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February 2025 First Edition Project Status Update

by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition

3rd February 2025

Hello, First Edition fans! It's been 13 months since the last time I posted a Project Status Update because these are beastly articles that are difficult to write. Yet it's my job and I wanted to make sure to post this article before the end of voting for this year's Period of Review. You deserve to know what our plans are when voting so you can make informed decisions. With that said, before we get into the project updates, let's take a look at a quick rundown of what the different statuses mean. These appear in approximately chronological order, from the start to finish of a project. Click to read through them, or feel free to skip it if you've been here before.

Click here to see all of the project statuses and what they mean.

STATUS: PRE-DESIGN
This status covers all of the project work from picking the team and setting up forum access through the first "ready" card designs. It typically involves a lot of research, pitching a lot of ideas for overall themes, and significant back-and-forth discussions.

STATUS: EXPLORATORY DESIGN
Unlike a normal project, and exploratory design project isn't about producing a card file. Instead, this type of project is about tacking a problem from all angles. By spending a lot of time (without deadlines) looking at all sides of an issue, the team can deliver a report about why a certain direction is the right way to go.

STATUS: DESIGN
The Design status covers all the work of actually designing cards. It typically involves a lot of meetings and forum discussions, and culminates with a file that is ready for testing and feedback. Also included in this phase is all of the internal testing done by designers to catch things that might have been missed (so testers don't have to.)

STATUS: DEVELOPMENT
Typically the longest single phase of the entire cycle, development mostly consists of testing and refinement. Over the course of 3-12 months (depending on size and scale), testers will build decks, play them, and report their feedback. The designers will then read and process all that feedback, update the file, and the process repeats. It's the most vital piece of the process, and we really can't thank our testers enough.

STATUS: PRODUCTION
Once we are 95% of the way through testing, an expansion moves to production. This involves getting the Art, Creative, Rules, Proofreading, and Writing teams involved with the file (though not all at once). It's the production process that moves the file from card ideas to fully formed and finished cards. There is a ton of work by our volunteers here!

STATUS: RELEASED
The finished product is in your hands!

STATUS: ON-HOLD
In most cases, a project that is On-Hold is not being actively developed. Some of them will likely be reactivated in the future, because nothing is ever truly cancelled or deleted in our world. But some projects moved to this status are essentially not moving forward. They might end up being restarted, folded into a different product, or just never touched again.

Completed Projects

Here is a list of projects that have been released since our last update.


Project G.I. Joe - Exploring Options for Immunity
STATUS: COMPLETE
(Project G. I. Joe was an exploratory project looking at potential new ways to make cards immune to other effects. Hopefully, a path towards unifying all the disparate destruction effects can be found.

The result of this abstract project was the introduction of the [Shield] icon in 2023, and again in the recently released Premiere Remastered. The new icon helps streamline all the different ways to give a card immunity to destruction or nullification. It's technically going to be ongoing work, but the work of this exploratory design team to create the Shield icon is complete. Big thanks to Mathew McCaplin and his team for their hard work!


Duel Decks: Four Lights f.k.a. Project En Garde - TNG Federation vs TNG Cardassian
STATUS: RELEASED
(Duel Decks: Four Lights developed [TNG] [Car] and provided a pair of balanced decks designed to give great games against each other.)

I think that overall, Duel Decks: Four Lights was a success, even though it wasn't perfect. We learned a lot of valuable lessons from the release tournament that we're applying to new and similar products moving forward. For example, the ability to replay the decks wasn't nearly as high as we would have liked. We also learned to standardize more during release tournaments! But overall, there have been good uses for many of the cards in this expansion - especially Know Your Enemy, which is great to see. With the work happening on the next set of Showdown decks (see below), I'm confident we'll improve on the formula quite a bit.


Lifesigns f.k.a. Project Viking - Giving Vidiians Some Love
STATUS: RELEASED
(Lifesigns was intended to shake up top-level competition as well as inject a flavorful identity to the Vidiian affiliation.)

The post-Lifesigns Vidiians have been one of the most controversial set of cards to be added to First Edition in quite awhile. On paper, the cards have been performing as designed by providing an obstacle to decks that rely on pure speed. But there have been reactions of visceral dislike from some of our players, and we're learning that the type of gameplay involved around the new Vidiian cards will always provoke strong reactions. At the same time, Vidiians showed up at the 2024 World Championship in a few different flavors and have had an impact on the game. Time will tell if this ends up being a net good. Regardless, we learned a lot about doing a "booster shot" expansion and I'm excited to apply those lessons moving forward for similar products.


Alternate Universe: Twilight f.k.a. Project Mandalorian - A Sequel to Alternate Universe
STATUS: RELEASED
(Alternate Universe: Twilight delivered a few new tools for [DQ] decks, [SF] decks, and [AU] [Car] / [Baj] decks a long with some one-off alternative universe cards.)

It's still pretty early post-release to know the lasting impact of Alternate Universe: Twilight, but there seem to be some early successes and early failures. The new Delta Quadrant package, featuring Make New Home and A New Earth, have generated some interesting new decks and a lot of discussion. Similarly, Past Terok Nor is offering some new options for players to explore. I'm glad to see this, as these cards in particular were designed to be more open for players to explore. On the opposite side, early interest in Twilight Starfleet is low, and I think that's in part because we missed the mark with their complexity and how far outside of "1E Normal" they went. Still, I'm happy with many of the decisions made here and we'll re-evaluate how this expansion has impacted the game in several more months.


Premiere Remastered - Project Bookend - TOP SECRET 30th Anniversary
STATUS: RELEASED
(Premiere Remastered clarifies, refines, and re-releases all of the games original 363 cards.)

We have just released this project a scant few weeks ago, and I and the entire Department have been very pleased at the reaction. It's far too early to tell what the long-term impact of the changes will be, but it's been a joy to see them out in the world after so long. I hope that we'll revisit the impact of this project in a future update.

On a related note, we're also happy with the reception to Premiere Traditional, the expansion related to this one that returned all of the cards to the late-Decipher-era wording. Many of the Traditional players have spoken highly of the image quality, which is absolutely worthy of praise - kudos to our Art Team! The full impact of this new style of Traditional release isn't yet known, but we're hopeful that Decipher-only players will appreciate the effort and find ways to engage with the CC moving forward.


Current Projects

Here is a list of projects that are in active design and development. Any project that hasn't been covered in a previous status update is marked as NEW!


Dramatis Personae f.k.a. Project Rainbow - A 30th Anniversary Celebration of Affiliations
STATUS: PRODUCTION
(Dramatis Personae is a boutique expansion featuring one personnel for every affiliation in the game. It's designed to complement the 30th anniversary with some content that isn't just Federation, Romulan, or Klingon.)

The idea for Project Rainbow - one card for every affiliation - was a suggestion made by one of our forum users. We loved the idea, and we've adopted it. The desgin team, led by Paddy Tye, has created a cool suite of major characters in unusual affiliations. Not only will there be familiar faces, but there will be some cool new decks to try when this expansion releases. Currently, the expansion is on track to release in late April and will be part of this year's 30th anniversary.


Showdown: Klingon Civil War f.k.a. Project Pearl
STATUS: DESIGN
(Showdown: Klingon Civil War is part of the game's 30th anniversary celebrations, featuring a new pair of Klingon-themed decks tuned to play well against each other.)

The design team, led by yours truly, is firing on all cylanders and we're putting together some really cool cards for these decks. Even though they are Klingon decks, with Gowron vs. Duras, the influence of the Federation (for Gowron) and the Romulans (for Duras) will be part of the experience when playing these decks. Once the new cards are locked down, the decks will be built and tested. You should see these decks in the Summer of 2025.


Project Dilly Bar - Delta Quadrant Missions
STATUS: DESIGN
(Project Dilly Bar is an expansion full of brand new Delta Quadrant missions.

Originally this project was the 2nd of 2 in a "Delta Quadrant" block, and was focusing on Vidiian, Federation, and all of the "smaller powers" of the quadrant. As we've moved away from blocks and to smaller expansions, we've repurposed this project to introduce a bunch of new DQ missions to the game. Not only will this project add new options for existing decks, it will lay groundwork for future DQ themed expansion. The design team of Paddy Tye, Lee Karl Palo, Mathew McCalpin, and myself will be putting this expansion in front of testers once Dramatis Personae is done.


Project Sousa - March Madness 2023 Bonus Prizes
STATUS: STATUS: DEVELOPMENT
(Project Sousa is a boutique expansion collecting all of the cards that won bonus prizes during the 2023 March Madness bracket, along with some fun extras.)

As part of our 5th March Madness celebration in 2023, we gave out bonus prizes to card concepts in each round. These concepts have all been grouped together into Project Sousa, which has built them all and collected them into a boutique expansion. Christoffer Wiker and his team have put together some fun new cards implementing these bonus prize ideas. The expansion is currently in testing right now for a release later this year.


NEW!All Good Things Remastered - Project Bookend II - 30th Anniversary Celebration Finale
STATUS: PRE-DESIGN
(All Good Things Remastered clarifies, refines, and re-releases all of Decipher's ending 40 cards.)

As we're still putting the finishing touches on the post-release work for Premiere Remastered, almost nothing has been done with this project. And our teams have earned a month or so off before turning any attention to this project that will wrap up our celebration of the 30th anniversary. We're happy for the break! We do have a ticking clock on this project, but AGT is in a much healthier starting place so the time and work required will be smaller. And yes, we'll also be doing All Good Things Traditional at the same time.


Project Pink Floyd - Kid-Friendly Decks to Learn the Basics
STATUS: DESIGN
(Project Pink Floyd is an experimental design project aimed at creating absolute bare-bones decks for demos.)

While work has proceeded slowly on this project, our team has created the majority of the cards needed for these decks. And these are a pair of dead simple, bare-bones, easy decks that are kid-friendly and can be used to demo the game. The core of First Edition will still be in these expansions, but we've taken steps to pare it down as much as possible to provide a good learning experience. The plan is to release these cards for testing later this year, and we'll be looking for volunteers with kids to help us test these decks!


Pending and Future Projects

Here is a list of projects that have had some amount of work done, but are currently on hold or not in active design Any project that hasn't been covered in a previous status update is marked as NEW!

Project Grogu - An Exploration of "What If...?"
STATUS: ON-HOLD
(Project Grogu will be an expansion that explores times Star Trek and the CCG faced decisions and explored the possibilities of "What If...?".)

Since the team that made Alternate Universe: Twilight produced entirely too many cards, it was split into 3 projects. Project Grogu is the "What If...?" set of cards that explore weird points in Star Trek - and ST:CCG - history. The project isn't being actively worked on right now because there are a lot of other projects taking up time and attention, but it will be pulled back up to the forefront eventually. I know there are still little tweaks and discussions being made to the cards, so there's still passion for this project.


Project Bo Katan - A Sequel to Q Continuum
STATUS: ON-HOLD
(Project Bo Katan will be a spiritual successor to Q Continuum, but with more source material than just TNG.)

Likewise to Project Grogu above, Project Bo Katan came from the overproduction of cards for Alternate Universe: Twilight. This project contains a lot of cards that follow from Q Continuum featuring plenty of Q-related chaos. The project isn't being actively worked on right now because there are a lot of other projects taking up time and attention, but it will be pulled back up to the forefront eventually. I know there are still little tweaks and discussions being made to the cards, so there's still passion for this project.


Project Babylon - Exploring Nor Rules/Designs
STATUS: ON-HOLD
(Project Babylon is an exploratory design project looking at the problems with Nors, and potential solutions to those problems.)

The changes to make Nors act more fairly - especially removing their inability to be duplicated - was born of Project Babylon. The team of Paddy Tye, Derrick Marsh, Cristoffer Wiker, and James Heaney previous did work to remove walking rules and simplify Nors in general. The final phase of this project will be the creation of new cards designed to explore the open design space of these Nor changes. However, between the massive work of Premiere Remastered and a general move away from big sets of errata, this project isn't actively being pursued at this time. Don't fear though - there's a lot of DS9 love amongst our department, and it won't be long before this project is back.


Project Blizzard - Delta Quadrant "Heels" (Bad Guys)
STATUS: ON-HOLD
(Project Blizzard was the 1st of 2 Delta Quadrant themed expansions, focusing on Borg, Kazon, and Hirogen.)

We have generally moved away from "blocks" and larger expansions, leaving the original design of this project unsuitable for our current design paradigm. However, there is a lot of work already done in this project and there is a big appetite for new Delta Quadrant, given how little they've had over the CC's life. I don't think this project will be back in its current form. However, we will spin this off into new projects to explore the cool potential of the Delta Quadrant!


Project Victory - March Madness 2023 Winner
STATUS: PRE-DESIGN
(Project Victory is a boutique expansion based around the winning card concept from the 2023 March Madness - Lower Decks: Fleet Operations. It will be based on universal ships and/or the story of the blockade from "Redemption Part II.")

There's been no progress on this project since our last update. It's not been cancelled, it's just been tabled while we work on other things. It will be back in the future. Here is what I wrote in the last update:

In March, we finished our 5th annual March Madness - a tournament where 64 card concepts enter, and only one emerges victorious. This year's winner was Lower Decks: Fleet Operations, pitched by a community member as a bonus/reward for using all universal ships. Our staff paired that up with the blockade from "Redemption Part II," and that concept is what ended up winning after 6 rounds of voting. Because it was the 5th anniversary of March Madness, we've gone big - not only will the winning card be made, but we're building an entire expansion around it. I'll be leading the project, but we don't have a clock so I can't tell you when it will be ready at this time.


Project Calendar - Promo-a-Week Part II
STATUS: ON-HOLD
(Promo-a-Week was a slow-release set of promos that dropped over the course of 6 months.)

Again, we haven't had any progress on this project since our last update. Many of the cards originally made for this project have been repurposed to other projects. I think this one is officially done for, so there will be no more updates unless it returns from the dead.


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