Star Trek CCG

Second Edition Errata – An Explanation

by Evan Lorentz
Game Designer

If you've checked out the new February installment of the Current Rulings for Star Trek CCG Second Edition, you've undoubtedly noticed that three missions have received errata. (How could you not notice? The entire document is less than one page!) Each of the three missions has received a very small change, increasing the amount of Cunning required to complete them.

First of all, let me reassure everyone that this is not "the beginning of the end" for Second Edition. We take very seriously our responsibility to keep this new incarnation of Star Trek CCG easy-to-learn, and that means letting the cards play "as written" as much as possible. This does not mark the beginning of monthly errata for cards, or anything even close to that – it is simply a much-needed fix for three Premiere cards. Three out of 415 is not bad, especially compared to the almost 30 errata issued for just the 363 cards of First Edition Premiere.

So with that said, why these three cards and why such minor changes? The answer is unfortunate, but simple – we made some typos. Second Edition missions have some pretty strict formulas used to determine how high an attribute requirement should be (in relation to points and skill requirements). All three of these missions had typos, and the errata being issued raises the attribute requirements to where they should have been in the first place.

We've actually been aware of these mistakes since right around the initial release of the product, but decided on a "wait and see" approach to find out just how big a problem these mistakes posed. We'd hoped these mistakes would not become too big an issue, and that we could just let people play with the missions as printed, typos and all. After two months of watching the sanctioned tournament scene, it had become apparent that wasn't going to work out.

Our research showed that roughly 75% of all tournament-winning decks were using at least one of these three missions. Many were using two or more. A significant number of non-winning decks were in on the "fun" too, with roughly half of the decks at any given tournament sporting at least one of our unfortunate mistakes.

It's been stated in Design Logs for Second Edition that one of our goals for the game was to make attibutes "matter" more than they did in First Edition. Well, it looks like our mission has been accomplished (pun very much intended). The numbers of Explore Black Cluster, Feldomite Rush, and Investigate Massacre were off by just 10, 6, and 4, respectively, yet the majority of players (you clever little devils, you) instantly caught on to the advantage offered.

With the Championship qualifying season about to begin, and the data very clearly speaking for itself, we decided to do what we probably should have done on release day and issue errata for these three cards. We hope this will free competitive players up to consider the over 50 other missions in Premiere (and the new missions coming up in Energize – which have been checked very thoroughly, rest assured). Game on!

Related link:
Star Trek CCG Current Rulings

February 24, 2003

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