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Welcome to today's First Edition Friday Question, where you get a chance to answer questions that will help shape the future of First Edition. If you'd like to catch up on previous entries, here's a list of all of my previous Friday Questions:



Hello all! How have you been doing this week? In Trek circles, it was a relatively quiet week - outside of here, though, it's always eventful. I hope that you are taking steps to preserve and enhance your own mental and physical health. I've been reading the latest book in one of my favorite series, which came out this week - Peace Talks, by Jim Butcher. It was a fast read and I really enjoyed it - so much so I'm reading it again!

But this topic is all about Star Trek, and today I want to talk about expansion names. Specifically, I want to know what you think makes a good name for an expansion?. Historically, First Edition expansion names favor the factual name based on contents - Alternate Universe, Q Continuum, The Dominion, and The Terran Empire. But sometimes, we go for a more flashy name or an episode title - Blaze of Glory, The Trouble With Tribbles, or The Cage.

What factors do you consider when deciding if an expansion name is good or not? Do you prefer the traditional "here's the contents" style or the more flavorful model? Does the expansion name even matter to you? I'm very curious, because expansion naming isn't something we done much research on. So sound off, and let us know what you think makes a good name for an expansion.

I hope you have a great weekend. And please join me in congratulating Daniel Matteson (OKCoyote), the CC's Writing Team Manager, who is getting married this weekend! Congrats, Daniel - I hope it's a great wedding!

-crp

Not the biggest fan of Set Name = an Episode Name. Maybe occasionally, but I like the set name to say what is in the set.

Also, can we take a moment to enjoy the perfect number of sets for both 2E and 1E right now on the main page?

Yeah, I like it when a set name reflects the idea of the set, and I don't especially care whether that phrase has been used on screen before. The Borg was a great name for a set. But I'm okay with getting poetic about it. For example:

I pushed for The Cage to be named Wagon Train To The Stars, and I think that sums up everything you need to know about my philosophy of set-naming.

I´m always going for content, be it gameplay or fluff wise.

SirDan wrote:Not the biggest fan of Set Name = an Episode Name. Maybe occasionally, but I like the set name to say what is in the set.

Also, can we take a moment to enjoy the perfect number of sets for both 2E and 1E right now on the main page?

It's hard for me to remember any set names since CC started (might have something to do with NOT have to read the sets name a hundred of times while unpacking all the booster packs ) with the cards included in them.

But because the number of sets was mentioned: In my opinion we have to change something with the sort of the expansions: the Virtual Promos (and Borderless Promos as well) are somewhere in between. Both of them are changed constantly - so we should change their position to the bottom or top of our list...

Easter eggs are fun, so it's nice when the title of a set gives us a little bit of an idea what's in it. Long awaited content can have a more direct approached, though. A set featuring Yesterday's Enterprise story arch cards could be just called Yesterday's Enterprise, but if you wanted to get creative about it, you could call it "That Will Be the Day!". I've found your set titles to be quite good, and it's funny to hear you guys 'just did it' without a whole lot of thought, lol.

I run the Axis and Allies: War at Sea Custom Card Blog on facebook, I make custom cards to help keep the game going for myself and others. Coming up with good set names is always a challenge. But I keep managing to pull a few good ones out even at my 13th set. My set names have included:

-Lend-lease (mostly aircraft that got swapped around during the war between nations, the Allies normally did this through 'lend-lease' programs, I took the aircraft we had in the game and changed nation roundels, it's really a conservative fluff set akin to CC's Identity Crisis).

-Continuation War (Bulked up Finland and Russia in this one their pre-WWII battles were called the Winter War which continued into WWII and was then called the Continuation War. This was also a personal pun that I would continue making cards)

-The Atlantic Wall (A set made entirely of printable installation cards and game markers. The name comes from the German fortifications protecting their shores from invasion)

-Plan Z (The German's emergency naval program was Plan Z, units for WAS Set V suddenly became rare so I shuffled this set ahead of the others since each set I did at the time was just making sisters ships and alternate aircraft models from existing sets (so I could buy a case of boosters and convert them into my new units I just made).

Shaping the Way (The game revolves around a model ship/aircraft on a map and a card that says what it can do. Some brilliant geniuses discovered the Shapeways website and learned how to make 3D computer models, which could in turn be printed into physical 3D models. At this point I said if they made a model on the site, I would eventually get around to making a card for it. It's been a delightful hell ever since).

-Run Silent (Reference to submarine maneuvers, I had gotten away from making cards for a little while and sprang this on my page viewers out of nowhere with no hype)

-Tin Can Sailors (A reference to destroyers in WWII which many American sailors called "Tin Cans", due to their lack of armor. I was also reading 'Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors' at the time which recounts the brutal Pacific naval engagement called The Battle Off Samar. A must read.)

-Armistice (The French Armistice in 1940 after their surrender created the Vichy French puppet government of the Axis powers. Originally we had rules that early French units could fight with the Axis and against the Allies in games 1940 and after. I decided to finally make the Vichy French into Axis cards.)

-Fleet in Being (Reference to ships or a single ship or even submarine that's assigned to a location by a nation which forces another nation, or nations to match that force's power in it's own bases in that area. The "Fleet in Being" can many times just stay in it's port/harbor, but it's mere existence is a threat. The German Battleship Tirpitz was based in a conquered port in Norway and this ties up many UK battleships in case the Tirpitz went out to sea.)

-The Grey Ghost (one of my first real sets where I wasn't revising or fixing older cards like the first two, but making entirely new units, but they were still based off of existing models. Since half of the official Set 2 were reprints of the Official Set 1, I decided to start with Set 3 and make sister ships and aircraft variants of the units in that. The Japanese called the USS Enterprise The Grey Ghost since they reported numerous times that she sank, only to return. I was new to painting model ships, my first batch for my own collection are primer grey with dark grey highlights. So they are my Grey Ghosts)

-Black Sea Flotilla (My current set: focuses on the Black Sea region of the world and related sectors. I added Romania and Turkey to the game and bolstered up the Russians, Finland, and even Poland. The set really catered to the lesser known theaters of the war.)

There's some insight about how I pick my set names.

As long as the set name gives me an idea what is in the set so I can quickly think if I should look there for cards related to whatever deck I am building, it's good with me.

Cool quotes and stuff that aren't too obscure are fine as long as they satisfy the above.

As long as I can tell them apart from the other sets so we don't get "Was it in Tempest or Torment?" style confusion, I don't have any big preference.

Variation is nice (Trek episode names, quotes, concepts), but I very much like expansion names that clearly/cleverly link the content to the name.

jjh wrote:Variation is nice (Trek episode names, quotes, concepts), but I very much like expansion names that clearly/cleverly link the content to the name.

So when do we get the "Blow up the Damn Ship!" expansion? That sounds like fun on all fronts!

AllenGould wrote:As long as I can tell them apart from the other sets so we don't get "Was it in Tempest or Torment?" style confusion, I don't have any big preference.

or to Trekify your MTG reference, "was it the Naked Time or the Naked Now?"

Armus wrote:So when do we get the "Blow up the Damn Ship!" expansion? That sounds like fun on all fronts!

That should come before the "Get This Cheese To Sickbay!" and "There's Coffee In That Nebula!" expansions.

After the expansion Deep Space 9, I stopped paying any attention to set names. So if they make someone feel good having a creative name good. If it was Expansion 21 followed by Expansion 22 it would be the same to me.

The cards in the expansion are the important part.

Armus wrote: ... So when do we get the "Blow up the Damn Ship!" expansion? That sounds like fun on all fronts!

Ahem ...