Good Card, Bad Card #96

Location: Corbett Compound, Denison TX

Pic: Empok Nor, The "Haunted House" of DS9

It's the middle of the night here at The Compound. The first guests of Texas Chainsaw Masters arrive tomorrow. Pumped full of steroids and antibiotics I find myself asleep and awake at random hours these past few days. There's even a zombie walking around the house who calls himself Ken. He looks like a guy I used to know back in Jersey....

I won't spend this blog ranting about Australia. There's nothing to say here that I haven't raged about on the boards. Instead we're going to break the 4th Wall of Design and talk about the Halloween boutique set Dead Stop. 9-card holiday boutique sets were my idea. As the new KFC Night Manager of Design (meaning Charlie has giving me some latitude in choosing which projects the Designers pitch. I facilitate now, instead of designing) I also wanted to bring these type of mini-expansions back. Going down to 27-card expansions there was some concern about the segment of people who simply like larger sets. I figured this was a compromise.

I think Dead Stop was well received. Holidays give you a theme to work with, and 'spooky/scary/murder' is one you can play around a lot with. I recently proposed we keep going, using Valentine's Day as an excuse to do a 'love/romance' theme boutique. I was surprised at the lack of enthusiasm and downright resistance to the idea from a portion of the Design Team. I don't know... we'll see. I hope it's a project we can bring to the players. Speaking of Dead Stop, let's bring two cards out for today's GCBC. Since it was a scary set, let's start with the bad first.

Bad Card: Subspace Fracture

Why: So when I saw the first test file Charlie and Jeremy put out there was good and bad. Charlie wrote about his 'failure' (this is not a dirty word in Design) on the CC site. The 'murder dilemmas' weren't one of them. I liked the concept very much. Great synergy between the dilemma pile and the draw deck. Save cards to play, get your dilemma to hit, the play and murder. Making a planet version of this type of card was going to be a tough one, and I think we missed the mark here with Subspace Fracture. Sure, you're getting at least one stop. But since the rest of the dilemma probably won't get you kills (your opponent can simply beam any extra personnel down to the planet), that's an expensive filter. And getting it to go on the ship is a 50/50 shot. The 2 Geology and 2 Transporters is a difficult requirement, but non-hand weapon equipment is seeing more play lately, so if they have one, this probably won't hit. There needed to be some 'lock the people' up on the ship, but then we get into wall-of-text territory. I would've just ignored all the other stuff beside the stop when costing this card, since it's rarely going to pop, and that brings it down to 2, maybe even 1 cost. Then it's a little more palatable.

Good Card: Hazardous Materials

Why: When Charlie asked to do the first Holiday boutique I told him I wanted three things: Vulcan Zombies, the Scary chick from the Savage Curtain and Susperia from Voyager. Sadly, after testing I only got one. At first I hated this image. I wanted all the zombies coming from the door. Pure Horror. Now I kinda see what Matt went with, the suspense of some bad shit about to happen. This dilemma you can go all-in with. Play your Trellium-D's, murder. Get the dilemma to hit. Play more equipment, murder. The requirement are easier on this dilemma than Subspace Fracture, but that evens out the card. Plus, only costing 3 (this is probably undercosted compared to the overcosted Subspace Fracture) you will be able to put filters in front of it.

Good Card, Bad Card #95

Location: Corbett Compound, Denison TX

Pic: Voyager, Riddles

It's Continentals weekend and the sky is falling and the state of 2E is in shambles. People on the internet say so, it must be true.

I think the numbers were 10 players for North American Continentals, in Minneapolis, and 7 players for European Continentals in Vienna, Austria. Minneapolis is a decent location. Not too difficult to fly to. A nice, cool break in the summer time to hold an event. 10 players seems a little low for a Continentals, and they had some travelers. So you'll have to chalk any attendance concerns to the decline in the local player base. Which I'll take about in a bit. Vienna? I don't know anything about European travel, so I can't say whether this location was a smart idea. Germany is right next door. Like Minnesota, this was a former player hotbed that's seen decline. If they couldn't find the will to travel, then maybe it wasn't the best choice.

What if I told you everything is exactly as it should be and you should be happy. With the state of the game that is. If you're not happy with your life, this nerd blog ain't helping with that. I was channel flipping the other night and the Voyager episode Riddles was on. Tuvok gets zapped or something and becomes retarded (you'll have to deal with non-PC words). He's happy though. He has his buddy Neelix. They bake cakes and shit. They have a good time. He only gets angry and frustrated when Neelix tries to make Retarded Tuvok become what he was.

We are Retarded Tuvok. We are less then what we were, numbers-wise. When you accept that, make peace with it, things don't seem bad at all. When you don't accept that, you start looking for reasons,villains, or worse, "problems with the game". The latter is dangerous because the game is fine right now. In fact, I haven't had a 'bad game' since the Jersey days when those DC boys were ramming Klingons down my throat year after year 6-7 years ago.

Can we organize better? Sure. That comes down to the organizers themselves. Where they choose to hold events and how much work they put into them. Most important thing: location, location, location. The events have to be near a airport hub, cheap and easy to get to. That's why locations like DC/Baltimore and Chicago work and places like Seattle and San Diego do not. The game is fine, we're not 'selling' playing a silly, decades old, card game anymore. We're 'selling' gatherings of friends and fun times.

So smile Retarded Tuvok. Bake a cake. I can't speak for you, but getting together with 8-10 friends a couple times a year seems like time well spent.

I wrote this GCBC to address this issue, but didn't pick any cards in advance. Zero Hour did release not too far back. I was on this set. Keith Morris was the Lead, and was joined by BenHosp and design rookie Alexey Korolev. Still too early to judge which column this set will fall into, but it's never to early to shit on some cards.

Good Card: Heler

Why: Heler is hella good. Are the kids still saying that? If not, I have a teenage daughter who's job it is to keep me humble at all times. Heler is basically 3 cost to get a personnel and draw 4 cards, if you're doing it right. That's a pretty sweet deal. Strength means you're probably playing Bajoran Resistance. Heler doesn't have that keyword, but I don't think that will hold you back much. He makes up for that by being a Bajoran with Treachery and that opens up the wonders of Covenant. One of the best cheaters in the game. Add the old school Resistance cheater Natural Instincts and you got serious dilemma busting power. The only knock on Heler is it would've been better if his integrity was a tick lower at 4 for Adopted Authority, but that dilemma was giving you problems anyway in a Resistance deck. Who cares, just shoot everyone in the face with Artifacts, you can worry about dilemmas later.

Bad Card: The Big Picture

Why: The card's effect is great. Admirals needed a push as well. All they seemed to be good for is getting past Dignitaries and Witnesses. They tried some Admiral love with Launch Orders, but that turned out to be a stinker. Somewhere along the process the 'destroy your paranoia' event was put in. I must've missed that meeting. Of course, the more powerful the card, the more affiliation-specific it has to be. I'm not sure if the effect of skill swapping is uber-powerful, and needing an Admiral seems like a sufficient hoop to jump through for that effect. Paranoia never seemed to get off the ground. I have nothing against showing it some love, but by limiting a card that could help a few other affiliations isn't the route to take. You took a card that could see a great deal of play. TNG, Romulan, Starfleet could have gotten a taste as well. As is, unless Paranoia receives a big push in the future, you'll probably never see it at all.

Good Card, Bad Card #94

Location: Corbett Compound, Denison TX

Pic: Happy Rumble Day

After watching Trump's inauguration speech and ABC interview this week I finally understand what Hunter S. Thompson meant by "fear and loathing". This isn't snowflake 'this guy scares me' stuff. I know who Trump is. He's the east coast bullshit artist he's always been. Problem is, he's gotten old and angry. And he's been utilized by truly shitty people to win the White House and begin a nationalist era this country has never seen. If he gets a second term this nationalism will turn into true militarism. Now the United States has been militaristic since the end of WW2. Because of the Soviet Union is was a matter of survival. To what degree I'm not smart enough to know. But that world is now gone, no matter what boogeymen they try to scare us with. Now I'm aware of the pitfalls of comparing America at it's founding to today. But every Founding Father was leery of standing armies. Of course we need one today, but we should still remember 'why' they were against such things back then. Shit, this is a topic Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton agreed on.

But in a country, where the perpetual menacings of danger oblige the government to be always prepared to repel it, her armies must be numerous enough for instant defence. The continual necessity for his services enhances the importance of the soldier, and proportionably degrades the condition of the citizen. The military state becomes elevated above the civil. The inhabitants of territories often the theatre of war, are unavoidably subjected to frequent infringements on their rights, which serve to weaken their sense of those rights; and by degrees, the people are brought to consider the soldiery not only as their protectors, but as their superiors.

My monkey brain is going to try to break down what Hamilton was saying here, and rememeber, he was a soldier.

"perpetual menacings"- This is the boogeymen I mentioned earlier. Obama called ISIS the 'JV team' once and his enemies never let it go. I agreed with him, and I think if we really wanted ISIS gone it could've been done in a few months. Up until recently the American public had no more stomach for active war and ISIS actually doesn't pose a direct threat to American soil. But war is good for business and we all have to pretend ISIS is bigger then it is. That boogeyman is running out of gas though. Trump's is squeezing it's last drops. All that 'the world is a scary place' talk and repeating 'they're chopping off heads' (which they've been doing the whole time) in the ABC interview was just keeping the American people, and more importantly his base, in constant fear. Scared people don't ask their leaders questions.

"The necessity for his services enhances the importance of the soldier, and proportionably degrades the condition of the citizen."- I'm the son, brother, grandson and nephew of a veteran, but I don't like the 'hollow platitudes' we ply our veterans with. And it's more to make us feel good then for them. After WW2, soldiers came home, got jobs and moved on with their lives the best they could. I suspect most of them didn't want to look back. If we really cared about veterans we wouldn't have all these charities that have to take care of them (When they aren't stealing the money. Wounded Warrior execs were caught having lavish "meetings" at resorts). If we really cared we would rarely put them in harm's way and make sure the VA department was well run and had everything it needed to take care of them. We shouldn't celebrate the soldier, we should appreciate them. There's a difference.

"unavoidably subjected to the frequent infringement on their rights, which weaken their sense of those right"- The most disturbing line from Trump's interview was "fight fire with fire" as a justification for torture. I'm not the first person to say that by using torture we lose our identity. It might not be as abstract as that. If you're willing to violate the human rights of foreign enemies, you're only a stones throw from violating the human rights of fellow Americans you consider enemies. And lets not act like this hasn't happened plenty of times already.

"people are brought to consider the soldiery not only as their protectors, but as their superiors."- This is the endgame. The citizens, We The People, must always remember they are the sovereign of the United States. They always have the right and duty to ask questions. They must hold people accountable. If the government ever forgets that, then they are duty-bound to burn it to the ground and start over. In America, no title is above Citizen.

I didn't mean to go off the deep end with today's GCBC. But it's Rumble Day and I'm ready for a fight. I'll just close by saying there's only one group that can save us the next 4 years: Women. They are the only group large enough that can organize and bring the government to heel. We fucked it up ladies, it's time for you to rise and take your government for the first time ever. In 8 years you could have a House and good chunk of the Senate filled by women. You are the majority, you should be the majority of government.

Enough 'doom and gloom'. Time for cards. I asked for nominations from the 50th anniversary set and got mixed responses. Then I posted a poll and solved half the job. So let's see what the people had to say, hopefully not as long-winded as my previous comments.

Good Card: V'Ger

Why: I didn't agree with this pick, but this was the winner of the poll easily. My thinking was, if it was so good why didn't I see anyone play it at Nationals, in Lexington KY, at the end of last year? Maybe I should just chalk it up to laziness. I'm willing to give it Good Card status for the image alone. The Enterprise flying into V'Ger's butthole is pretty cool. But let's get to what the card is. We got a 3-cost space wall. Separating this from Gomtuu Shockwave (beside dual-integrity requirements) is you're switching out one less skill requirement for +3 on the attribute requirement. Ok, but then you're really just making the skills an afterthought. You're not going to bother skill tracking, like Gomtuu, and just get them down 5 or less personnel and bask in the knowledge that they're not getting any attribute over 35. Good for gameplay, but it diminishes the skill involved playing the card. But let's get to the sexy part. We have a revolutionary game effect for the damage marker: "You may not play interrupts". That's pretty strong. That's a deal-breaker for some decks and they'll have no choice to go back home and repair.

Bad Card: Practical Evidence

Why: This card was tied with the dilemma Logical Solution for Bad Card. That dilemma suffers from the Design mistake, made before, of letting the person facing it choose an all stop. Meaning you can only play the dilemma last. That's just sloppy design. Now let's get to Practical Evidence. Man, they've put out some stinkers as Q cards the past few years. Somebody had a plan when making this card, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what it is. Am I trying to screw over my opponent? How many strength based decks are out there? Klingon, Dominion Crom or TNG Bluegill. All solid decks, but they shouldn't be keeping you up at night. Am I playing this on my own mission? That seems like a bad plan. Plenty of missions out there to choose from. No need to get cute. As of right now, the only scenario I play this card is in a Maquis Indian deck. Just to get another event on it. And Q running around harassing Indians ain't Story Mode so this card is a solid turd all around.