You are about to begin your 5 year mission aboard the USS Enterprise. But which one? You can crew the classic Enterprise NCC – 1701 or the next generation NCC 1701 – D. You and your fellow crewmates must cooperate to resolve dangerous situations that threaten to destroy your ship. If you fail, you’ll lose. Solving threats is the way you score points for your crew and win the game.
In these roles, players try to cooperatively solve a series of blue (easy), yellow (medium) and red (difficult) alerts to score points, attempting one of 6 different difficulty levels to win before failing five such alerts, or the Enterprise being destroyed. Players must deal with injuries which lock dice out of play, ship damage that can force players to attempt harder alerts, urgent events that must be completed in 3 minutes, the prime directive, as well as yellow and red alerts that force additional alerts cards to come into play pushing you closer to failing.
Within the game the players are each given a character (which have special powers) and a set of five starting dice which is spread across the three colours. An initial alert is placed out. Your chosen characters add both detail and evocative strategy to the game. Each players turn starts with drawing an alert card. There are three levels of alerts within the cards which are easy blue, medium yellow and tough red. Although you would usually want to draw the easiest level of alert, there are multiple reasons as to why you’d want to draw a harder alert which are:
- You may be forced to draw a yellow or red alert if the Enterprise is damaged
- There is a limit of three of each colour alert at a time. You may choose to draw a more difficult alert to prevent an automatic failure.
- You may want a better chance at victory points which are more common on yellow and red alerts
- You may need a higher level alert as you may need some of each level alert to win the game
To end the game the players win the easiest level of play if they finish 10 point-scoring alerts,
at least one of each colour; or the hardest level of play if they finish 20 point-scoring alerts, at least two of each colour and at least one requiring a timer. The players lose if the Enterprise takes too much damage or if they fail at five alerts.
Each crewmate has a unique ability. These abilities can help the team solve alerts. Use your skills wisely to give your crew the best chance at success. So, which crew is for you? The Original Series or the Next Generation? Star Trek: Five Year Mission can be played for between 3-7 peoples aged 10+ and can be played within an average time of 30-45 minutes. Available here
Going to the Sci-Fi show at the Grand Harbour Hotel in Southampton 5th – 7th Feb? We’ll be demoing the game live at our stand. Why not come and see us!
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