First Edition Rules Updates

by Allen Gould, First Edition Rules Master

14th March 2011

Today is a busy day for First Edition, we have changes to most of our rules documents - Current Rulings, Conversion Rules, OTF Rules, OTF Ban List, and Errata. Many of these changes are interrelated, so let’s take a look through what’s new this month.

Housekeeping

New and updated icons.In previous months, we added definitions for the Crime and Punishment icons; in this update, we add a third icon to the mix (Pursuit) and expand the scope of these icons. All three are “unloaded” icons, meaning there are no special rules attached. The only exception appears in the update to the Conversion Rules, which specifies that Second Edition backwards-compatible cards with the Crime, Punishment, or Pursuit keywords gain the corresponding icon.

All three of these icons will be developed further in upcoming expansions.

A missing icon. The upcoming Second Edition Regional promo version of U.S.S. Enterprise-J is inadvertently missing the [1EC] icon. An update to the Conversion Rules gives this promo card the [1EC] icon so that it can be used in [i]First Edition[/i] games.

BaH! to the Future. The tactic Picard Maneuver was reprinted with updated game text in the virtual reprint collection BaH!, released on March 4th. The updated text is now added to the CRD and applies to all printings of the card.

Rules Changes

Universal outposts. The rules text that made non-Enigma outposts automatically be universal has been removed. As a consequence, the Remote Supply Depot and the Primary Supply Depot have been issued errata to give them the universal icon. All other generic outposts (such as the affiliated outposts) had been previously issued errata to become universal.

The Ferengi Trading Post will become (or stay, depending on one's perspective) unique. Our reasoning is that the generic affiliation outposts are universal. Dominion don’t have those (but there are multiple cards that make it clear you’re expected to be able to have multiples), so they get the change. Ferengi already have a generic outpost, so the limitation isn’t as large an issue.

Short version: all outposts from now on will be universal only if marked; otherwise, they will be unique.

here and there. The rules for “here” in regards to headquarters now apply to all non-site facility text.

download and seed. We’ve added rules to support seeding under a mission as a target for downloading. When this happens, it becomes the first dilemma encountered on the next attempt. If you download and seed a dilemma while resolving another dilemma, the downloaded dilemma seeds first, then the encountered dilemma (if it goes back under mission) would be in front of it.

OTF Changes

Welcome back, DS9. You can seed Deep Space 9 again. The dilemma phase rules for OTF have been adjusted to add a step allowing other cards that seed during the dilemma phase to seed.

No more batch seeding during missions phases. This resolves a problem if both players try to seed the same headquarters. Now it’s first come, first serve. We’ve added a rule that once you pass, you can’t seed any further cards during this phase (to prevent any shenanigans). Once you pass, you’re done.

No scouting for you. Borg lose their “scout opponent’s mission” exception. Borg are now held to the same rules as everyone else regarding an opponent’s mission.

Fixed victory conditions. An unintended requirement to have more points than opponent has been removed - if you meet your victory requirements and your opponent doesn’t (say, because they have 130 points but no planet mission solved), you still win. If both players meet their victory requirements at the same time, high score wins. As well we’ve added in the existing Open rule that says the game ends if both draw decks are exhausted.

OTF Ban List

This month, we're proud to remove three cards from the OTF Ban List, and are happy to report that we are not adding any cards.

Bynars Weapon Enhancement. Similar to previous erratum for Metaphasic and Nutational Shields, we’ve changed it from a global effect to affecting a single ship.

Q. Getting to rearrange the spaceline was crazy good and had to go. Discarding your opponent’s dilemmas was crazy good and had to go. We tried testing it as a wall, and it ended up being The Best Wall In The Game. So, Q is now a really strong single-turn stop. And it’s still remarkably good.

Temporal Rift. This interrupt now only targets your ships, removing the ability to effectively stop a crew for two turns for one card. We’ve also reworded the text to use a countdown.

The First Edition Rules Committee is scheduled to release an update to the CRD on the first Monday of each month. In this case, the release was delayed one week to a procedural miscommunication. This CRD is effective immediately.

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