Unnatural Selection: Full of Firsts

by Charlie Plaine, Chairman

16th August 2013

Unnatural Selection is an expansion of firsts, and today we're going to talk about many of those firsts as we discuss some of the cards you'll find in this fifty-four (54) card expansion releasing on Friday, August 16, 2013. Yes, you read that right. For the first time, we're releasing a Second Edition expansion with no build-up. The entire expansion is available to download, for free, right here and right now. Go check if you don't believe me, but come back when you're done. We still have a lot to talk about.

Are you back? Good. Okay, let's talk about this expansion. The Continuing Committee is proud to release Unnatural Selection, our twelfth standard virtual expansion for Second Edition. This expansion is available online and free at trekcc.org, and is legal for play in all formats one week from today on Friday, August 23rd, 2013. Unnatural Selection is an expansion all about making decisions and offering choices, including a new option for how to win the game. We're excited to release it and excited to see how it shakes things up for Second Edition.

Before we get into discussing the many firsts that are part of Unnatural Selection, let's address the big one we've already talked about. We've decided to release this expansion this way (without our traditional build up) to give players the most time possible to play with the cards ahead of the 2013 World Championship in October. This was something that was discussed both internally and publicly, and in the end we felt that the best decision was to get the cards out there. Players have just under two months to study and practice with the new cards before they will be used at Worlds, and we're eager to see what effect they have.

But this isn't going to become a regular thing, either. We aren't planning on using this "Drop and Go" release method again, and are working hard to make sure we're planning out our releases more carefully in the future. We feel that we can do a better job planning releases to coincide with major events so that we don't have such difficult timing conundrums in the future, especially now that we're planning out our expansions more in advance.

And don't worry! We'll still be bringing you lots of content include deck lists, articles, and card reviews over the next few weeks as we lead up to the World Championships. You'll just be getting the content in a bit of a reverse order - expansion first, articles second. But there will still be plenty to enjoy!

With that said, let's start by introducing the design team for Unnatural Selection, which you'll see is a team of firsts as well.

James Hoskin [RedDwarf], Lead Designer
Designer Profile: James Hoskin
James has been on two (2) design teams prior to taking the reins for Unnatural Selection, but this is the first time he's been a lead designer. James had a clear vision for his expansion and I think it's going to shake up Second Edition play nicely.

Will Hoskin [Gumbo], Assistant Designer
Designer Profile: Will Hoskin
This expansion is Will's first as a member of our design team. Being brothers, it's no doubt that Will and James have a history of working together. Unnatural Selection is their first official collaboration together as designers.

Nicholas Yankovec [nickyank], Assistant Designer
Designer Profile: Nicholas Yankovec
This expansion is Nick's first as a member of our design team. Another member of Team London, Nick was able to work closely with James and Will on Unnatural Selection. Though all three play together, they have very different design philosophies that are all reflected in this expansion.

Our design team has done excellent work, but Unnatural Selection would never have seen the light of day without the hard work of dozens of volunteers that work on Second Edition. Kudos to all of our play testers, rules guys, creative team members and our Art team. They do so much work and all deserve significant recognition for making this game thrive.

If you appreciate the hard work of all of our volunteers and enjoy having this website available as a hub for our community, we encourage you to make a donation to our operating costs today. Without the support of our community, this site wouldn't exist!

The Value of Gold
Unnatural Selection has its origins over a year ago, when Matter of Time and Tapestry were still just in the concept phases. The first time James pitched his idea of "choices" as a theme (that I could find) was October 2011. I know that I've mentioned this before, but originally Matter of Time was supposed to be the follow up to Lineage and then Project Queeg, James' expansion, would follow that up. Chris Lobban then came to me and pitched the idea for what would become Tapestry and everything got pushed back. In other words, James and his team had a lot of time to work on their cards before they ever even saw the light of day.

During that time, a few different themes kept popping up in their work. (Two of those themes, by the way, would survive mostly intact to see print in Unnatural Selection). As they worked on their expansion, they came to the realization that most of this expansion would be personnel and ships of the Non-Aligned affiliation... so why not embrace it? By the time James posted the first version of the cards for testing, his "choices matter" expansion had evolved to also be another first: an all expansion. And while a few affiliated verbs (events and interrupts) found homes in Unnatural Selection, all of the personnel and ships are gold.

By the way, one of the playtesters said that "this is probably the most exciting initial playtest file I’ve seen" - high praise for James and his team.

An Empire to Build
Another first for Unnatural Selection is the introduction of TCC's first alternate victory condition, and only the game's second since the introduction of The Long Journey Home back in Captain's Log. The centerpiece of this new victory condition is Khan Noonien Singh and his Genetically Enhanced followers as they seek To Rule in Hell.

Based on the story after the events of The Original Series' episode "Space Seed." Khan and his followers have been left behind on Ceti Alpha V and been given the opportunity to build an empire. Once they have conquered their new "home," Khan's right hand man Joaquin can acquire them a starship, allowing them to venture out into the galaxy and find new worlds to win. Once the Genetically Enhanced supermen and superwomen have built an empire of four planets, they will win the game. Once they are awakened, they will have to rely on their Augmentation and their Ambitious Intellect to survive and overcome the obstacles in front of them.

Of course, this leads to another first: a change in the way we name missions. For the first time, we're making a major change to how Second Edition cards are put on their templates. Not graphically, but you'll notice that all of the missions from Unnatural Selection forward will use this new naming scheme. All missions will now feature their location as the title (as has always been done for headquarters), and a descriptive subtitle. However, we will only be going back and updating existing missions as required. This is largely an aesthetic change and will only affect game play by preventing certain missions from being used together. We'll have another article next week for out outlining the nuts and bolts behind this change with a lot more details.

First You Get The Money
Yet another first comes for Thieves, as they finally get a mechanic to call their own; appropriately, they're going to steal your stuff. When they get Heavily Armed, they can take things out of your discard pile (since you obviously weren't using them); or, they can gang up on you and take things out of your hand. And with Organized Crime, they can take events right from your core, although they might have to bribe you with some points to do so. And as icing on their cake of larceny, they'll get to fill up their own hand with Ill-gotten Gains.

Once they have your stuff, they can start profiting from it with Display of Wealth. But not everyone likes to just horde and show off their wealth; someone like Dala, a.k.a. "Captain Janeway," can con her way past dilemmas as long as she's got the resources to do so. Of course, all of this is on top of their existing tricks - such as Pickpocket. If they coordinate things, they might even be able to guarantee success, too.

Do Or Do Not
The theme of choices and decision making runs through the entire expansion, both in the choices you have to make and with the choices your opponent asks of you. Do you take a cheap event from your opponent with Organized Crime, or take their big event and give them 5 points? Will your opponent make you discard your second ship when you play Indelicate Repairs, or get rid of your Bridge Officer's Test? Will you draw extra cards on Rigel X, even if it means your opponent gets an extra dilemma? Choices make up good game play, and Unnatural Selection is filled with choices.

Decisions have always been a big part of dilemma play, too, and continue to be so with the sixteen (16) dilemmas in Unnatural Selection. (I had originally bragged about how this was the first expansion with such a high percentage of dilemmas, but discovered Favor the Bold had more. Oh well, there are plenty of other firsts here!) When you play Challenging Revision, do you pick interrupt to get rid of your opponent's copies of The Central Command; or, do you pick ship to cycle away your extra ships and get a better hand for your next turn? If your important personnel is doing some Soul Searching, do you get him back even if it means giving your opponent points? Are you willing to challenge your opponent's poker face when they flip over a Stone-cold Bluff?

Conclusion
In an expansion full of firsts, players will find a lot of cards designed to shake things up and even more cards meant to provide new options for decks. The choices you will all face because of the cards in Unnatural Selection will make for varied and interesting games, as I expect great debate about the "right" answers on the forums.

Unnatural Selection is available now, and will be legal for all Second Edition tournament play starting on Friday, August 23nd. We are excited to bring you more articles and discussions over the next few weeks as we begin the build-up to the 2013 World Championships in Frankfurt, Germany, in October. The fifty-four (54) cards in this expansion will shake up the environment now and for many days to come, and we're excited to bring it to you!

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Charlie is the current Chairman of the Continuing Committee, and is happy to help contribute to the life and longevity of Second Edition. If you would like to discuss this article, you can do so on the Article Discussions forum!

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