Your Questions, Our Game Designers' Answers

A recent NewsFlash article asked you to submit your questions about the Deep Space Nine expansion (release date: July 22, 1998) to our Star Trek CCG game designers. Here are the results.

Responses by Bill Martinson,Tim Ellington and Sandy Wible

Q: Okay, the premiere set of the Star Trek CCG had 363 cards, and accommodated three affiliations. How, then, can this 276 card set introduce two completely new affiliations and still fulfill the needs of the existing three?
Ron Shuboney, Rochester, New York, USA
Bill: To badly misquote Spock, "the needs of the Bajorans and Cardassians outweigh the needs of the Federation." ;-) This set is not the be-all, end-all for the existing affiliations -- or the new ones, for that matter. I view the DS9 set as providing the foundation for the two new affiliations, along with some cool new stuff for the existing ones. The idea was to introduce the Bajorans and Cardassians in a way that they can compete with the other affiliations. If we had added a *lot* of Fed/Klingon/Rommie stuff there would have been an imbalance, making it tough to play Bajorans and Cardassians (and Borg). But we definitely wanted to include enough red and green cards to give you some new strategic possibilities.

Q: Will there be a Cardassian skill or any other game play mechanism using or build around the Obsidian Order?
Kevin Hansson
Tim: As the spoiler list indicates, there is an Obsidian Order skill on some Cardassian personnel, and other cards (like Plans of the Obsidian Order and HQ: Defensive Measures) which will key on that skill. So the Obsidian Order is already valuable for mission solving, espionage, battle, and other key elements of the game. Future cards will also bring out more of the "secret" nature of the Order, as well as some of the other affiliations' covert organizations.

Q: How will Decipher deal with and integrate personnel previously published as Non-Aligned (e.g., Madred, Ocett, etc.) that are logically part of one of the new affiliations?
Travis J. Willse, Hillsboro, Oregon, USA
Q: My question is about the existing Cardassians in the current pool of Star Trek CCG cards (Madred, Evek and Ocett). Will they change affiliation to become Cardassians (an errata) or will they stay Non-Aligned?
Frédéric Baril, Sainte-Foy, Quebec, Canada
Sandy: Frankly, we discussed this quite a bit. We didn't want to print new versions of these personnel where the character development didn't warrant it. Similarly, we didn't want to print exact copies which are purple instead of gold. There are a couple of other options, but none really were an ideal solution. What we ended up doing was leaving them Non-Aligned. This way, players who are currently using them as Non-Aligned won't have to change those decks if they don't desire to, and new Deep Space Nine Cardassian decks can also use them. There are, in fact, game play benefits for being Non-Aligned, so we hope the solution will suit everyone.

Q: What about characters like Kira and Odo who have Bajoran affiliation but work on Deep Space 9 alongside Federation personnel? Are they dual-affiliation, or is this handled with the special restriction box? Or what?
Lee G. Anderson, Victoria, Texas, USA
Sandy: The Federation/Bajoran Treaty is "seedable", thus you may choose to seed it on the table at the start of the game (without even using the Open Diplomatic Relations objective from the Official Tournament Sealed Deck). Thus, with this treaty in play, your Federation personnel may utilize the game text of sites which apply to "compatible" personnel.
Tim: Besides, how many times have we heard Kira say "I'm NOT part of the Federation!" She almost slapped Tahna Los just for hinting at it. :-)

Q: Deep Space 9 is a Bajoran station, and you said that with a Federation/Bajoran treaty, the Federation could use the station. If you had a Federation/Romulan/Klingon treaty, could the Klingons and the Romulans use the station also or do you need a Klingon/Bajoran and Romulan/Bajoran treaty (if there is such a thing)?
Brian Cherinka, Atlantic Beach, Florida, USA
Tim: No one can use Deep Space 9 unless they have a treaty with the Bajorans or commandeer it from them. Just like the show. The Feds have an agreement with the Bajorans (happened even before the first episode and, in keeping the flavor of the show, the Fed/Bajoran treaty is seedable!) so they can use it. Also in the show we see an agreement between the Klingons and Bajorans to have a "permanent Klingon presence" on the station, so you get a Klingon/Bajoran treaty as well. The Cardassians have to take the station by force, just like on the show. (Gee, I'm saying "just like on the show" a lot, huh?). So just being having a treaty with the Feds isn't good enough, even though they do help operate the station.

Q: As much as I have seen of the Bajorans, I love them. I loved the Borg when they came out. (They were so Borg-ish!) As for not having seen the other new affiliations, I wonder how they will act. How will the Ferengi, Cardassian and Dominion affiliations be different from the "Big Three" (Federation, Romulan, and Klingon)? What will be the aforementioned affiliations' driving force?
Benjamin Fowler, Clinton, Tennessee, USA
Bill: Well, the Cardassians are a normal "big power" in the Alpha Quadrant, and they are an interesting mix -- warlike and aggressive like the Klingons, yet stealthy and crafty like the Romulans. So they attempt missions just like everybody else, but they also have some special capabilities, such as using Nors to strip-mine planets. The Ferengi and the Dominion, of course, are quite a bit different. They don't really go on a lot of missions, although missions will be part of their strategy. I expect that the Dominion will focus on expansion and conquest, while the Ferengi will spend a lot of time trying to get filthy stinking rich.

Q: Each affiliation has their own unique strength and weakness. Within each affiliation there are skills that commonly appear in personnel and mission requirements. (Klingons-Honor, Romulans-Treachery, etc). Each affiliation except Borg also have certain attributes (INTEGRITY, CUNNING, STRENGTH) that are usually higher than other attributes. Example: Romulans usually have low integrity, high cunning, and above average strength. How will the Cardassian, Bajoran, and Ferengi (I know that they aren't in this set) personnel fit into the picture regarding common skills and distribution of attributes?
Sutee Dee, Valdosta, Georgia, USA
Sandy: Very good... most people don't pick up on these distinctions! It makes sense that the original design of the Star Trek Customizable Card Game Premiere set was balanced so that each of the three affiliations have one forté, but as we go forward how will we preserve design balance? We have an extensive database system where, when we design any new personnel card, we balance them against existing personnel, both in the same affiliation as well as across affiliations. We perform much of the same analysis when designing a brand new affiliation. The point isn't so much that each affiliation have one primary strength, but that each affiliation be distinct and have their own flavor. The Bajoran affiliation, for example, has an interesting mixture. Some personnel (ex-Resistance fighters for the most part) are fairly strong and combat oriented. Some (Vedeks and religious figures) are more pacifistic with interesting skills. The Bajorans have some Treacherous-types like Jaro Essa and Vedek Winn, but also some of the more honorable people in the game. So, on many fronts, they have a dual-faced nature, and this dichotomy is reflected in the game.

Q: Will there be any Borg, Dominion or Ferengi affiliation (related) cards in this set? How about Federation, Klingon or Romulan?
Kevin Hansson
Tim: While there are no Borg, Dominion or Ferengi personnel or ships in this set (not counting the Nog half of the Jake and Nog card), there are cards that are related to those affiliations and will be useful in those type decks. Obviously any Borg-friendly cards are immediately useful and cards suiting the Dominion and Ferengi will be waiting patiently for their arrival. Missions are the obvious cards with these tie-ins, as you can see Ferengi and Dominion icons on the cards. And for the Borg, there is another space/planet mission they can sink their collective teeth into. The Borg and Dominion players will like the Saltah'Na Clock artifact, which can force your opponent to attack. The Ferengi will also fare well against the Arms Deal dilemma - should be a snap for them. Recruit mercenaries also works well for Ferengi. As for the Fed/Klingon/Romulan affiliations, new personnel and ships are certainly there, and with the stations and treaties, well, that's a whole new article :)

Q: Why are there no Ferengi in Deep Space Nine? Will they come out in the Dominion expansion? If not, when?
Caleb King, Crozet, Virginia, USA
Bill: Well, of course there wasn't room for *everything* in the first set. A new affiliation takes a *lot* of cards. Even a "compact" affiliation like the Borg takes probably 30 or more cards to implement; regular affiliations take even more (treaties, missions, equipment, etc.).We had room for two new affiliations, so we chose to focus on the two that are most important to the show. Also, we wanted this first Deep Space Nine set to draw all of its images from DS9. The Ferengi, of course, are really split across DS9 (most of the well-developed characters) and TNG (practically all of the ships), so that affiliation will have to appear in a set that uses cards from more than one Star Trek property .

Q: With the Federation cards in the set will you be making new universal ships that are similar or will you remake old ships with new pictures and the same stats?
Sandy: In the entire Deep Space Nine set, we haven't remade any cards with new images. Initially we thought we might have to resort to this, but Bill came up with some clever ideas, especially for the equipment cards. For example, there's a new Science Kit card, which gives OFFICER-classification personnel the extra skill of SCIENCE. In the past, we haven't had this permutation available for decks, just OFFICER to ENGINEER, etc..
Bill: Also, we thought we might have to just reprint the existing Runabout card, but we found a way to make the new one different, but not necessarily better or worse in all situations. I don't think we'll need to reprint universal Fed ships, because Star Trek continues to give us new ship classes!

Q: Why are there (supposedly) only going to be 2 Federation ships? This is supposed to be a stand-alone expansion. And word on the sound off board is that the only two are runabouts! Is that true?
Tim: It is true. Although we used images and concepts from as far as season six of Deep Space Nine in this introductory set, the theme we were looking for revolved around the Bajorans and Cardassians and the things that happened in the early years of the show's timeline. What we saw a lot was a couple of people on a runabout going off to do a mission, or the Cardassians trying to undermine the new Bajoran government, or the Bajorans being xenophobic. Consequently, there weren't a lot of stories which involved Fed ships other than the runabouts. Sure, there were some, but that was more the exception than the rule. We had to give the Bajorans and Cardassians more ships to make them viable affiliations for deck building. And we made sure to have several Non-Aligned ships that Feds could use as well. There will be additional Fed ships in the Dominion set. I promise.

Q: While it has been stated that the Klingons/Romulans will get additional Personnel/Ships, will there be any cards that, while they are useful in DS9 standalone, would be particularly suited to Klingon and/or Romulan decks? As a side note, Major Rakal stated that she would like a Cardassian/Romulan treaty deck (implying that there is a Cardassian/Romulan treaty in the set). Will there be other treaties to allow for Premiere/DS9 affiliation decks (which might not have appeared in the series)? (After seeing the Bajoran Interceptor I have thought a Bajoran/Klingon treaty armada deck might prove interesting.)
Glenn Galway, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Bill: Yes and Yes! There are lots of good cards for regular Klingon and Romulan decks, starting with the red and green personnel themselves. We designed them to provide classifications and skills that were not widely available to those affiliations, such as some interesting ENGINEERs for both groups. We created a card called Plans of the Tal Shiar that makes the Romulans *the* espionage affiliation of all time, and the Klingons should be able to build some interesting Gamma Quadrant exploration decks. As for the treaties, we're trying to stick to those treaties that have a storyline basis. A Romulan/Bajoran treaty just isn't something we've really seen in Star Trek (but that doesn't mean we've totally ruled it out). But there *is* storyline justification for the Bajoran/Klingon treaty you mention, so we included that card in the set.

Q: How will Odo use his shapeshifting, will other cards make use of it or will it have immediate effects on the game? (e.g., "shapeshifting renders personnel immune to hand weapons" as in the first episode when Odo phased his head out and the weapons passed through it)
Brice Leffel, Lebanon, Tennessee, USA
Tim: Funny you should mention that. In one preliminary version of his card, Odo had a special skill that said "Immune to hand weapons." I thought that was pretty clever, until we realized that every shapeshifter would then have to have that same special skill. Not only would it get repetitive, but it would take up a good chunk of space in the skill box, which would limit our ability to be creative as we develop the Founders. That's also the reason Shapeshifting isn't a skill. We didn't want Odo to lose that skill to a dilemma, or have K'Chiq gain it. Plus, it would again be sort of redundant to then give every single founder that same skill. (Mindmeld should probably have been done the same way). So shapeshifting is more or less a state of being, as described in the lore, and will be "usable" with other cards, such as The Walls Have Ears.
Sandy: It's an interesting question as to whether these types of things work on shapeshifters to begin with. For example, if Odo's back was turned, could you hit him over the head with a big club? What would happen? To my knowledge, we've never seen this on the show. So, what we did was leave these questions open, since it's easy to imagine how Odo could avoid the club, but if he wasn't on his toes someone could hit him from behind. Since we saw Odo morph himself so that a hand weapon had no effect on him, we'll have a card that allows a shapeshifter to do that. Since we saw Odo sneak on board an opposing ship as a rat, we'll have a card to do that (The Walls Have Ears). We didn't want to have too many of these cards right off the bat, since we only have one shapeshifter so far, though we'll have a lot more in The Dominion!

Q: As everyone knows, Odo is good at changing into things like chairs, birds, and cargo containers, but he hasn't mastered humanoid form yet. Will the Odo card reflect this by putting a restriction on his shapeshifting ability?
Edward Mo, San Francisco, California, USA
Tim: Since shapeshifting is something that is card activated, it would be stated on the card itself, not Odo. Hypothetically, we could have a card that says "your Founder (except Odo) may imitate a Bajoran, complete with wrinkled nose," although I wouldn't create a spot in your binder for that card just yet :)

Q: Will there be rules against the Borg affiliation assimilating changelings in DS9?
David Haas, Amarillo, Texas, USA
Sandy: There is no canonical evidence that the Borg cannot assimilate changelings. On the other hand, there is little evidence that they could! Especially since the show is still evolving, this is a pressing question. For example, in the next season of the show, the writers could decide to have the Borg enter the Gamma Quadrant and attack the Dominion! Certainly, that would be a new and exciting storyline to explore. Since we cannot conclusively determine the answer to this question, we decided to "let it slide," as it were. In the Star Trek CCG, the Borg will treat changelings like other personnel, and if we find out differently we will simply create a rule at that time.

Q: Will there be cards that defend against the Borg? If not, doesn't that mean that if a DS9 only deck went against a Borg deck, the DS9 deck would have no chance because of the lack of defenses?
Oliver Brown, South Yorkshire, England
Bill: I guess that depends on what you mean by "lack of defenses." Bajorans and Cardassians have plenty of ships, phaser rifles, personnel enhancers and so on, so they should be able to compete against Borg (or any other affiliation, for that matter). Now, if you're talking about putting a Fed, Klingon or Rommie deck made *only* of DS9 cards up against a Borg deck that draws cards from all sets, then this could be a tough row to hoe. But that's an inherent aspect of all CCGs: any player who limits himself to 276 cards can't help but have fewer strategic options than a player who has more cards to choose from. For a CCG to offer good value to its customers, each expansion set must provide new and different strategy possibilities for the player.

Q: What is different about the new "Site" cards than from normal Missions?
David Hopper, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Tim: Oh, just about everything :). Missions represent places in the space-time continuum to where you can travel and experience weird natural phenomena and dilemmas and score points. Sites, on the other hand, are physical places related to a station (in this set, DS9/Terok Nor and Nor) that you can walk through, dock ships at, and commandeer. Sites do not have dilemmas seeded beneath them, and therefore do not represent a major point-scoring mechanism for the game. But you can use them in powerful combinations to jump-start your strategy and manipulate your deck resources. For instance, with just a few sites on your DS9, you can download Kira, Odo and Sisko on your first three turns. Now that's a heck of a way to get going! You can also use sites for extra card draws, deck recycling, scanning mission locations and gaining bonus points. Station decks will become very prevalent in tournament play when everyone gets the hang of it, and the sites are what make them go.

Q: Now that we will have two playable quadrants of space to attempt missions in (and an inevitable third with Voyager), how are the game designers hoping to avoid the potential problem that opponents won't get much of a chance to interact if their decks are based on different quadrants?
Frank Miller, Springfield, Missouri, USA
Bill: That was one of the central issues we focused on in our design. For one thing, you can't build your starting outpost in the Gamma Quadrant. So you must assemble your crew in the Alpha Quadrant, then go to Gamma to do those missions. Once you've completed one, there are incentives (in the form of new Objective cards) to come back to Alpha, so you can file reports, draw cards, score points, and so on. And you'll probably want to pick up some fresh crew members, too! I anticipate that when the Dominion affiliation comes out, the same will be true but in reverse: they will report for duty in the Gamma Quadrant, then come over to Alpha in an attempt to expand their empire. With all of this going back and forth, any two affiliations should have plenty of opportunity to interact.

Q: Will we be seeing any Time Travel in this set?
Damien Hall, Valparaiso, Indiana, USA
Sandy: No. We wanted this set to avoid some of the more complex mechanisms, since it's an introductory set to the Star Trek universe. However, we'll definitely see more in the future!

END OF ARTICLE ONE. TUNE IN FOR MORE NEXT WEEK, SAME DS9 time, SAME DS9 CHANNEL!!!

Responses By: Bill Martinson, Lead Game Designer for Star Trek Customizable Card Game, and Game Designers Tim Ellington and Sandy Wible.

Please direct your questions and comments to Tim Ellington.

date: 15 July, 1998