Weekly 1E Roundup - 29 APRIL 2020

by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition

29th April 2020

Welcome to the Weekly 1E Roundup, a weekly column looking back at the past week in the world of First Edition as well as a preview of the week ahead. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for content, you can contact me at cplaine@gmail.com or on the forums via PM to MidnightLich. I'm happy to write about your tournaments, get togethers, or other 1E-related goings-on. But for now, let's get into the column and see what's been going on in the world of First Edition!

The Big News

For some time, we've been having discussions internally as well as on the public forum about involving you in some of our efforts. In particular, the idea of asking you to help us test out potential new formats, rules changes, or ban list removals with a special period of public playtesting. Well, it's taken a little longer to get off the ground, but we're ready to give this a try if you're ready to help us. We've announced plans to playtest a new card pool that just includes cards with the TNG property logo (and missions). We've got an online tournment scheduled for June that's up to ten (10) players. We've also set up a discussion thread on our Deck Design forum where players can discuss theory and deck ideas. I hope you'll consider giving this a try and helping us decide if this is a format with potential for the future!

This Day in Trek

Today is the sixty-fifth (65) birthday of actress Kate Mulgrew, the actress who played Kathryn Janeway. Janeway would lead Voyager for seven (7) seasons, the first woman to lead the cast of a Star Trek series until Discovery. Mulgrew wasn't the original actress cast for the role, but won the part after the first choice quit after two days of production. She won a Saturn award for the role, which she would reprise in Star Trek: Nemesis, with the character having been promoted to admiral. Happy Birthday, Captain Janeway. I hope it's a good one!

Tournament Reports

It's been quiet on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, and most of us still restricted from getting together. But that hasn't stopped some intrepid players, who've started scheduling one-day online tournaments. We've had two take place in the last two (2) weeks, both of which were won by Christian (LuthySloan) - although he hasn't posted his deck list for either event. The first of which was an OTF Complete Constructed event on Sunday, April 19th, with four (4) players. Aside from Christian in the top spot, Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) took 2nd with a 22nd century Non-Aligned deck. Sebastian Kirstein (Caretaker's Guest) came in 3rd with an android deck, and Jason Beyer (sevencrdspud) came in 4th playing a deck that remains unknown.

The same players, minus Jason, played again the following Sunday (April 26th) in another OTF Complete Constructed. Ironically, they placed in the same order: Christian taking 1st, Michael 2nd, and Sebastian in 3rd. Only Michael posted his deck, a Romulan Original Series deck, and the others remain unknown.

If you're playing, getting together, I want to hear about it! Did you play online? Tell me about it! Play with family? Send me pictures! I'm happy to cover tournaments and casual games in this column - you just have to let me know. You can find my contact information at the bottom of every column, and you're welcome to email me, PM me, or just post on the forums. So if you're out there, playing 1E in any way, shape, or form, tell us about it!

Tournament Previews

There are three (3) online tournaments scheduled to kick off this weekend, including two in the throwback Return to Talos IV series. We'll start there, as both events kick off on Friday, May 1st. In the first, an OTF Deep Space 9 Sealed event, players will have the chance to play digitally with some of the rarest physical cards in the world. As host Brian Sykes (Armus) says, "Each player will receive a Deep Space 9 Starter, 3 Deep Space 9 Boosters, and 2 Dominion Boosters. Players will also be able to add one Outpost and One Treaty from the Deep Space 9 or Dominion sets to their card pool to better ensure playability." There isn't much opportunity to play with real, physical DS9 product, so this will be both a great throwback event and a rare experience. There's eight (8) players signed up as of now, and there's still time for you to join in as well!

The second Talos IV event kicking off on Friday is a re-run of the previous "1999 Golden Age" format, including cards from Premiere through Rules of Acquisition. This OTF Limited Constructed event currently has eight (8) pre-registered players, but as with the previous tournament, there is still time to sign up. I'm told this is fun format, very different from the modern game, and well worth trying out. After all, it was popular enough that players requested it be run again!

Finally, Michael Van Breemen has scheduled another OTF Complete Constructed one-day online tournament for this Sunday, May 3rd. As of right now, there are no players signed up to participate, but the last two events have sanctioned. It would be nice to see this one as well, because it's good to see people playing Trek.

If you have upcoming events, virtual get togethers, or anything else scheduled that's 1E related, let me know. I'd love to feature you and your friends in this column. I typically only see them if they're scheduled in our tournament software, so if you're not using that, please let me know!

Short Treks (In Other News)

• My Office Hours streams are continuing; the 5th will be in the next week. Last week, I was joined by Dan Hamman (SirDan) and Allen Gould (AllenGould) and we talked about Deep Space 9, favorite episodes, and favorite cards. You can watch the video of that stream here. Right now, I'm taking votes for the time of the next stream, so check that out if you want a say in picking the next stream time.


• People are guessing the rare cards that will be opened in boxes It started three weeks ago, when Dave Hines (Boffo97) asked people to guess the rares he'd pull out of a box of white border Premiere. It's become a bit of a trend, with Richard Steele (Daimyoshi) letting people pick the rares out of his three boxes and forum user eberlems doing the same with his box of Mirror, Mirror. Go guess the rares - do you think a Future Enterprise or First Officer Spock is in their future?


• Read about the birth and death of a rules change in a new article. Following up on his article from the first Monday of April, James Heaney (BCSWowbagger) wrote a follow-up piece exploring the birth and death of a proposed change to counterattacking rules. It started with the realization that different players played differently and having a desire to make the rule clear and consistent. But testing showed that a change would be too good, especially now. The article is well worth reading.


• Spectre9 wants to know who are the most powerful personnel in the game. At least based on his list, Dr. McCoy is at the top, fresh off of his win in the 2020 March Madness tournament. What about you? Who do you think are the most powerful personnel in 1E?


• How often do your Botany Bay cards ([BB]) get scouted? Last week's Friday Question was all about this icon with a loaded rule. Introduced in Broken Bow, these dilemmas have a triggered effect when they're examined by a card like Scan or Ocular Implants. Does this ever happen in your games? If so, how often?


• A new Tribbles expansion is coming. Eighteen (18) new cards, featuring twelve (12) new powers, are coming very soon. Stay tuned, and you'll be breeding with these new cards in no time at all.

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That's all for this week's roundup of First Edition news and events. For more news, you can follow The Continuing Committee on Facebook, Twitter, or bookmark our front page. News about upcoming First Edition projects can be found in the most recent Project Status Update from March 2020. If you've got an event coming up and you'd like to be featured in this column, or if you have comments about this column's content, feel free to contact me at cplaine@gmail.com or on the forums via PM to MidnightLich. Until next week, may you expand your power in the universe and live long and prosper.

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