#564012
Don't like it. Unless the game-text is a rough draft, it seems like this only makes Q-continuum side decks more confusing. What's the goal here?
When I look at "Q-Flash," it explains what it does pretty clearly. I don't need to look at any rules or other cards to understand. It indicates what a Q-Continuum is, it defines a "Q-Flash" as the name of the card, and it indicates it can be seeded so that an away team or crew encountering it will have to experience X cards from a Q-Continuum, which again, is defined by the first function of the card. Great. A little verbose (the third function could conceivably have been dropped or moved elsewhere), but not confusing.
But when I look at this card, I'm just left with questions. The crew or away team "has a Q-Flash with..."
Wait a minute. Q-Flash is the name of a card. Is this card naming a card? What does it mean when a crew or away team "has a <card>?" How does that work? It's as confusing as if it said "Crew or Away Team has a Jean-Luc Picard with..."
Ok, so now I've got to look up what the "Q-Flash" card is because that card is named (assuming I have prior knowledge that "Q-Flash" is the name of a card in the first place), and even so, I don't know what it means to "have a card."
But then I haven't seen the rest of the set. So maybe "Q-Flash" isn't going to be a card anymore at the end of the day (though since I've played 1E before, I will forever have knowledge that "Q-Flash" is a card even if you say it's not anymore, because it still is, it still was, and those cards still exist). So maybe I don't need to know what it means for my away team to "have a card."
In which case, I still don't know what it means to "have a Q-Flash," since that's a term that's defined elsewehere, presumably. I either have to look it up in the rules or look at another card which defines the term (which card? Is there a way for me to know by looking at this card? Nope). So now to even understand what's going on, I'm looking at two different places at a minimum.
We're not done yet, though. Even if I know what it means to "have a Q-Flash," apparently I have to do it with X cards from my opponent's "Q-Continuum." But what is my opponent's "Q-Continuum?" Again, not defined on this card. Once again, I'm looking at the rules or looking at relevant other card, once I figure out somehow what that relevant other card is.
So there are two populations of players that you make these kind of revised cards for - old players and new players.
Old players are probably going to figure all this out pretty quick - because they recognize it's just a revamp of the mechanics and cards from the Q-Continuum expansion, so it should work pretty similarly. But remember, moving mechanics and rules from documents to cards, or from one card to multiple cards, isn't really done for the sake of older players, because they're not the ones who are liable to be confused by weird mechanics and rules in the first place, since they've alreayd learned them and have been playing with them for decades.
So what about the other population? The new players? I can't imagine a new player looking at this card and having any sane clue about how it works or what it does or why they should put it in their deck.
Whereas I was a new player once, when Q-Continuum came out. And I remember looking at that ONE card and getting the gist of the entire mechanic. And I can put myself in the shoes of a new player now and compare how a new player might look at old Q-Flash versus how they might look at this card, and even though old Q-Flash has a lot more text, I think it's a lot more self-explanatory and easy to understand than this new card.
So if that was the goal, streamlining things for new players, then this card fails.
ETA: Also, why make it a Q colon card, so that it's linked to the "Q" dilemma by the colon rule? It can be a Q-related dilemma by having "Q" in the title without using the colon rule. Is there a reason it should be linked to "Q"?
When I look at "Q-Flash," it explains what it does pretty clearly. I don't need to look at any rules or other cards to understand. It indicates what a Q-Continuum is, it defines a "Q-Flash" as the name of the card, and it indicates it can be seeded so that an away team or crew encountering it will have to experience X cards from a Q-Continuum, which again, is defined by the first function of the card. Great. A little verbose (the third function could conceivably have been dropped or moved elsewhere), but not confusing.
But when I look at this card, I'm just left with questions. The crew or away team "has a Q-Flash with..."
Wait a minute. Q-Flash is the name of a card. Is this card naming a card? What does it mean when a crew or away team "has a <card>?" How does that work? It's as confusing as if it said "Crew or Away Team has a Jean-Luc Picard with..."
Ok, so now I've got to look up what the "Q-Flash" card is because that card is named (assuming I have prior knowledge that "Q-Flash" is the name of a card in the first place), and even so, I don't know what it means to "have a card."
But then I haven't seen the rest of the set. So maybe "Q-Flash" isn't going to be a card anymore at the end of the day (though since I've played 1E before, I will forever have knowledge that "Q-Flash" is a card even if you say it's not anymore, because it still is, it still was, and those cards still exist). So maybe I don't need to know what it means for my away team to "have a card."
In which case, I still don't know what it means to "have a Q-Flash," since that's a term that's defined elsewehere, presumably. I either have to look it up in the rules or look at another card which defines the term (which card? Is there a way for me to know by looking at this card? Nope). So now to even understand what's going on, I'm looking at two different places at a minimum.
We're not done yet, though. Even if I know what it means to "have a Q-Flash," apparently I have to do it with X cards from my opponent's "Q-Continuum." But what is my opponent's "Q-Continuum?" Again, not defined on this card. Once again, I'm looking at the rules or looking at relevant other card, once I figure out somehow what that relevant other card is.
So there are two populations of players that you make these kind of revised cards for - old players and new players.
Old players are probably going to figure all this out pretty quick - because they recognize it's just a revamp of the mechanics and cards from the Q-Continuum expansion, so it should work pretty similarly. But remember, moving mechanics and rules from documents to cards, or from one card to multiple cards, isn't really done for the sake of older players, because they're not the ones who are liable to be confused by weird mechanics and rules in the first place, since they've alreayd learned them and have been playing with them for decades.
So what about the other population? The new players? I can't imagine a new player looking at this card and having any sane clue about how it works or what it does or why they should put it in their deck.
Whereas I was a new player once, when Q-Continuum came out. And I remember looking at that ONE card and getting the gist of the entire mechanic. And I can put myself in the shoes of a new player now and compare how a new player might look at old Q-Flash versus how they might look at this card, and even though old Q-Flash has a lot more text, I think it's a lot more self-explanatory and easy to understand than this new card.
So if that was the goal, streamlining things for new players, then this card fails.
ETA: Also, why make it a Q colon card, so that it's linked to the "Q" dilemma by the colon rule? It can be a Q-related dilemma by having "Q" in the title without using the colon rule. Is there a reason it should be linked to "Q"?