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Power Selection Methods

Mayfair Rules

Deal 1 per player, no choice.
Under More Cosmic Encounter, allowances are made for multiple power games and a set of illegal combinations is listed which can not be taken together by a single person.

Basic Multiple Power Variations

Deal X Flares. Choose Y corresponding powers (Y <= X). Keep Z powers secret (Z <= Y).

Canberra CE Cell

Standard practice is to each draw 4 powers from a deal of 9, and play them secret until revealed. Only a few must be revealed at the start and are so annotated in our version.

Framingham, MA group (I am playing with this group now, ADF)

Deal 4.
In 6 player games, players choose 2, one of which is kept secret.
In 5 player games, players choose 3, one of which is kept secret.
No illegal combinations for individuals. Some powers can not be in the same game together and are so noted on one of the powers, which is the one which goes out of the game (unless someone reveals a secret which can't be in the game with some power already being played - in this case the secret goes away, regardless of which power says it can't be used with the other). Any power removed in this way is replaced by a random power.
All games include Lucre (Eon Version lucre rules). Games include the Praw and/or Hazards if and only if a power involving these elements is in play at the start of the game.

Newsgroup Variation 1 (don't remember the author)

Deal 3 powers to everyone. Pass one to the left and one to the right. Of the three you are now left with, choose 2. No secret powers.

Newsgroup Variation 2 (don't remember the author)

Everyone writes down 5 powers they want. Compare lists. Any power not on multiple lists, the player who wrote it down gets. This means 1 player can get 5 powers and another none! Probably best used with smaller sets of powers like the basic Mayfair CE powers.

Method from Gary Huckabay

To begin the game, each player receives three powers, from which they may choose two. If a player so chooses, they may pay three lucre for an extra power to choose from. (Note: each player starts with six Eon Version Lucre)
Any player who chooses to keep Mesmer/Vulch or Aristocrat/Mutant is subject to flung objects at his or her own risk, and must buy pizza for all players at the next Cosmic Encounter session, or the current one, depending on how hungry everyone is.

From Mark D Melancon (melancon@mail.crl.com)

1) Roll 6 sided dice. High number goes first, next highest second, and so on.
2) Each person gets to CHOOSE their powers... the one time we tried it we used three powers.
3) No one could choose Changeling.

From Jon Daggar (jdaggar@richmond.edu)

Deal 4 (or another number) to each player. Each player can select 2 or trade in 2 to get a new choice until he is left with only 2 or chooses 2. He can do as many rounds of trading as he wishes so long as he has enough powers.