Gamehelpcosmicritual

Overview

It is the end times. Humanity has foreseen this, however, and so we desperately call upon the Omniscient Ones. Cosmic Ritual is a worker placement game in which you lead a cult tasked with establishing a new world order in the wake of the apocalypse. By preparing rituals and carefully scheming against competing cults, you devote yourself to an Omniscient One in order to persuade it to become humanity’s caretaker. Your goal is to summon an Omniscient One by paying the greatest tribute at the end of the 6th cycle. You’ll need all the influence and cunning at your disposal to usher in the next era!

Goal

Score the most tribute by preparing rituals, collecting essence, unlocking forms, and fulfilling prophecies.

Phase Structure

A cycle consists of 3 phases:

1) Ritual Sacrifice

Players manage their cultists in this phase, thus dictating their income and actions for the cycle. Turn order for the next cycle is determined here.

2) Scheming

Players place their cultists on action cards to perform actions, thus executing their strategy.

3) End of a Cycle

Clean-up phase in which you set up for the next cycle. Move the cycle marker to the next cycle space shown on the tracker. If this would move past the VI space, the game ends.

Ritual Sacrifice

Simultaneously bid the number of cultists you wish to sacrifice for the cycle. You place a bidding card from your hand faceup onto your bidding card stack. In turn order, you transfer cultists from your pool to your pyre equal to your bid to gain that much essence or commit to an Omniscient One/Form of Essence. Next cycle’s turn order is then determined as follows: the player with the highest bid goes 1st. If two or more players are tied, the player who is earliest in the current cycle’s turn order goes 1st. The remaining player positions are determined using the same rules.

Scheming

In turn order, place your remaining cultists on revealed action cards one at a time. You must be able to pay the cost of the space you place your cultist on; otherwise, you sacrifice that cultist and skip your action. Every cultist you place must be connected to the ritual site board or action cards you occupy. To reach an outer action card, you may bypass an inner action card adjacent to it by paying 1 essence matching that inner action card. When a player’s action is skipped, they may convert 1 essence in their pool to a nearby colour or a colour with a star you've unlocked.

End of a Cycle

For cycles 1-5: Advance the current cycle token (clockwise) to the next action card in the inner ring and regain your cultists to your pool. If there are 3 bidding cards in your stack, draw all of those bidding cards into your hand.

Player Boards

Each player has:

• Essence
• Cultists
• A Form
• A God
• Stars
• Leaves

Actions

Inner Actions

Describe the six inner actions here.

Outer Actions

Describe the twelve outer actions here.

End of Game

Describe final tribute scoring here.