Being a look back at cards from the Star Trek CCG, and what I thought of them back when they were fresh and new... in EPISODE order. And back to those hallucinations from Where No One Has Gone Before...
PICTURE: Hey, that's Darian Wallace (the universal security guard) from when he was employed in the sciences! ;-) The pic has the right intensity and a blazing color scheme. An easy 3.6.
LORE: Seems to infer that the dilemma represents more than just fire, that the danger may come from other imaginings. It's unfortunate then that Thermal Deflectors treat it as such, but here it's no hindrance. What doesn't work so well is the mention of the "place" the Traveler brought the Enterprise, as to whether or not it can exist at any given mission. A generally okay 3.1.
TREK SENSE: Already exposed under Lore, the main problem is with the Traveler. For one thing, being under his Transcendence does not create this "place where ideas and reality intermix" just anywhere (on a planet especially). And other things from that "place" (like Maman Picard) don't also require Traveler: Transcendence. I guess it's better to have a link to the Traveler than none (though being more consistent would be helpful), but more generic lore and game text would have made just the AU icon more than adequate justification. Nobody died on the show, but this card has decided that your imagination CAN kill you. To get it under control will require a force of will equal to your Cunning plus your Integrity, which isn't a bad equation for a theoretical Willpower attribute. Cunning is required to understand that the Fire isn't real, and Integrity works as a kind of courage. Of course, Empathy will make it all go away, perhaps by communicating the Fire's unreality telepathically, except a single level of Empathy doesn't seem receptive enough to do this. Troi might detect that an imagined being wasn't really there, but fire? And how would this help other crewmembers? I tried, it really did, but it gets... hem, hem... burned by too many elements. Manages 1.9.
SEEDABILITY: Too many ifs plague this dilemma. I mean, first you need a way to seed it (not too bad considering how useful Space-Time Portal is). Then, if it's encountered, your opponent has to be under the effects of The Traveler: Transcendence. You can't predict this, but you could make it happen by playing it on your opponent yourself, later perhaps Mercy Killing it out of existence. Or you could play Mirror Image to make your Transcendence affect both players and at least enjoy some of its effects. If it IS in play, you would kill only the personnel present with 12 or less total INTEGRITY+CUNNING. How frequent are these? Turns out a lot of immoral personnel make up for it in deviousness, but since neither attribute often gets super-high (like STRENGTH) and are difficult (or inefficient) to boost, you might get a handful of targets with this dilemma. That's IF your opponent is using low-INTEGRITY personnel. If not, then it's doubtful you'll get anything good. CUNNING is rarely rated under 6, which means that any INTEGRITY in the 7 or more range will automatically make personnel pass unharmed. Usually, 6 INTEGRITY will be enough. Even so, just one Empathy personnel can make it all go away, just like that. And with tougher Empathy dilemmas like Cardassian Trap lurking around, most players try to include at least one Empath in their decks. Against the Borg, it's a little better, since no universal drone can survive Thought Fire unless the Queen thought of taking Empathy as her skill, nor can Dukat of Borg. Still, they have to be using Transcendence (or have it played on them), need to have the appropriate target personnel AND mustn't have any Empathy present. A bit too high-management in my opinion for any more than a 2.
TOTAL: 10.6 (53%) I imagine this was designed as a Traveler counter, but I think Kevin is much better at it.
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