A More Second Edition Way to Dilemma

by Ross Fertel, Waiting a Second

10th November 2021

Let’s face it, the hardest part of First Edition is the dilemmas. You can get a draw deck together with a fair amount of ease and the Battle Bridge side deck takes care of itself, but carefully crafted dilemma combos? That takes time and skill. Contrast that to Second Edition where you do some shuffles and you are all set to go. Even if you ‘borrow’ someone else’s deck, you have to figure out the puzzle of how the dilemmas go together.

Dilemmas work so differently between the two games. If you need some help, you might want to look at the most recently released set, The Trial Never Ended. The Q Continuum Side Deck is the closest thing to Second Edition’s dilemma pile. In fact, Q: A Dazzling Flash pretty much starts out like a mission attempt in Second Edition; you count off cards one by one until you have the drawn the same number as personnel attempting the mission. When you run out of cards, shuffle and replenish the pile. It is almost like Second Edition, but you do not pick the cards you want your opponent to encounter.

Charlie covered the intricacies of the mechanic in his introductory article to The Trial Never Ended as did Kaiser in a video, but if you want to pick the cards your opponent faces, the newly errataed Q is for you. The other Q-Flash card in the set is Q: Enter the Supernova. Personally, this is my favorite card in the set since it is so counterintuitive. Normally you want your attributes to be as high s possible. In the current meta of the Original Series Era being popular and the Classic Films Era soon to make a comeback, you may wonder just how viable this card can be. As the recent World Championship reveals, it is not that hard to make an old ship get into the double-digit attributes.

So what can you put into your Q-Flash to make your opponent worry? Unfortunately, it is not like there is a lot of lethality in that mechanic, but there are ways to prevent your opponent from solving the mission or furthering your own deck.

There are ways you can disrupt your opponent’s plans. Guilty-Provisionally gives your opponent a choice if you are battle prone. Penalty Box is a card that if it shows up repeatedly in multiple Q-Flashes is valuable to while down their crew. Scottish Setter only hits one at a time, but the classification is not to be overlooked since several equipment key off that.

In a game where you need a hundred points, Mandarin Bailiff comes in handy. Door-Net may have lost potency due to the sheer number of doorways, but this is a way to close a precious doorway. Q’s Fantasy Women let you get points unless your opponent sidelines a personnel. Quandary all but loses points for your opponent. Futile Attempt may seem like it will not get a lot of points, but they will add up over the course of the game.

There are cards that can tie into your deck, such as His Honor, The High Sherriff of Nottingham for capture decks. Depending on how random selections go with some dilemmas, Jealous Amanda can help.

Of course, the main draw is preventing them from solving the mission, scoring points and winning the game.

There is a lot of possibilities in here but do not put too many of the same card in your side deck. Duplicates are simply put aside counting as one of the cards encountered, though only within a Q-Flash. You can always put a Dead End or something sandwiched between two copies. As long as the cards are encountered separately you are all set. Also, they will not entirely replace your dilemmas but can augment them. It is important to note that, at least currently, a high enough percentage of the dilemmas that start a Q-Flash are dual so they work surprisingly well with The Squire’s Rules if you want to go that route.

The Q Continuum side deck is an old but good one. It brings some familiarity to the game while offering something unique. The randomness of cards is something Second Edition players are very familiar with, and this will seem very familiar.

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