Discuss all of your questions, concerns, comments and ideas about Second Edition.
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By OKCoyote (Daniel Matteson)
 - Director of Communications
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1E North American Continental Quarter-Finalist 2023
2E Cardassia Regional Champion 2023
#540461
So I'm always trying to brew up new formats, and am often willing to take inspiration from other games (such as the Winston Draft event I ran last year). Lately I've been thinking about adapting Magic: the Gathering's Commander format into 2E. (In Star Trek though, I'd call it something like Fleet Commander.)

If you're unaware, Commander is a multiplayer format where each player has a doubled starting life total, a 100-card deck with no duplicate cards, and a legendary creature designated as the commander. The commander begins play outside the game and can be played on your turn without having to draw into it. If the commander dies, it leaves the game again and can be replayed later (though it becomes more expensive each time it is cast).

I'm not prepared to do multiplayer 2E (plus Lackey isn't equipped for it) but I wondered if this format would be interesting enough to try as a one-on-one 2E format.

Here are the rules I have so far. I'm considering many additional rules as well as tweaks to these, but wanted to get something down as a framework.

* When deckbuilding, select a unique personnel of cost 4 or higher as your fleet commander.
* Your draw deck must be exactly 100 cards (including your fleet commander), with no duplicate cards.
* You may have a maximum of one headquarters mission. If you have a headquarters, your fleet commander and all personnel in your deck must be able to play there.
* Your dilemma pile must have no duplicate cards. (I haven't decided if this should have a specific deck size.)
* At the start of the game, your fleet commander is not shuffled into your deck but instead placed outside the game (Magic calls this "the command zone.")
* During your Play and Draw Cards step, if your fleet commander is in your command zone, you may play them as if they were in your hand.
* If you would lose command of your fleet commander, you may instead return them to the command zone. They can be played again on a later turn, but for each time you play your fleet commander from the command zone beyond the first, they are an additional cost +1.

That's what I have so far. I'm considering additional bonuses (such as "Draw two cards if your fleet commander helps solve a mission") or even restrictions (such as "each of your non-headquarters missions must require at least one skill your fleet commander has") in order to make the fleet commander feel more important.

So the big questions here are:

1. How "breakable" is this format? Am I overlooking something overpowered?
and
2. Is this format interesting enough to pursue, or is it just another "restrictive deckbuilding challenge"?
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By Naetor
 - Delta Quadrant
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#540466
100 cards is pretty yikes. That's not a fun shuffle - especially since you'll mostly see Fleet Commander Crom, K'mtar, Vintner, Fourth, etc.

Highlander is pretty vanilla, though refreshing.

I always thought 'start with a ship' would be better than 'start with a crew'. It gets around ship screwed- which is never a good feeling.
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By Gorgo Primus (Benjamin Rostoker)
 - Delta Quadrant
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#540481
Just for the record, Lackey absolutely can do multiplayer without any issues and I did it a ton last year.
 
By dm5k
 - New Member
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#542985
This sounds like an interesting variant. I have never actually played the 2nd edition. But I've seen it played on YouTube. My biggest complaint about 2nd edition is that combat is rare and looks unrewarding. I would like to see a variant with that in mind.
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By Armus (Brian Sykes)
 - The Center of the Galaxy
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Community Contributor
#542986
dm5k wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 10:36 pm This sounds like an interesting variant. I have never actually played the 2nd edition. But I've seen it played on YouTube. My biggest complaint about 2nd edition is that combat is rare and looks unrewarding. I would like to see a variant with that in mind.
Combat (ground fighting) or Engagements (space fighting) can be great if your deck is built for it and you can catch an opponent off guard.

You make a ship go boom, that's usually game.
 
By dm5k
 - New Member
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#542995
Armus wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 11:00 pm
dm5k wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 10:36 pm This sounds like an interesting variant. I have never actually played the 2nd edition. But I've seen it played on YouTube. My biggest complaint about 2nd edition is that combat is rare and looks unrewarding. I would like to see a variant with that in mind.
Combat (ground fighting) or Engagements (space fighting) can be great if your deck is built for it and you can catch an opponent off guard.

You make a ship go boom, that's usually game.
Wow I didn't know that. Every game I've watched on YouTube people always go for the 100 point win. Right now I'm just collecting the cards that CC has released. But I plan on going through everything related to combat.
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Ambassador
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#542996
This is where bridge crew format started:). Current rules here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZeP ... 7Eu_k/edit

The forum post where it started: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=40997

See my signature. Same shared inspiration, but a bunch more goals. Going highlander is one option for me because having access to cards from the start of the game lends itself to combos.

HoF as the default card pool is also on the cards, because at least in hof you'll have to find new combos. Also the absence of certain cards might let me simplify my rules.

The project is stalled-ish because my options for playtesting were severely restricted with covid, and then I started pouring all my spare time into job hunting and now I have to move continents. But it will be back this year.

Feel free to steal ideas, and if you come up with good ideas I will steal them back :).
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