Submitted by LuthySloan on Thu, 04/17/2008 - 11:36
This House-Rule was build by openCards user LuthySloan.
Glossary Add-on (Balance of Power, Clarifications)
Version 1.2
17. April 2008
Balance of Power (the format in general):
Balance of Power is a format created for STCCG First Edition. It's a non-commerical project to balance and better the game experience with STCCG 1e. It countains a number of BoP virtual cards (dreamcards available on www.open-cards.com). 3 of them (BoP 1-3) are seeded for free, meaning in addition to your 30 other seed cards. Everyone must have them. (Balance of Power, No Old Cheese For New Players and Q's Own Rules). Also there are a couple of other cards which are not seeded for free and *may* be included in your deck. For example there will be cards featuring a pure Maquis deck. All new “rules” are printed on the cards, this glossary is intended only to clarify if there is doubt how to understand the cards. In Balance of Power you may print a certain number of cards and use them in a Balance of Power event. You find the list, which cards are allowed for printing, under “proxy-cards”
Balance of Power (The card no. 1 – BoP 1):
This card insures the following:
Every player gets 3 cards per turn. Never more. He either draws 3 cards at end of turn, or if he uses cards that bring him cards already during his turn (those are also limited to 3) he draws that number less cards at the end of turn. A player may still draw less then 3 cards e.g. by playing Q's tent. Now which actions/cards are counted as actions that increase your hand size during your turn? Well, simply: those actions who *really* increase your hand size. If unsure, just ask yourself: Do I now have more cards in my hand, in comparison to when action x was initiated? You always see the action as a whole and should include its sub-actions. Meaning if you start an action and someone responds to it, or suspends it, you fully complete it, with all sub-actions and then, when the action is over, you see: Okay, it has increased my hand size - or not. It is always counted from: The initiation of an action, throught all sub-actions (valid responses, suspend play) to the result of the formerly initiated action. Example: You have 5 cards in hand, one of it is Kivas Fajo – The Collector (“Gametext: Choose any player to immediately draw three new cards from the top of their draw deck. Discard event after use.”) So you choose yourself to draw 3 cards, then you discard the Kivas Fajo. Now you have 2 cards more in your hand, in comparision to this whole Kivas Fajo action.
“Why not count 3? You draw 3!?” Well ‘why’ is not a rule question. Still here is an answer to this oftern asked question: Because if you play one Kivas Fajo in each of your turns, you have nett 2 cards more per turn. You always have to discard one Kivas. In comparison: with Sherlock Holmes you may draw cards without discarding. So if you would draw 3 cards with Sherlock Holmes, 3 would be counted and substracted. However Kivas Fajo – The Collector is a nett +2 Draw-Engine and is calculated as such one.
If your opponent chooses to play a Kivas Fajo to you and you draw 3 cards, it would be calculated as 3 (since you actually have 3 cards more in hand - Kivas Fajo is discarded of opponents hand in that case). Remember Sherlock Holmes is discarded by “no old cheese for new players” it was used only for example purposes.
Do I have to calculate all the time? No. First: All cards bringing you more cards in your hand are useless, since this hand size increasement is limited and substracted anyway. Without Kivas Fajo, All Three, Ancestral Vision etc. you have only a very few number of cards left that could increase the card number of your hand. Also when in doubt, just ask this one simple question: Okay, there was an action (say a card play). Do I have more cards in my hand than I had before that action (incl. all sub-actions during it)? If yes: They may be up to 3 per turn. If they are more, you cannot draw them, leave those, above the limit, on the draw deck or shuffle them into there respectively. In a recent tournament with 7 people and 4 rounds there was one ONE time in the entire tournament where a player would exceed the 3 card per turn limit. Remember the main question above and read the card(s). That will be all that’s nessecary. In case cards return from containment field or 2nd Edition “decay”-cards they are just not counted for anything. Also if someone converts something into a download it's counted as if it was not converted. For example if you use Kivas Fajo – The Collector and convert any number of those 3 cards into a download the result is still that you draw 2 cards less at end of turn.
“Increasements” refers to the number of cards by which a players hand was increased due to an action (including its sub-actions). If you play All Threes you do not draw cards, however you still increase your hand, that way all threes is neutralized (cards subtracted), just as any other measure that really increase your hand size. With Masaka Transformation you do draw cards, however you draw just as many as you have in hand, so your hand size is not increased by it and thus not counted for substracting.
Chuck Norris:
Even while this card was created by a BoP Designer, it's in the area “fun stuff” and is not legal in Balance of Power.
Deyos, Dominion and Balance of Power (the card):
This dominion personnel is a response to the play of a Jem'Hadar and gives you a card draw in such a case. If you play a Jem´hadar and responde with deyous it's ONE ongoing action (card play), since you make a valid response to the card play of the Jem'Hadar. Since it is one action and you have no more cards in hand than before this action (1 Jem'Hadar off hand and 1 card draw), it's not a hand increasement and you may still draw 3 cards at end of turn. However if you use Deyos and Keevan (2nd Edition) to draw 2 cards (1 card each) for just 1 played Jem'Hadar you have one card more in hand than before you played the Jem'Hadar, thus you draw one card less at end of turn. So, Deyos, Keevan and Jem'Hadar Shrouding are cards that “cheat around” the Balance of Power card a bit. However it's willingly tolerated, since the dominion is one of the weaker affiliations otherwise. Remember white depreviation may be printed and stock for no cost in under “Q's own rules”. It also gives Trek sense to the breeded legions of Jem'Hadar, being addicted to white.
F.A.Q.
Q: May I use 2nd Edition backward compatible cards to use in Balance of Power?
A: Yes, BoP is compatible with 2e BC cards. However a few are nullified by “no old cheese for new players”, like standard orbit.
Q: How many cards may or must be printed in Balance of Power?
A: BoP 1-3 cards are mandatory for every BoP deck. Which printed proxies you *may* use can be found under “Proxy-cards”
Legal Card List:
In Balance of power all STCCG First Edition and STCCG 2nd Edition Backward compatible cards are allowed. (Except Raise the Stakes which is not allowed in any STCCG format). In addition, printable Balance of Power cards are legal for play. They are marked BoP 1, 2 etc. and have a unique BoP expansion icon. The Cards BoP 1, BoP 2 and BoP 3 are mandatory in this format, everyone must have their printed sets. These 3 cards are available both in English and German language. Other Balance of Power cards (starting with BoP 4) are optional. The current list of allowed Balance of Power Dreamcards are:
- Balance of Power (BoP 1) LINK
- No old cheese for new players (BoP 2) LINK
- Q's own rules (BoP 3) LINK
- Serve the Founders (BoP 4) LINK
- Journey to StoVoKor (BoP5) LINK
General LINK
Serve the Founders:
This card allows you to download one Ketracel White Equipment and Pa'rena, a non-aligned personnel, both during seed phase. You have to obey normal reporting rules, meaning Ketracel White needs a facility to report. Since Equipment cards do not have a native quadrant, you may either report it to alpha, mirror, gamma or delta quadrant. However the facility must be native in that quadrant. Pa'rena is an alpha quadrant personnel, thus, if you use a facility to report her, she has to be reported in the alpha quadrant. Of course you may also use other report mechanism like Temporal Micro Wormhole and ignore the quadrant.
Space-Time Portal:
According to the card Balance of Power a hand size increasement may not be more than 3 per turn. Space-Time Portal is a way to get cards from play to hand, therefore it increases hand sizes. Thus, you may not take more than 3 cards back to hand during one turn. Or less if you have already increased your hand size. If you still take a ship to hand, those cards over the limit are shuffled back into your deck, as discripted on the card “Balance of Power”. Some people use Space-Time Portal to load a couple of stuff on the ship bring it back to hand, transform the hand using Masaka Transformation and then play a couple of stuff. So, since it can be used as a way to get more hand cards, it's caught by “Balance of Power” and prevented.
“Proxy-cards”:
In an Balance of Power event you may print and use the following cards:
All BoP cards (in any number) you find in the dreamcard section of open-cards.com
(see also “legal card list”)
All headquarters
All time locations (and deep space station k-7)
All missions corresponding to an headquarter or time location
All referee cards in any number (including cards named by q the referee)
Plus 5 cards of your choice
Advice: If you want to print a card use word, rightclick to size width to 6,3 cm. Then sleeve them into card sleeves where a card is in. That way the proxy looks like a normal one.
Q's Own Rules:
You still need to discard a Q the referee in order to get a card you stored under Q's own rules. If you recycle a card it comes into your deck, according to Q the Referee. You may only quadrant travel from right end to right end or left end to left end. Not right end to left end or vice versa. This card uses the affiliation icons to allow for free plays. Therefore only cards that have that affiliation may report for free. E. g. the Klingon “Worf” in Federation affiliation may not be reported for free.
- Created by -
Christian K.
Aka. LuthySloan
If you want to participate in the Balance of Power Project, mail or join me in one of the BoP Threads in www.open-cards.com or www.trekcc.org
Balance of Power is a non-commercial project, printable cards come with no charge. No copyright violation intended.
Please remark this notes from the author when you try this House-Rule out!
- This House-Rule should only be used with original ST1E cards and NOT with backward compatible ST2E cards.
- This House-Rule should only be used as an enhancement of basic ST1E rules in a Balance of Power scenario!
- Finally this House-Rule could be used in all tournament formats!
