This is a Guide to the Cosmic Wimpout Experience. These small cubes will bring you and your friends hours of fun once you know how to use them. So pick them up and hold them while you read on.

Cosmic Wimpout is like life - the interaction of chance and strategy is contained in the play of the game. The more you play the game, the more you'll see that Cosmic Wimpout is indeed like life - sometimes you're in the Cosmos, and sometimes you Wimp Out! So have fun.

And remember...

Cosmic Wimpout is more than an Experience.....it's a Game!

Or at least, that's what the original propaganda states...I hear that this doesn't exist anymore. :) Or does it...?

OBJECTIVES

SETTING UP

Next, decide who will go first. Each player rolls a "Common Cube" and the player with the highest roll starts the play. Of course, if there is a tie for highest roll, those player(s) must reroll. Once a starter is determined, play goes in a counter-clockwise direction. Each turn begins by rolling all five Cubes.

THE CUBES

These score 5 and 10 points respectively unless three or five of them are rolled at once (see below).

Three matching faces rolled all at once scores a Flash, which is worth:
	20 points
	30 points
	40 points
	50 points
	60 points
	100 points

• The FLAMING SUN RULE says that if the SUN is thrown in the same roll as a pair, those three Cubes must be scored as a Flash.
• If the Sun is the only non-scoring Cube in a roll, it must be counted as a 5 or a 10 and set aside, to avoid Wimping Out.

Five matching faces rolled all at once score a Freight Train worth:
	200 points
	400 points
	500 points
	Instant Winner!

Any time the Cubes are cast, and no Numbers, Flashes, or Freight Trains come up, you've Wimped Out, losing all points accumulated during that turn. (There is one exception....see Reroll Clause) The turn passes to the next player. If this happens when rolling all five Cubes, it is called a Train Wreck.

THE PLAY

1. OPENING ROLL:

You need 35 points to get in the game. Note that once you have gotten in the game, this rule does not apply (i.e. you don't need to get 35 points each and every turn...unless you want to, of course).
2. YOU MAY NOT WANT TO BUT YOU MUST

If after any series of rolls you have scored with all five Cubes, you must continue your turn, rolling all five Cubes and accumulating points.
3. FUTTLESS RULE and REROLL CLAUSE

This rule stipulates that Flashes Must Be Cleared. After a Flash, you must continue your turn, rerolling all non-scoring Cubes (or all 5 cubes if you have scored with all 5 cubes). Furthermore, the REROLL CLAUSE states that you cannot match any one of the flash faces when clearing. If you match a flash face when clearing, you must reroll all those cubes just rolled until you can keep 'em or Wimp out.

ENDING THE GAME / LAST LICKS

Ed. Note: This seems to state a different method than just about everyone I know plays with. So I guess it is time for the Alternate Last Licks Interpretation section. For the record, the ones I use and everyone I know uses, are Variant B and C here. Variant A is what I THINK the above is actually saying. Other variants are totally made up for use by House Rule Proposal or whatever... (And in the new rules sheet, they don't even say the above text anymore... so this is really up for interpretation. The above is from the very first edition of the rules sheet.)

When a player achieves the agreed-upon Game Goal, the following procedure occurs:

VARIANT A: Any player now tries to beat the leader's score in one turn. The person challenging the leader may be determined any way desired, either by continuing the counter clockwise order, going by score in ascending or descending order, or alphabetically by name, or whatever you like. If the player fails, the player is removed from the game. If the player succeeds, then a one-on-one battle occurs, where the old leader tries to regain his post. These two players continue until one fails and is removed. Then the next player tries to pass whoever is the leader....and so on, until only one remains.

VARIANT B: In continuing clockwise order, the next player up tries to beat the leader. If the player fails, the player is removed. If the player succeeds, the next person, counterclockwise, must now beat THIS new leader's score. The old leader is not immediately affected in any way.

VARIANT C: All players try to beat the leader's score. Any who fail are removed. Any who succeed stay in. The player with the highest successful score is now the leader, and the rest of the players who are still in the game (including the old leader) must try to beat THAT score. When all players fail to beat a leader, that leader is the winner.

VARIANT D: Same as variant B, mostly...but the old leader is removed from the game - no second chance! (This makes it VERY bad to create a Last Licks situation in a close game!)

Any other ideas on how to vary the endgame specifics?

THE GUIDING LIGHT 
Rules for creating House Rules

1. All players must agree - Unanimous Approval. Any player declining a new rule prevents the change.
2. If put into effect in the middle of a game, the new rule must go into effect the -next- time the relevant situation arises, -not- affecting the current situation if it was the cause for the new rule.

According to the rules sheets that have been distributed until recently, to get a catalog from the manufacturer, you can write to:

Cosmic Wimpout
P.O. Box 3199
Greenfield, MA  01302

Cosmic Wimpout
15 River Rd.
Leyden, MA  01337-9489

Also, if you are interested...

This game is available on at least 2 different MUCKs, for those wanting to play online! All you need is telnet access (though anyone who is serious about MUCKing should have a proper client software like TinyFugue, but one isn't absolutely necessary...), and the addresses in the Cosmic Wimpout on MUCKs page.

The V3.30d FAQ was first HTML-ized by Druel the Chaotic, and revised and updated from there, to become what you see here.. Thanks, Druel, wherever you are now, for giving my old text FAQ its original facelift, inspiring me to do better! (and Hail Eris!, btw)

Oh boy... I've seen this FAQ a number of other places, with attributions mangled or deleted, information links kept but unlinked, etc. If you see this FAQ anywhere but on Blue Neptune (soon to be Raw Bandwidth), you are looking at a copy that I do not maintain and may well be FAR out of date. For the latest revision, make sure to check out the original location at: http://blueneptune.com/~zio/CW/

And apparently, someone at some point somewhere responsible for the official cosmicwimpout.org site found a copy of this FAQ plus a tack-on of the official Nairinthus House Rules list, attributed it to the location where they found it (even though it was in fact linking back to the original here...thanks J.L.!), removed all the attribution information (even though all the attribution at the time was rather outdated, but still...) and posted it! I got quite a few surprised mails from people whose stuff in my House Rules section got there! Yes, they HAVE been notified, but it probably will get lost in the likely zillions of spam mails they and anyone else usually gets the second they put their email address on a webpage! But I can try, at least... For the record, the bulk of the rules in that version of the list were created in 1991, and posted soon thereafter SPECIFICALLY for a CW tournament held in 1992! The ascii graphics weren't even actively posted until a couple months before the MUForth version of the game was created and went live in 1994. (and is running to this day, praise be!). Want to use this stuff? Excellent...but please PLEASE give credit! A link to this page or the main CW Index Page which leads here is perfect... since this has been updated a few times recently...and since the naming scheme of the pages may change sometime, the Index Page will always take people in the right direction. :)