Design Log: Stardate 12.06.2002

Gallivanting Around the Galaxy

"How do you set out the spaceline for more than two players?"
"I'm a little confused on ship movement... how do you get to your opponent's missions?"
"Can your opponent travel to the end of his missions and then move into your space?"
"How do ships fight each other if missions are five per side?"

Perhaps more than any other change, the elimination of the traditional spaceline has led to questions and confusion. Accustomed to thinking linearly from eight years of First Edition spacelines, it can be hard to make the leap to the three-dimensionality of Second Edition, where missions aren't conceptually "side-by-side;" where missions don't have to be placed in "random order" (because the order is irrelevant); and where there is no artificial "end" to the spaceline (because there is no spaceline).

But the payoff for this three-dimensional "no boundaries" setup (in conjunction with the elimination of seeded dilemmas) is enormous. First off, the 5-second "seed phase" (that's in quotes because of course there is no seed phase any more) boils down to two sentences in the rulebook:

Take all five of your mission cards and place them in a row on the table in front of you. You may place them in any order you choose. (page 12)

No checking for quadrant icons and forming two or more spacelines (which confused a lot of people who thought the quadrants hooked together at the ends), and then having to have some kind of wormholes to get from one to the other. No need to insert regional missions next to each other, or to stack duplicated unique missions. No time wasted trying to decide if it's better to put your mission where it'll separate your opponent's key missions from each other, or to group your own missions close together. No despair when your homeworld and headquarters end up hundreds of parsecs away from your key "solving" mission. Just slap'em down on the table and you're ready to go.

Next, consider the implications for multi-player. Unlike First Edition's "me against you" setup, which needed a pile of never-quite-satisfactory house rules to accommodate more than two players, the no-spaceline format is perfect for any number of players you can fit around the table. No problems keeping track of who owns which missions, no awkward "spoke" setups or unwieldy 24-card-long spacelines. No matter how many players you have, each one keeps their missions right in front of them in a compact group that takes up little table space.

And finally, the answer to the question "How do I get from point A to point B?" is actually simpler than ever in Second Edition:

Move a staffed ship by taking it from the mission above it and placing it behind any other mission, yours or an opponent's. (page 16)

You can't get much simpler than that.

OK, you do have to have sufficient Range left on your ship to make the move. If point A has a span of 3 and point B has a span of 4, you need 7 Range (3 + 4) to move. If the two missions have different quadrant icons, add 2; if they're in the same region, subtract 2. And that really is all there is to it.

Your opponent doesn't have to "travel to the end of his missions and then move into your space." For one thing, there aren't any "ends," and for another, he can move to any mission he has the range to get to, yours or his. Ship battle? Move your ship to the same location as the opposing ship (following the one-sentence rule above) and play a card that allows you to start an engagement. Got half your crew killed off at a Gamma Quadrant mission? No time-consuming, arduous journey back to Romulus for reinforcements; it's just one hop back home (or if your ship lacks sufficient Range, one hop for a new ship to bring the replacements to you). And there are never any questions about whether you can "fly past" something without being affected by it, because you aren't moving along a row of missions.

One other minor issue involves moving between duplicate missions (or between two versions of a mission like Earth). Well, they're actually all the same location, so there's no conceptual movement involved and no Range or staffing required (though you may need to physically relocate your cards, for example to initiate an engagement). In other words, if my opponent and I each have Romulus on the table with a ship in orbit, and I want to attack his ship, I can just place my ship at his copy of Romulus – even if it's out of Range – and then play a card (or use game text of a card in play) that lets me start an engagement.

The Borg Queen may have disdained three-dimensional thinking as "small," but for Second Edition, it's all you need.

Kathy McCracken
Major Rakal
Star Trek Intelligence Officer

December 6, 2002

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