Dr. Finn's Book of Solo Strategy and Word Games | Cosmic Run: Mission One Tutorial and Playthrough
Transcript
This is Dr. Finn's Book of Solo Strategy and Word Games, or DFBSSWG for short. Catchy. DFBSSWG is a collection of eight solo games that are all played on a single side of a single piece of paper. This book contains eight copies of each game, and all you need to play is a writing implement and four D6s. There's even a link to a free online dice simulator that you can use on your phone. So, this is really the perfect travel companion for, you know, a plane or a train ride, really any form of transportation. Even a zeppelin, you're ready to go. Today, I'm taking a look at Cosmic Run: Mission One, a simple roll-and-write game where humanity is racing to discover planets before evil aliens, or something like that. This is a re-implementation of the 2015 game Cosmic Run, which had several expansions and remakes, including Cosmic Run: Rapid Fire and Cosmic Run: Regeneration.
The Cosmic Run Cinematic Universe is bigger than I ever could have imagined. So, here we go. This is the entire game right here. We're going to start by rolling all four dice. We're then going to go kind of Yahtzee style, where we're going to take any number of these dice and lock them in on these various locations. We have these four planets here, as well as these six advisors or allies. The allies have very specific numbers that they will accept, one through six. So, we could take this five and assign it to this ally. And each ally will give us a special ability that we can, you know, use whenever we want to. Most of these will let us manipulate the dice in, you know, a certain way. For example, here we can adjust the die plus or minus one. Up here, we can move a die that we've previously placed to a different location.
Here, we can re-roll a die. Number three, we can re-roll one to two dice. Four will let us flip a die to the other side, and six just lets us turn a die to any value that we want. We can activate each of these allies up to three times in the game. Now, the planets work a little bit differently. Below the planets, this represents our spaceship's progress towards these planets. And above the planets are the aliens' progress. In order to make progress, we need to satisfy the condition on each of the planets. So, for this planet, we just need to have a number that matches the lowest ship. So, in this case, a one. And then we would need a two. And we could do that all in the same round. We could put the one, we could put the two, we could even put the three.
That might not be such a bad way to start. For the second planet, we just need pairs of numbers, then three of the same number, and then four of the same number. We're basically in a race to get to the planet, right? So, as you can see, we come up here, and then if we're the first one to reach the planet, we'll get seven points, then 12, 15, or 20. If the alien reaches first, we're going to get negative points. We're going to subtract whatever victory point value we've reached from that total and get that in negative points. So, if we were here, and then the alien got to this planet, it would be 7 - 2 = 5. We would get five negative points. We also get points at the end of the game depending on how many of these uh ally abilities we've activated, but not used. So, for instance, if we've activated all three, but used none of them, we'll get six points.
If we used one, we'd get three points cuz there'd be two left over, one left over, we get one point for each of these. So, that's how scoring works. Let's just dive in, it'll make a lot of sense. So, we need to at least lock in one die, but we can lock in as many as we want. And then and get to re-roll, and each time you reroll, you have to lock in at least one die. I think I will just come here to this first planet. We'll just do the 1 2 3 all at once. And let's just reroll this.
We'll lock this in here at the two. So, we just circle this. That's going to let us reroll one die and we can use that whenever we want. Or if we don't use it, that'll at least be worth one point. And then here, we got the one. Then we got the two. Then we got the three. Now, there's one last rule to keep in mind. If the alien were to reach this planet before we reached one of these victory points, so in this case, you know, we've now reached that victory point. But it Let's say we had never started this planet and then the alien got there, we lose immediately. So, you can't just ignore some of these planets. You've got to at least start all of them and get to the first victory point mark before the alien reaches.
So, now you're asking, how does the alien turn work? Well, it's quite simple. You just roll one die. Three. And now you're going to go through the tops of all of these and you're going to mark off any of them that have a three. So, we have a six. No. This is a three or a four. So, yes, we're going to mark that off. We have a five and then a one or a two. So, there we go. We mark that off. If none of them match the number that's rolled, you then pick one of them. So, they're going to progress every round no matter what. And now it's our turn. We're just going to keep doing that back and forth until someone has reached all four planets.
So, let's see what we roll. We got a whole lot of nothing here. We should be a little concerned about this. So, let's maybe just bank in one and reroll.
We could put the four here if we wanted, or we could maybe start getting some of these. I'm going to put the three here. Okay, we got another six. Perfect. And we got another two. I say let's keep that two. So, now we have one of those, we got one of those. And we got one pair. Now, it would be possible to get two pair in the same round, and then you can move up two times. I think you get it. Okay, he rolled a three again. And here we go, that's nothing.
So, now we have to pick one. Maybe up here. Back to our turn. Oh, we rolled three twos right out of the gate. You got to love that. We'll put it right here. And what the heck, let's just keep this.
Get a nice five. Oh, and I got to mark down my got to mark down my winnings. There we go, we're progressing. This is good, we're taking the instant win away. Whoa, that got away from us. That was a two. Wow, the one thing that's a nothing. Yeah, let's maybe spread them out a little bit, I guess. Although if we if we do this, if they roll a six, then they get both of those. It's also important to note that we can't use our abilities to alter this die. All of these abilities only apply to our own rolls. Looks like whatever we do, like if I take that six out, then that's a one or a two. If he rolls a one, then that those are two there. Maybe I'll take that risk, though.
Sure that won't bite me. Yeah, I think I'm going to go pair of fives right off the bat. I like this four here. We'll just start moving that up. And then I'll do a roll. Okay. I don't mind. I don't mind. Let's get three of those. If we don't spend any of these, that's six points. So, that could be valuable. And then we got one here and one here.
If necessary, we can run that real quick and uh beat them here. A five. Okay. That's fine. That's just right here. We can handle that.
Three threes and a four. Can't beat that. Let's just take it. Let me reroll this. A six. Let's just take the six, maybe. Yeah, we'll just take the six. That's a turn to any face. So, that seems pretty good. Yeah, I actually forgot to mark down my triple planet. But don't worry, I can fix it. Bing. A five. Nothing. I could be real cheeky and put it here. And then try to fill this up just to sort of waste it. That's playing with fire.
But I've got a lot of these things here. Is it worth potentially having to spend them, though? Yeah, let's let's play cheeky. We're going to play cheeky. So, we want to get a five and a six. Okay. Ooh, two pair.
Tell you what, we'll take the one pair. We'll take the five. And then we'll do our adjust by one. Bam, bam. Cross that out. Turn that to a six. You can't go from a six to a one or a one to a six, by the way. That's not allowed. But there we go. We can now beat them here.
So, that's seven points. We can lock that in. And now we cross these out. There's no more going to this. This planet is done. We're only dealing with these three. We also got a pair here. Okay, we're making our move. Now, we haven't started over here, so four Uh-oh, this is the doubler cuz that's a one or a four. That's a three or a four.
Oh, no, and a six would get all three now. So, this is getting a little dangerous. two twos Kind of want to get up there just to feel safe. Let's reroll these.
four and a six Let's take the six down here, reroll this. And a one, we'll put that up here. Okay, don't roll a six. Do not roll a six. Hey, good. One is nothing. Are we going to play the same game that we did last time? Yes, we are. This is the game we're playing. We just need one pair. That should be no problem. Although, we're not going to roll it right off the bat, are we?
I'd like to not have to use this. And just turn anything to one side, but let's take the one. Actually, I would like to have some of these move dice. Let's take the two. Let's reroll these. Of course, I roll a I'm going to lock that one in.
We'll lock in the three.
[sighs]
Dang. All right, I'll do a turn to any value. I'm not going to risk losing this planet. So we go, that's 12.
Oh, yeah. And now we cross that out. So now we're really just dealing with these two. A six would still be bad, so no six. One, that works. Now we have to get at least one on here or we lose the game immediately. That's not great.
At least if I cross this off, he's not going to double. So now we need to start using our special abilities here. Pair of ones. Should we go for a four of a kind? Ah, I don't have any plus or minus ones. I think I'll have to check this. I think when you move a die, can you move more than one or just one? Here, I'm going to have to actually check that. So I do need to flip to the rules. Yep, it was what I thought. You can move all placed dice. So if we can only get a triple, we can use one of those to move them all over to that planet. So, that's very useful.
But, yeah, if I had this plus or minus one, I could just move that. So, let's just roll them again. That's awful. I'm going to use a reroll one to two dice to roll both of these. Dang.
I'm going to place this four here, and we'll reroll this. It's a four. I'm going to use this to turn it to a one. And then I'll use this to move it. Ugh, brutal.
And then I got that four. Two. This one. Okay, this is getting a little scary now.
Well, I think we're going to need a turn any value. So, let's just go for a triple. Yeah, let's reroll all of these. Wow.
Okay, should have chosen sixes, apparently. Yikes. I'm going to do a re-roll. Or do I try to get a little bit more? Well, no, cuz I got a Let's try to re-roll these again. We'll re-roll both of them again. I forgot that a five would also work. I could flip it to the other side. There's a two. And we can roll it. I got it I got to do a re-roll one. Cuz we need a two or a five. A three. I really needed more of these fives.
I mean, I have I'm going to do this one more time. And then I'm going to give up.
I rolled so many sixes. Oh, boy. Should not have completed these two so early, I guess. I can't even put this anywhere. I guess I could flip it and then put it there. Okay, let's re-roll one.
Okay, I just have This is just cursed. This is just cursed. So, this I'm just I can't place this anywhere. So, we'll just place it there. Nothing will happen. Nothing happens. We get one of these. That was a disaster. Oh, my goodness. Please don't roll a five. Okay. I mean, we're going to lose here. So, let's put it here, I guess.
We need some better luck. Good lord.
[sighs]
I'm going to put the five there. Wow, we have not rolled. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to put this five here. And then I can move them over if I roll another five. Brilliant.
There we go. Let's put the five here or no, let's put the five here. It actually doesn't matter cuz once you move you can move all the dice. I can't flip it to a five. Let's get that four of a kind while we can. So, that'll be a five and then we'll move them to here. So, now we're not going to instantly lose. So, we will score something.
Okay, one. Let's put it here. Now, with a triple we can Honestly, with either we can at least minimize our losses. Pair fours. Okay, we'll take that.
All right, I can flip the three to a four. Oh, but I can't move the dice cuz I don't HAVE IT. [gasps]
OH, NO. WELL, that is a kick in the pants. How lucky can you be? I actually finished this planet. That means I should score the full 15 points.
Oh, no. And if he rolls a two, then they're both going to get hit. Oh. Ouch. Okay, so we got to the 13 spot. 15 minus 13, that's just minus two. That's not too bad. This is 20 minus eight, that's minus 12.
The game is now over, so let's see. This is zero. Right? We used up all the ones that we activated. Zero. Zero. We do have one here, so this is one point. Zero. Zero.
So, here we go. 1920 minus 14, our total score was a six. My final score is actually 23, which still isn't great, but it's more respectable than six. Yikes. So, yeah, that is uh a pretty, pretty pathetic score right there. I'm pretty sure uh any of you can beat that on your first try. But there you have it. That was Dr. Finn's Book of Solo Strategy and Word Games. Again, that was Cosmic Run Mission One. There are seven other games in this book, which I'll highlight in due time.
But that's going to do it for me. I'd like to thank all the financial supporters of totally tabled including the totally radical hextra John Kohler Scott Myers Kevin Kwalls and Jay Satterwhite as well as the totally bodacious for quits. If you're interested in becoming a member you can join on my YouTube channel or my patreon at www.patreon.com/totallytabled. You'll gain access to my new exclusive podcast table talk as well as unboxing videos and whatever extra stuff I come up with. As always thank you so much for watching and goodbye.