#114544
Last updated April 2021
Welcome to the First Edition Forums. In this forum, players from all around the world post to discuss strategy, speculate on the new virtual expansions, and seek answers to their questions about the original Star Trek CCG.
If you have a question about a First Edition card or rule, this thread will help you find the answers that you're looking for. If you're looking for help with a Second Edition question, you'll need to visit our sister forum, Gameplay (2E).
Finding Answers to Rules Questions
If you're trying to find out the answers to a question about a card or a ruling, here are the places you can look:
1. Check the Glossary.
The Glossary serves as a compendium of specific rulings about particular cards, as well as indexing all of the game's general rules. If you have a question about a card, or a particular term on a card, look it up in the Glossary. The Glossary is updated monthly, on the first Monday of the month.
2. Check the Temporary Rulings.
The Temporary Rulings are found near the very top of the Glossary. These are rulings that are in flux and haven't been added permanently to the Glossary yet, so they're easy to miss. Temporary Rulings are updated on the first Monday of each month, and any changes are normally announced in an article.
3. Check the Rulebook.
Although the Glossary is supposed to index the Rulebook pretty well, there are always gaps. It's worth opening up the Rulebook, clicking the Open All Sidebars button (that button is in the fourth bullet point under About This Rulebook), and pressing Ctrl-F to search the entire rulebook for whatever it is you're trying to find.
4. Search the forums.
The Continuing Committee's forum software has a powerful search function than can help you find previous threads about your question. Try searching for the card title you're asking about, or some of the game concepts involved in your question (download, overcome, etc.). Having trouble? Try doing a Google Search of the forum history instead.
5. Post your question.
If you haven't been able to find the answer to your question in an existing resource, you can start a new thread on the topic. We have a lot of knowledgeable and experienced players that regularly visit these forums and post, so there's a good chance someone will be able to answer your question.
6. Ask your Tournament Director.
If you aren't willing to post the question in public (perhaps because it gives away the secret of your hot new deck), and you're going to need the answer at a specific upcoming tournament, contact that tournament's Tournament Director.
The rulings of a T.D. are final for any tournament she is running. In fact, even if the Rules Committee later rules the opposite way, the T.D.'s ruling "on the ground" still counts for the completed tournament. So your T.D. is the person you really need to convince that your funny trick works. Any T.D. can be contacted by visiting the tournament page (for example, this tournament and clicking the "Message" button, which will send a message through the forum's PM system.
7. Ask your Regional Ambassador.
You might also try reaching out to your friendly neighborhood Regional Ambassador, a player from your area whose whole job is making players feel welcome and informed. Ambassadors for each region are listed on their individual Region HQ pages. For any region without a current Ambassador, you can contact the Global Chief Ambassador, who can be found on the Continuing Committee Org Chart (currently Robin Honeycutt).
8. If all else fails, ask the Rules Master.
The First Edition Rules Manager (often referred to by the office's former title, the Rules Master) is chairman of the Rules Committee, a confidential group of players that issues final rulings on issues of community concern. The R.C. is where your T.D. brings a rule question if she doesn't know the answer. In effect, the R.C. is the game's Supreme Court. If the Rules Committee, in an official ruling or rules document, says how something works, then that's how it works, period. And the Rules Master has the ability to bring confusing issues and questions to the Rules Committee for decision. But be forewarned: the Rules Committee moves quite slowly (decisions take months, not days), and the R.C. only has time to decide official rulings on high-priority concerns (discussed at greater length in this article). So this is probably a last resort.
Current Rulings and Documentation
Here are links to and some extra information about the official First Edition Rules Documents.
(Comprehensive) Rulebook
The core Rulebook is updated monthly. It is supposed to be a comprehensive rulebook, containing all generally applicable rules for the game, with detailed explanations in lengthy sidebars. It is updated on the First Monday of every month.
Glossary
The Glossary, updated on the first Monday of every month, is an official supplement to the Rulebook, focused on explaining obscure terminology, specific strange cards, and confusing interactions. Cards, concepts, and clarifications are listed alphabetically, with an appendix that lists useful information like "what all the Nemesis icons are" and "every homeworld in the game". Try looking for an entry on the card you're questioning first, then look up specific words that you may find ambiguous (like "become").
The Basic Rulebook
The Basic Rulebook contains the game's essentials. It leaves out weird, often archaic niche concepts like Site cards and the (very weird) dual-personnel cards. You should be able to read the Basic Rulebook and play a successful, full-fledged game of Star Trek Cards with your friends -- but you may have to ignore a few of your weird-looking cards for the moment.
The Advanced Rulebook
The Advanced Rulebook contains everything the Basic Rulebook left out, so that players who learn the Basic Rules can quickly "graduate" to the rest of the game without having to reread a bunch of stuff. The Basic Rulebook + The Advanced Rulebook = The (Comprehensive) Rulebook, so, if you've read both, you've read everything.
The Borg Rules Sheet
This special document lists all the rules for playing the Borg affiliation in one easy-to-access place. (They're also listed in the core Rulebook.)
Recent Rulings Document (RRD)
The RRD is an annotated list of all changes to the Glossary, the Rulebook, and any format-specific rules since the previous month -- a kind of changelog. It's a useful way to see what rules have just been changed or clarified, and why.
Official Tournament Format (OTF) Rules
Virtually all games played today, including official tournaments, use these "tweaks" to the game's original rules ("Open format"). The Rulebook fully explains OTF rules and how they differ from Open, but it can be handy to see them all on one sheet.
OTF Ban List
The cards on this list are banned in Official Tournament Format games. The ban list is a temporary holding area for problem cards as the Design and Balance teams work to figure out how to fix the problems they create.
The (Unofficial) Rules Archive
On his independent website, James Heaney (BCSWowbagger) maintains an archive of all rules documents ever issued for the game. This can be useful if you are trying to play by Traditional rules or some prior variant. (Although it's mostly useful for research about how today's rules came to be.)
If you have any of the documents he is missing -- especially mid-1990s Current Rulings Documents from Decipher! -- James asks you to please get in touch with him.
The Rules Staff
First Edition rules are maintained by the Rules Committee, made up of experienced players and judges from across the world. We do not reveal the identity of the members of the Rules Committee in order to protect their anonymity and to ensure their effectiveness and impartiality.
Rules Master
The leader of the Rules Committee is the Rules Master; for First Edition, this is currently James Heaney (BCSWowbagger). The Rules Master's job is to maintain the rules documentation and guide the Rules Committee's discussions on current issues. Forum posts by the Rules Masters are not official rulings unless explicitly marked in blue text.
Welcome to the First Edition Forums. In this forum, players from all around the world post to discuss strategy, speculate on the new virtual expansions, and seek answers to their questions about the original Star Trek CCG.
If you have a question about a First Edition card or rule, this thread will help you find the answers that you're looking for. If you're looking for help with a Second Edition question, you'll need to visit our sister forum, Gameplay (2E).
Finding Answers to Rules Questions
If you're trying to find out the answers to a question about a card or a ruling, here are the places you can look:
1. Check the Glossary.
The Glossary serves as a compendium of specific rulings about particular cards, as well as indexing all of the game's general rules. If you have a question about a card, or a particular term on a card, look it up in the Glossary. The Glossary is updated monthly, on the first Monday of the month.
2. Check the Temporary Rulings.
The Temporary Rulings are found near the very top of the Glossary. These are rulings that are in flux and haven't been added permanently to the Glossary yet, so they're easy to miss. Temporary Rulings are updated on the first Monday of each month, and any changes are normally announced in an article.
3. Check the Rulebook.
Although the Glossary is supposed to index the Rulebook pretty well, there are always gaps. It's worth opening up the Rulebook, clicking the Open All Sidebars button (that button is in the fourth bullet point under About This Rulebook), and pressing Ctrl-F to search the entire rulebook for whatever it is you're trying to find.
4. Search the forums.
The Continuing Committee's forum software has a powerful search function than can help you find previous threads about your question. Try searching for the card title you're asking about, or some of the game concepts involved in your question (download, overcome, etc.). Having trouble? Try doing a Google Search of the forum history instead.
5. Post your question.
If you haven't been able to find the answer to your question in an existing resource, you can start a new thread on the topic. We have a lot of knowledgeable and experienced players that regularly visit these forums and post, so there's a good chance someone will be able to answer your question.
6. Ask your Tournament Director.
If you aren't willing to post the question in public (perhaps because it gives away the secret of your hot new deck), and you're going to need the answer at a specific upcoming tournament, contact that tournament's Tournament Director.
The rulings of a T.D. are final for any tournament she is running. In fact, even if the Rules Committee later rules the opposite way, the T.D.'s ruling "on the ground" still counts for the completed tournament. So your T.D. is the person you really need to convince that your funny trick works. Any T.D. can be contacted by visiting the tournament page (for example, this tournament and clicking the "Message" button, which will send a message through the forum's PM system.
7. Ask your Regional Ambassador.
You might also try reaching out to your friendly neighborhood Regional Ambassador, a player from your area whose whole job is making players feel welcome and informed. Ambassadors for each region are listed on their individual Region HQ pages. For any region without a current Ambassador, you can contact the Global Chief Ambassador, who can be found on the Continuing Committee Org Chart (currently Robin Honeycutt).
8. If all else fails, ask the Rules Master.
The First Edition Rules Manager (often referred to by the office's former title, the Rules Master) is chairman of the Rules Committee, a confidential group of players that issues final rulings on issues of community concern. The R.C. is where your T.D. brings a rule question if she doesn't know the answer. In effect, the R.C. is the game's Supreme Court. If the Rules Committee, in an official ruling or rules document, says how something works, then that's how it works, period. And the Rules Master has the ability to bring confusing issues and questions to the Rules Committee for decision. But be forewarned: the Rules Committee moves quite slowly (decisions take months, not days), and the R.C. only has time to decide official rulings on high-priority concerns (discussed at greater length in this article). So this is probably a last resort.
Current Rulings and Documentation
Here are links to and some extra information about the official First Edition Rules Documents.
(Comprehensive) Rulebook
The core Rulebook is updated monthly. It is supposed to be a comprehensive rulebook, containing all generally applicable rules for the game, with detailed explanations in lengthy sidebars. It is updated on the First Monday of every month.
Glossary
The Glossary, updated on the first Monday of every month, is an official supplement to the Rulebook, focused on explaining obscure terminology, specific strange cards, and confusing interactions. Cards, concepts, and clarifications are listed alphabetically, with an appendix that lists useful information like "what all the Nemesis icons are" and "every homeworld in the game". Try looking for an entry on the card you're questioning first, then look up specific words that you may find ambiguous (like "become").
The Basic Rulebook
The Basic Rulebook contains the game's essentials. It leaves out weird, often archaic niche concepts like Site cards and the (very weird) dual-personnel cards. You should be able to read the Basic Rulebook and play a successful, full-fledged game of Star Trek Cards with your friends -- but you may have to ignore a few of your weird-looking cards for the moment.
The Advanced Rulebook
The Advanced Rulebook contains everything the Basic Rulebook left out, so that players who learn the Basic Rules can quickly "graduate" to the rest of the game without having to reread a bunch of stuff. The Basic Rulebook + The Advanced Rulebook = The (Comprehensive) Rulebook, so, if you've read both, you've read everything.
The Borg Rules Sheet
This special document lists all the rules for playing the Borg affiliation in one easy-to-access place. (They're also listed in the core Rulebook.)
Recent Rulings Document (RRD)
The RRD is an annotated list of all changes to the Glossary, the Rulebook, and any format-specific rules since the previous month -- a kind of changelog. It's a useful way to see what rules have just been changed or clarified, and why.
Official Tournament Format (OTF) Rules
Virtually all games played today, including official tournaments, use these "tweaks" to the game's original rules ("Open format"). The Rulebook fully explains OTF rules and how they differ from Open, but it can be handy to see them all on one sheet.
OTF Ban List
The cards on this list are banned in Official Tournament Format games. The ban list is a temporary holding area for problem cards as the Design and Balance teams work to figure out how to fix the problems they create.
The (Unofficial) Rules Archive
On his independent website, James Heaney (BCSWowbagger) maintains an archive of all rules documents ever issued for the game. This can be useful if you are trying to play by Traditional rules or some prior variant. (Although it's mostly useful for research about how today's rules came to be.)
If you have any of the documents he is missing -- especially mid-1990s Current Rulings Documents from Decipher! -- James asks you to please get in touch with him.
The Rules Staff
First Edition rules are maintained by the Rules Committee, made up of experienced players and judges from across the world. We do not reveal the identity of the members of the Rules Committee in order to protect their anonymity and to ensure their effectiveness and impartiality.
Rules Master
The leader of the Rules Committee is the Rules Master; for First Edition, this is currently James Heaney (BCSWowbagger). The Rules Master's job is to maintain the rules documentation and guide the Rules Committee's discussions on current issues. Forum posts by the Rules Masters are not official rulings unless explicitly marked in blue text.