Celebrating the Full Spectrum

by Paddy Tye, Dramatis Personae Lead Designer

30th May 2025

"Look at these three words written larger than all the rest, and with special pride never written before or since — tall words, proudly saying, "We the people" ...these words and the words that follow ...must apply to everyone or they mean nothing."
- James T. Kirk, "The Omega Glory"

As this 30th anniversary year for First Edition began to draw near, it became clear within our First Edition staff meetings, that Premiere Remastered alone would be insufficient to celebrate the broad universe of characters, affiliations, and decktypes which we wished to commemorate. As Premiere Remastered only covered 4 affiliations, we faced the prospect of ignoring many major affiliations as part of this year-long celebration.

Well, that did not strike us as a very Star Trek approach!

Ever since Star Trek debuted in 1966, it has embodied progressive and inclusive views of the future. Featuring diverse characters like Hikaru Sulu and Nyota Uhura as prominent, on-screen, bridge officers in this futuristic and advanced utopia changed countless viewers perspectives for the better. Kids took their inspiration from a future in which everyone would be included, and children from diverse backgrounds could see themselves on screen through positive role models. This belief, represented by the Vulcan IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations), has been at the core of Star Trek and is also at the heart of the new First Edition expansion we announce today: Dramatis Personae. Appropriately code-named Project Rainbow, this 18-card set celebrates the diverse spectrum of personnel and affiliations available in First Edition - from Borg to Vulcan, Dominion to Hirogen, and Ferengi to Xindi. Yes, the first Xindi personnel will debut in this expansion!

Dramatis Personae features cards from 15 different First Edition affiliations, and will be available from Friday 6th June 2025 and tournament legal one week later on Friday 13th June 2025.

However, we cannot celebrate diversity without acknowledging our own diverse group of dedicated and hard-working volunteers that helped bring Dramatis Personae to life. Many designers, playtesters, creative volunteers, rules team members, artists, proofreaders, and writers have worked on these cards. Without our fabulous volunteers, there would never be any First Edition products for you to enjoy. Please make sure to share your appreciation as you discuss these cards, as they wouldn't exist without their efforts.

Before I introduce the team of designers that worked on Dramatis Personae, I first need to explain a couple of themes that you'll spot on the cards here, which also play into the choice of design team...

Star Power... - as a celebration set, we wanted the cards within Dramatis Personae to be capturing big characters across all the series, but from a new perspective.

...in Unusual Colours - while you might have seen versions of these personnel before, they usually appear in a different colour - how better to celebrate diversity than by adding them into a different decktype?

New Ways to Play - several personnel here are the key to build new decktypes around. Director Charlie Plaine will introduce the first of these on Monday.

It started as a Special Skill... - with only 15 affiliations, where do the other 3 cards in the set come from? Well, the set began as purely personnel. But as testing progressed, we offloaded key skills and abilities from personnel to their own cards, mostly to protect that functionality from the death of a key personnel. The extra three cards here all began life as text on personnel...

So, the design team:

Paddy Tye [KazonPADD], Lead Designer
Designer Profile: Paddy Tye
With several expansions already under my belt, I was keen to take the lead on this set to combine with my role as head of 1E Creative and help justify new affiliations for existing characters.

Andreas Rheinlander [Dukat], Designer
Designer Profile: Andreas Rheinlander
Andreas, a former World Champion and a regular contender at Kaiserfest, now has five expansions to his name. He is well-known for his knowledge of playing certain specific affiliations - see his series of expert articles on playing Dominion and Delta Quadrant affiliations!

Daniel Matteson [OKCoyote], Designer
Designer Profile: Daniel Matteson
The CC's former Director of Communications and former World host, Daniel may have taken a step back from some Trek activity recently, but he was involved in the development of this set, his third virtual expansion.

Violet Moon [VioletBlaze], New Designer
This set marks Violet's debut into design. Violet was eager to get to grips with the processes that went into putting together a new virtual set, and dove straight in to using our Utopia Planetia design software, earning an inaugural design credit with Dramatis Personae.

Dave Runyon [superdave], New Designer
Conversely, Dave is already familiar with Utopia Planetia, having shown me the ropes when he was my former boss as the previous Head of Creative! However, Dramatis Personae is his first design team role, and adding another Creative talent to this team helped with identifying different personnel we could add to this expansion...

Again, big thanks to all of our volunteers working in the Department of First Edition. Without you, we wouldn't be here at all.

---

Counterinsurgent

"One humanoid is pretty much the same as another from a holographic point of view. I'm programmed to provide medical care to anyone who needs it."
- The Doctor, "Basics, part II"

With the Kazon-Nistrim in command of U.S.S. Voyager, and before he had the freedom of his mobile emitter, The Doctor was forced to co-operate with with his new shipmates. This new version of The Doctor offers many of the skills he normally does, but with a side of Treachery for pretending to work with Seska. As she said, "You're more talented in the art of deception than you led me to believe."

The addition of The Doctor grants another familiar face to your Kazon deck, so once you've finished blowing up and boarding your opponent's ships, you can use The Doctor to help you solve classic Delta Quadrant missions like Answer Distress Signal or Study Protonebula!

Sent by the Prophets

"Wait a second. I think you've got the wrong guy."
- Miles O'Brien, "The Storyteller"

Whilst this is the second appearance of Miles O'Brien in Bajoran colours, the first one restricts you to use a specific (non-Resistance) Kira Nerys. This version adds great skills (ENGINEER x2, Diplomacy & Transporter Skill) and a very handy download!

The Village is Strong! was text that was offloaded from a special skill on Miles during testing and became it's own card! The original function (swapping out a dilemma for Dal'Rok) allows you pull a mini Disrupted Continuum and replace a wall that an opponent was about to overcome and potentially kill off some of those mission solving personnel!

The text grew in length, necessitating the creation of a separate card rather than a special skill. That also means you can counter it with a Kevin Uxbridge. But in case pulling a last minute Dal'Rok switcheroo isn't going to help you out, a further option got added to the card. Maybe saving one of those plentiful Bajoran CIVILIANs from dying will provide you the help you need instead!

Now, for those of you who think Miles not being a free play makes him less usable (despite his download), take a look at this example Bajoran Raider deck below which doesn't care as much about free plays, and uses both Miles and The Village is Strong! Don't forget this is just an example deck, so feel free to have fun and customise it!

Part of the Hive

"The technology could assert itself at any moment. I don't know what will happen if it does. I underestimated these nanoprobes once. I don't intend to make the same mistake twice."
- Phlox, "Regeneration"

When Decipher added new pre-made counterparts in Enhanced First Contact, they all came from Alternate Universes - like the one seen in TNG's "Parallels" - where the Borg were everywhere.

This new Starfleet counterpart follows a similar "what if?" approach. In this case, what if Phlox had failed to eradicate his nanoprobe infection? In that scenario, as the first prominent representative from Starfleet to be assimilated, it would only be logical if he subsequently became the Collective's counterpart who could speak to Starfleet.

This now allows a Borg player to complete Stop First Contact using the non-stealable Earth, and it's still a valid target for Population 9 Billion - All Borg. It also gives Starfleet decks incentive to be able to acquire and fly that Phoenix. Maybe they could do with stocking someone who has that OCD icon...?

To Ride the Phoenix you must be this high

"This engine will let us go boldly where no man has gone before."
- Zefram Cochrane, "Broken Bow"

With the recent errata to the Phoenix, it's now much harder to staff that ship so it can launch and be worth those potentially crucial 10 points. However, now Starfleet have a new option - an old pilot familiar with that revolutionary rocket. While we generally tried to stick to "main crew", Zefram Cochrane felt like such a crucial charcter within both Trek history and the Star Trek First Contact movie that he still qualified!

Not only does his OCD icon allow Starfleet access to those bonus points on the Phoenix, but he also adds Leadership, ENGINEER, and Astrophysics, and a download. Plus, he makes reference to a certain Bozeman-based theme park from Star Trek Lower Decks.

So, buckle up like you're Lauching the Phoenix and prepare for a week of new treats for First Edition fans, culminating in the release next Friday (6th June 2025) of Dramatis Personae. Check back every day for new cards - you might even find spoilers on various social media platforms. And let's see what new creations emerge from this latest offering from the First Edition 30th anniversary as we head to Worlds 2025 in Munich!

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Decklist

Print Decklist • Copy Deck

This deck is legal in the following Card Pools:

• Complete

This deck is legal in the following Rules Sets:

• Modern
• Open
• Warp Speed

This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:

• Bajoran Player

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