STAR TREK: Lower Decks Challenger Series Deep Dive

Hey there! I’m Matt Smith, senior game designer for UVS Game, and. I’m here to give you a bit of background on our upcoming products for STAR TREK: Lower Decks Challenger Series.

When I think about Universus (or UFS), I often think back to the first releases. I’m a big Street Fighter enthusiast, so naturally that drew me in, but it was the Penny Arcade cards that left the bigger impression. They were just the right amount of goofy, and while most of them were terrible by today’s (and yesterday’s?) standards, they were FUN! So, when I got the opportunity to lead design on Lower Decks, I knew I wanted to inject that same kind of energy.

It was early in our plans to do four decks, and for each of those decks to have two versions of each character, reflecting their core representations along with their sort of B-plot stories touched on throughout the series. The great thing about this was it meant I could build each deck around each of the Lower Decks main cast without having to do double duty representing two different characters in one deck.

Knowing the series stars four characters, and that we were making four decks, with the possibility for group games of three or more players became something we wanted to support. Conscious effort was put into our wording and timings on abilities to give new utility for play formats like Triple Threat. An example being Makeshift Repair, which is built in a way to help save another player should the need arise.

Let's start with the series' lead, Beckett Mariner! Mariner can safely be called "predictably chaotic. She's going to get the job done, but don't tell her how to do it–and more importantly,  you can rarely predict the means in which she'll make it happen.

The core features I wanted to capture while playing Mariner are uncertainty, the need to adapt, and her ability to get around every obstacle thrown at her. We settled on a character ability that always gave stats to help push you towards the end, but in a way you and your rival had to adapt to. Within the deck, we established a theme of abilities that trigger when your attack is blocked. No matter how many times you try to stop Mariner, she finds a way to get what she wants. 

Chaos was a clear frontrunner as the basis for the deck, and Water brought that sense of chill confidence I associate with Mariner's personality.

When it comes to the comedic side of Mariner, I really wanted to capture her introduction scene where she invades Boimler's space, leading to an unfortunate, totally unavoidable incident.

When playing Mariner, you’ll want to present your threats to your rival while analyzing how they react to each of them. When you really want an attack blocked you can use this handy contraband Klingon weapon to incentivize it. 

Keep throwing attacks and they will either block, giving you some benefit, or they will take the damage- bringing them closer to defeat. Once your rival is on the backfoot and needing to defend against everything you throw, seal the deal with an Excited Blows.

Excited Blows debut’s a new keyword ability, Frenzy. This is our first keyword ability that is Blitz timing, so it happens at the start of the enhance step. It states that “This attack gets +1 speed and +1 damage for each attack blocked this turn.” Frenzy can break board stalls by loading up an attack with extra stats, or by merely existing in scenarios where your rival second guesses blocking for fear of an improved Frenzy down the line.

In multiplayer formats, you can use cards like Connecting the Dots, or Insubordination to save another player, buying you time to find your own victory.

Brad Boimler is a Starfleet enthusiast with big ambitions, but little confidence. As a junior in the command division, Boimler has to focus on his ability to work with people, negotiate, and read any situation.

The ability to turn any chance for diplomacy into an advantage, and to make the best out of a fair deal, is exactly the sort of skill an aspiring captain needs.

Narratively, Boimler is a bit of a pushover. It is a lot more common that the people around Boimler get what they want, leaving him to make do. To emphasize that aspect while playing Boimler I developed the Diplomacy mechanic. Diplomacy is a keyword trait, similar to any other like Weapon or Tech, but with a design principle attached to it. You can expect any card labeled “Diplomacy” to feature an ability that your rival will get a say in. The trick is timing your plays in a way that no choice is a good choice!

One of my favorite moments we captured in the Boimler deck comes from the very first episode:  after Boimler repeatedly has trouble accessing the replicators to eat, he pleads for any hot food, after which the replicator delivers him a "banana, hot."

When playing Boimler, you will want to group your Diplomacy cards, forcing the rival to commit down their board. Keep in mind you can use his response when you block with a Diplomacy card as well. Blocking with a couple of Diplomacy cards then playing a couple more on your turn will really pressure your rival’s stage. While your rival is low on ready foundations his Enhance ability really shines, it won’t matter if your rival draws cards if they can’t play them!

You can start off a really strong turn with the Survey Mission. If you have built up two copies of Twin Twains ahead of time, you can gain the benefit of all three choices on the Survey Mission’s Blitz ability!

In Triple Threat and games with additional players, Boimler's abilities to fuel each player’s hand and foundations can be key opportunities for negotiation.

D’Vana Tendi is an enthusiastic and brilliant officer with a secret past as an Orion pirate and assassin.

Tendi started her time in Starfleet as a medic aboard the U.S.S. Cerritos. Friendly and optimistic, Tendi is defined most by her eagerness to help her friends. Giving her the ability to improve any player’s check after healing them felt like a great way to represent that.

Tendi’s seven hand size combined with health gain effects improving her checks will allow her to play more cards than your average character in a given turn. Make sure you use Tendi’s response to lose health and gain Stun, so that you actually have health to gain.

Tendi’s deck captures the events of a favorite episode in “An Embarrassment of Dooplers” where an emissary of the Doopler species finds himself repeatedly duplicating himself whenever he feels embarrassed.

If Tendi can gather all of her Doopler foundations into play at once she can add up to 32 damage to an attack!

Tendi has the strongest ability to influence multiplayer games in that both of her abilities can affect any player, regardless of whether or not she is part of the attack. Use cards like Best Buddies and Emergency Treatment to keep your rivals from finishing off anyone without your permission.

Lastly, we have Sam Rutherford, the gifted engineer. Engineers in STAR TREK are always redirecting and reversing power sources, or lowering one dial to raise another. I wanted to capture this with Rutherford by giving him the ability to tinker with any attack he sees to give it the best configuration for him at that moment.

Rutherford's ability to tinker doesn’t stop there, as he has a variety of tools in his deck with variables to suit the circumstances. You’ll want to use your effects to maximize your attack speeds while your rival can block, and then shift to damage when their shields are down.

Rutherford is brilliant, but not without his faults. During the series he creates the sentient AI “Badgey.” Initially meant as a training tool, Badgey goes through some existential crises, later developing into a murderous program bent on revenge. A powerful asset that can come back to bite you seemed like a fun representation that could have an even larger impact on Triple Threat games.

Do you play down Badgey right away to improve your attack, or does the allure of maximum value have you risk blocking your rival’s last attack for the turn, hoping they don’t have a followup? In any case, Badgey will certainly make an impact.

Not just Badgey, but cards like “Strange Energies” and Attention To Detail can be used to affect the game during other player’s turns.

Rutherford certainly has the tools to engineer all sorts of outcomes.

Lastly, I want to talk a bit about the U.S.S. Cerritos NCC-75567 the first time we included a Secret Rare in a Challenger Series. Knowing there would be four decks in total, we came to the idea of a shared one-off card early. This would be an additional rarity, not replacing any of the other Rares or Ultra Rares expected in the deck. The ship for which all of these adventures originated seemed like the perfect shared inclusion for the crew.

When designing the U.S.S Cerritos, we knew it had to be impressive–this wasn’t any old sword or baseball cap, this was a California-class starship! A starship's main goal in STAR TREK is to explore space, so a card that could explore your deck at an impressive rate felt just right. This is the only card in each of these decks that does not have attuned symbols, however it has the core symbol of each of the crew members to ensure they can use it in each deck. It is not that often we make high difficulty high impact assets like this, so I am excited to see how it turns out.

All of this, and there's still so much more–we haven’t even touched on the alternate character cards and playstyles for each deck! For now, I’ll have to leave that exploration to you. Let us know on all of our socials what ideas and combos you have found out on your exploration missions! I hope you enjoy exploring the mechanics and easter eggs found in the STAR TREK: Lower Decks Challenger Series. Godspeed in your search for new combos as you boldly go where no one has gone before!