All Aboard for Gene's Wagon Train!

by Paddy Tye, First Edition Creative Manager

10th June 2019

When Gene Roddenberry launched his "Wagon Train to the Stars", he envisioned a future for humanity which wasn't focused on wealth, war, greed, poverty or acquisition. Instead these adventurers had a simpler motive: the betterment of mankind.

One episode from The Original Series which captures the motivations for personnel living in the Federation's utopian universe, is "Return to Tomorrow", with Captain Kirk's "Risk is our business" speech.

 "They used to say if man could fly, he'd have wings. But he did fly. He discovered he had to. Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn't reached the moon, or that we hadn't gone on to Mars and then to the nearest star? That's like saying you wish that you still operated with scalpels and sewed your patients up with catgut like your great-great-great-great-grandfather used to. I'm in command. I could order this. But I'm not because, Doctor McCoy is right in pointing out the enormous danger potential in any contact with life and intelligence as fantastically advanced as this. But I must point out that the possibilities, the potential for knowledge and advancement is equally great. Risk. Risk is our business. That's what this starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her."

The card version of Risk Is Our Business from The Cage applies this concept to game terms too.

Firstly, if your Federation Original Series ship and crew takes risk with your efforts to explore space (leaving them "exposed" to potential dangers - ie uncloaked, unphased, undocked, unlanded) they get rewarded by an extra card draw at the end of your turn. This sort of pay-off will be familiar to anyone who has used Federation Flagship: Renewed as a draw engine in an Enterprise-E deck.

Secondly, if your ship and crew (that's ANY ship and crew - this part isn't tied to specifically playing Federation or Original Series) takes risk by attempting missions (the "enormous danger" Kirk mentions in relation to contacting new civilizations) you are first rewarded with a bonus download. These downloads comprise a variety of tools, examined in more detail below:

• Prepare Landing Party - This Objective from the 50th Anniversary Collection helps to add more flavor to your Original Series decks, and the restrictions around using it will align pretty well with building an Original Series deck. Whether you chose to grab a red shirt or some classic equipment, either are likely to help you out - and if you have that "classic trio" of classifications in your solving crew, the extra points and draws will sure come in handy!
• Where No Man Has Gone Before - While the Art on this card is amazing, it may not seem like the most obvious of choices. However, the RANGE boost (combined with bonuses from Five Year Mission) might make the spaceline end a little more attractive (especially if combined with the next card on this list)! As for Quadrant-hoping... not something you might expect in an Original Series deck, but there might be something in this set which would encourage more use of Quantum Slipstream Drive.
• Where No One Has Gone Before - Reviving a classic card from Premiere that makes the spaceline into one big circle! One obvious use here is to download this card and make potential Cytherian-based trips a lot shorter! 15 points for just flying to the next mission? Nice!
• Preserver Obelisk - At up to 4 skills, downloading one of these 23rd Century "natives" can prove quite handy in the right circumstances! Of course, if you've already seeded Preserver Obelisk, an extra "native" personnel might just help solve the mission you are now attempting for an extra 5 points! And if all else fails, just get them to go put on a red shirt...
• Recreation Room - Deck cycling to more swiftly access the better cards in your deck has been a popular strategy since Deep Space Nine's Process Ore came out. That strategy saw a resurgence in recent years with Process Ore: Mining appearing frequently in all sorts of decks. I don't expect it will be a stranger here either, with the addition of Janus VI (and two native personnel to download with Preserver Obelisk). However should your mission selection take you elsewhere, or maybe you don't want to leave personnel exposed on a planet, BUT you want still the benefits of deck cycling, you now have easy access to an alternative way to do it.
• Corbomite Device - This one you'll have to speculate on!

At the end of the day, whatever risks you face, The Cage has plenty of tricks to help you out!

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