Apocalyptic Treasures

by Ross Fertel, Treasured Writer

20th November 2020

Apocalypse Rising is legal today. There are twenty-seven cards, and every card has a story. Here are some of the behind the scenes stories about some of them. Think of these are fun behind the scenes tales like extras on a DVD.

Founder Leader – At the start of the creative process, I wondered if we could have some material from early in in the Cardassians entry to the Dominion. There are some great moments such as Weyoun quick to point out that the Cardassians are a few rungs down on the ladder. It was pointed out with these cards were all about killing Dominion Affiliated Cardassians, meaning that we would pull from later in the arc.

Kellin, Losing Faith – Kellen is played by the great Bill Mumy. There are callbacks to two of his greatest genre rolls, Will Robinson in Lost in Space and Lennier in Babylon 5.

Izir'isel, Lemec's Warship – Art is amazing!

Miles O'Brien, "Pashash the Grumpy" – That subtitle may seem a little out of place, but it is there for a reason. Actor Colm Meaney made such a huge fuss over wearing the Klingon prosthetic. He never had one applied after this episode though it is not clear whether the writers just did not give him another story requiring the work or they did not want to go through that again.

Odo, "Kodrak the Unenthused" – This Odo is not a Changeling; he is Human. That is a key detail that could have been overlooked, but design as sure to include this in the earliest versions. At least Odo, Vigilant Staffer is no longer the only Human Odo.

Quark, Frontline Observer – This Quark is off the beaten path. For one, he does not have a download which every other Quark has in some fashion. Rather, he is very much in line with the rest of the squad stationed at AR-558, even with a strength boost, something you otherwise would be hard pressed to justify on a Quark, at least called out independently as opposed to an across the board attribute increase.

These Things Happen – There are a lot of dark moments in this set. A key battle, infiltrating the Klingon Empire, the Dominion taking over the Cardassian Union, it gets pretty heavy pretty quick. Even the Rule is a not happy moment. It is good to have one card with a bit of a lighter moment in the mix.

Valuable Real Estate – This event started out more generic. It initially did not have any icons, which helped it have a broad appeal. One tester pointed out that while it could be used in many decks, a lot of these cards wound up in the binder as it was hard for them to find a home. There was also some nice synergy with the AR-558 group. Adding in the icons gave the card some cultural enforcement and the card was suddenly more useful. Thanks to Maggie "Jadziadax8" Geppert for her suggestion!

Weyoun Hologram – At first glance, this can look like a boring card. When you look deeper, there is a lot to like. Solid skills and attributes and a hologram as a bonus. This card may seem simple at first glance, but he has a home in multiple decks. Magic calls these simple personnel with no special abilities a "vanilla" personnel (and one with their equivalent of keywords French Vanilla) but it is neat that sometimes you can stand out by not standing out. Designer Mike Shea wrote an article about another such personnel in this set, Morad'inar whom Brian “Armus” Sykes noted '… looks like this set's Leodis.'.

This set would not have been possible without the efforts of Playtesting, Rules, Creative, Proofreading, Art, and Programming.

Apocalypse Rising is legal today: go check it out.

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