Make it So Challenge #6: Gray Matters

by Charlie Plaine, Make it So Host

10th February 2014

Today brings us the second challenge of the team phase of Make it So, the second of four (4) such challenges. Once again, or contestants will be arranged into teams of three (3) members each and are going to have to work together to design cards for this week's challenge. And once again, we will turn to the judges and the public to rate not only the individual cards, but the submissions on their own merits.

As explained this week, the teams are going to be different for each challenge during this phase of the competition. Contestants will work with different people each week, which will come with unique challenges: perhaps the time zones will be less (or more) advantageous, or personalities will mesh more naturally this week versus the previous week. Designers often have to work with many different types of people all across the world, and these challenges are designed to test the contestants ability to work in less than ideal environments.

This week, we're going back to where things all began and working with dilemmas once again. As discussed in Challenge #1, dilemmas must affect mission attempts and not punish players for playing the game; but, over the history of First Edition, not all of the dilemmas have been similarly effective, especially as power levels have risen. For this challenge, the teams will not necessarily be writing new dilemmas, but will be working to support or enhance existing dilemmas.

Grayscale
In April 2011, the Continuing Committee first dipped their toe into the water of "making old cards better" with the release of Shades of Gray. One of the goals of this expansion was to find a way to make some of the old Premiere - Alternate Universe - Q Continuum era dilemmas more useful in the modern era. When the expansion was complete, there were two ways design accomplished this goal.

1. Downloader dilemmas.
A "downloader dilemma" is a single dilemma that, when encountered, allows the owner of the dilemma to download and seed some number of additional dilemmas. These were first introduced in Shades of Gray with cards like Shore Leave and The Vengeance Factor, but would also later appear in Resistance is Futile (Definitely Not Sweedish) and The Next Generation (I'm Not Going to Fight You, Local Trouble). These dilemmas varied from simple two-for-one downloaders to complex ones with effects before and/or after the download. Though their effectiveness has been debated, when paired with Dyson Sphere Door, they did give extra incentive to use several older and underplayed (or underpowered) dilemmas.

The downloader dilemmas, especially in Shades of Gray, are some of the worst offenders in modern design at breaking the template. In fact, these cards were a big part of or impetus to avoid breaking the template as much as possible. It can (and has been) done, but it should be done judiciously and carefully; even then, it should only push to four (4) lines. Going to five (5) lines is probably a sign that your dilemma is overly complex. Aside from the "forgiveness" for breaking the templates if necessary, all of the rules about normal dilemmas (as presented in Challenge #1) still apply for "downloader dilemmas" - with the additional caveat that they must download and seed at least one dilemma. This download must be from a subset of dilemmas only - it must be restricted. One last note: to date, our "downloader dilemmas" all pull from similar sources, i.e. TNG stories get TNG dilemmas. While this isn't a rule, it does make these dilemmas easier to match creatively and does make them more intuitive for players.

2. "Shades of Gray" dilemma enhancers.
The expansion Shades of Gray was named based on a cycle of four (4) events - Anguish, Brutality, Cruelty, Despair - based on the episode of the same name. Each of these seeded events is a hidden agenda () that modified the requirements of a subset of dilemmas in some way; since they are cards, they can be flipped in response to one of the named dilemmas being encountered and are considered to have been in play at that time, allowing for a surprise factor. For example: Jon encounters my copy of Shaka, When the Walls Fell. In response, I can flip my seeded copy of Shades of Gray: Cruelty to require his team to have 2 Diplomacy, 2 Exobiology, and CUNNING>30 to overcome the dilemma. Each of the Shades of Gray events "enhance" the named dilemmas in some way; hence, they are "dilemma enhancers"

All of the existing SoG cards are events; however, each is also (Immune to Kevin Uxbridge) which is technology that design is actively avoiding; if we were to do these now, they might be Incidents. But even that is a tough decision, because the event template - even the expanded template - gives room for lore, and story is very important to these cards. Each of the SoG events from Shades of Gray share a connection through title, image, and lore (with each beginning with a line of lore connecting them and ending with a unique quote). No matter what card type these cards end up becoming, their defining characteristic is that they must enhance (or otherwise modify) a subset of dilemmas in some way.

Here's a fun note: the TNG-based Shades of Gray events were designed in order to allow us to revisit the concept in future expansions for different series. The use of the "Shades of Gray" title and the subtitle (i.e. colon) rule was intentional to allow us to use the hook again for future iterations. We thought there were enough stories with emotional depth or moral abiguity that we could use "Shades of Gray" again for similar cards, even though they would be sourced from different stories.

Challenge #6: Gray Matters
This week, the teams are tasked with creating a suite of six (6) cards designed to enhance, augment, or otherwise improve a particular subset of dilemmas. Teams have the opportunity to select any subset of dilemmas in game, including those already targeted by previous "downloader dilemmas" and "dilemma enhancers". It is highly suggested that teams start by identifying an appropriate subset of dilemmas, and then determining the best way to support those dilemmas.

There are no restrictions on the types of cards the teams need to submit, but they should all work on the same subset of dilemmas. Teams can create any combination of "download dilemmas," "dilemma enhancers", or any other cards in order to accomplish their goals. These cards do not necessarily have to be related, as long as they all act on the same subset of dilemmas. Teams may choose to make new "dilemma enhancers" either as events, or as a different card type, but are encouraged to be internally consistent and avoid excess complexity. (Remember, guidelines and high level rules for each of the card types is available in the MiS Lessons #3 article.)

The judges will be rating your cards on how well they make use of the principles of First Edition design, including elegance of implementation, respect of precedent, creativity and understanding of the state of the game. In addition, judges will be looking for how well your suite of cards adapts the subset of dilemmas to modern play. Hopefully the community will use this challenge's discussion thread to let you know what they're looking for too, but beware: it's impossible to please everyone!

Your entries are due by 11:59 PM server time (Eastern Standard) on Monday, February 17th, 2014. Entries must be sent via PM to MidnightLich on the forums and not posted anywhere else. Voting and judging will be done anonymously, so you may not talk about your cards during the judging period. You will have the opportunity to discuss them after voting is complete. Late entries may be accepted, at a penalty, at the discretion of the judges.

Good luck, and may all your old dilemmas come out of the binder!

Discuss this article in this thread.