[MidnightLich]

Hi all,

Use this thread to ask your questions about Q Who?, the expansion announced on Friday, January 10th. The designers will pop in and out and do their best to answer your questions!

Thanks!

-crp

MidnightLich
KazonPADD
sexecutioner
SirDan

[Iron Prime]

How many cards on the cutting room floor?
2 - both reprints we decided against
Though none of the new cards were cut, they went through vigorous playtesting thus went through multiple versions. There were concepts which had to be cut.

Favorites from the set?
16V
16V. Though 18V, bar a minor tweak during testing, is exactly how I always dreamed it would be
Will there be any tales from Playtesting Land?
The Playtesters were very good at finding ways to abuse our "simple beginner Borg" with old school Borg tricks, hence why we ended up adding the drone download restriction.
At the last minute, they deemed a concept I wanted to explore with one of the drones a tad too powerful. I will smite you all one day for that!

Is Spot of Borg* in this set so I can use Spot with Locutus (since I can download Willing Companion)
I think we went one better than Spot
- Sex
*Since we have Chef now it's time for a new Unicorn IMHO

[Iron Prime]

Also: were any beginner decks tested against The Previous TNG Starters?
Testing focused on the full OTF environment. If we make a TNG Borg Starter (and maybe a TNG Cardassian starter) to supplement the work we did in Coming of Age then those would be tested and designed to be on par with the other TNG starters

[Mogor]

Borg Sex?

Yes please

Which card will borg players cheer for?

players will go nuts for 4V
Non will love 18V
2V and 16V too possibly
Which card will borg players boo?

8V, as they won't get the full benefits and safety net for it before The Neutral Zone is released
Non will hate 4V

[sexecutioner]

Btw, Sex is live at the gym. And he's ready to answer your questions...

Screenshot_20200110-212757~2.jpg (96.95 KiB) Viewed 2040 times

[Iron Prime]

Time for gym Sex(icutioner)

Need to keep my tubules in shape

Was there a targeted/ideal number of TNG Drones?

Aiming for six drones was always the aim. Working out the ideal skill matrix combined with who gets the CM draws was fun.
Based on the available images in the show, 6 was about the maximum

Where any other "Borg Experts" consulted at any point?
Because of the way these Objectives work, we did indeed bring in someone who has plenty of experience. Their job was to look out for any unintended weird combinations that we did not want, while also bringing up some fun combinations at the same time.

"Borg Expert". You know who you are, and we salute you.
Sounds Swedish...

[Iron Prime]

I may guess the answer, but:
Why "Topology Drone" and not "Twelve of Thirteen"?

Typically, drones are mentioned by their identification when referenced on other cards. Guard Drone on A Fast Ship Would Be Nice is one example.

[Se7enofMine]

Humph. i did NOT get that expert call ...... :p

This is not a question. You're lucky I'm in wholesome Q&A mode, otherwise, that would've been a suplex for you.

Your French butler kept saying you 'were busy' every time we tried calling you btw.

[Takket]

wow this is certainly a surprise. Since this was billed as a spin off of the set I wasn't expecting !!!!

why was this spun off? were they just taking up too much room in the set?
Space was part of it, but also it makes it easy to then declare this set legal for a TNG block event...

[Jono]

The name of drones in 1E has always been in alphabetical order to their designation. Assuming that’s still the case, was it difficult to continue this?
I had this pinned down from the start. First I defined the “hives” ie “of fourteen” (I’d had that one picked out since we did the creative work on Warp Pack Holiday 2017) or “of twenty” that we would use, then the numbering within those hives would help determine which letters designation had to fall between.

Are there any “in jokes” or “Easter eggs” on the cards in this set?

Not per se, But there is a card y'all won't see coming.

Did you ever consider a new version of Locutus?

Nope, whoever develops The Best of Both Worlds gets that job.

Are all the pictures from Q-Who? or did any other TNG Borg episodes get used?
6 by my count are images not taken from Q Who? That includes some stunning work by Art for 1V and 8V
I was insistent that all images come from the episode. Later down the line, we realised that this wouldn't be possible.

One of the TNG drones that already exists can download Retask. With the anti-downloading card, does that end up being a useless ?
were not designed with Retask in mind, as it’s not really an ideal strategy for a beginner to focus on.
Even before the anti-downloading part was added, this wouldn't be possible due to there not being a ❖ Cube.

[9of24]

Traditionally, Borg haven't cared if missions were solved or not, and it seems particularly odd since Consume: Technology only allows you to target your own missions (which a Borg player isn't solving).

Was there a playtest/thematic reason for including that restriction on Consume: Technology?
In 1983, Douglas Adams and John Lloyd published “The Meaning of Liff”. In the preface, they state that there are “many hundreds of common experiences, feelings, situations and even objects which we all know and recognise, but for which no word exists. On the other hand, the world is littered with thousands of spare words which spend their time doing nothing but loafing about on signposts pointing around places. Our job, as we see it, is to get these words down off the signposts and into the mouths of babes...”
We adopted a similar philosophy for the Borg. A TNG Borg deck (without tricks like a Queen) has a shortage of skills like “Diplomacy” or “Leadership” or “Youth”. However, that same deck has 6 missions, littered with skills sat there doing nothing. In line with Borg efficiency, we’ve married the two concepts to fill those skill gaps.
There's some great chat on the article thread about this. First Borg player to complete Wormhole Negotiations, then successfully hits the opponent with Diplomatic Intervention wins a biscuit.

[jjh]

Can.

Not.

Wait.

For.

This.

Set.

Not

A

Question.

Thank you though

To me, this means we did our job. -crp

[Takket]

So Consume: Technology, I think I'm reading this right.... since it doesn't require any probing, and scouting is complete at the end of my turn... then when I get my my "end of turn" phase, I simply say the scouting/objective is complete, and put it in my point area, right?

See todays card...

[JeBuS]

So Consume: Technology, I think I'm reading this right.... since it doesn't require any probing, and scouting is complete at the end of my turn... then when I get my my "end of turn" phase, I simply say the scouting/objective is complete, and put it in my point area, right?

It specifies that it is placed on mission.(?)

Added a question mark there so you avoid a suplex... this time.

[jrch5618]

Will Bareil of Borg, Dukat of Borg, Weyoun of Borg, and Brunt of Borg be issued errata as well to be given logos?

Don't forget about a potential Locutus
Either in flashback form, or as a prophet with icon?

If it ever becomes relevant, we will make that change. Note we didn't change Gowron/Tomalak for almost five years because there was no reason to. PS: This is not a challenge to Dan Hamman to make a Borg card. -crp

We were told that Gowron of Borg and Tomalak of Borg will get .
Yes, early Feb I’m assuming but not 100% on the timetable for that.

Also - it seems that before Q Who (and counting Gowron/Tomalak)... there's 3 companions (which is difficult to use multiples), one unique drone, and three ❖ drones (one of which has an irrelevant special skill (the of Retask). Adding 6 more personnel - that's a very very VERY shallow pool. Will it be enough to make a splash?
Shallow pool = good. You are more likely to draw into the few drones you need and have stocked in multiple. Also, 3V will help if you end up with a handful of drones all with the same subcommands. Also, drones don’t need a deep skill pool. ADAPT!