Back from the Future

by Matthew Zinno, Errata Team Leader

15th January 2018

It's not time to release errata, right?  Like Rules updates, that generally comes on the first Monday of the month. 

"DEVIDIAN DOOR!" 

I will now put into play an Errata batch out of the usual schedule!

Rules has been planning an adjustment to the dilemma timing rules, to address situations like Quantum Torpedo inteacting with Disgraceful Assault.  The one dilemma which, as written, didn't fit with the new rule was Radioactive Garbage Scow.  Consequently, it is getting a slight wording update so that it will conform with the new rule.  It still plays the same as it did before, but now it will continue to once the timing change goes into effect.  

This small change is actually the majority of the update, thanks to there being 5 printings of this dilemma (including two printings of its Combo).  Proofreading the three non-Combo instances side-by-side was entertaining, reminding me of the triple burglar from Noises Off ("I remember when I used to do banks.")

Diplomatic Conference also gets some slight adjustments wording tweak which change its gameplay hardly at all.  The primary change is simply to take a complicated Glossary entry and put the rules onto the card instead.  It has always been the case that the way the card works, presuming that you're not all treatied up, is that you have multiple incompatible Away Teams on the planet (in practice, this is frequently after you beam them down and then change the affiliation of various dual-affiliation personnel), and then as one action they join together to attempt.  But this was only mentioned in the Glossary entry, and so it effectively became a hidden rule which all players did not know.  Now this behavior is spelled out on the card instead.  It's been rumored that Planet of Galactic Peace would be used to achieve this goal; it was considered, but in the end the Errata Team decided it was happier with this text, which is shorter (that new card has a really long name) and doesn't extend the mixing behavior to non-attempt situations.

The singular change to the behavior of Diplomatic Conference is that a V.I.P. is no longer required; you are now free to use 4 aligned V.I.P.s (for example, The Emissary, Major Rakal, Koval, and Ilon Tandro).  As before, someone in the Away Team needs to match one of the affiliation attemptability icons on the mission, just because that's how mission attemptability works.

Oppress Population is the Mirror Universe version of the planet Vulcan.  Mirror homeworlds were under debate during design of Crossover, and it wasn't 100% decided that Design would commit to having them.  So other homeworlds got cut from the set, and Vulcan was kept (as it was not a fully-released affiliation yet) anyway but lost its lore reference to being a homeworld.  Two sets later in The Terran Empire, mirror homeworlds were confirmed, and we got mirror Earth and Q'onos.  Mirror Vulcan is now a homeworld, to match them.

Interphase Generator suffered from PAQ-era wording.  It referred to other cards, but vaguely and not by exact card title as is the current standard.  This invited some unusual questions.  Since the words it used were not card titles, were they characteristics that no-one had noticed?  Which "Archers" and "Rebels" could it nullify -- perhaps Jonathan, and guys like Al Vermont?  Could it nullify Nausicaans like Zon, who himself received errata to clear up a similar question?  Today's wording modernization should now avoid those situations. 

As always, big thanks to the people involved in getting these errata out, which include the various members of the Art, Rules, Playtesting, and Errata Teams!

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