A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away... Ok, wrong franchise. About 25+ years ago, when I lived in the UK, I played a collectible card game based on the Star Trek IP. It was kind of a cross between a board game, Magic: The Gathering, an RPG and a mash-up of your favourite moments from Star Trek.
Sadly the company which made it went under around the time the shows/movies stopped. (They also made a Star Wars CCG as well, and the licencing costs for both of those weren't cheap). With no new cards being made, the local club moved on to other things and I had all but forgotten about it.
With the recent resurgence of Trek shows, I thought it might be fun to see if I could grab pictures of the cards online and try printing them out. Lo and behold, there is a small, but very dedicated group of fans who have kept the game going for all these years. Not only that, but they made scans of every card and even made their own. And these aren't some amateur over-powered home-brew rules, they are well thought out, balanced (at least as well as any professional games company.) and they add a ton of new options to the game.
Anyway, long story short, Kojibear and I have been playing every now and again and as a casual game it is fun and nostalgic, best of all, it is free!!!
Well, I have spent quite a bit on printing costs and a lot of time on cutting up bits of paper, but otherwise FREE!!!
Each player has a deck of cards that include personnel, ships and events that they use to try to solve missions. However, your opponent has put dilemmas under your missions that might slow you down, kill your personnel or unleash a Borg cube. As a casual game, you and your opponent are essentially racing to see who can complete their missions first. There are some things you can do to slow down the other player like capturing key personnel, ("There are four lights!"), diverting them through a wormhole or just launching an attack with a bunch of angry Klingons.
The game covers TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise* and both the original and next gen movies. After that, the company ended the licence and the community doesn't want to risk getting a C&D letter for going beyond the licencing agreement. You can of course mix and match crews and settings, but generally there are benefits to staying within a particular show.
If anyone is interested, I have multiple decks built for TNG and DS9, and I am happy to do demo games at the monthly gaming days. Most games last for an hour or two.
*Enterprise barely got covered by the original manufacturer, but the fan group has expanded it a little.
Calling all Star Trek nerds.
Calling all Star Trek nerds.
Painted Minis in 2014: 510, in 2015: 300, in 2016 :369, in 2019: 417, in 2020: 450
Re: Calling all Star Trek nerds.
I'll give it a whirl if I make it to the next game day. We could get in a game of Star Fleet Battles too!
...and now his Head was full of nothing but Inchantments, Quarrels, Battles, Challenges, Wounds, Complaints, Amours, and abundance of Stuff and Impossibilities.....
Cervantes, Don Quixote
Cervantes, Don Quixote
Re: Calling all Star Trek nerds.
Sadly I threw out all of my SFB stuff recently. It never got used and was getting rather old. While I enjoyed the game, it was very difficult to play, took ages and didn't really work for anything more than a single ship at a time.
If you're coming along this month, I'll throw a couple of Star Trek card decks into my bag.
If you're coming along this month, I'll throw a couple of Star Trek card decks into my bag.
Painted Minis in 2014: 510, in 2015: 300, in 2016 :369, in 2019: 417, in 2020: 450