Cosmic ConneXion^® Classic Rules

     Separate the 24 Greek letter cards from the rest of the deck, shuffle these cards and place them aside. Gather the remaining 28 celestial/point value cards, these cards will become the draw pile. Give the draw pile to the player assigned to be the scribe for shuffling (aka the big bang theory card shuffle). The scribe is the player who will keep track of the words created by each player on a piece of paper or board and award one card from the draw pile for each word created. 

      Deal out the Greek letter cards face down in the normal clockwise direction until all 24 cards have been dealt out. The player to the left of the dealer will be the first player to place a Greek letter card of their choice in Position 1 of the configuration shown in Figure 1. In a clockwise direction the next player will place a Greek letter card of their choice in Position 2 of the configuration shown in Figure 1. This method is repeated for each player’s turn. Each player has a fixed amount of time during their turn to discover a word or words which is displayed within this configuration. Words are formed using any one of the representations on a card; Greek name, Greek Uppercase letter, Greek lowercase letter, English equivalent, or Variant which connects with another card or cards (Greek name, Greek Uppercase letter, Greek lowercase letter, English equivalent, or Variant) in a diagonal or horizontal fashion to form a word. Each time a word is formed the scribe writes down the word and rewards the player one celestial/point value card for each word formed.  Players collect celestial/point value cards and keep them separate from their Greek letter cards.  All of the celestial/point value cards have a value between 1 to 90 points, except for the sun card which has a 0 value on it. The sun card is the single most sought after card. The sun card is the bonus card. If more than 28 words have been created before all 24 Greek letter cards have been played, causing the scribe to run out of celestial/point value cards then a player can pilfer a celestial/point value card from another player of their choosing. The word must be at least 4 letters for a player to pilfer a card from another player. The scribe must continue to write down the words formed until all 24 Greek letter cards have been played.  After the 24^th Greek letter card has been played, the word forming portion of the game is complete. The player’s scores are determined by summing up the values of the celestial/point value cards they have acquired during play. However, to complete the game the player who has acquired the sun card has an opportunity to score additional points. The holder of the sun card enters the bonus round by revealing the sun card and placing it in the 25^th card position as shown in Figure 1. This player has a fixed amount of time to examine the words created during play and written down by the scribe to create a grammatically correct sentence. The player can use as many or as few words from the list as they choose to create a sentence. If the player is successful in creating a grammatically correct sentence, they receive an additional 25 points per word from the sentence created to add to their total. However, if the sentence created is constructed in the future tense, they receive 50 points per word from the sentence created to add to their total. The player with the highest total wins.                   

Cosmic ConneXion^® Classic Rules FAQ

Question 1: The rules state each player has a fixed amount of time to create a word during their turn, how much time is each player allotted?                                                                                                                                                 
Answer: Officially 1 minute, but the players can decide to shorted, lengthen or disregard this rule. The 1 minute rule also applies to the bonus round for creating a sentence. 

Question 2: While forming a word can I reverse direction?                                                                                    
Answer: Yes, a player forms a word by connecting cards in the following ways: Diagonal top to bottom, Diagonal bottom to top, Horizontal left to right, Horizontal right to left, or any combination of these four. 

Question 3: Can I use the same card twice to form a word?                                                                                      Answer: Yes, but only after it connects to another card.

Question 4: Can I use more than one representation on a card when forming a word?                                                     Answer: No, Only one representation on a card can be used for each pass, however if you are able to reverse direction while forming a word, you can use a different representation from that same card during the second pass.

Question 5: Can I use the H instead of the e on the Eta card to form a word?                                                           Answer: Yes, You can use any ONE of the representations, including the eta itself, if it is part of the word you are forming; Example if the eta card connects to the mu card and the Phi card and the Phi card connects to an O (Omicron or Omega card) and the O connects to the Rho card you could form the word metaphor, by using the m from the Mu card, the eta from the Eta card, the ph from the Phi card the O from either the Omicron or Omega card and the R from the Rho card.

Question 6: The Small Greek letter on the Eta card looks like a cursive N, Can I use it as an N?                          
Answer: Yes, as well as the cursive U on the Mu card, V on Nu, O on Sigma and W on Omega.

Question 7: Do I and A count as words?                                                                                                                 
Answer: Yes, they are both words in the dictionary, and are very helpful in the bonus round. 

Question 8: What do the values on the Zodiac Constellation Cards represent?                                                      
Answer: The point values on these cards represent the angle in degrees these constellations occupy in the sky. The Constellations of the Zodiac constitute a 360° circle in the sky. The Constellations of the Zodiac are not equally divided into 30° each, but rather occupy differing portions of the circle depending upon the size of the specific constellation. 

Question 9: Why does the Asteroid Belt have a value of 4.5?                                                                                   Answer: Because the Asteroid Belt physically resides between Mars (4) and Jupiter (5)

Question 10: How many possible outcomes can occur?                                                                                                                     
Answer: Rounded off, the number of permutations equals 6.2 X 10²³ = 620,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or as we like to say, “A lot!” 

Question 11: Do I have to follow all of these rules to enjoy Cosmic ConneXion^® ?                                                        Answer: Absolutely not, These rules pertain to the Classic Rule Set, the purpose of Cosmic ConneXion^®  is to have fun, so use these cards to create your own games or just use them as a learning instrument.



                     A 239 KB pdf of the Rules/FAQ for Cosmic ConneXion is available by clicking here.
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                             To view the Cosmic Connexion demo on youtube click here.