There he is. The Man, The Myth, The Legend. First Charlie told me he's tapping me for a set. Then he told me it was temporal themed. Right away my inner fanboy knew Richard Castillo was finally coming to 2E. The 1E version of Lt. Castillo was from the beginning of the episode Yesterday's Enterprise. 2E's version is when he steps up and gets the job done at the end. That's what Richard Castillo does. Right away you see he's a matching commander for the Enterprise-C, and when the shit hits the fan he goes into beast mode. If the captain goes down his "mark of the beast" attributes of 6-6-6 turn into 11-11-11 and he gains any two skills that are needed for the job.
Richard Castillo's 2E rebirth wasn't easy. He went through many different versions. We couldn't quite get him right. We were going in the wrong direction. In 1E the story generates the card. In 2E, it's the opposite. But since we were "going back in time" with this expansion, I watched episode again and went with what I saw. After a little more ironing out we finally got him right.
What's the best 2E expansion? This is from the rookie designer perspective. What cards make the game better, what cards make the game worse? What cards make the game healthy, what cards make the game unhealthy? Unlike GCBC, where I use the terms good and bad very loosely, here they have to have had a significant impact on the game. The formula is simple, +1 for a good card and -2 for a bad card. This is because making a bad card has double the impact on the game then making a good card. This is sad, but true. We're taking into account how cards are now, post any errata. However, a set might have an asterisks (*), or multiple (*), for any bad cards that needed errata. Usually errata moves bad cards into the neutral category, sometimes it remains bad. In a rare case, like Legacy, it can actually make it a good card for the game. To get another perspective, one with a background in acadamia, I asked BenHosp to participate. He was way more liberal with his scoring, so it'll be interesting to see the difference. Here's my rankings (number of cards in each set in parenthesis):
Tacking into the Wind (54) +3
Lineage (54) +2
Legacy (15) +2
This Side of Paradise (45) +2
What You Leave Behind *** (122) +2
Infinite Diversity (20) +1
Allegiance * (45) +1
Undiscovered Country (45) +1
Captain's Log (120) +1
Energize (180) +1
Unity (54) 0
Extreme Measures (54) 0
Peak Performance ******* (54) 0
Favor the Bold (45) 0
Dangerous Missions (19) 0
In a Mirror, Darkly * (122) -1
These are the Voyages ** (122) -1
Tapestry (18) -2
Necessary Evil * (180) -2
Call to Arms (288) -2
10th Anniversary Collection (23) -2
Raise the Stakes * (90) -4
To Boldly Go (120) -4
Genesis (27) -5
Strange New Worlds *** (120) -5
Reflections 2.0 (61) -7
Fractured Time * (40) -10
Of course, there are lies, damned lies, and then there are statistics. I'm not sure if there is anything substantial to be learned from this exercise, but there were some surprises. First, I was shocked to see how shitty of a set Strange New Worlds really was. Second, the virtual sets score well. But this is because they had the luxury of cleaning up the mess that the Decipher sets made. Not surprising, how "boutique sets" didn't rank very well. And how Peak Performance bounces back to be an average expansion after tons of errata. Without it you'd be looking at a -14 score. Now here's BenHosp's rankings:
Tacking into the Wind +11
Undiscovered Country +5
Lineage +5
Infinite Diversity +4
Legacy +4
Tapestry +1
Unity +1
Raise the Stakes +1
In a Mirror, Darkly +1
To Bodly Go 0
Dangerous Missions 0
This Side of Paradise 0
Extreme Measures 0
10th Anniversary Collection -1
Favor the Bold -1
Captain's Log -2
Genesis -2
Energize -3
What You Leave Behind -3
Allegiance -3
Fractured Time -4
Strange New Worlds -5
These are the Voyages -5
Peak Performance -6
Reflections 2.0 -6
Necessary Evil -9
Call to Arms -10
Now BenHosp threw around good/bad more then I did, but there are some similarities. We both rank Tacking into the Wind at #1. We both have little regard for Strange New Worlds. Curious that he only ranks one Decipher set in the positive, In a Mirror, Darkly. And I don't understand all the Call to Arms hate. -10 seems kinda harsh.
If anyone would like to take a shot at the ranking they're more then welcome. I'll post them here and then proceed to mock your opinions. Email: killerbstccg@hotmail.com. Up next time: Cards you have in your binder x6.
