Will of the Collective VI: Return of the Collective

by Charlie Plaine, Acting First Edition Brand Manager

7th January 2019

Last January, I surprised the community with the announcement and the start of a new Will of the Collective. Originally created for Second Edition, Will of the Collective is a chance for the community to work together with the design, creative, and art teams to create a new card. Will of the Collective IV, in January 2018, was a fast-moving return after a five (5) year absence, and resulted in the creation of Joran, who recently made his debut in First Edition's The Gift. Demand was high for a return of this collaborative process, and today I'm proud to announce of Will of the Collective on Monday, January 21st, 2019!

For Will of the Collective VI (WotC6), we're going to mix things up a little. The process will still be based on nominations and votes on the forums, but we're going to slow things down a little. That was one of the most common requests from last year, and while it will still be fast, it won't be quite as breakneck speed. We've also made some changes to the steps and the order of operations, specifically to allow members of the community to submit complete lore options instead of just providing them. We will be curating submissions on almost every step, both to keep the number of options down and to make sure that the final card is something that can be developed.

For WotC6, we'll be venturing to a new card type that hasn't yet been seen during this process: a mission! You'll be helping us craft a brand new mission that, if everything goes according to plan, will appear in either the second or third expansion of the upcoming Original Series block. Everything will be on the table for your consideration, from the location, to the gametext, to the requirements, and the affiliations that can attempt - you get to decide almost all of it!

But wait, there's more!

In an effort to better integrate this process with the upcoming projects, you're going to get a chance to make a card based on a new mechanic scheduled to appear in Project Delenn. The Delenn design team has created some cards that care about missions with the phrase "23rd century" in their lore. One of these mechanics we've nicknamed "natives," and it cares about personnel - particularly personnel - that name such a mission in their lore. We'd like to offer you the chance to make a new, "23rd century" mission to take advantage of this new mechanic, and since it comes with some restrictions, offer you a bonus: designing a second card! In this case, a personnel that names your created mission in his or her lore.

If you choose to accept the limitations of the double card route, you'll be limited to pulling from 23rd century sources. This includes almost all of the stories from Star Trek and the first six movies, but you won't be able to pick a mission that's already in development. A list of such missions will be given to you prior to opening nominations, so you can make informed nominations. You will also not be able to pick a mission that's a homeworld, and you'll be limited to a planet mission. Your personnel will need to be someone who could logically name the planet in their lore, with a strong preference for them being an personnel. (While the native mechanic does work with any personnel, it's best when used with personnel that have the icon.)

That's actually going to be the first choice of this process: accept the limitations (outlined above) and make two cards, or refuse them and make just the mission. If you visit the Gameplay (1E) forum, you'll see the voting thread is already open with your chance to vote on this initial decision. Voting will remain open for ten (10) days, through the 17th of January, at which point the results will be announced and the first nomination process will begin on the following Monday.

We can't wait to see what comes from this process. Last year's Will of the Collective IV was a joy to administrate and participate in, and I'm so excited to see what comes from this year's event. Giving you guys a chance to design cards that fit into upcoming expansions is new ground, but I'm hopeful that it will be fruitful ground.

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