OFFICIAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE STAR TREK CUSTOMIZABLE CARD GAME from Decipher Inc. *** INTERESTING "FACTOIDS " *** by DAnswerMan@aol.com (Tom Braunlich) Here are some "trivia" tidbits that Trek fans should find interesting about the ST:CCG game, including new "cannonical" info. about Star Trek. Some of these are frequently asked questions in their own right, while others no one has asked yet -- so I'll ask them myself! I find them interesting and think you will as well. (There is more trivia than this, by the way, and perhaps I'll add to this list later). CONTENTS **************************** Who is Darian Wallace? Isn't the "Brittain" misspelled? New cannonical Trek info. on some cards. How did you choose the images on the cards? Who was McKnight's " ancestor" ? The Wind Dancer's smile. The " Easter Egg Hunt" in ST:CCG! *************************************** Q: Who is Darian Wallace? I don't recall him from the show. (This is a Federation personnel card, with a picture of him standing in front of Starfleet Academy.) A: Darian Wallace is a background character from the series, but he is "real." In fact, the actor who played this character probably played more individual characters in the series than any other person. Look closely... you can see him walking the corridors of the Enterprise, sitting in chairs on the bridge and carrying equipment on Romulan ships... he is all over the place... and that's just as a Federation officer. So, why this card? Because the actor is, Guy Vardaman, and Guy works in the Paramount licensing department. Cool. By day he is a mild- mannered Star Trek expert (approving facts, providing new info., etc.); but by night and day he moonlights as an " extra" on the show whenever they need one. (Tough job, huh?). Not only has he played the dutiful Starfleet officer, he has been a Klingon a Romulan and who knows what else. Naturally we wanted to make a card for him; and we did. Paramount provided the name to use, and important info. for the card. His image was digitally inserted over the background of Starfleet Headquarters because it was a request that we use a shot with him in this uniform. The phrase in the lore box of the card, " Held numerous positions aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise" is a reference to his varied roles. You can also find his name listed in the credits for ST:CCG on the back of the rulebook. Q: Isn't the ship "U.S.S. Brittain" misspelled? It is listed as "U.S.S. Brattain" in the Encyclopedia. A: No. Well, maybe. I mean, no. Well? Here is the story behind this. As you may know, in the show the name of the ship was supposed to be "Brattain" , but was accidentally spelled "Brittain" on the ship model used in the special effects shot. This is particularly funny since this was a rare case where the ship was shown close- up... and you could easily read the name on the ship. While designing the game, I used the spelling "Brattain" and the artists and others working on it at Decipher kept trying to correct me because they continu ally noticed the glaring difference in spellings on the card. Decipher decided to resolve this inconsistency, so they proposed three alternatives to Paramount and let them decide which one they wanted: 1) Use the card name "Brattain" and keep the mistake on the image showing "Brittain;" or 2) Use the card name "Brittain" , to match the image; or 3) Take this opportunity to "repair " the ship and digitally alter the image to change the "I" to an "A" as originally intended. Paramount chose option number 2, and that's the way the card is now. We were somewhat disappointed because we thought a "corrected image" would be attractive to collectors. A cool card. But such was not to be. After all, it's their universe. ;-) Q: Is there really "new Trek information" on the cards? A: Yes, there is some information in these cards which appears nowhere else, not even in the Star Trek Encyclopedia; and all this new information was approved by and provided by Paramount, so it is official. Some simple examples are new info. on some Klingon cards. There were many Klingon characters that we wanted to use in the game but for which there was no information available, not even a name. Paramount provided a name, and approved character "lore" to use on these cards. For instance, Kromm's card says, "Reputed to have consumed fifteen rokeg blood pies at one sitting." Gorath's card says, "Guarded the Klingon High Council chamber in the year of Maktag. Served as security chief for the Hegh'bat division." Divok 's card says, "Studied the effects of Tribbles on the Klingon nervous system." **This last one, is as far as I know the only official reference in TNG about tribbles! (By the way, these three lines were written by Guy Vardaman, a.k.a. Darian Wallace). A more important instance of new information for TNG is found on the Federation Nebula-class ships. Note, these ships have a holodeck! But you won' t find this information anywhere else. We lobbied Paramount to let us have this ship attribute, arguing that they are comparable in size and age to Galaxy-class ships which have several holodecks. They said okay. There are a few other instances of new info. like that in the game, see if you can find them. :-) Paramount didn't always agree to new information we proposed. For example, since Vulcan 's and Romulans are of the same genetic race, from a gameplay perspective we wanted to be able to give some Romulans known Vulcan skills like "mindmeld." Paramount nixed this idea. Also, in the original design of the ST:CCG, instead of "Outposts" we had "Starbases." We have a beautiful image of a Federation Starbase (from the episode " 11001001" ) that we wanted to use. However, nowhere in TNG do we ever see a Romulan or a Klingon Starbase. Decipher offered to create realistic digital designs for these cards using known Romulan and Klingon architectural styles. Paramount refused. The licensing department tries not to make decisions which may constrain the production department in the future. If Paramount wanted to show such a Starbase in a future episode, they could be limited in design. Or if they wanted to say something like "Klingons don't have Starbases", they couldn't. Since no suitable images existed, we couldn't use Starbases. That is why the game now uses a more amorphous concept called "Outposts." Q: How did you select which images to use in the game? A: Several people have asked this. The images were chosen with excessive care, and some have interesting stories behind them and how they were chosen. The process went like this: we obtained time-coded tapes from Paramount of every episode. Using a floor full of Macintosh computers at Decipher, we went through each episode (which takes longer, by the way, than the hour it takes you to watch an episode) and did hundreds of reference frame captures for each show... over 6,000 images in all! The team would then conference together, sift through all these reference images and make selections based on card criteria. As fans of the show ourselves, we had some special goals in mind. First, we wanted images that had never been used before. Second, we wanted images of higher quality than anything Paramount had available in their licensee library. And third, we wanted an image that was the "quintessential" image of that character -- showing him or her in a setting that befits the essence of what that character was all about. These high goals sometimes got us into trouble. Many hours were spent on each selection. I remember we spent 2 hours one night just trying to decide between the last two images of Etana Jol, including bringing in no less that 5 other people for their opinion! After these selections were made, Decipher, using the original digital masters at Paramount, obtained high resolution images from a new, state of the art, proprietary process that enhances image quality (at a cost of over $40,000). Each "raw" digital image was then brought back to Decipher and further enhanced in Photoshop. Decipher has some of the most talented artist in this industry, headed by Art Director Dan Burns. Sometimes images were combined with "prop shots" which Decipher commissioned from Paramount. And sometimes, as in the case of planets which were only partly seen in the show, the images were created from scratch using reference images from frame pulls. EXAMPLES The personnel images are more than just portraits, especially if you know what scene they come from. For example, the picture of Lt. Commander Data is uniquely expressive. This image is from the episode "The Offspring" . It shows him just after he announced to the rest of the bridge crew that his daughter, Lal, had died. He then turns around and resumes work at his station apparently with no show of emotion -- except that you can see it in his eyes, a small glint of grief. (Look at the card, you'll see what I mean.) We felt this was the essence of his character in one picture -- at his station, dutiful, mechanical, but with the human side visible underneath. Similarly, we spent a lot of time looking for an image that expressed the essence of Captain Picard. For a long time I wanted to use the image of him looking out his ready-room window in a somber mood. That shot was used effectively in two very popular episodes - - "Inner Light" and "Best of Both Worlds 2" . But the image didn't quite work in card format. We selected the current image, which as a close-up with intense expression, reveals the "power" and command ability of Picard's character. Deanna was one of the hardest. There are lovely pictures of Marina Sirtis in just about every episode! This image presents Deanna in the counselors chair on the bridge (her place next to the captain), her transitional hairstyle that works no matter how you remember her, and especially her expression which shows Deanna's emotions and outwardly-projecting concern for others. My personal favorite card in terms of its image is Ro Laren. We wanted a card that showed her ambivalent character, and her loneliness. This image, which shows her on the bed in a self- conscious pose with her shadow falling across the wall behind her projects this nicely. It is from a heart-felt conversation she is having with Guinan at the time. Note that the shadow almost appears to be looking in another direction! The Alexander Rozhenko card is also revealing -- with the shadow of the Klingon knife he holds falling across his face, the image symbolizes his dual nature as half Klingon, half human. Of course, the Reginal Barclay card is another favorite. This personnel card barely shows a person. In development, we called it, "the shy Barclay card" as befits his character. Look closely... there' s Reg peeking out from behind barrels in the cargo bay..... We have some other Barclay cards we will work into future editions of the game. Q: Who is Ensign McKnight's "ancestor"? Her card lore says, "Distant relative of a famous 20th century game designer." A: Contrary to some speculation I've heard, she is not related any of ST:CCG's designers! :-) The actress who played McKnight in three TNG episodes is Pamela Winslow. She is the daughter of Jim Winslow, a good personal friend of ours and a well-known professional game designer in the United States. He has published dozens of games and puzzles, including a previous game Decipher once did called No Dice. (You can often see his work in GAMES magazine, for example). Though Pam's role on TNG was limited to a few shows (with lines like, "Aye, Sir" ), she did get to "Conn" the ship out of trouble in one episode. :-) Actually, Pam is an extremely talented actress who has an outstanding coloratura operatic singing voice, and who has appeared in lead roles in many Broadway productions. She is now trying to make it in Hollywood, along with a lot of other fine actors who sat in that Conn chair on the bridge! Q: What about The Wind Dancer? (and smiles) A: The Wind Dancer was seen in the episode " Cost of Living" (with Lwaxanna Troi). It was a gatekeeper who was supposed to allow only those with " Joyous Hearts" to pass. The wording of this Dilemma card is supposed to "reflect" this characteristic. Originally, I wanted the card to say that only personnel who are pictured with a "smile" on their face overcome this dilemma! I particularly liked this because so few characters are shown smiling, instead having a "pose" that is more serious. It would make smiling cards more valuable! (It would even give good ol' Mot the Barber something to do, since he is one of the few smilers!!). However, this idea got shot down by our playtesters, who thought that it was too ambiguous. Not all smiles are as clear and pretty as Nurse Ogawa's! Characters like Selok or Mirok are debatable. And none of us particularly relished the idea of having to publish a "Smile List" on the internet! :-) Also, it didn't fit the character of many personnel cards who you "think of as having a joyous heart," but were not smiling on the cards; much of the bridge crew for example. Q: The Easter Egg Hunt! *** A: Yes, there are "Easter Eggs" in ST:CCG! An "Easter Egg" is a term from computer programming. It refers to little "hidden and undocumented" fun things programmers insert into software programs. If you hit the right keystrokes, the Easter Egg screen appears, with fun stuff on it. We hid three Easter Eggs in the ST:CCG -- fun things which can barely be seen on the cards; but they are visible. We did not announce these, and so far, only one person has pointed this out to us. And guess who this person was?-- Richard Garfield! (Inventor of Magic: The Gathering). He found one of them. But I'm not going to tell you what he found or what the three are yet. Try to find them yourself. They are difficult to see, even when you know they are there, so have fun on this Easter Egg hunt! I hope you found these " Factoids" interesting. DAnswerMan@aol.com ***** Copyright Notice ********************** The information in this document is copyrighted by Decipher Inc. 1994, however, it can be freely disseminated online or by traditional publishing means as long as it is not altered and this copyright notice is attached. TM, Copyright & Registered 1994 Paramo unt Pictures. All Rights Reserved. STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION is a registered trademark of and all characters and related marks are trademarks of Paramount Pictures. Decipher Inc. 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