The Crystaline Entity # 3 By Pdmd8 Table Of Contents Mail/Classifieds Common-Uncommon Deck Feature today: Privateer Suggestions? Secondary Article: House Rules! Klingon Korner Neutral Zone Artifact Finds Topics? Q/A Mail/Classifieds Macav234: I have many white Boarder Edition Cards. E-mail me if you want to buy some of the cards. Responses might Be delayed Pdmd8: Anyone have a Spock or a Future Enterprise for a reasonable price? If anyone has many Mercenary ships, I would like LOTS of those! I collect Mercenary ships by the dozens. I am planning to make a privateer game. These are probably the best Privateer ships in the galaxy! Not Enough Responses for posting! See Issue # 1 Common-Uncommon Deck:/Neutral deck Neutral Deck (The best one so far!, keep SENDING) Sent by: (Name requested to be with held) 1 Traveler:Trandence 2 Palor Toff 3 Red Alert Roga Danar 6 Narik 8 Vekor 8 Mercenary Ship 1 Baran 1 Captain's Log Missions (4 easy space for your opponant & 1 nearly impossible and) Qualor II rendevous Dillemas Sarjenka (for Qualor II) Borg Ship x 4 to put under your space Mission) Plenty of other dilemmas to make it impossible for them to pass any of their missions. Horga'hn for Qualor II Privateer Suggestions If any of you have played Privateer, you have realized that it is rather fun to be a mercenary. It is like choosing your future and what you want to do with your ships. I have always liked the idea of being without a government and on your own. I like the Mercenary ship for this reason. It is representative of what technology Mercenaries have. Yridian Shuttles would also be present where Mercenaries operate. Combat Vessels would also be common. I have liked the total war concept, but I usually like to get my favorite ships out with my favorite crew. This is nearly impossible with regular Deck sizes and other constraints. It is usually not tactically wise. I always have liked the Mercenary crew I have! Narik, Vekor and Baran. I have never been able to put a good mercenary game together in any system other than Star Fleet Battles. There are several possibilities for ways to make the Star Trek card game into a mercenary one as well. First a roll playing environment would be necessary. If there are strict rules, not as much interaction can apply. Maybe the roll playing game can be structured, though. It might have set trading rules so that two people could both play and no GM would be necessary. Probably Qualor II would be a perfect place to buy and sell things. What about the 'things that the people buy'. They might be able to be represented with equipment on the ships. Shuttles and Weapons would almost always be profitable. Unfortunately, watch out for the Federation. They hate weapons. Money could be used for buying and selling equipment, or food. It could also be used for bribes, buying more ships and a whole lot of other things. Maybe they could even be used to 'buy' events. The captain gives money to reasearchers, and they might unleash a terror (borg ship or Q-net), or maybe give you a technological advantage (Captain's log/ bynars/Metaphasic Shields). Maybe If you lent money to an archeological team, they could discover the Vulcan Stone of Gol. What if they used it improplerly or for their own gain. Maybe they would discover a Tox Uthat, causing a nearby Star to Explode. It could vaporize your ship. Indeed there are many possibilities for a game like this, but many of them require a GM or at least a dice. The universe is never constant, and probabilities never garonee a ceartain outcome. For instance, once in a while a Mercenary ship could defeat a Galaxy Class. This is why I believe that there should be a random-hit table. This would be like this: Subtract Shields from Weapons and use the result on this table with 1 dice 10: 5 or more: 0-8 4: 0-7 3 0-6 2 0-5 1 0-4 0 0-3 -1 0-2 less than that on a roll of zero it hits. Roll again, consult the damage chart if you hit: 9 Warp core breach (Ship destroyed at the end of turn) 8 Ship 1/3 damaged -1 weapons 7 ship 1/3 damaged, -1 equipment 6 Shields damaged: -3 to shields 5 weapon pod hit: 1/2 weapons 4 Warp drive hit: -3 to range 3 shield generator hitL -1 to shields 2 weapon hit: -2 to weapons 1 -1 to all 0 No Effect This brings randomness to the game and encourages battles without a guaranteed winner. This would be especially good for a Roll Playing game, where the character is supposed to live longer than his/her enemies. Secondary Article: Proposed House Rules: 1: no attempting space missions from outposts 2: minimum red shirt of 2 people unless one can pass the mission 3: No outposts on Cloaked mission or Covert Installation 4: No Horga'hn 5: You loose if you run out of cards (discourages small killer decks and Traveler and Horgahn unless player can win quickly. 6: Maximum of 4 of each card and 2 red alearts. 7: Only one artifact can be there per mission 8: only one of each artifact per deck Klingon Korner I.K.C. Qu'vat Vor'cha Class CSS Cloaking Device, Tractor Beam RANGE 9 WEAPONS 8 SHIELDS 8 This ship is pretty good in that it can't be hurt by the Enterprise. It doesn't have very high weapons compared with the Bortas or the Fek'lhr. The ship does have a captain, making the weapons and shields reasonable (9 11 11). I would prefer to have the Bortas, but the ship is not that bad. The range is formidable only to be passed by the Fek'lhr and the Future Enterprise. Rating: 7/10 Torak V.I.P. Diplomacy, Geology INTEGRITY 5 CUNNING 4 STRENGTH 7 Bad Integrity and Cunning and no commanding star make him not so great. The fact that he did command the Qu'vat makes him better in that he can raise it's power to 9 11 11. The geology makes him a useful V.I.P., but the Diplomacy is just about required to round him out. Rating 5/10 Kurn OFFICER C Honor,Computer Skill, Navigation, Diplomacy INTEGRITY 8 CUNNING 6 STRENGTH 8 He is a very good officer with a wide range of skills. His lack of cunning is not so much of a downfall. The Computer Skill is one of the best things a Klingon can afford. He can make the Hegh'ta 8 10 10, a match for the Future Enterprise!!!! The only thing the card lacks is Leadership, but with so many other leadership, anyone can easily overcome that. Rating 8.75/10 Neutral Zone Combat Vessel Combat Class CC RANGE 8 WEAPONS 8 SHIELDS 6 This card is formidable in that it can blow the Boras to pieces at its own sacrifice. One of it's failures is the lack of a commander. The shields are microfilament thin, but the range is the best one a mercenary or other can afford. In the episode ONE PHASER SHOT put it out of it's 'misery'. This is far too unrealistic because the shields would prevent such a fault. Bok Officer C Greed, ENGINEER, Treachery, Computer Skill INTEGRITY 4 CUNNING 9 STRENGTH 4 No not BOK! (I don't think you want to know what that means in Kilrathi, but if you look at his upper forehead...) He is a good neutral in that he has Engineer and Computer Skill as well as being an officer. With cunning like his, Aliens are not going to overlook this situation. BEWARE of Alien Kidnappers! Bok's Integrity and Strength could be better, but it's BOK! In the future there might be a Ferengi Marauder with him in Command. It would be wise to collect him now! Artifact's Find! Horga'hn Place down immediately. Artifact allows you to take double turns from now on (not cumalative). Wow! What a spoiler! Geez! I have lost many a game because of this card until I got the card and then it was outlawed (perhaps because they didn't want an opponent who was even half as powerful). This is perhaps the most powerful artifact in the game (we have yet to see if Ressikan Flute is more powerful). Not only does it increase the rate at which you report personnel to duty, it increases the combat effectiveness of your ships as well as their range. If you have the advantage in a battle, you may attack TWICE and blow up their ship! They wouldn't even have time to cloak! This is probably why it was outlawed. Rating 10/10 Ressikan Flute You get 5 points for every musik out in play. Hmmm, do Klingons Sing, do Romulans Dance? Well... no, but the Bridge crew does and they will give you a heck of a lot of points if you just LET THEM LIVE! I think this artifact is way too powerful! C'mon, If you have the bridge Crew out, you get at LEAST 15 points a turn! Rating 9.5/10 Topics for Next Time! Do you have any topics that you would like the writer to discuss in the next few issues of Crystaline Entity. If so, please E-mail them to me and I will devot at least a small section to your topic. Remember that the polls from the first Entity have not been conclusive. SEND SEND SEND those E-mails! Q/A Can lacanta affect a Borg ship and cause it to repeatedly cycle around the game board? A YES! Q Does the borg ship take one or two hits to destroy? A Send in your oppinions! All of them will be listed Disclaimer: Anyone who reads or sends anything in to this magazine cannot sue me or charge me with anything. I used Decipher things but this Magazine is a non-profit thing to enjoy. If you send anyone this file without the Disclaimer, you have taken into responsibility all they have done with the magazine. You may distribute Freely! Anything you send me becomes property of PDMD8. 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