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#478923
The Next Generation

“And you’re all astronauts - on some kind of ...star trek?” – Zefram Cochrane ‘First Contact’.

Yes, I’m back going where I have gone several times before – creating a solo version of the CCG.

I must have been a necromancer in a past life as I love breathing life into old games. And this one is a particular favourite of mine that I have a huge love and nostalgia for - it got me into the CCG hobby in the 1990s and indeed Star Trek as a franchise – particularly TNG which remains my favourite of all the Trek series to this day. It has also cost me a lot of money! But I’ll put that aside right now as it has also given me countless hours of gaming and watching pleasure.

I found an old DWSSG Blog post of mine on BGG dated Nov 2012:

“I've been scratching that Star Trek itch and watching (nearly) all of Season 1 of The Next Generation - by far my favourite incarnation of Star Trek. This is due mainly to the STCCG I collected, gosh, almost 20 years ago in the mid 90's.

I really loved the 1E, and it was ground-breaking at the time. I must have spent a fortune collecting those cards! I dug them all out again and have been playing a solitaire version and tweaking some cards and rules as I watch the episodes. Quite a rewarding play experience actually - by doing it this way as your deck changes as you watch the episodes.

It's been great fun and quite rewarding watching the episodes in order as you see all the 'firsts' as they happen. I'm onto 'Heart of Glory' now, which is the first introduction to Klingons. No-one is going to argue that season 1 of TNG is the best ever season though and the show was still struggling to find the right direction. But I think its heart was in the right place - even though its brain had sometimes reported to Starbase 74 instead...”

Well, that was nearly 7 years ago (when my son was 7 – he’s soon to be 15) and to quote the opening line of ‘Enterprise’ - ‘It’s been a long road, getting from there to here’

A year ago exactly, I embarked on creating a major solo version for the CCG. I’m quite proud of the 2018 version (which can still be found in the Files section of the STCCG page on BGG) and it did create some great sessions for me which felt like real episodes how they played out. As I watched the seasons of TNG I think I did a great job of making cards to recreate the episodes.

Unfortunately, I think I made a real error in the way the version panned out. It was great for me, but the sheer amount of dream cards and rule tweaks would have made it very, very difficult for other players to pick up the game. Reviewing my card database and rules set from last year when I got to thinking about revisiting it was a real eye-opener, and it was clear that I needed to re-think my approach. So I went back to the drawing board and played a few basic games on the table using my go-to ‘baby steps’ cards – the Premiere set and Introductory 2 Player game from Decipher in 1996. With a few pimps to the game like investing in a beautiful poster of a galactic nebula to use as a playmat, and using Star Trek Ascendancy dice as point markers I’ve had a blast! I’ve since played a fair few games and think I know the way to proceed.

Certainly my approach will have the firm rule of ‘change as less as possible from the existing card text and NO Dream cards (unless absolutely necessary...)’ and players must be able to play ANY Affiliation.

I'm also still doing a re-watch of TNG (I’ve now almost completed Season 5) plus occasionally some other Trek episodes too, and Tweet my episode reviews on Twitter- so if you're interested in what I think about Season 6, Follow me - @DWSSG01 (I even get replies from Trek cast-members on occasions...)

Next week I’ll detail some of the main rules of the new solo version such as setting up the game, the way to win (or lose), my starting cards and decks, and finally some of the small rule tweaks to make the game playable in a solo environment.

Make it so...”
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By SudenKapala (Suden Käpälä)
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#478927
For my future additions to the abbrev & acronym topic, please explain:
DWSSG?
BGG -- ah, yes, Board Game Geek.

Here's to another solo trek journey. If you can manage no rules changes and no new cards (or I can manage to adapt your concept to those wishes of mine), I might actually try it... :D

Have you, in all those years, not been able to find other players? IRL, of online? Where are you based?

I hope you'll get your son onboard. (Or did you? Have him register here!) :cheersR:
 
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#478930
SudenKapala wrote:For my future additions to the abbrev & acronym topic, please explain:
DWSSG?
BGG -- ah, yes, Board Game Geek.

Here's to another solo trek journey. If you can manage no rules changes and no new cards (or I can manage to adapt your concept to those wishes of mine), I might actually try it... :D

Have you, in all those years, not been able to find other players? IRL, of online? Where are you based?

I hope you'll get your son onboard. (Or did you? Have him register here!) :cheersR:
DWSSG = Doctor Who Solitaire Story Game - my wholly created game and massive project (both 1e and 2e!)
 
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#479631
Encounter at Farpoint

Let’s see what’s out there...” – Jean-Luc Picard - ‘Encounter at Farpoint’.

Welcome to my second piece about creating a solo version of Star Trek 1e CCG. This time I’ll detail how to set up the game, how to win or lose, plus what cards I’m using as I start out exploring strange new worlds.

But before that, I want to say a massive ‘thank you’ to Decipher and to the Trek Continuing Committee for doing such a fantastic job for the last 25 years and producing such an amazing game and community.

Restating my new ‘law’ for the 2019 solo version (as opposed to 2018) is that all cards have their given text (including CC errata) unless absolutely necessary to be changed for solo play. I’m also trying very hard NOT to do any ‘dream’ cards as the card pool is already massive!

Card Pool: Whilst I am developing the rules, I’m really trying to restrict myself to Premiere cards as the backbone of the game. The several reasons for this are - this is where the game began all those years ago, my knowledge of that set is very good, and TNG is my favourite Trek series. It’s also a great ‘jumping on point’ for the game. I do concede though that Premiere didn’t produce the best game, especially looking back today, so I’m also including the CC ‘TNG’ Block and in particular the ‘Warp Core’ cards - a brilliant idea that pushed the game into a new era and helped develop more thematic differences between the Affiliations. Continuing Mission is the backbone of the Block to give enhanced card draw and I am considering as a Rule rather than a card (as all my decks so far are TNG anyway). I’m also a big fan of ‘starter’ type decks to get the solo version working as well as using Common cards that everyone has in their collection. I am NOT using Doorways of any kind, or any Side-decks at this time. I have also removed Premiere cards that relate to them – such as Q Net or Temporal Rift that should have respectively waited until Q or AU expansions.

Draw decks: Construct two 40 cards with a strict 20 Personnel maximum limit on each. Currently I am restricting myself to choosing only Federation, Klingon or Romulan Affiliations. Choose one deck to be ‘your’ deck and the other to be the Opponent deck. My ‘starter’ decks that I’m testing are a hybrid of the CC TNG ‘Coming of Age’ decks and the ‘Introductory 2 Player Game’ decks with lots of universal personnel and 1 main character and their matching ship - Jean Luc Picard, Gowron and Tomalak (HFIII).

Missions: Choose 6 Missions for yourself and 6 for the Opponent. I am currently choosing from a restricted set of Missions – Commons from Premiere and Missions from the 2PG, OTSD and SD2. Just for fun I have also added 2 Space cards to make the Space-lane a little larger. When constructing it, I shuffle all the Missions randomly and include the Opponent Facility in the shuffle. When revealed, I place it at the closest (smallest Span number) adjacent and non-universal Mission with a matching Affiliation icon. I allow myself to place my Facility on any Mission which has a matching Affiliation icon.

Seed cards: Place any seeded Objectives/Incidents on the table. I have included Attention All Hands and Assign Mission Specialists for both decks and then the matching Warp Core card for the Affiliation – Finest Crew in the Fleet, Legitimate Leader of the Empire and Always a Chess Game.

Dilemmas: Sort all your Dilemma cards into 3 piles, depending on type. Then shuffle the Planet/Space Dilemmas with half shuffled into the Planet Dilemmas and half into the Space Dilemmas. Then add Dilemmas from the respective pile beneath each Mission, with the total equal to their points divided by 10, rounding down (so a 20 or 25 point Mission gets 2 Dilemmas, a 30 or 35 Mission gets 3 etc).

Winning: You take the first turn and must gain 100 points before the opponent deck does and before your Draw deck is depleted. You may add the ‘completing 1 Planet/1 Space Mission rule’ too if you wish.

And that’s how the game is set up – although this is the very basic version and you can add loads more theme and variety. Next time I’ll detail some of the main house rules I use in the solo game, the start of my TNG card-pool and ways I pimp up the CCG to make it look even more visually appealing.

I'm doing a re-watch of TNG and now almost completed Season 5. I Tweet my episode reviews on Twitter- so if you're interested in what I think about Season 6, Follow me - @DWSSG01.

“Make it so...”
Last edited by dragoncymru on Sat Sep 07, 2019 8:47 am, edited 2 times in total.
 
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#480663
The Naked Now

“I was reading a history of all the past starships named Enterprise” – Will Riker, ‘The Naked Now’.

Welcome to my next piece about creating a solo version of Star Trek: Customizable Card Game (first edition). This time I’ll detail some of the main house rules I use, my TNG card-pool and ways I make solo games look more visually appealing.

With the 2019 version of the solo project I have been trying as far as possible to keep it as close to the rules of the normal game, and making only a few concessions to solo play – and keeping it the same yet making it different was very much the theme of ‘The Naked Now’, TNG’s second ever episode.

Although I’ve been a collector, player and fan of STCCG since it came out, I’ve very much ‘dipped in and out’ as other projects and life outside gaming (yes, it does exist...) took priority. So when you return to a game project you have to do some catching up on what you’ve missed. Over the last couple of weeks whilst I’ve been play-testing solo games, I’ve been asking a few questions on the TrekCC Forums to get a feel of what is currently in fashion and why certain concepts do or don’t work. I’ve had a great time exploring the card pool and getting a better feel for the amazing expansions and cards the CC have created.

So here are a few house rules that have worked well in my games. I’m sure they have problems in the real game, but in the solo game they work well and give loads more ‘Trek flavour’ to the experience. They also add a bit more challenge to compensate for randomly seeded, rather than opponent seeded, dilemmas:

Beaming limit: All ships may only beam down 6 Personnel each turn for a Mission attempt (so assemble your Away Team carefully). I always rule that Mission attempts at Outposts have no restriction to the amount of Personnel attempting it as the Personnel are at the Outpost rather beaming down from a Ship.

Ship Personnel Capacity: A ship may only carry (unless otherwise noted)a maximum number of Personnel equal to: Printed SHIELDS +1, +1 per Staff Icon, +2 per Command or any Starfleet/23rd century Icon). AU icons have no effect on capacity. I have found this to be an excellent rule and really make you think about how you distribute your crews.

Shuttles/Runabouts: These have Engage Shuttle Operations and Establish Landing Protocols as implicit rules rather than the need for specific cards, as it should have been designed like this initially.

Successful Mission Debriefing: If any Personnel uses a regular skill during a successful Mission attempt that Personnel is ‘stopped’ for the remainder of the Turn. Not quite the same as Mission Debriefingbut it does stop a ‘mega-Turn’ where you can score loads of points in one go.

TNG Card Pool: The physical card-pool for the game is enormous and encompasses all eras of Star Trek. When I was collecting actual cards I knew I couldn’t keep up, nor did all eras of the show interest me as much, so I restricted myself to the ‘default’ setting of the game – the 24th century Alpha Quadrant. Since then of course, the CC has designed some brilliant cards from eras where I haven’t got a large card pool, but I still want to use them. So I have re-themed a few of the most interesting cards, such as Prepare Landing Party from the Star Trek 50 set has become ‘Assemble Away Team’, replacing the icons with TNG. Similarly, Explore New World from Broken Bow has Starfleet icons replaced with TNG.

Visual Appeal: I’m a big fan of making a game look as good as possible on the table, so I have invested in a beautiful (and cheap) galactic nebula poster as a play-mat (a real pity that no official ones exist anymore – at least for sensible money) and I’ve bought some dice packs for Star Trek: Ascendancy as point markers on Missions. These are available in 6 different Affiliation colours (Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Ferengi, Borg and Cardassian) and are incredibly useful for marking completed Missions and bonus points from Dilemmas, Mission Specialists and other Events or Objectives:

Next time I’ll discuss how I try to control the Opponent deck in terms of what it tries to do and how that it can be different between Affiliations, plus since ‘Code of Honor’, the next episode of TNG, has NO 1e cards taken from it, I’ll share 2 new Dream cards. I'm also still doing a re-watch of TNG and am just about to start Season 6. I Tweet my episode reviews on Twitter- so if you're interested in what I think about the episodes, Follow me - @DWSSG01.

And if you'd like to see these boogs with some lovely pics to go with them, checkout this website:

https://cardgamegeek.com/games/stccg

Make it so...”
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By SudenKapala (Suden Käpälä)
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#480849
dragoncymru wrote:Beaming limit: All ships may only beam down 6 Personnel each turn for a Mission attempt (so assemble your Away Team carefully). I always rule that Mission attempts at Outposts have no restriction to the amount of Personnel attempting it as the Personnel are at the Outpost rather beaming down from a Ship.
Have you considered that most facilities are space stations orbiting a planet, and thus might more logically also have the 6 limit? (Look up 'Facilities' in the Glossary -- or 'Glossy', as I like to cal it, since that's what we call gleaming monthly magazines here. 8) )
HQs are planetside facilities, and thus might be exempt of the limit. Just thinkin' aloud...
AU icons have no effect on capacity. I have found this to be an excellent rule and really make you think about how you distribute your crews.
Do you mean, AU icons IN, or OUTSIDE OF the staffing box, or both? I'd like to see all staffing icons in the staffing box count towards the crew size calculation, personally. (But -- who am I? Can I condemn this man to slavery? Pretend I do not see his agony? This man who seems to know my crime will surely come a 2nd time--*)

(*: Yes, I was a Les Misérables fan long before Eddington donned Valjean's persona. And I felt like singing. 8) )
Shuttles/Runabouts: These have Engage Shuttle Operations and Establish Landing Protocols as implicit rules rather than the need for specific cards, as it should have been designed like this initially.
Years ago, I agreed with you there. Not anymore. If there's a card for it, there's no need for a rule.
I'd say -- append your solo rules, to mandatorily seed a number of cards (for free?), as "on-board rules reminders". It changes nothing in your rules (except for the free seeds?), but it would reduce house rules. 8)
I'm still hoping that in the end, you'll have a system that I can try out with no DCs and no additions to card text -- and this would help me.
But of course, it's your show, Dragon! :wink: :thumbsup:
Successful Mission Debriefing: If any Personnel uses a regular skill during a successful Mission attempt that Personnel is ‘stopped’ for the remainder of the Turn. Not quite the same as Mission Debriefingbut it does stop a ‘mega-Turn’ where you can score loads of points in one go.
Another very nice addition. I wouldn't go so far as to call it logical, because then I'd be saying "that it should have been designed like this originally", because, ahh, well-- I just don't say that. :lol:
Still -- this can be another mandatory seed! Why not!
interesting cards, such as Prepare Landing Party
For this and some other cards, you accidentally hit the "card" tag button, which makes it a 2e link. I fixed it to point to "card1", i.e., 1e.
Similarly, Explore New World from Broken Bow has
Missing link, fixed to look at it. :)

Visual Appeal: I’m a big fan of making a game look as good as possible on the table, so I have invested in a beautiful (and cheap) galactic nebula poster as a play-mat (a real pity that no official ones exist anymore – at least for sensible money) and I’ve bought some dice packs for Star Trek: Ascendancy
Nice to read, I always like to read stuff about how, and why, people use "our" cards in various novel ways. And their preferences -- interesting that you care about the background of the game so much as to make one. I don't care so much about it, but I like knowing about others' ideas in these regards. Thanks for sharing. :cheersL:
are incredibly useful for marking completed Missions and bonus points from Dilemmas, Mission Specialists and other Events or Objectives
I fully agree on dice. I do care a bit about their colour -- not much else -- but I use dice for everything. [(Bad memory) = (many dice)].
I'm also still doing a re-watch of TNG and am just about to start Season 6.
Are you still on the rewatch that you started during your previous iteration of a solo game project? As I recall, you went through the first seasons to look for story/episode lines. I admit I didn't read the game materials that flowed from that (tl;dr -- just a heads-up, so you might consider the amount of material that eventually is needed to be read for new iterations :) Just bein' honest :cheersL: ), but I caught it from your posts here.
 
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#480910
Thanks for your comments and support.

The idea behind doing it this way is that people 'follow along' and explore the 'strange new world' of the solo version as it is developed. Yes, lots to read, but hopefully not much at a time, so they can trial and tweak as they wish.

AU staffing - I meant inside the staffing box - thanks for the catch

House rules vs cards - although I would rather not house rule, just remembering all the myriad of cards makes it an uphill climb sometimes. Sometimes a quick rule is best

Rewatch - yes, still going from last time an putting in a few eps from other Trek shows like DS9 and Voyager too.
 
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#481730
Code of Honor

It is a highly structured society in which people live by strict codes” – Data, ‘Code of Honor

This time I’m going to discuss how I try to control the Opponent deck and how it can be different between Affiliations. Also since ‘Code of Honor’ has NO 1e cards taken from it, I’ll share 2 new Dream cards.

The major issue in converting a 2 player game into a solitaire game is how you control an ‘opponent’. You could remove this entirely by creating a game AI and a ‘lose’ condition, which is how I did it in the 2018 version, but it meant that a huge amount of the cards had to be tweaked or re-written entirely. It also meant that a player missed out on some fun of constructing decks for different Affiliations and playing them against each other. In this 2019 version I changed it so that you are definitely playing against an opposing deck.

Deck Composition: Although perhaps obvious, this is the place to start and I always try to create themed decks over power decks. This is also why I only have 50% of the deck being Personnel because it is in the other cards – Events/Interrupts/Objectives and Incidents that the theme is most prevalent. We all know the cards that are made for the various Affiliations, so go ahead and include them. Klingon Death Yell, Heart of Glory, Honor Challenge, and Klingon Right of Vengeance are all brilliant cards for our friends from Qo’nos. Romulans love a bit of Espionage and Brainwashing, whilst the Federation uses Hailto stop being attacked or various Scan cards to help solve Missions. Try not to put many Interrupts in the Opponent deck that cancel your Interrupts/Events however as this can lead to chain reactions and ‘false guessing’.

Making Decisions: When it is ‘your’ Turn you play the deck normally. When you are playing the Opponent deck however you have to play that deck as efficiently as possible, although I always play ‘opponent’s choice’ decisions on cards as ‘random selection’. I play the Opponent deck depending on the Affiliation and the cards I have included in it – so Klingons are usually more reasonable than Romulans, unless you’re against the House of Duras of course! I always also look at the skills of a ship’s Commander (OFFICER with highest stats or Leadership) and if they include Treachery decide that they would probably be offensive and attack me (obeying normal attack restrictions of course) rather than trying to complete a Mission. Likewise, if a Commander has Honor then I would have them attack less. When it comes to battles, I always think that Klingons are more inclined to go hand-to-hand and beam down an Away Team (especially if they want to die with glory!), whereas Romulans would rather have a Ship battle (if they have the superior firepower).

Self Controlling Ships: A new card-type was designed for ‘The Sky’s the Limit’ CC set that fits perfectly into the solo game as it is, well, self controlling. You can read the article by the CC here: https://www.trekcc.org/articles/index.p ... cleID=1131 on how they work, but I have been adding some Common NA Ships from Premiere such as Mercenary Ship andCombat Vesselto my Planet/Space Dilemma pile before shuffling them into the two Dilemma piles for the game and counting them as self-controlling ships – it works very well indeed.

I love designing Dream cards – but it can be a terrible habit and one that went completely out of control in my 2018 version of the solo game. This time, I’m committed to designing far, far less and I’m making a promise that only if episodes have less than 2 cards from it will I get my Dream card designers head on. But the episode ‘Code of Honor’ has none for 1e, so here are my two ‘2e conversions’ for it:

Test of Honor (Planet Dilemma): Now and at the start of each Mission attempt, one (random) SECURITY Personnel is stopped. To overcome requires Honor, Diplomacy x2 and no Acquisition
(This might prove difficult for Romulans and Ferengi)

Holoprogram: Akido Training (Incident): Plays on your ship with a Holodeck. Your Federation SECURITY Personnel aboard or in an Away Team are all +1 STRENGTH (+2 in Personnel battles).
(I love designing Holodeck programs - this is a very basic one that could come in handy for the Federation. More on Holodecks and Programs in a later article...)

Next time I’ll be introducing the Ferengi as a new Afffiliation to the solo game, discussing how they might play differently to other Affiliations, some good ‘starter’ Ferengi cards and a session report from a recent game showcasing them against a Federation deck. I'm doing a re-watch of TNG and am about to start into Season 6 this weekend. I Tweet my episode reviews on Twitter- so if you're interested in what I think about them (and some other bonus episodes), Follow me - @DWSSG01.

Make it so...”
 
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#482829
The Last Outpost

It will be Starfleet's first look at a life form... which discounting rumour, we know almost nothing about.”
- Jean-Luc Picard, “The Last Outpost

Welcome to my latest article where I’m introducing the Ferengi to the solo game, discussing how the Affiliation might play, and a session report from a game that pitted the Federation against them.

Ferengi: When the Ferengi were introduced in the TNG episode ‘The Last Outpost’ they were hardly a big success and were quickly relegated from ‘possible threat’ to ‘comedy relief’. It took a while and probably not until DS9 and Quark were introduced before that description changed and they evolved into a culture that could be taken perhaps more seriously and with more depth.

In the CCG, the Ferengi were mostly ignored, except 3 Personnel in Premiere, until ‘Rules of Acquisition’ was released in 1999 – 5 years later. In fact, I remember making Dream cards of Ferengi Marauder ships due to their omission! Since then however, they have become a great Affiliation to play – even more with the CC’s terrific ‘The Next Generation’ expansion.

Ferengi Cards: Just considering TNG cards, it starts with Ferengi Trading Post a Facility that also allows a seeded ship. Their ‘Warp Core’ card is Ferengi Military Operations that allows free Personnel and has a nice bonus point score for various nefarious activities. Ferengi Commerce Operation is a great Objective to get Equipment like Ferengi Whipor even an Artefact (more on Artefacts soon) on the table, and Ferengi can complete Establish Trade Route easily. A Business Gambitis fun and to get aggressive include a few Latinum Payoff cards. Great Missions for Ferengi include Resupply Marauder (that also gives a bonus RANGE mod on your ships), Attend Mysterious Rendezvous, The Last Outpost, Revenge Plot, Steal Technology, Acquire Surplus Ships and Market Research. If Ferengi feature in the game, you could also theme the Dilemmas with Ferengi Ambush, a Dilemma that lets you download Ferengi Personnel, or Ferengi Attack – especially as a few Dilemmas are enhanced by Ferengi Personnel, such as Taaror Letek. In my Ferengi Starter deck, I’ve used DaiMon Bok and his ship, the Kurdon. He can download Thought Maker, but since the card has been totally nerfed with downloads on Warp Core cards here’s a Ferengi based tweak:

Thought Maker: Use as Equipment card. You may control one opposing Personnel present as an Infiltrator until the end of your next turn then discard Artefact OR V Captain Picardand discard Artefact.

Playing Ferengi: Last time when I discussed Klingons and Romulans as the Opponent, I used Honor and Treachery to decide actions, with the Ferengi - it’s all about Greed! The Ferengi Opponent will always go for the ‘fast buck’ and the quickest point gain possible. This generally means solving Missions unless a situation appears where more points, or other gains, can be made – such as a card in the Ferengi hand giving a specific opportunity. However, the Ferengi can be an aggressive and duplicitous race too, so Commanders with Treachery and a powerful Ship might attack you if the odds are good.

Game Report: I recently play-tested a Ferengi ‘starter’ deck as an Opponent against a similar Federation deck and got completely squashed very early in the game. Although I started well and got a reasonable Away Team out to attempt Homeward on the second turn, an Outpost Raid took out 2 Personnel. This was followed by the Ferengi Opponent having the Kurdon Ship in the opening hand. This can downloadDaiMon Bok, who has a great set of skills that are useful in lots of Ferengi Missions. Also, with a D’Kora Marauder already seeded on the table, the Opponent could set up a nasty 2-ship blockade that could be ready to pounce on any Federation ship whenever they ventured out to do a Mission and since DaiMon Bokhas Treachery x2, I ruled that’s what he’d do! They managed to get a Plasmadyne Relayon their Kurdon to increase their Range for Missions, and laid down a few Anti-Matter Pods to harass my ships for good measure – although I did manage to Establish Relations with a nearby system. The Ferengi just did really well with their Missions, investigating an old T’kon outpost, stealing Federation technology from Gamma Tauri IV. Quark even managed to sell some old Klingon ships from a disreputable salvage yard – clearly with no questions asked... A really good game, even if I lost, as it told some good stories along with it, and felt very true to Star Trek.

It’s an important post next time as I’ll be introducing the first Doorway in the solo game and discussing how we can venture into time travel, other dimensions, parallel realities and the Alternate Universe... I'm doing a re-watch of TNG and am currently a few episodes into Season 6. I Tweet my episode reviews on Twitter- so if you're interested in what I think about Season 6, Follow me - @DWSSG01.

Make it so...”
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By bosskamiura (Thomas Kamiura)
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Community Contributor
#482833
Bring this to The Dojo’s Discord Channel for discussion!

TK
 
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#483449
Where No One Has Gone Before

"It seems that in this place, the world of the physical universe and the world of ideas, are somehow intermixed. What we think also becomes a reality.”– Jean-Luc Picard, ‘Where No One Has Gone Before”.

This article is an important one as I introduce the first Doorway in the solo game and discuss how we can venture into parallel realities, experience time travel and venture into alternate universes...

Alternate Universe was, of course, the first expansion for the CCG and was released way back, at the end of 1995. It was hotly anticipated and fans, including myself, were desperate for new cards, after playing the Premiere set to death. I think it’s fair to say that the 122 card set really does push the boundaries of the game, contains some really great cards and opens some enormous cans of rule-worms that the CC would take years to nail down (just check out the errata). It also introduces a new card-type – the Doorway.

The Doorway was a clever idea of getting new cards into the game and a mechanic that was developed in several different and interesting ways through the evolution of the CCG by Decipher and then the CC. In the solo game, Doorways are again going to have different functions, depending on the specific card. The basic Alternate Universe Door can’t function as it normally does because many AU cards are Dilemmas and in the solo game Dilemmas are seeded randomly rather than by players, so we will create an AU side-deck instead.

AU Side Deck: Cards that have an AU Icon are not placed in a draw deck but instead in the AU side-deck and can only enter play when an AU Doorway is open. At the start of the game, choose up to 20 AU cards – some cards that are advantageous for you and an equal number that either hinder you, such as Dilemmas, or are good for your opponent. Shuffle them together and put an Alternate Universe Door on top of the pile. Cards from the AU side-deck that leave play are placed face-up at the bottom of the AU deck. When the first face-up card is revealed, reshuffle all the cards to form a new AU deck.

AU Doorways: I’m starting with 4 different Doorways involving AU cards – 2 that are shuffled with the Planet/Space Dilemmas and seeded at the start of the game and 2 that are placed inside the AU side-deck. Since the Alternate Universe Door is the ‘basic’ Doorway, I seed 2-3 of these in a game.

Alternate Universe Door: (Seeded) – A crew or Away Team must experience X-1 cards from the AU side-deck, where X = original number of seeded cards here. All non-Interrupt or Dilemma AU cards encountered in this way are considered to have a Countdown (3) Icon.

Space-Time Portal: (Seeded) – A crew or Away Team must experience X-1 cards from the AU side-deck, where X = original number of seeded cards here. AU cards encountered in this way only affect cards, and can only exist, at this Mission. If an AU Ship is revealed, search the AU deck for any Personnel that have that Ship named in its lore to staff the Ship.

Devidian Door: (AU deck) – Plays on this Mission. Examine the top 10 cards of your draw deck. Select a Personnel or Equipment card to be put into play then shuffle your draw deck. At the end of your next turn, shuffle the played card back into your draw deck.

Manheim’s Dimensional Door: (AU deck) – Plays as card text but at this Mission (Planet or Space).

AU Cards: If a card drawn from the AU deck cannot be played (like an AU Planet Dilemma at a Space Mission) discard the card for no effect, but it counts towards number of cards drawn. AU Interrupt cards do not count towards the number of AU cards drawn. Events/Objectives and Incidents that are not played on the table (such as Drought Treeor Inner Light) can be taken into your hand or played on the specific target – such as Personnel, a Facility or Mission. AU Personnel drawn from the AU side-deck can either join you or attack you, depending on your and the Personnel’s Affiliation and Attack Restrictions. The same is true with AU Ships, although they do not have to be staffed to attack you. Consider the Edo Vessel a self controlling Ship that is placed in the AU deck.

Premiere AU cards: These are considered to have an AU icon - The Traveller: Transcendence, Temporal Rift, Where No One Has Gone Before, Subspace Schism and Distortion of Space/Time Continuum.

Next time I’ll detail ways to add more cards, such as Artefacts, to the solo game environment, an alternative way to generate Missions and a few tweaks to existing cards. Follow me on Twitter too - @DWSSG01.

And if you'd like to read these articles with some lovely card images, visit:

https://cardgamegeek.com/games/stccg

Make it so...”
 
 - Beta Quadrant
 -  
#484228
Lonely Among Us

“When our ship passed through the edge of this cloud, it accidentally carried off a sentient being...” – Jean-Luc Picard (possessed), ‘Lonely Among Us’.

Welcome to my latest article on the CCG, where I’ll be detailing more ways to add more cards and variety to the game, introducing Artefacts and other house rules I use. And if there’s a better title for a solo series than this week’s, let me know – solo players are often ‘lonely among us’!

Encounter cards: Planet/Space Dilemmas and any non-Dilemma cards seeded as Dilemmas, such as the self controlling Mercenary Ship and Combat Vessel, Doorways, Events, Interrupts and now Artefacts (see below) I’m now going to term ‘Encounter’ cards. I’ve added more cards to this ‘Encounter pile’ including two nicer Non-Aligned Ships that don’t attack you and 2 other non-Dilemma cards:

Yridian Shuttle: Discards to download any Personnel card in draw deck to a Ship or Away Team present.

Zibalian Transport: Discards to download any non-Ship, non-Personnel card in draw deck to a Ship or Away Team present.

Neutral Outpost: You or the Opponent may both report Personnel, Ships and Equipment here.

Wormhole: When revealed, a random ship present is relocated to a random Mission on the Space-lane.

Dilemmas: An alternative way to seed Dilemmas for the game is not to redistribute the ‘Encounter’ cards between the Planet and Space Dilemmas cards but to seed each Mission with 1 less Planet or Space Dilemma than required, then shuffle 1 Encounter card in with those Dilemmas.

If a Dilemma indicates that the opponent may download further Dilemmas (such as on Shore Leaveor The Loss), then instead check the respective Dilemma pile that contained any Dilemmas that were un-seeded and if any listed Dilemmas are there, seed them at the Mission

Artefacts: These were originally designed as very powerful cards but as the game developed, they became a little diminished and seemed to depend on very specific set ups to make them work, such as Phased Cloaking Device. They still remain interesting however and are a good addition to the solo game but in small numbers and with an additional rule tweak (although I am currently developing a pair of Dream cards to do this more elegantly – more news soon...) in that you gain 5 points if any Artefact is returned to a Facility where you have Archaeology. To limit the numbers, I only add a maximum of 3 Artefacts to a game. Most are placed as Encounter cards but an Artefact with an AU icon is instead placed in the AU deck. If an Artefact is drawn at a Mission where it would be mis-seeded (most Dilemmas are encountered on Planet Missions for example), it is discarded and a new Dilemma drawn from the respective Dilemma pile.

Cryo-Satellite: (Space Mission) Ignore AU icon. When earned (needing Tractor Beam in addition to completing the Mission), download from the AU deck any Artefact and up to 3 Personnel.

Missions: For an additional challenge, instead of choosing 6 Missions that you want to attempt, instead draw 10 random Missions from a deck and then choose 6 from the 10 chosen. If a Mission allows you to seed cards, such as Atmospheric Ionisationon Botanical Research, or a Hand Weapon on Search for Weapons, instead play it as a Download icon there.

Game Report: A recent ‘starter deck’ session saw the Romulans as the Opponent against my Klingons and was a completely experience to a Federation game as it was very aggressive with each side out to kill the other. The Romulans opened hostilities playing an Espionage card on a Klingon Mission (Fever Emergency) and stealing 35 points. Not to be outdone, I retaliated with my Vor’Cha cruiser damaging the Romulan science vessel. So the Romulans beamed down to the planet and played Auto destruct on their ship to damage my cruiser! This was then just a matter of honor so the Klingons beamed down as well and started destroying the Romulans with a Personnel battle each turn. Since Korris also had Heart of Glory played on him, each Romulan casualty gained 5 points until the Deranasarrived as reinforcements. Terrific!

Next time it’ll be the introduction of another Doorway – the Ready Room Door – and a discussion of the Captain’s Order cards and how to tweak a few for solo play. I'm doing a re-watch of TNG and am currently in the middle of Season 6 and the excellent ‘Chain of Command’. I Tweet my episode reviews on Twitter- so if you're interested in what I think about Season 6, Follow me - @DWSSG01.

“Make it so...”
 
 - Beta Quadrant
 -  
#484854
Justice

All of us are sworn not to interfere with other life in the galaxy. I am caught between the two. If I save this young man, I break that law...” - Jean-Luc Picard, ’Justice

A captain’s life can be filled with difficult decisions (unless saving Wesley). This time I’m going to discuss introducing the Ready Room Door so those decisions can be made more easily with the ‘Captain’s Order’ cards and cards that make getting your ‘matching commander’ aboard your Ship a definite advantage.

In the 2018 version of the solo project there were lots of side-decks and one included having all of the Captain’s Order cards under a Ready Room Door. This time, I’m trying to reduce the number of player controlled side-decks to reduce table bloat (there’s still going to be quite enough anyway), so Ready Room Door returned to its printed version and all of the Captain’s Order cards went back into the draw deck.

Captain’s Ready Room: The Ready Room Door was introduced in First Contact and has had a few reprints with different property logos, although it’s a shame we don’t have a TNG version, and that we don’t have different Affiliation versions either. It has remained a staple card for many decks, mainly because of its’ ability to draw your matching commander for your Ship. Getting your matching commander aboard means that a player can benefit from several powerful cards such as Captain’s Logor Make It So (which I currently play with a TNG logo if I’m playing Federation – why shouldn’t Picard from that era not be able to utter his most famous line?). If you already have your matching commander aboard, the Ready Room Door can be used to download a Captain’s Order. This was initially only a small set of cards, but since has been expanded greatly, and represents all the things a captain might...order, such as Mission Debriefing, Yellow Alert and the Jellicoe version of Make It So – Get It Done! Several important Personnel like Captain Kirk or Tomalakcan also directly download a Captain’s Order card.

Captain’s Order: Interestingly however, there are some cards that are not a Captain’s Order and yet plainly should be. For the solo game I allow Red Alert, Auto-Destruct Sequence, Hail, Scan, Full Planet Scan, Life Form Scan,Long Range Scan and Tactical Scan to all become a Captain’s Order. For them to be played solo, I have also tweaked two of the scan cards (and made Life Form Scan similar to the CC errata versions):

Long Range Scan: Allows any scan card to peek at cards at an adjacent Mission OR may avoid one ship encounter if your Range is equal or greater than the encountered ship.

Life Form Scan: Plays at the start of your turn. Stop a staffed ship with at least two staffing icons and Exiobiology aboard at a Mission to examine the bottom seed card there.

Game Report: I recently played a terrific game of Federation against a Klingon opponent where it really came down to the wire on which side would score their last 10 points. I have started to put a few more unique Personnel into the decks (especially if they feature in Season 1 of TNG), so have added Picard, Data, Troi and Spock to my Federation deck, and Korris and Konmel (from the Next Generation set rather than their fairly rubbish Premiere versions) as well as playing with a small Alternate Universe side-deck.

The USS Enterprise made an early appearance and with Data too, I managed to quickly complete both Homeward (with my seeded 2 Mission Specialists for 10 bonus points) and Survey Instability before attempting to Study Plasma Streamer. It was here that I encountered an Alternate Universe Doorthat opened a Temporal Rift that engulfed the Enterprise for 2 turns. Meanwhile the Klingon Empire, led by Gowron who became Arbiter of Succession and completed Test Mission, Reopen Dig and A Good Place to Die.

However when the Enterprise returned from the rift, we were joined by The Traveller. After a quick stop at our Outpost to get Spock aboard, he transported the ship to the far end of the space-lane, where the Vulcan ambassador appropriately and thematically completed Establish Relations to win the game. That’s a nice Mission where a player can download a Non-Aligned Personnel too...hmm...

Next time it’ll be the introduction Battle Bridge side deck and the Tactics cards, taking a look at Infiltrators and how they can work in the solo game, plus a look at capturing and rescuing Personnel. I'm doing a re-watch of Trek and am currently in the middle of Season 6 TNG and the start of Season 1 of DS9. I Tweet my episode reviews on Twitter- so if you're interested in what I think about Season 6, Follow me - @DWSSG01.

Make it so...
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