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DECIPHER.com > Star Trek > Expansions
> Reflections 2.0
 I
Need a Little Counseling
by Michael van Breemen
In Premiere, practically everyone got some interrupts which helped gain
skills in order to get past dilemmas, and to this day, many of them still
see use – The Promise for the Klingons, Shady Resources for the Treachery-inclined,
Comfort Women for the Cardassians, etc. Then there are the ones that rarely
see much use and unfortunately, that's what Mission Briefing has been for
the Federation. While the Deep Space Nine contingent has gotten more publicized
help from the likes of Confessions in the Pale Moonlight, and Rite of Emergence
from their numerous Hosts, the Next Generation (hereinafter, TNG) folks
have been somewhat left behind, making do with Federation-specific cards
such as Forever Linked and Mission Briefing. That's where I Need a Little
Counseling comes into play.
When your personnel is attempting a mission, they gain a skill from your
[TNG] personnel present until the end of that mission attempt. No one has
to be stopped, unlike with Mission Debriefing. You don't need to discard
a card to use the interrupt, unlike the aforementioned Debriefing and Shady
Resources, and it applies to each ensuing dilemma plus the checking requirements
portion of the mission attempt. You don't even need someone that had died
underneath an event in order to gain any skills.
The benefits abound for the TNG crew – getting that extra skill to
get around a "twofer" or a more skill-laden dilemma, such as the cost-reduced-by-events-in-core
dilemmas (Formal Hearing, Whispers in the Dark, and Tsiolkovsky Infection),
can mean the difference between your key personnel being stopped and killed.
It can be done on the fly (no need to try and set up a Picking Up the Basics/Mission
Briefing combo) and frankly, I like my personnel contributing in the land
of the living rather than elsewhere. Also, for missions like Geological
Survey and Avert Danger, gaining an extra skill can mean the difference
between earning some free points or not.
I Need a Little Counseling is a move in the right direction for the TNG
team. That's is, after all, what a counselor is there for.
November 24, 2004
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