I'm a man of few hobbies or interests but over the past couple of years I've begun to amass a collection of Star Trek: Customizable (Grrr at that 'z') Card Game…um…cards. For the unenlightened among you the CCG, as I'm going to call it from now on, is a card based game (Duh) based on everyone's fave sci-fi series. Basically if you've ever played Magic: the Gathering or the Portal series personally I've never bothered with them, too far into D&D territory for my liking) you know the sort of game I'm talking about. If not then head off to the Decipher site and download an online version of the rules. This book is really for people who already own the game and upwards. Before I begin properly I'd better say one thing, this book is five years old and since the game as a whole is always expanding it is horrendously out of date. Deleting as applicable this may/may not be a problem, there are many starting decks to choose from ranging from TNG, DS9 and the Borg deck (First Contact). So long as you stick to the TNG deck and expansion sets then this book is great. The opening chapter tells of the history of the game. It begins by indicating the initial success of Magic: the Gathering, and how some bright spark borrowed the idea and slapped the Trek logo on it, they had no idea if the boon in CCGs was a fad or a lasting money spinner, turns out it was the latter, Star Trek: CCG was born. This manual I would guess is aimed at the novice to intermediate player, it takes you on a step by step guide to creating your own strong decks, game strategies, good card combos and in what is possibly the most interesting section in the book, the 50 most powerful cards and how to use them. I'm really more of a collector than a player (No friends you see, sniff) and this book caters for me there too, it lists all the cards from the original TNG deck as well as the cards collectable status (Common, Uncommon, Rare). However, yet again I come against this books one major flaw, it's more out of date than flip-top communicators and belt-sanded Klingon foreheads, under normal circumstances I'd give this four pips but I'm going to be ageist and give it three. Who knows, perhaps there is an updated official version I haven't found yet? The Star Trek Customizable Card Game has added several expansion sets since this Player's Guide was published in 1995. These have had enough effect on the game that the advice in the book is unlikely to be helpful, even to a beginner. The free card offer that came with this book has expired. Unfortunately, at present no other books offer up-to-date advice for playing this game (generally known as "ST:CCG"). The Web is the best source of current information.
Title: Official Players Guide- Star Trek The Next Generation: CCG |
2/19/05
