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Star Base One The Fundamentals of Building a Game Deck Square One: Part II, The Fundamentals of Building a Game Deck From Jason Winter, aka Q: Q@decipher.com February 1997 David has just bought his first two decks of Star Trek: Customizable Card Game. He sorts them by card type and comes up with the following numbers: 7 unique missons 2 duplicate missions
10 equipment 15 events 14 interrupts 11 dilemmas The first thing David does is look over his missions. Here are the affiliations on his missions: F/K/R F/K/R K/R K K R R He only has two Federation missions. However, each mission could be done by either Klingons or Romulans, so it looks like David will make a Klingon/Romulan deck. Fortunately, David has more Klingon and Romulan cards than he does Federation. So, of the seven missions, which one should he take out? He examines the skill requirements on each mission. One of the Klingon missions require Diplomacy, and David has no Klingons with Diplomacy (he does have one Romulan, though, and while he could use the Romulan on that mission with a treaty, it's a risky venture at best). So "Krios Suppression" bites it and David has his six missions. They are: Expose Cover Supply (R, Treachery x3 + Navigation) Covert Rescue (R, Diplomacy + Leadership + Navigation) Fever Emergency (K, MEDICAL x3 OR Biology + OFFICER) Relief Mission (K/R, Geology OR Physics) Investigate Anomaly (F/K/R, Exobiology + STRENGTH > 35) Study Plasma Streamer (F/K/R, Astrophysics + Youth) Now, David looks at his personnel and takes all his Klingons and Romulans who match one of the skills on his missions. He has a total of 22 personnel: 10 Klingons, 10 Romulans, and 2 non-aligneds. Remember, though, that classifications are important in addition to skills. Let's look at what classifications we've got: Klingon: 3 Officers 4 Science 2 Medical 1 V.I.P. Romulan: 2 Officer 2 Medical 3 Security 2 V.I.P. Non-aligned: 2 Medical 1 Science (One personnel has two classifications) No Klingon Security, no Romulan Science, and absolutely no Engineers! David looks over his personnel and sees that he has plenty of Romulan Treachery, so he elects to dump one of his V.I.P.'s with Treachery in favor of an Engineer. Unfortunately, he's got no Romulan Science in his decks, so he'll have to make do! On the Klingon side, one V.I.P. contributes only Youth, and an Officer has just the skill of Honor. Both can be removed and replaced with 2 Security. Also, one of the non-aligned Medical only lists Greed as his one skill. We'll just take him out. That gives us 21 personnel. See all the Science (and no Engineers)? David decides to add an Engineering PADD to give his Science personnel the skill of Engineer. David chooses a mix of large and small for his ships, and picks out a Klingon K'Vort and Vor'Cha, a Romulan Scout Vessel and Science Vessel, and a non-aligned Combat Vessel. David only has two outposts, both Romulan. With his friend's permission, he'll pretend that one of them is Klingon. That brings him up to 35 cards. Now, David looks over his events. He picks out generically useful ones, like Static Warp Bubble, Q-Net, Res-Q, and Red Alert. He also picks out his one treaty, which is Klingon/Federation, but his partner will let him use it as a Klingon/Romulan treaty. David has two Gaps in Normal Space, so he decides to add one. He also has an Espionage: Romulan on Klingon. Not only will this help his Romulans to do an opponent's mission, but, in a pinch, he can also use it to do his own! David doesn't quite have the same easy choices for interrupts. He selects Scan and Loss of Orbital Stability first, and then looks over his other cards. He has Tachyon Detection Grid (which requires 4 ships) and Particle Fountain (which requires 2 Engineers). Both cards require resources that will be difficult to get out. David just decides to throw in his other 7 interrupts, bringing his deck size up to 51. Adding 11 dilemmas to his deck gives David 62. Oops! He'll have to shave out two cards. Since the interrupts were handled rather haphazardly, David will examine them in more detail. He has two Incoming Message cards, one Romulan and one Klingon. If his opponent isn't playing both those affiliations, one will be wasted, so David decides to take them out. Here is the final deck: MISSIONS Fever Emergency Covert Rescue Expose Covert Supply Relief Mission Study Plasma Streamer Investigate Anomaly DILEMMAS Alien Parasites Anaphasic Organism Chalnoth Hologram Ruse Iconian Computer Weapon Menthar Booby Trap (x2) Microbiotic Colony Nitrium Metal Parasites Null Space Rebel Encounter OUTPOSTS Klingon (actually Romulan) Romulan PERSONNEL Klingon: Batrell Divok (x2) Gorath (x2) J'Ddan Korris Kurak Torin (x2) Romulan: Galathon Jaron (x2) Palteth Pardek Selok Takket (x2) Taul Toreth Non-aligned: Vekor EQUIPMENT Engineering PADD SHIPS Klingon: I.K.C. K'Vort I.K.C. Vor'Cha Romulan: Science Vessel Scout Vessel Non-aligned: Combat Vessel EVENTS Espionage: Romulan on Klingon Gaps in Normal Space Q-Net Red Alert! Res-Q Static Warp Bubble Treaty: Romulan/Klingon (actually Federation/Klingon) INTERRUPTS Auto-Destruct Sequence Escape Pod Klingon Right of Vengeance Loss of Orbital Stability Scan Ship Seizure Subspace Interference Remember, this is only the beginning. This deck could still use some work. But that's next time... |
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