Warp Pack: Access Denied Release

by Ross Fertel, Second Edition Brand Manager

30th July 2018

The Continuing Committee is proud to release the forty-fifth Second Edition product. Warp Pack: Access Denied, a nine card boutique product based around thematic event/interrupt destruction, is available for immediate download! Stop reading, go ahead and start printing to your heart’s content. This article will still be here when you are done fawning over the newest nine cards to the game.

And welcome back!

First off, let me introduce you to your designers. Usually they are introduced one at a time, but the truly collaborative nature of the set really blurred the lines between these two excellent designers. Matt Kirk and Nathan Miracle really knocked it out of the park on this one. Both experienced designers in their own right as well as near experts at the game, they poured a lot of work into the set.

The final product may seem a little one note, but I assure you it is anything but. Early on, these two did a very thorough analysis of each affiliation determining how they did things, what they already had available and the best way to go with each route. Some of my best moments on the boards include snooping/observing/supervising their posts as they worked on the set. It became as close to a master class on the game as you could expect, at one point almost making a thesis. They poured their passion into the set and you can see it on each and every one of the cards once you look below the surface.

Bravo, gentlemen. Truly great work.

As for how awesome this set is, let’s take a look at my personal favorite card from the set; The Devil, Fearsome Illusion. This card, and in fact every card in the set, could very easily have bene written Mad-Lib style. However, it’s to the credit of your designers that not every card is an interrupt that reads “If you command three [Icon/Keyword], nullify an event or interrupt.” That would be good enough, but while that helps holograms, it could be even better. But that wouldn’t really be of long term use to them.

He goes right on your holoprogram when used. There are only two as of this writing, but they both want personnel on them to work. Not just that, but if the Holoprogram is Photons Be Free, he will pretty much pay for himself. On top of that, with The Doctor, Brilliant Template, you get way more than three uses out of him, albeit with an upkeep of two counters. You can download him with the Holodeck Arch, Moriarty can get another boatload of treachery, etc.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. You have a Crime card that helps you get more events in your core. Your Waiters get a Commodity. There’s even a Paranoia card to play into the chaotic nature of their effects. All of these cards will not only help you be being able to nerf a card, they’ll do so in their own unique style in a way that helps their affiliation in general.

Though Matt and Nathan are the biggest contributors to the set, they weren’t the only ones. Playtesting worked through the cards helping to get the best nine into the final product, Rules made sure the text was good, Creative put stories to them, Art found great pictures, Proofreading made sure the text was in line, Programming put the cards into ones and zeroes.

With a release today, the set is legal next Monday, August 6.

Usually there I have a Treasures article with the street date, but with this small a set, there aren’t really a lot to talk about, so here’s a fun, interesting behind the scenes story, or at least I think so.

Way back in the first set, the card that eventually became Temptation was playtested with the title Bald Men Are Sexy. Looking at the set for the first time, this title could still apply to the set. More than half of them depict bald characters. I’ll leave it to the experts to argue whether Odo as he appears on Paradise Lost has hair or not, but if you ask me, Bald men Are (Still) Sexy)!

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