The Vidiian Harvester

by Lucas Thompson, Designer

21st July 2024

For an affiliation like the Vidiians, who are the focus of a mere four episodes (they have more appearances than that, but they're really the focus of only four episodes), and only have one character that appears in more than one episode, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that a piece of their equipment probably got more screen time than most of their characters. There are only four total Vidiian-species character who even got names, but the Vidiian Harvester appeared every time that the Vidiians did. (Okay, I guess it wasn't present in Seven's mind during Infinite Regress, and the healthy Monala from Critical Care wasn't wielding one.)

In the show, the Harvester was a versatile tool. It could act as a powerful medical tricorder; it could shoot at people like a gun; and it could transport the internal organs out of the people it shot. That's a lot to try to represent in one equipment card, but its ubiquity meant that capturing the scope and power of the Harvester was a high priority. Additionally, it was also very important for it to be playable: lots of standard hand weapons don't see much use, even in affiliations that are known for doing battle, and many equipment cards that grant skills don't see much use either (outside of being fuel for Grav-Plating Trap or Fajo's Menagerie).

So here's the end result: it's both a standard hand weapon and a skill-gaining equipment in one, all at one cost. The hand weapon aspect is pretty standard, but extra essential for Vidiians who might hope to win combat against stronger Klingons or Jem'Hadar (or someday Hirogen). And, in order to maintain that cost of one, the skill-gain has a cost attached: discarding a card from hand. But there's quite a lot of flexibility in that skill gain, especially if you have some captives. And veteran players know how useful it can be to be able to discard cards from hand at-will during mission attempt.

And that's it! It's straightforward but unique, which is a needle that we tried to thread a lot for this expansion. Enjoy!

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