Design Log: Stardate 08.11.2003

Temporal Hiccups, Seduction, and Dilemma Pile Resequencing

Second Edition started off with a pot full of dilemmas and the straightforward rule that when you opponent attempts a mission with X personnel (and Y overcome dilemmas under the mission), you draw X-Y dilemmas and can select X-Y cost worth of them to use. Energize introduced cards that can make changes to those parameters, like Complications (which essentially adds 3 to X for this mission attempt) or Machinations (which lets you take drawn dilemmas out of the game in exchange for choosing one dilemma from your pile for your opponent to face). Call to Arms continues to add cards that let you fiddle with dilemmas, increasing your strategic options and opportunity to catch your opponent off guard.

When James T. Kirk took the Kobayashi Maru test, he altered the conditions of the simulation to make the "no-win" scenario winnable. In similar fashion, I Don't Like to Lose alters the basic X and Y parameters of the dilemma equation, letting you subtract up to 3 from X and add up to the same number to Y. Say X is 6, but you're sure that drawing just three dilemmas will net you more dilemma cost than you can use. Discard a card, draw those three, and you can play up to 9 cost.

If you've ever had your last (or only) copy of a dilemma get overcome and then later you really wished you had it for another mission, The Manheim Effect is what you need. This "temporal hiccup" that lets you grab back one of those overcome dilemmas and place it on top of your dilemma pile – just before you draw dilemmas. Your opponent may be none too happy to see a nasty dilemma, that he thought was buried, resurface to plague him again. Of course, it doesn't even need to be your last copy; but if you don't know for sure that you'll draw the one that you need, The Manheim Effect guarantees that the critical dilemma is on top of your dilemma pile.

The first two allow you to "change the rules" just before you draw dilemmas for your opponent to face. The Trial Never Ended, on the other hand, lets you shake things up when your opponent is about to overcome a dilemma. Let's say your opponent is about to overcome Aggressive Behavior, but you think you can nail him with it on a later mission attempt and you want it back. Destroy The Trial Never Ended; he gets whatever was on top of your dilemma pile to "overcome" instead, and you get Aggressive Behavior sitting right on top of your dilemma pile. It can even be a dilemma that is automatically being overcome because your first dilemmas were a little too good, and everyone got killed or stopped before they hit your really big gun. With The Trial Never Ended, you don't have to lose the chance to hit your opponent with it next time.

Now, notice it doesn't say anything about who is about to overcome a dilemma. Maybe you're about to overcome a dilemma that's a piece of cake for your personnel, and you know that you would always be able to overcome it. But you're not so sure you can say the same about whatever is next in your opponent's dilemma pile. Send that piece of cake back to his dilemma pile and you get a free pass on that next dilemma; you overcome it just as easily as if it was the original one.

Finally, we have a genetically enhanced personnel who can overcome dilemmas you didn't even face! How's that for gene resequencing? Lauren, Seductress can be stopped to reveal the top card of your opponent's dilemma pile. As long as it could have been faced at a mission you have completed (that is, if you have completed only a planet mission, it would have to be a planet or dual dilemma; a space dilemma couldn't have been faced there), you can put it under the mission as overcome. What if it's a dead-easy dilemma and you want to leave it in the dilemma pile to dilute the nastier ones? No problem, it says you "may" overcome that dilemma. Lauren will still be stopped, of course.

Look for more dilemma manipulation cards to be revealed later, including an Infiltration card.

Kathy McCracken
Major Rakal
Star Trek Intelligence Officer

August 11, 2003

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