Major Rakal's Romulan Review #17

Aefvadh! In my last review I described the components of dilemmas and
gave a few simple rules for determining how each dilemma works. For
those who are more comfortable with following a flow chart, here is... 

MAJOR RAKAL'S 5-STEP GUIDE TO DILEMMA RESOLUTION.

1. Does the dilemma require a TRIGGER?
     NO:  Go on to step 2.
     YES: Is the trigger present?
          YES: Go on to step 2.
          NO:  Discard the dilemma. It has no effect. You must
          continue to the next dilemma.

2. Can you NULLIFY the dilemma with a personnel or equipment in your
Away Team, with an Event that is in play, or by playing an Interrupt?
     NO:  Go on to step 3.
     YES: Discard the dilemma. It has no effect. You must continue 
     to the next dilemma.

3. Does the dilemma have CONDITIONS?
     NO:  Carry out the instructions on the dilemma for its effects. 
     Your Away Team is NOT stopped and must continue to the next 
     dilemma (unless this dilemma prevents them from doing so). Go on 
     to step 4.
     YES: Can you overcome the conditions?
          YES: Discard the dilemma (or place it in your bonus point
          area if it carries a point value). You must continue to the
          next dilemma.
          NO:  Carry out the instructions on the dilemma for its 
          effects. Your Away Team is stopped. Go on to step 4.

4. Did the dilemma "enter play" by playing on personnel, a ship, the
table, or the spaceline; or does it have a lasting effect on personnel
(usually equivalent to "playing on" the personnel)?
     NO:  Go on to step 5.
     YES: Leave it in play until you cure it, it expires naturally, or 
     it is destroyed. At that time, discard the dilemma (or place it in    
your bonus point area if it carries a point value).

5. Does it say "Discard dilemma"?
     YES: Discard the dilemma (or place it in your bonus point area if 
     it carries a point value).
     NO:  If the dilemma had conditions, replace it under the mission 
     to be encountered again on the next mission attempt. Discard it 
     when finally overcome. If it had no conditions, discard it.

That's it. Well, almost. Keep in mind that...

* The text of the dilemma may override some of these rules. For example,
Chinese Finger Puzzle has no conditions, but states that it stops the
Away Team.

* A dilemma may have two possible sets of effects. You may make a choice
(Edo Probe), or circumstances may dictate which set to follow (Outpost
Raid). Once the set is chosen, ignore the other set of instructions.

* Some dilemmas just don't fit this pattern. Simply do exactly what the
card says. It's usually clear.

Let's look at a few examples.

NAUSICAANS
"Three Nausicaans pick a fight. One Away Team member is killed (random
selection) unless STRENGTH >44. Discard dilemma."

1. There is no trigger required to be present.

2. Nausicaans can be nullified by an Interphase Generator, or by Zon. If
you have one of these cards in your Away Team, discard the dilemma and
go on to the next one. If not, go on to step 3.

3. The dilemma has conditions: it takes effect "unless STRENGTH >44".
Add the STRENGTHs in your Away Team, including modifiers such as
Phasers. If the total is 45 or more, you overcame the dilemma; discard
it, and go on to the next one. Your Away Team is not stopped. If you
don't meet the conditions, select one personnel to be killed and discard
him. The rest of the Away Team is stopped.

4. If you didn't overcome the dilemma, you must decide what to do with
it. This dilemma does not enter play or have a long-term effect (well, I
suppose death is a long-term effect, but we're talking about diseases
and such here), so go to step 5.

5. It says "discard dilemma." Do it. You won't encounter this dilemma
again.


CHALNOTH (5 Bonus Points)
"Kills one Away Team member (opponentıs choice) unless 3 SECURITY OR
STRENGTH>40 present. Discard dilemma."

This works virtually the same as Nausicaans, except for the bonus
points, so I will only discuss the differences.

2. Nullifiable by Interphase Generator. If nullified, you don't get the
bonus points.

3. If you overcome the dilemma, place it in your bonus point area
instead of discarding it.


EMPATHIC ECHO (AU icon)
"One personnel present with Empathy (random selection) is killed unless
SECURITY and MEDICAL present."

1. No trigger is required. "One personnel present with Empathy" is a
target; the dilemma kills one randomly-selected personnel, just like
Nausicaans, but the personnel selection is limited to those with
Empathy.

2. Could be nullified by Mr. Homn or Madame Guinan in the Away Team (if
Madame G. hasn't already nullified an AU-icon card this turn), or by
playing the Plexing interrupt. If so, discard the dilemma now.

3. The conditions are SECURITY and MEDICAL. If they are present, discard
the dilemma and go on. What's that? It doesn't *say* "discard dilemma"?
True, but you overcame the conditions, which always means you discard
it. This bears repeating: IF YOU OVERCOME A DILEMMA WITH CONDITIONS, IT
*ALWAYS* GOES AWAY. YOU NEVER ENCOUNTER IT AGAIN.
   Now, suppose you didn't overcome it. Separate your personnel with
Empathy and randomly select one to die. If you have no personnel with
Empathy present, no one dies. But what happens to the dilemma? Go on to
steps 4 and 5 to see.

4. The dilemma does not enter play. Go on to step 5.

5. Aha! The dilemma does not say "discard dilemma," AND it had
conditions. Put it back under the mission, where it will be encountered
again by the next player to attempt the mission. In effect, this is not
only a killer dilemma, but also a "wall" dilemma. Because it doesn't say
you can discard it, you must have SECURITY + MEDICAL to get by it,
whether it actually kills anyone or not.


MAMAN PICARD (AU icon)
"If this is a Federation ship, immediately transport it to any end of
the spaceline (opponentıs choice)."

1. The dilemma must be encountered by a Federation ship to trigger it.
If you attempted from your outpost, or if the ship is non-Fed, discard
the dilemma.

2. Madame Guinan could nullify this if she is aboard. If not...

3. It has no conditions. The ship is instantly transported to the end of
the spaceline. The crew is not stopped, so the ship can move if it has
RANGE remaining.

4. The dilemma did not enter play. It simply has its effect and is done.

5. It does not say "discard dilemma." BUT, it had no conditions, so you
discard it anyway.


CYTHERIANS (15 Bonus Points)
"Place on ship. Ship must do nothing but travel to far end of spaceline
at normal speed. When reached, discard dilemma. Score points."

1. It says "Place on ship," so a ship is required to trigger this
dilemma. If you attempted the mission from your outpost, the trigger is
not "present" (even if there is a ship there, the crew wasn't on it when
it encountered the dilemma), so discard the dilemma and go on to the
next. If you were aboard a ship, go on to step 2.

2. Nothing else can nullify Cytherians.

3. This dilemma has no conditions. It "just happens," and there is no
combination of skills, etc., that you could have had there to prevent
it. So your crew is not stopped and must begin their journey to the far
end of the spaceline immediately, assuming the ship has any RANGE left.
(They cannot go on to the next dilemma because the card overrides this.)

4. The dilemma enters play, on the ship. Reaching the end of the
spaceline may be considered a "cure", so at that time you will place the
dilemma in your bonus point area. The ship may then go about its
business.


If you'd rather not have to figure this out for every dilemma, just go
to my webpage at the URL listed below for a concise table listing all
current dilemmas and how they work. Because some of my readers on the
mailing list may not have Internet access, I am also sending out the
same information in two email text files which should be printable as
tabular files if you display them in a monospaced font (like Courier).


Jolan tru,

Major Rakal
Tal Shiar

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Visit Major Rakal's Romulan ST:CCG Home Page at
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/kem5/Rakal.html

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Kathy McCracken (kem5@cornell.edu)
Decipher ST:CCG Ambassador for Central New York
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