	5	6
Cards in hand	20	15	12	10
Cards on table	4	4	4	4

Turn Sequence

1. Starting with the starting player and continuing clockwise, each player takes their turn by choosing a card from their hand to play, following the "Must follow" rule.

   Must follow: If a player has in hand a card of the same suit as a face-up card played by another player, they must play a card of that suit (if there are several suits, they may choose any card of those suits). If they have no card of the same suit, they may play any card, including black cards.

   When a card is played, if it has the same value as a card played by another player that is still face up, immediately resolve the "Collision" phase.

2. Once everyone has played, determine "Who wins the trick".

3. Tricks won must be grouped and placed face down in front of the player who won the trick, so that the number of tricks they have is easy to identify.

4. The player who wins the trick becomes the next player to start the turn.

5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 until no player has any cards left in hand.

Who Wins the Trick

1. The player who played the card with the highest value in the most numerous suit among the face-up cards wins the trick (if several suits have the same number of cards, the card with the highest value wins).
2. If there is a face-up black card, regardless of the number of suits, the player who played the highest-value black card wins the trick.

Examples:

1. If there are no black cards face up: Player C, who played the highest-value card (8) among the cards of the most numerous suits (Sun and Saturn), wins the trick.
2. If there is an equal number of suits: Player B, who played the card of the most numerous suit (Sun) with the highest value (8), wins the trick.
3. If there are black cards face up: Player D, who played the highest-value black card (3), wins the trick.

Collision

When a player plays a card, if a card of the same value has already been played, these two cards are immediately turned face down. Turned-over cards do not affect the "Must follow" rule or the decision of "Who wins the trick". When the number of players is odd, one card may remain face up. If the card remaining face up has the same value as one of the four cards prepared in step 2 of "Preparing a Round", these two cards are turned face down (if there are several matching cards among the four, one of them may be turned face down).

Examples of a collision:

• 1. Player A plays a (7) of (Sun). 2. Player B plays a (5) of (Sun). 3. Player C plays a (7) of (Saturn) → "Collision". 4. Since Player D's Saturn 6 card is no longer subject to the "Must follow" rule, Player D may play any card.
• 1. Player A plays (7) of (Sun). 2. Player B plays (7) of (Sun) → "Collision". 3. Player C may play any card (although they must still respect the Black Card restrictions).

Black Card Restrictions

If the first player and all the cards played by the other players are face down at the start of a turn (*1), players may not play black cards until the Break card has been turned face up (unless their hand is made up entirely of black cards). When a black card is played for the first time (including when a player plays a black card with a hand made up entirely of black cards), the Break card is turned face up (this is called the "break"). After the break, players may play black cards even in the situation described in (*1).

Examples:

1. Before the break — when there are no face-up cards at the start of a turn: 1. The 1st player cannot play black cards. 2. If a black card is played for the first time, it causes a Break (the Break card is turned face up).
2. After the Break — even in case (*1), players may play black cards ("Must follow" is permitted).

Big Bang

When all players have played their cards, all the cards may have been turned face down because of "Collision" (here called a "Big Bang"). If a Big Bang occurs, the starting player wins the trick.

Examples:

1. When the Big Bang occurs with an even number of players: 1. Player A plays (7) of (Sun). 2. Player B plays (5) of (Sun). 3. Player C plays (7) of (Saturn) → "Collision". 4. Player D plays (5) of (Collapsar) → "Collision". 5. The Big Bang occurs and Player A wins the trick.
2. When the Big Bang occurs with an odd number of players: 1. Player A plays (7) of (Sun). 2. Player B plays (6) of (Sun). 3. Player C plays (7) of (Saturn) → "Collision". 4. A card with the same value as Player B's remaining card is among the four cards of "Preparing a Round" step 2 → "Collision". 5. The Big Bang occurs and Player A wins the trick.

End of the Game

The round ends after "Who wins the trick" when no player has any cards left in hand. The end of the game is determined as follows:

1. Count the number of tricks taken during the round.
2. Add the total number of tricks taken in previous rounds to the number of tricks counted in step 1 to calculate the total number of tricks.
   • a. If a player's total number of tricks is equal to or greater than the end-of-game number of tricks → The game ends. The player with the fewest total tricks wins.
   • b. Otherwise (not a) → Go on to the next round (return to step 1 of "Preparing a Round").

Players	3	4	5	6
End-of-game number of tricks	20	15	12	10

Void (Additional Rule)

If the tricks taken at the end of the round contain a total of four 9 cards, the total number of tricks taken during that round becomes 0 (Void).

Example:

1. At the end of the round, check the contents of the tricks won.
2. Confirm that the four 9 cards have been won and show them to everyone.
3. Score zero for the number of tricks won during this round (the number of tricks from previous rounds remains unchanged). (In the example: 5 + 0 = 5 tricks.)