When we started designing cards inspired by Decipher-era First Edition expansions, I didn't expect Deep Space 9 to be one of the harder cards to nail down. And there's no way this side of the Great Barrier that I ever would have expected our final choice to be a new version of the Lwaxana Troi persona. But though we didn't start with her, the finished product is an interesting and useful card.
When we were starting design, one of the first things looked at was possible conversions, and there was one that stood out: the U.S.S. Bellerophon, Conference Host from Second Edition's Raise the Stakes. Converting this should would allow us to end a repeatable download loop where players could play the ship, download a personnel, then return the ship to hand. It seemed like it was a natural and obvious choice... except that it came from a story in Season 7 of Deep Space Nine.
Let me back up a minute. As I explained in the announcement article, we were not limiting ourselves to the design technology of the time when we made the cards in The 20th Anniversary Collection. However, we did decide to limit ourselves to the same source material used in the original expansions. For example, we would only use cards from The Next Generation for Premiere, Alternate Universe, and Q Continuum. This also meant that, since Deep Space Nine was released in the summer of 1998, all the material from most of Seasons 6 and 7 was "off the table" for our card, and we'd have to leave the Bellerophon for another day.
Would it have been the end of the world if we'd bent the rule and made a proper First Edition Bellerophon? Probably not. But, as designers, it's important to stick to your rules and guidelines. Limitations such as this can end up pushing us into more creative spaces. And while it's not a good idea to blindly follow rules, it's important to follow the ones you thought were important enough to impose. So the Bellerophon was out, and we were looking for another card to represent Deep Space Nine.
For various reasons (mostly expansion balance), we were looking for a personnel to fill this slot in The 20th Anniversary Collection. As it turns out, most of the major characters from the first five seasons of the show already appeared in the game. Now, one of my favorite episodes from the first five seasons is "In the Cards." If you're not familiar with the episode, it involves Jake and Nog going through a series of deals and favors to try and get a rare baseball card as a gift for Captain Sisko. In the midst of this episode, there is a peculiar character I wanted to create: Dr. Elias Giger.
Dr. Giger is a unqiue individual. He's smart and skilled, but paranoid of the "soulless minions of orthodoxy" and is dedicating himself to research on immortality via his "cellular regeneration and entertainment chamber." All-in-all, I thought this character would be a great, interesting, and fun personnel. Unfortunately, nobody else on the design team had the same love for the character I did, and that together with the fact that we couldn't quite get a design for him we liked meant that Dr. Giger would have to wait for another day.
The answer would come as I was perusing the skill matrices for the various affiliations, looking for inspiration. I discovered there were only two (2) personnel with both a DS9 property logo and Empathy - was there any DS9 empaths we could add? Given that there are seventeen (17) dilemmas that ask for it, it seemed like a worthy skill gap to patch. And with the light bulb that clicked on, finally we arrived at the illustrious Mrs. Troi. Not only is she a very well known character (appearing nine times across two series), she was played by Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, the "First Lady of Trek" - her appearance in this expansion would be a fitting tribute.
Lwaxana Troi, in her incarnation, retains her Empathy x2 from her previous versions, but gains Diplomacy and Honor. To show that she's matured from her days aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. She's suffered a slight drop in STRENGTH but gained a boost in INTEGRITY to go with her Honor. Clearly, Mrs. Troi has outgrown her devious ways (but she's no less clever). The new version of her persona is now an ambassador, allowing her to report for free to Office of the President. In addition, since she mentions DS9 in her lore, she reports for free to Deep Space 9 via Here By Invitation (as long as you have Guest Quarters).
Finally, she has the ability to "rescue" the latest object of her infatuation - Odo. Even if Odo has found himself trouble and in need of regeneration (i.e. he's in the discard pile), Lwaxana can find him and bring him to her side. I'm not sure Odo will feel too great about this, but it's useful for DS9 players! Of course, being romantically involved with Odo has other benefits... but you'll find out about those a little later.
If you've been itching to try the / deck lately, why not try out the one below and give Mrs. Troi a whirl? Feel free to edit or customize the deck to your liking or to your area, and let me know if you find anything that works better for you. In the mean time, enjoy the new adventures of the new Lwaxana Troi!
Discuss this article in this thread.
This deck is legal in the following Card Pools:
This deck is legal in the following Rules Sets:
This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:
Mission (6) | ||||
Mission | ||||
3 V | 1x Access Relay Station | |||
29 V | 1x Alter Records | |||
23 V | 1x Characterize Neutrino Emissions | |||
9 V | 1x Destroy Iconian Gateway | |||
31 V | 1x Establish Interquadrant Communications | |||
S | 1x Relocate Settlers |
Seed Deck (30) | ||||
Dilemma | ||||
8 V | 1x "God" | |||
45 VP | 1x A Fast Ship Would Be Nice | |||
5 V | 1x Dead End | |||
6 C | 1x Dejaren | |||
U | 1x Ferengi Ingenuity | |||
U | 1x Firestorm | |||
7 V | 1x Friendly Fire | |||
8 V | 1x Gomtuu Shock Wave | |||
70 VP | 1x Hanonian Land Eel | |||
P | 1x Hippocratic Oath | |||
U | 1x In the Pale Moonlight | |||
15 C | 1x Kazon Bomb | |||
C | 1x Lack of Preparation | |||
6 V | 1x Medical Crisis | |||
19 VP | 1x Personal Duty | |||
C | 1x Scientific Method | |||
8 R | 1x The Clown: My Festival | |||
U | 1x The Higher... The Fewer | |||
Doorway | ||||
9 V | 1x Alternate Universe Door | |||
1 V | 1x Battle Bridge Door | |||
93 VP | 1x Q's Tent: Civil War | |||
15 V | 1x The First Stable Wormhole | |||
Facility | ||||
Bajoran | ||||
18 V | 1x Deep Space 9 | |||
Incident | ||||
23 V | 1x Call for Reinforcements | |||
18 V | 1x Q the Referee | |||
108 VP | 1x Reshape the Quadrant | |||
2 VP | 1x Tribunal of Q | |||
64 P | 1x Trust the Prophets | |||
65 P | 1x We Need You Here | |||
Objective | ||||
26 V | 1x Assign Support Personnel |
Site (6) | ||||
Site | ||||
3 V | 1x Commander's Office | |||
5 V | 1x Docking Ports | |||
8 V | 1x ❖ Guest Quarters | |||
11 V | 1x Ops | |||
13 V | 1x Ore Processing Unit | |||
18 V | 1x Security Office |
Draw Deck (37) | ||||
Event | ||||
8 V | 2x Regenerate | |||
10 V | 2x Surprise Party | |||
16 V | 1x Treaty: Federation/Bajoran | |||
Incident | ||||
25 V | 1x Here by Invitation | |||
Objective | ||||
30 V | 1x HQ: Secure Homeworld | |||
Personnel | ||||
Bajoran | ||||
33 V | 1x ❖ Anara | |||
37 V | 1x ❖ Anneli | |||
42 V | 1x ❖ Dohlem | |||
36 V | 1x General Krim | |||
U | 1x ❖ Jabara | |||
R | 1x Li Nalas | |||
R | 1x Odo | |||
Bajoran/Ferengi | ||||
41 V | 1x Deputy Quark | |||
R | 1x Leeta | |||
4 V | 1x Rom | |||
Federation | ||||
R | 1x Admiral Ross | |||
61 V | 1x Arjin | |||
62 V | 1x Benjamin Sisko (Emissary) | |||
68 R+ | 1x Ezri Dax | |||
C | 1x ❖ Graham Davis | |||
63 V | 1x ❖ Hoya | |||
64 V | 1x Jadzia Dax (Emissary) | |||
65 V | 1x Jake Sisko (Emissary) | |||
66 V | 1x Julian Bashir (Emissary) | |||
C | 1x ❖ Karen Loews | |||
10 V | 1x Lwaxana Troi (20th Anniversary) | |||
67 V | 1x Melora Pazlar | |||
60 V | 1x Michael Eddington | |||
68 V | 1x Miles O'Brien (Emissary) | |||
69 V | 1x ❖ Paulson | |||
C | 1x ❖ Taylor Moore | |||
Non-Aligned/Ferengi | ||||
R | 1x Aluura | |||
Ship | ||||
Bajoran | ||||
U | 1x ❖ Bajoran Scout Vessel | |||
Federation | ||||
78 V | 1x U.S.S. Orinoco | |||
Time Location | ||||
81 V | 1x ✶ The Celestial Temple |
Q-Tent Side Deck (13) | ||||
Equipment | ||||
U | 1x Medical PADD | |||
Event | ||||
14 V | 1x Renewal Scroll | |||
Incident | ||||
C | 1x Dabo | |||
Objective | ||||
27 V | 1x Explore Gamma Quadrant | |||
Personnel | ||||
Bajoran | ||||
C | 1x ❖ Kallis Ven | |||
R | 1x Kira Nerys | |||
Non-Aligned | ||||
66 VP | 1x Morn | |||
Ship | ||||
Federation | ||||
79 V | 1x ❖ U.S.S. Danube | |||
80 V | 1x U.S.S. Defiant | |||
Site | ||||
2 V | 1x ❖ Cargo Bay | |||
10 V | 1x Infirmary | |||
15 V | 1x Quark's Bar | |||
16 V | 1x Science Lab |
Battle-Bridge Side Deck (12) | ||||
Tactic | ||||
13 V | 12x Evasive Maneuvers |
"Outside the Game" and/or Seed-Phase Downloads (2) | ||||
Doorway | ||||
12 V | 2x Bajoran Wormhole |