Weekly 1E Roundup - 4 JUNE 2020

by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition

4th June 2020

Welcome to the Weekly 1E Roundup, a weekly column looking back at the past week in the world of First Edition as well as a preview of the week ahead. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for content, you can contact me at cplaine@gmail.com or on the forums via PM to MidnightLich. I'm happy to write about your tournaments, get togethers, or other 1E-related goings-on. But for now, let's get into the column and see what's been going on in the world of First Edition!

The Big News

The First Monday of June has come and gone, and with it has come some Rules updates and three (3) errata to card. We'll start with the Rules updates, which mostly clean up mistakes and don't make any major changes. In particular, James Heaney (BCSWowbagger) and his team have answered questions about movement, what happens to personnel aboard a destroyed ship, what "you have in play" means and other general cleanups. The rules for what it means to be "playing Borg" and "playing an affiliation" have been condensed, as well as a temporary ruling on Tricyanate Poisoning being codified as official.

On the errata front, we've started addressing the overly powerful decks - and the deck in particular - with errata to three key cards. The biggest change is to The Final Frontier, which no longer allows a free ship, the use of Crew Reassignment, or the playing of non- personnel. Previously, The Final Frontier totally eclipsed Sherman's Peak and Protect the Timeline as an option for decks; it's our hope that this change will make it a choice again. To address the power of decks in particular, we've given errata to Dr. McCoy and Lt. Uhura (Through the Looking Glass) to limit their dilemma nullification to once per game instead of once each turn. This change should make them acceptably powerful instead of dominant strategies, and return MEDICAL- and gender-based dilemmas to the meta game.

Outside the world of Star Trek, it's a scary place for many, many people. Speaking only for myself, I am drawn to Star Trek because it represents a dream of a better world for humanity. Where we aren't judged based on color or gender or sexuality, where we work to better ourselves and others and not to survive. I have hope, in spite of the darkness of the world, we can make it there someday. I work to recognize my privileges as a white male, and strive to use it to lift up the voices of others. I dream of the day we reach the ideals of Gene Roddenberry's United Earth, even if it's not something I'll see. Stay safe, everyone. Spread love, and kindness - and be careful what you share on Facebook.

This Day in Trek

Singer turned actress Michelle Phillips turns seventy-six (76) years young today. If you don't recognize the name, that's okay - in the universe of Star Trek, she only appeared once, in the first season of the Next Generation as Jenice Manheim. Mrs. Manheim was the wife of Paul Manheim, a temporal scientist, but was a previous romantic interest of Jean-Luc Picard. Prior to her acting career, she was a member of the Mamas and the Papas, and shares a writing credit on California Dreamin' - a favorite song of yours truly. Happy birthday, Michelle - I hope it's a good one.

Tournament Reports

Two online events finished up since last week, both in Brian Sykes' (Armus) Return to Talos IV series. The first was a repeat of the Golden Age 1999 tournament previously run in March. In this OTF Constructed Tournament, players were limited to using cards from Premiere through Rules of Acquisition. As I wrote in my tournament report for the event, I wanted to participate because James Heaney had been singing praises of the format. While I did have fun, many of the players ran into problems and weren't able to play many of their games; I was lucky enough to get to play two (2) out of three (3), which was good enough to "claim" second place. I took "Visiting Cochrane in the Golden Age," the deck that Stephen P (Spectre9) played in the March tournament, and had fun with it. Stephen built a deck and it was good enough to claim 1st place, though his deck isn't linked as of this writing. My other opponent, Jason Robinette (JasonRed3), played a Ferengi/Non-Aligned Cargo Run deck which looked fun and I'm absolutely going to steal for next time.

The other tournament was an OTF Deep Space 9 Sealed event that was a lot of fun - and I'm not just saying that because I won! I'd only played the format once before, and as I mentioned above I hadn't played First Edition at the time the product was out. But I have a lot of experience playing sealed, and I generally know what to look for when building a deck. I got very lucky that my missions and my personnel lined up, allowing me to build a minimum sized, tightly focused deck. I wrote a tournament report for this event as well, recapping my games with Jason Robinette, Austin Chandler (DarkSabre), and Maggie Geppert (jadziadax8). You can watch that last game on our YouTube channel, if you'd like!

If you're playing, getting together, I want to hear about it! Did you play online? Tell me about it! Play with family? Send me pictures! I'm happy to cover tournaments and casual games in this column - you just have to let me know. You can find my contact information at the bottom of every column, and you're welcome to email me, PM me, or just post on the forums. So if you're out there, playing 1E in any way, shape, or form, tell us about it!

Tournament Previews

Speaking of the Return to Talos IV series, in continues in an OTF Constructed "Golden Age 2000" event kicking off tomorrow, Friday, June 5th. This event expands the pool of cards through Mirror, Mirror adding the cards and the cards to the pool. As of today, six (6) players are pre-registered for this event, making it a three (3) round affair. There's still time to sign up, if you'd like to join Julius Melhardt (Clerasil ToB), Niall Matthew (sexecutioner), Oliver Thust (bashircommander), Bruce Parrish (Captain Parrish), Jason Robinette, and Brian S (JeBuS) in this throwback event.

Also kicking off on Friday is our much talked about public playtesting tournament, an OTF Constructed event that is limited to cards with a Star Trek: The Next Generation property logo (and any mission). This event is going to set precedent for future public playtesting events, hopefully allowing us to do more tests of rules changes, ban amnesty grants, and more. For this event, we've got fourteen (14) players signed up to test out this card pool and see if it's fun and if it has legs. It's not too late to sign up, as kickoff doesn't begin until tomorrow.

If you have upcoming events, virtual get togethers, or anything else scheduled that's 1E related, let me know. I'd love to feature you and your friends in this column. I typically only see them if they're scheduled in our tournament software, so if you're not using that, please let me know!

Short Treks (In Other News)

• June 1st also brought a new project status update article. In these semi-regular articles, I announce new First Edition design projects and I give updates on the progress of previously announced projects. This update comes three months after the last, in March, and brings announcements of the two (2) new expansions in the Movie Block - Project Rogue and Project Solo - as well as a new Q-themed boutique expansion, Project Quarantine.


• This Sunday, June 7th, is International First Edition demo day. As previously announced, this extended hangout will feature volunteers from the Department of First Edition in the Zoom call and available to help you learn how to play First Edition, install and use Lackey, and more. We hope that you'll join us to hang out, help out, and learn!


• The Continuing Committee is looking to hire two positions. Specifically, we need a Director of Communications and a Chief Ambassador. The Director is a board level position, giving you command of our entire communications department and allowing you a direct hand in shaping the future of the organization. The Chief Ambassador leads our corps of ambassadors to help recruit and retain players all across the globe. Maggie Geppert - our Executive Officer - posted an article with more details and links to the applications for each position.


• Want to try a cool scenario version of 1E based on TNG's "The Chase"? ScaryBiscuits, a new forum user from New Zeland, recently posted to share a cool scenario for First Edition based on TNG's "The Chase." In this scenario, Hunt for DNA Program is a required and shared mission, and the rest of each player's missions are randomized. You have to find "clues" by solving missions before you can win by solving the central mission. It's a cool variant that I can't wait to try - check it out!


• Do you think Kirk has the best cards? LuthySloan started a post arguing that Kirk has the best cards in 1E, at least of all of the main captains. Do you think Kirk has better cards than Picard, Sisko, Janeway, and Archer? Should we make better versions of those captains? If so, how do you make them balanced so they aren't strictly better? Weigh in on the discussion!
• Check out and weigh in on a potential card from Project Londo. In last week's Friday Question, I shared a spoiler for a card currently in development in Project Londo - the upcoming expansion. You can check out the card in the thread, and weigh in with your opinion on the card's potential. Feedback like this is directly given to the design team, and will impact the card's development, so I encourage you to look.

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That's all for this week's roundup of First Edition news and events. For more news, you can follow The Continuing Committee on Facebook, Twitter, or bookmark our front page. News about upcoming First Edition projects can be found in the most recent Project Status Update from June 2020. If you've got an event coming up and you'd like to be featured in this column, or if you have comments about this column's content, feel free to contact me at cplaine@gmail.com or on the forums via PM to MidnightLich. Until next week, may you expand your power in the universe and live long and prosper.

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