Design Spotlight: Second Edition Deep Space 9

by Charlie Plaine, Chairman

15th November 2017

"I'd like us to be remembered as the Trek series that dared to be different. We took chances in a franchise that has every reason to play it safe and spoon-feed the same old thing to the audience week after week. We challenged the characters, the audience, and the Star Trek universe itself. Sometimes we failed (sometimes spectacularly) but we never stopped trying to push the show into new directions." -Ronald D. Moore, DS9 producer and screenwriter

Overview
Deep Space 9 was one of the original sub-affiliations in the game, debuting with a starter deck in the original Second Edition. Unlike the other headquarters in that initial product, DS9 was the only one that natively allowed multiple affiliations to enter play. While this feat could be done with dual headquarters decks, Deep Space 9 set precedent as a single HQ that could allow Bajorans and Federation personnel to easily work together. Over time, this would be replicated (with Terok Nor, the Maquis, and more) and expanded (to more affiliations) into a signature mechanic for the station.

At a Glance
Here's a quick look at the sub-affiliation:

Deep Space Nine
Nouns	128 Cards (110 Personnel, 18 Ships)
Verbs	17 Cards (13 Events, 4 Interrupts)
Missions	107
First Appearance	Second Edition (2012)
Recent Appearance	Dead Stop (2017)
Appears In	TNG, DS9 and Voyager
Doesn't Appear In	Enterprise, TOS, and Movies

Strengths
My personal belief that one of the most powerful, most useful, and yet least cited strengths of Deep Space 9 is right there on the bottom of the HQ: SPAN 1. That might not seem like much, as almost every other HQ is SPAN 2, but boy does it add up. Think about how many times you send a ship between your HQ and a mission in a game; each time you do that, you're saving at least 1 Range. You don't need to struggle to find a Range 8 ship to get "there-and-back" early attempts; you just need Range 6. It's a big deal, and it's a major asset to any deck using the headquarters. Of course, you don't have to be playing DS9 to do that so it's not really a strength of the sub-affiliation, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it.

However, it does tie into one of the strengths of the sub-affiliation: the Gamma Quadrant. It's not even a subtle theme: one of the big benefits is written right on the HQ. If you're playing out of the station, you can pop in and out of the wormhole to travel to and from the without paying extra Range. You'd think that with that text front-and-center, this would be a major theme of the sub-affiliation, but it's hard to justify "major." There are currently sixteen (16) cards with the icon in their game text. Of those, just over half (9) - including the HQ - can be easily used in a DS9 deck. So while it's true that the majority of the cards go into DS9 decks, it's a fraction of the total cards they have available. A theme and a strength for the deck, to be sure, but not the signature theme.

The biggest theme for DS9 players is playing with lots of affiliations - multiculturalism. Without jumping through hoops, a deck playing out of just Mouth of the Wormhole (Deep Space 9) can have seven (7) affiliations in play: Bajoran, Cardassian, Federation, Ferengi, Klingon, Non-Aligned, and Romulan. That list excludes only Borg, Dominion, and Starfleet. They don't have enough Cardassians, Klingons, or Romulans to get to any of the threshold mechanics, but it is a wide array of colors.

threshold mechanic: Any card or mechanic that requires a certain number and type of criteria to be met before it can be used. In Second Edition, this primarily takes the form of "To play this card, you must command X {type}..." game text. For most of these cards, it is three cards of an affiliation, icon, or keyword.

Deep Space 9 has started to take advantage of this multicultural theme with cards that care about the number of affiliations you have in play, or with cards that want other affiliations in play. It's not a strength of just DS9, but it's a solid strength for this sub-affiliation that most don't have at all. Of course, the sub-affiliation's multicultural benefits don't just care about affiliations: there are benefits for having lots of species as well.

The most unique strength of the DS9ers is their theme of protection. Since life is rough on the outskirts of Federation space (and surrounded by enemies), mechanics that help you keep your resources safe will be very useful. DS9's cards have protection themes in a wide variety of areas: protect your personnel, protect your events, protect your missions against dilemmas, or protect you against opponent's interrupts. Of course, since DS9 has access to most Bajoran cards, you can even get things back if your protection fell short. (But more on that during Bajoran Week.)

Weaknesses
In what is becoming a theme for these articles, many of the strengths I can identify also come with some inherent weaknesses. I'd argue that isn't automatically a bad thing; at the very least, it's realistic. Advantages often go hand-in-hand with disadvantages. For DS9, wanting to play with affiliation-based multiculturalism is a strength, but doing so comes with disadvantages. On the surface, you'll run a greater risk that you can't get a third Federation personnel into play while holding a "three personnel" event. But it also exposes you to some bigger risks with dilemmas like Secret Identity, especially if a savvy opponent picks Martok. Unless you happened to stock an extra Klingon in your deck, that's a "free kill."

Similarly, having a lot of ways to protect your resources is great; but, if you can't get the protection into play (or keep it into play), it's a potential weakness. Medical Teams can keep your personnel safe from a Tragic Turn, but only if you can draw it and play it. And even if you do, you have to keep it from being countered or destroyed. I've heard this summed up well from a Magic discussion in that DS9 has "answers with answers." can protect things, but only if you don't disrupt that protection.

This is a much more meta weakness, as it's not something that's the fault of the sub-affiliation's themes or mechanics. It's really a consequence of their being personnel in so many different affiliations (including for some reason). Since you can easily get three personnel in decks, decks, and decks, it makes the design of "three personne" threshold cards riskier. In fact, an errata to Holding Cell was issued specifically for this reason. This devalues the icon somewhat, as Second Edition design is going to either have to weaken the three icon threshold cards, up the threshold to six, or add an additional restriction.

Finally, I must mention that historically does not have great ships. It's unfortunate that the signature ship of the show, the U.S.S. Defiant, is only in six (6) decks over the past year. To add insult to injury, that's across three (3) different versions of the ship. The SPAN 1 advantage is big, but the high-staffing cost (and high cost overall) of most ships can cause problems. It wasn't until 2009's U.S.S. Centaur that the sub-affiliation had a workhorse ship.

Looking Ahead
Multiculturalism and the Gamma Quadrant were the two major themes brought to the focus for during Phase II development. I don't see any reason to expect differently as Second Edition moves forward. The nature of the station lends itself to both themes; additionally, it's easy for Deep Space 9 decks to care about both species- and affiliation-based multiculturalism.

One particular area I'd like to see developed is making threshold cards that care about having three different affiliations in play, instead of three personnel of the same affiliation. These could be generic, such as "you must command three personnel each of a different affiliation." Those kinds of cards would be useful in a variety of decks, not just decks. Or, we could call out three specific affiliations: "you must command a personnel, a personnel, and a personnel." Calling out specific affiliations would allow the cards to be more powerful (since the threshold is harder) and more thematic.

Given that there are two affiliations strongly wanting to play in the Gamma Quadrant, and three more that are on the cusp, I think future design could easily focus on some love. Second Edition isn't as interactive as First Edition, so there's less benefit to having people in proximity in 2E; after all, you can't just start shooting. But I think there is value in turning types of missions into resource triggers, like was done Founders' Homeworld (Contingent Refuge). It would be clever to see similar kinds of cards, with a Federation or Bajoran spin, for DS9 decks.

Conclusion
Deep Space Nine decks have always been popular. In the early days, it was because of the "SPAN 1" on the card; later, they would have powerful personnel that could avoid being stopped or killed. Recently, it's been on the power of going wide into lots of affiliations and playing quickly. I love seeing how decks evolve from playstyle to playstyle, especially when they remain at a similar level of power and popularity. I enjoy that DS9, the sub-affiliation, is a complex and strange and import as Deep Space 9, the show, has been.

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