Kosmika: One small step for me

So let’s take a look at the book for Kosmika. The game itself is a miniatures agnostic extraction style PvE game with random elements and enemies. The premise is you are a crew of space faring salvagers just trying to survive in (mutant) dog eat dog cosmos. You build a crew, go into a space hulk of some kind and try to get out with as much loot as possible before anything nasty ruins your day. As it’s all random generation no 2 delves into the dark should be the same, but you are never safe.

You go aboard derelicts hoping to find something valuable enough to risk life and limb for, sometimes it pays off, sometimes the life or limb don’t make it. In terms of game play it’s a fairly easy game to play and you don’t require a huge amount of space or stuff to play the game. In fact the most challenging part is a 3 layered board that you can access all the levels of easily without playing an expensive game of twister. I will figure that problem out in a later project post though so that is a future me problem.

Now back to the book, it’s divided up into 5 chapters and a reference tables and charts section. The first chapter covers all the basic how to play stuff. It goes over your tests, basic concepts and obstacles in the game. Chapter 2 goes over how you select your crew to start playing. You pick types and the Boilers they wear, which all come out of your starting Scrip which is the game’s currency. Chapter 3 covers the weapons and gear you can purchase. This is things like weapons, gear and suit augmentation that make it easier to salvage and make scrip with minimal loses. Chapter 4 goes over the sequence of the game and adds in a few more rules on resolutions. It basically tells you how to start a game, what to do each round and how to end when you’re ready to get out. Chapter 5 Is how to generate your missions and the post game process when/if you manage to escape. It also covers the campaign steps for the game so what happens post game, how to upgrade your ship quarters and if what you have bought back is actually worth anything at all. There is also a great little section on crews from the studio.

That covers the contents of the book but what about my thoughts. Well Blacksite Studios are very good at giving you the nuts and bolts of a game without over complicating the playing part. The mission set up and any dangers you face is going to take more time than actually playing. The same goes for the post game process because there is a branching tree and you have to consider how much Scrip you earned, how your crew looks to pick the right path for you at that time. Again it means a second play through is a must. It has that one more game quality you want from this sort of game. For the most part because it’s not overly crunchy there is enough room for you to just have fun and play the game rather than constantly having to go into the book to figure out how you do something. As you can see from the photos provided the book has a very grimdark meets Alien vibe to it. Rating wise I’d give it 4 out of 5 drooling xenos. It’s not a 5 because I feel like the game set up portion of the book is a little too separated and disjointed, but as I am yet to play a full campaign it’s hard to tell if I am being too harsh or maybe even too soft. Only time will tell by either way I highly recommend giving it a look.