Let’s face it, the 90s were a wonderful time if you happened to be a Star Trek fan and a gamer. Over the next few weeks as we lead up to the release of the new Star Trek Adventures RPG game, we’re going to look at some of what has come before, and how those things have shaped what we’re getting presently. To kick all of that off, I want to start by looking at Decipher’s Star Trek CCG, a game that is as convoluted as it is fun to play. The game was produced from 1994 to 2007 so it had a pretty long run. However, constant rules updates, and a lackluster second edition coupled with CBS pulling the license ultimately laid this interesting game to rest.
The basic premise of the game is to incorporate the elements that make Star Trek unique into a card game. To do this, the rules set, and the gameplay are designed to reflect that goal. The game is primarily for two players, but there are unofficial rules for adding more. In a two player game, players actually have two decks. One is for building a deck from which they’ll play during regular game play, and the other is called the seed deck. This deck consists of location cards, artifact cards, dilemma cards, doorway cards, and station cards. Basically, anything that is going to need to be in play throughout the game that serves as the foundation of the game. Each player takes turns seeding things as a space line is created, and dilemmas/artifacts are secretly seeded under mission location cards.
Once everything is completely set up, it looks more or less like the picture above. As you can see, there are ships involve. Obviously. Each ship, and each personnel card that’s used during the regular play have stats associated with them, and look a lot like this:
In my opinion, this is where this game is extremely unique. Not only did the designers attempt to capture the Star Trek spirit with their game, they also incorporated gameplay elements that are more closely related to your standard RPG. You’ll notice that Captain Kirk has the attributes of Integrity, Cunning, and Strength. He also has a laundry list of unique skills from which to pull. Every character follows this same pattern, and these skills and attributes play a large role in the game. See, the win conditions are either accumulate 100 points first by solving missions and dilemmas, or be the last to run out of cards in your draw deck. Hence, each mission has a point value, and list of requirements necessary to solve it. The player, therefore, would take their crew to the mission of their choosing, and attempt the mission by committing personnel to that mission. If there are dilemmas beneath the mission, (graciously seeded by your opponent), the the crew have to solve those as well. This can be problematic as a player may not have the skills necessary to solve a particular dilemma. In this case, the entire crew become stopped, and cannot move again until the dilemma is solved.
Star Trek as a mythology has a ton of things going on, and a lot of different races playing in its sandbox, and Decipher didn’t skimp on including these various races in the game. The interesting thing is that they tried to maintain the flavor of each race, or affiliation, as they’re actually called. So Klingons have a lot of strength, and honor is a skill that most possess, where Romulans have high cunning, and you’ll find a lot of treachery. This further affects gameplay as not every mission can be attempted by every affiliation. Furthermore, not every mission location can be seeded on the same space line. Using Delta Quadrant locations, one has to be playing a person who is also playing Delta Quadrant cards in their deck. This applies to personnel and ships as well. Also, as a Federation player, you can’t be the aggressor in a combat maneuver. Of course, there are cards that can change all of this, but it does add some extra depth to the strategy behind the game.
At the time that Decipher lost their license, Star Trek had been around for 40 years. That doesn’t seem quite as long now, but that’s still a lot of material to cover, and Decipher did an incredible job in the attempt. There were 17 sets in just the First Edition. There were also numerous promotional released as well. There were a further 14 sets released for the Second Edition, bringing the total to 31 full sets. That doesn’t seem like much, but bear in mind that this was a card game that was only in production for 13 years. Magic: The Gathering, and Pokemon may have more material to choose from, but they’ve been around longer, and they’re not working within the confines of a licensed property so it’s pretty amazing to see what one company could do with these unique limitations. Equally as interesting is what some companies failed to do in trying to mimic the Star Trek CCG. Google customizable card games, and you’ll see a huge list of games that were coming out around the same time that just didn’t last. It really says a lot about the staying power of Star Trek, and it speaks to the passion of the fans at the time.
We’re 10 years removed from the cancellation of the game so where does that leave us? Well, getting back to that staying power, there is a Continuing Committee that has taken it upon themselves to organize an underground community of players. They organize games for events, provide a forum for fans to meet one another online, or IRL, and even create unofficial expansions that can be used in friendly play. They’ve also been working to remove some of the complicated fat from the First Edition of the game to make it more easily playable. As of this writing, we’re ten years in and still going strong.
The Star Trek CCG was a game ahead of its time if you ask me. It took a concept that was radical and untried, and put it to the test, and quite successfully. It really went to the final frontier of card gaming. I never got too into the Second Edition, but played the First Edition from the very beginning, and I remember having hours of fun as I worked to out maneuver my opponent. The great thing about this particular game is that since it’s so old, many of the cards are pretty inexpensive. The later releases were not printed in huge runs, and those can fetch a mint, but the older sets tend to be pretty cheap. Being as it’s summer, this might be a good hobby to try and get into with friends, or family. It does have a pretty steep learning curve for beginners, but once you pick it up, it’s pretty straightforward, and if there’s something you don’t quite understand beyond the core rules, just ignore them. It was an oddity in its time, and monument to the passions of Trekkie gamers the world over, give this one a good college try, and stay tuned to next week! We’ll be taking a look at Decipher’s other Star Trek game!
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