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Calling You Out

by Evan Lorentz
Game Designer

Call to Arms introduced the Interlink keyword to the Second Edition, the first keyword to have built-in rules associated with it (albeit rules which were explained in italics text on every card to use the term). It came about as we looked at 10 Borg personnel who all had the same text with only a word or two changed, that change all but buried in the third line of the game text. Our hope was that by building a keyword to "call out" the notable difference, players would quickly learn what this recurring bit of text meant without having to put on hip-waders and slog through the text all the time. They could use the "call-out keyword" to get right to the point of an often-explored vein of design.

We really had our fingers crossed as Call to Arms released to the public, because even in the short time we'd been using Interlink, we'd come to realize how handy it would be to create other call-out keywords in future sets. Fortunately for us, the idea went over well with players, and paved the way for us to introduce two more such keywords in Necessary Evil, Consume and Artifact. Consume in particular proved to be one of the most-liked aspects of any set yet released for Second Edition, which we took as the "all clear" to make call-out keywords a complete, full-fledged part of the game. (Wow, there sure were a lot of hyphens in that sentence. Anyway....)

That is how, as design on Fractured Time began, we decided to create the new call-out keyword Decay. When it appears on a card, it looks like this:

Decay: [number]. (When there are [that number] cards on this event, destroy it.)

Every Decay card is an event that plays in your core and has in its game text a way to accumulate cards on top of it. We felt this would be a good tie-in for the Fractured Time set, a card vulnerable to the passage of time. Originally, we even thought we'd make sure to use a "time-themed" image and story to illustrate each one of the cards. A noble plan, perhaps, but it fell by the wayside quickly as we came to feel it was more important to be sure every affiliation had access to at least one Decay card – and for some affiliations, the pickings in "time-travel plots" are thin (or non-existent).

Here's how one particular Decay card turned out. Unyielding is a potent event for Borg to help them deal with some of the dilemmas they sometimes have difficulty with on skills alone, things like Alluring Spy, Formal Hearing, or Picking Up the Pieces. It flat out prevents a Borg personnel from being stopped. Decay provides the costs to bring this power into balance (costs besides the 2 counters it takes to play it). First, you're only able to use the power three times before the event destroys itself. Second, it costs you a card from your hand (which will ultimately be discarded) each time you use it.

Look for more cards in Fractured Time to use Decay to add costs and limitations to strong effects. But also expect a small twist or two on things. Not all things that Decay are lost forever, nor are they always paid for from your hand. Cards can sometimes Decay under your opponent's control rather than yours, and still other times move inexorably toward destruction with almost nothing anyone can do to stop it. Almost.

August 10, 2004