''Blue Moon'', published by

Kosmos The cosmos (, ) is another name for the Universe. Using the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos, and understandings of the reasons for its existence and significance, are studied in ...

and Fantasy Flight Games in 2004, is a

living card game Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a game company based in Roseville, Minnesota, United States, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, card, and dice games. As of 2014, it is a subsidiary of Asmodée Éditions. History Fantasy Flight Publ ...

(LCG) designed by Reiner Knizia.

Genre

''Blue Moon'' is a fantasy two-player card game made up of 344 cards. Apart from a few promotional cards, all cards are sold in decks of fixed composition so that there are no "rare" cards, and there is no luck involved in acquiring them.

Gameplay

The gameplay of ''Blue Moon'' simulates the struggles of various characters who live in the fictional "Blue Moon" world. Each character has their own unique traits and gameplay mechanics. This is represented by a 30-card deck (plus a "leader" card). The base ''Blue Moon'' game box contains a small game board and three small plastic dragons which are used for scoring counters during the game. The base box also contains two complete decks for the Vulca and Hoax characters. ''Blue Moon'' cards are large (120mm × 70mm) and resemble tarot cards. All decks of cards come in adequately-sized cartons. The following additional characters are available to be bought separately: * Mimix * Flit * Khind * Terrah * Pillar * Aqua * Buka (Buka Invasion) In addition, there are two more decks titled ''Emissaries & Inquisitors: Allies'' and ''Emissaries & Inquisitors: Blessings.'' These decks contain additional cards which can be used in at least two ways. Advanced rules in the basic set allow players to have more freedom in constructing their own decks. Each deck is based on a single character with imported cards from other characters limited by the deck construction costs of the cards (measured in "moons"). The ''Emissaries & Inquisitors'' decks allow additional deck-building possibilities. Many ''Blue Moon'' cards carry text to specify its influence on the game (occasionally overriding the game rules) and is therefore very language-dependent. Known available editions exist in English (Fantasy Flight Games), German (Kosmos), Dutch (999 Games, excluding the Buka Invasion), French (Tilsit, incomplete), and Japanese (Hobby Japan). Some promotional cards have been released and given as gifts at various gaming events.

Publication history

In 2006, Fantasy Flight Games published a ''Blue Moon''-related board game called ''

Blue Moon City ''Blue Moon City'' is a 2006 designer board game by Reiner Knizia. The game has similar artwork to, and some thematic connections with, the Blue Moon card game, also designed by Knizia. It is a city-building game with a heavy fantasy theme. Pu ...

.'' While it is not compatible with ''Blue Moon'' card game and is a complete

German-style board game A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, (generally just referred to as board games in Europe) is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical componen ...

for 2 to 4 players, it is set in the same "Blue Moon" world. It also shares artwork with the ''Blue Moon'' card games, but apart from some fairly tenuous thematic links, it is a different game. During the 2007 edition of the Lucca Comics & Games Italian comics and games convention, Reiner Knizia himself confirmed that no new decks for ''Blue Moon'' were under development, as the publisher was no longer interested in publishing them.

Illustrators

* John Matson Vulca *

Franz Vohwinkel Franz Vohwinkel (born 1964 in Munich, West Germany) is a German artist and illustrator whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Works Vohwinkel drew the cover art for the book ''Dataware'' (1998) for TSR's ''Alternity'' game, and illustra ...

Hoax and Mutants (also dragon designer) * Todd Lockwood Mimix * Jim Nelson Flit * Scott M. Fischer Khind * Daren Bader Terrah *

Michael Phillippi Michael Phillippi (born ) is an American artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Education Michael Phillippi started his illustration career in 1997 after graduating from the Savannah College of Art & Design. Career His ''Dungeon ...

Pillar * Randy Gallegos Hyla *

Lars Grant-West Lars Grant-West is an American artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. He currently teaches illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design. Early life and education Lars Grant-West was born in Brooklyn. He attended New York City ...

Aqua * Jeremy Jarvis Interference Cards

Reviews

*'' Pyramid''

References

External links

Official ''Blue Moon'' page
(Fantasy Flight Edition) * {{bgg, 9446, ''Blue Moon''
Kosmos-supported ''Blue Moon Fans'' website
(English language forum)
"(Almost) official" English language FAQ list and Simple Tournament Rules
Card games introduced in 2004 Dedicated deck card games Reiner Knizia games Kosmos (publisher) games Fantasy Flight Games games