This forums is for questions, answers, and discussion about First Edition rules, formats, and expansions.
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Director of First Edition
By MidnightLich (Charlie Plaine)
 - Director of First Edition
 -  
Prophet
#517059
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:

5 JUNE 2020: What is 1E's biggest barrier to entry?
29 MAY 2020: What do you think of [SPOILER], a potential card from Project Londo?
22 MAY 2020: What is the worst affiliation in the game?
15 MAY 2020: Should bans be effective immediately?
8 MAY 2020: Which episode should inspire a boutique expansion?
1 MAY 2020: What was the best Star Trek gift you ever received?
24 APR 2020: How often do your [BB] dilemmas get scouted?
17 APR 2020: What do you want to know about how we work?
10 APR 2020: Should we make animated series cards?
3 APR 2020: Should we make more Tribbles/Troubles?
27 MAR 2020: Should we develop new [Q] cards?
20 MAR 2020: What regions should we focus on in the future?
13 MAR 2020: How would you feel about 1E adding extra "bits"?
6 MAR 2020: What are your favorite "almost good" S/P dilemmas?
28 FEB 2020: What are your favorite decks to play?
21 FEB 2020: Which Decipher expansion most deserves a sequel?
14 FEB 2020: Which "broken link" should be fixed first?
7 FEB 2020: What's your favorite episode of Star Trek?
31 JAN 2020: Which TOS main character needs a new card?
24 JAN 2020: What should qualify a card for the "watch list"?
17 JAN 2020: What card would you unban without changes?
10 JAN 2020: What single card would you ban to improve your game?
3 JAN 2020: What are you looking forward to in The Neutral Zone?
27 DEC 2019: How can we help you recruit new players?
20 DEC 2019: Where do you want the game to be in five years?
13 DEC 2019: Which concepts should 1E "import" from other games?
6 DEC 2019: Which couples should get a dual personnel card?
29 NOV 2019: Which old, unused 1E cards deserve some love?
22 NOV 2019: Which upcoming milestones need celebration?
15 NOV 2019: What's your favorite card image?
11 NOV 2019: What was your first 1E experience?
1 NOV 2019 What is your opinion of the "full page" policy?
25 OCT 2019: What do you want to see in a Halloween set?
18 OCT 2019: What is your favorite expansion?
11 OCT 2019: Which TNG main character needs a new card?
4 OCT 2019: Which Star Trek story needs more cards?
27 SEP 2019: How many points should [SPOILER] be worth?
20 SEP 2019: Which rules always confuse you?
13 SEP 2019: What do you think of [SPOILER]?
6 SEP 2019: Which card needs an alternate image (AI)?
30 AUG 2019: Which characteristic needs love?


Hello all, and welcome back to Friday. That means I have a new question for you, and today is one of the most fundamental questions I could think to ask. I want to know about what brings you to this game, now or in the past, what keeps you here, and what 1E has to offer that other games don't. It's a vital question that is going to influence every decision we make in the future, so I'd love to see this post shared far and wide. But first... the question:

Why do you play First Edition?

There are no wrong answers - I want to know why you, the person reading this, play this game. What draws you in? Are you a gamer and love games? A Star Trek fan that can't get enough Trek imagery? Do you collect? We all have so many reasons why we might be here, and this isn't a place for judgement or gate-keeping. I want to know your story and why it's brought you to 1E. I want to know what you're looking for, so I can make sure our future plans can address as many reasons as possible.

If you have friends that don't usually visit the forum, please take a minute to check in with them and send them a link to this post. And if you, or anyone you might talk to, doesn't use these forums them encourage them to email me directly at cplaine AT gmail DOT com, with the appropriate symbols attached. Your efforts, both in replying to this question and helping it reach more people, are appreciated.

Have a great weekend! We have big, exciting things happening and I can't wait to share them with you. The next big thing will be the July printable card update, which will get you guys more high-res virtual cards to print out and use! After that... well, you'll just have to stay tuned.

-crp
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By Mr.Sloan
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#517080
well i was 12 and was interested in everything star trek, bought the star trek premiere starter without really knowing the rules.

then i discovered the deepth, of it, all the different affiliations to play...

building a 1e deck is sometimes even more fun then playing, because it fullfills my need for being creative.

when playing the game to me its a bit like poker, all the different options available...

i have a bad short term memory which is why i simply cannot play 2e effectively. But in 1e its also about long term memory (knowing most of all the cards) and as i said everyone has a ace in the hole. a very interesting mind game.
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By DarkSabre (Austin Chandler)
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
Continuing Committee Member - Retired
#517092
I play because I love the game. How the game plays, emulates the Star Trek universe, the chess move like actions that you have to make and do while playing against your opponent. It's more like a board game sometimes than a card game.

The rules are very 90s to be sure, could definitely be made better, but the CORE of First Edition is still one the best card games I have ever played.
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First Edition Rules Master
 - First Edition Rules Master
 -  
Continuing Committee Member - Retired
Community Contributor
#517098
I play 1E because it does things that are unique in the CCG field.

(Which is also why I have a bunch of different CCGs in the closet.)
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First Edition Rules Master
By BCSWowbagger (James Heaney)
 - First Edition Rules Master
 -  
Community Contributor
#517107
I thought that I played it because I liked Star Trek, and I was a kid, and I'd do anything to playact Star Trek. There's solid textual evidence in my life to support this theory. When I grew up, I stopped playing CCGs altogether, because they weren't really all that interesting compared to video games and freeform writing and actual roleplaying games -- or so I told myself.

When the game was revived, I was astonished to discover how much deeper my love for this game actually went. I never expected to so enthusiastically tear into my old binders to start building new decks -- even setting aside some roleplaying and writing opportunities to do it! But I did, and here I am.

Something about the game's non-confrontational approach really attracts me -- you win by solving missions, not by fighting (although fighting can sure help). The strategic complexity and deckbuilding precision is hard to resist. The way it simulates a universe, with the spaceline and cards seeded beneath missions for future discovery, is something I've never seen elsewhere, but which I find really evocative.

There's an enormous amount of cruft built into the rules, and I think we all acknowledge this in various ways, with varying levels of alarm.

But the core of the game -- which I would define as play/move/solve/battle/draw -- is actually quite elegant. There are layers and layers of strategic complexity built on those five basic operations, and quite a lot of those layers don't involve rules cruft at all.

I'm now convinced I'd play 1E even if it didn't have Star Trek pictures on it.
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By Nerdopolis Prime (Nerdopolis Prime)
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#517123
My love for Star Trek brought me into the game, back in 1994. I was forced to abandon it shortly after Decipher discontinued 2E.

I came back to 2E because of nostalgia for the cards as well as for the good old faces of old friends I wanted to meet again (which even got older in the meanwhile :wink: ).

Now I´m considering to give 1E another chance again. Especially since I bought an almost complete 1E collection.
 
By Klauser
 - Beta Quadrant
 -  
#517148
Because I got to play Star Trek!!

I came into the game with 1E Premier in late 1994. MTG had hit the gamestores like gangbusters, and many of the first generation of cardgames were hitting the shelves along with 1E Trek. The Next Generation TV series was still broadcasting new episodes, and had just started syndicated reruns in our market the previous year.

So it was a perfect time for the game, and at the time the game was simple enough that junior high kids could pick up the rules easily enough. I was in my mid-30s at the time, and within the year became one of the local sources of extra commons and uncommons that allowed us to build a small playing community.

The main draw of the game was, despite its many early flaws, you were playing STAR TREK!! The core of the game was that it mirrored what you saw in the series!! You reported personnel you knew from the series, crewed ships you had seen on TV, and took off to solve missions while your opponent did the same!
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By Smiley (Cristoffer Wiker)
 - Gamma Quadrant
 -  
Continuing Committee Member - Retired
#517225
Shoot! You stumped me there! I don't know. I thought I did it for the game was deep but it was actually complexity that is mistook as that.

Now I mostly do it for the friendships that I have gained over the years (but we don't need the game for that really and it's become so hard to teach that new friendships are hard to come by).

And I most confess I think I have fallen down the designer hole that I'm now have more fun designing the game than playing it. =/

This question was a hard wakeup call for me.
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By SudenKapala (Suden Käpälä)
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#517378
What I like most are the role playing and creative aspects. I like to tell stories, work on them, and talk about them. I used to play tabletop RPGs in the mid-90s, but between 1998 and 2011 found that actually writing intricate character backgrounds -- and the ensuing stories -- was more my thing. Then, my main story (a series of anthologies and novels set in an elaborate custom sci-fi setting, started in 1993) eventually grew to be such a responsibility and chore, that working on it was no longer fun. It had long since become a job.

So I decided to put it on hold, around 2012. My creative tendencies found various other ways to assert themselves -- more fun ways; less "productive" and more "consumptive" (which was what I was looking for). In 2014, one of these ways became dabbling with Trek cards once more. I had always loved working on fan fiction alongside my original works, and I found it an added value to use CCG cards for guidance, inspiration, and some sort of welcome "restrictive framing".
And while concurrently revisiting my old decks, I found that working on decks and their story-wise content was a lot more relaxing even, than writing fan fiction.
So that's how I got back into STCCG, and found this site in 2016.

But there are other reasons, which others have already expanded upon...:
MidnightLich wrote:Are you a gamer and love games?
Not at all! These days, I only try to engage in quick and simple games, aside from Trek. I usually want to play a game to relax. (I don't play video games at all, interestingly.) But on one hand, that was different once; and when I started on 1995, only Premiere existed. So it was simple enough for back then, to latch on. OTOH, I grew with the game... partially.
A Star Trek fan that can't get enough Trek imagery? Do you collect?
Yes to both.
BCSWowbagger wrote:Something about the game's non-confrontational approach really attracts me -- you win by solving missions, not by fighting (although fighting can sure help). The strategic complexity and deckbuilding precision is hard to resist. The way it simulates a universe, with the spaceline and cards seeded beneath missions for future discovery, is something I've never seen elsewhere, but which I find really evocative. [...]
But the core of the game -- which I would define as play/move/solve/battle/draw -- is actually quite elegant.
... This.
I'm now convinced I'd play 1E even if it didn't have Star Trek pictures on it.
... But certainly NOT this.
DarkSabre wrote:How the game plays, emulates the Star Trek universe, the chess move like actions that you have to make and do while playing against your opponent. It's more like a board game sometimes than a card game.
Yes.
Klauser wrote:The core of the game was that it mirrored what you saw in the series!! You reported personnel you knew from the series, crewed ships you had seen on TV, and took off to solve missions while your opponent did the same!
That.
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By Mr.Sloan
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#517380
i think i am simply addicted, becuase it is a growing game. Even when only premiere was out, noone had 20 kevin uxbridge and 20 of all the other cards to play everything that was possible with all the cards, so with each new booster there is a high. and its continued by the trekcc with new sets. so it was is and maybe never will be fully explored in terms of collecting and playing possibilites.

most (trek) pc games do not have that factor. and i am glad not to start such games like fifa´s ultimate team where real money needs to be spend for better soccer player.
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