Radio Free Decipher/Episode 119 transcript
Radio Free Decipher Broadcast 119 (15 March 2002) previews Decipher's Star Trek CCG The Motion Pictures expansion and then interviews Chris Coffee and MaryGail Coffee about the first SWCCG Open sanctioned by the Players Committee, held at a gaming convention in Kissimmee, Florida, on 22–24 March 2002. Participants: Evan Lorentz and Kyle Heuer (hosts), Chris Coffee, MaryGail Coffee.
Source: Broadcast 119 - Radio Free Decipher (15 March, 2002): Chris and MaryGail Coffee on SWCCG Open, Player's Council, YouTube (uploaded 13 May 2022; originally released 15 March 2002). Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
The text below is from the video's automatic captions, corrected for names and card titles; it has not yet been checked against the audio. Words that could not be made out are marked [unclear].
Transcript[edit]
[00:01] Evan Lorentz: Hello everyone, welcome to another installment of Radio Free Decipher. This is Evan Lorentz, as always, and joining me, Kyle Heuer. How are you doing?
[00:08] Kyle Heuer: I'm fine. You?
[00:10] Evan Lorentz: I'm doing great. You've got vacation, essentially.
[00:12] Kyle Heuer: That's what everybody thinks it is. I'm actually going out to work at GAMA this week. I'm flying out tomorrow, Saturday, to Las Vegas. I'm going to play in a quick little tournament on Saturday night, and then Sunday through forever I'll be working at GAMA. The GAMA convention is really Monday through Thursday, and then Thursday night I fly from Las Vegas to L.A. to start the Pasadena Grand Slam convention on the Friday morning. I have to set up the entire booth and get everything ready Friday morning for the convention that starts that day, and then I do that convention Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So I've got seven days straight of conventioning in two different cities. And then Sunday night I go to the Lord of the Rings Oscar party in Hollywood.
[01:05] Evan Lorentz: It's traditional at the first major con of the year that a lot of people get sick, and if you're doing two back to back, yuck. Take your vitamins.
[01:19] Kyle Heuer: That's right. We've got a lot of news to share with you today.
[01:22] Evan Lorentz: I'm going to head off with some info about the Star Trek Motion Pictures set.
[01:25] Kyle Heuer: And we've also got some very cool stuff about a major tournament, the first-ever Star Wars Open being sponsored by the Players Committee. Then we're going to close it out with some Mines of Moria news, other cool information, and funny jokes by Kyle and Evan.
[01:45] Evan Lorentz: I'm going to spoil a Motion Pictures card today, but before I get to that, hopefully everybody has seen that Khan himself was put up on the website. He does something interesting: he can only work with Federation personnel if they have Ceti eels on them, but he doesn't get Ceti eels for you. What you don't know until you see a Ceti eel is that you have to have Khan to play them. It's all part of this Khan deck that will become apparent as more cards get revealed. Khan is the star player in this entirely new deck type.
[02:15] Kyle Heuer: And does he have great cards, like "From hell's heart I stab at thee"?
[02:20] Evan Lorentz: He has a couple of cards like that. Great lines, verb kind of things, got sacrificed a little bit in this set, which we'll get to when I spoil a card. But he has a few, and they're in support of this very specific deck where Khan is the star of your deck and you've got your little minions, and then anybody else you throw in, you're planning to stick Ceti eels in their ear and control them.
[02:50] Kyle Heuer: Not to trump you here a little bit, but Kathy did say that this set is "character-licious."
[02:55] Evan Lorentz: That's what I was going to get to. This is, I'm pretty sure, the highest character ratio of any set we've ever done, and certainly by character count the highest of any 130-card set we've done. I remember working on Mirror, Mirror a long time ago and thinking, gosh, this is a ton of characters, we're never going to be like this again. Little did I know. There wasn't as much room for individual cards to stand on their own, because the things we really wanted to offer with this set were a working Khan deck, a working Sona deck, a working Federation movie deck and a working Klingon movie deck. That's essentially four affiliations in a 130-card set. As a result, the card I'm about to spoil is a Federation personnel, and the card number is 36. That means there are only 35 missions, interrupts, objectives, incidents, anything that would go before it, so as you can tell, it's a personnel-heavy set. The spoiler makers can have fun guessing.
[04:35] Evan Lorentz: The card I have chosen to reveal today is Amanda Grayson, Spock's mom. She comes from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and has the expansion logo that you have not yet seen in the top right corner of the card. She's a Federation personnel, civilian. She has an alternate universe icon and the icon formerly known as the Excelsior icon, now called the Classic Films icon. Her lore reads: "Human wife of Ambassador Sarek. Though a deep admirer of the Vulcan way, she also taught her son Spock that the capacity of human emotion is just as great." She has Integrity 8, Cunning 7, Strength 3. She has a special skill first, then three skills: Anthropology, Diplomacy and Honor. The special skill reads: "Any Spock or any Sarek may report where present for free." Card 36, and she is rare, so 36R for the spoiler makers.
[05:45] Evan Lorentz: Now about that Excelsior icon thing. Way back when, of course, Tuvok previewed in the first Anthology, and when he came out he had that wacky icon on him, which had no name for nearly a year, until I think the Deep Space Nine rulebook was published and said it's an Excelsior icon. So it had a name and no function for all that time. Once we got to Trouble with Tribbles, we concocted the Original Series icon for marking all the characters added to the game from the original series. It became pretty clear to us then that we were also going to have to change what the Excelsior icon represented, because it no longer made sense for it to be specifically about guys on the Excelsior. It was a perfect fit for it to serve the same purpose for the movies, Star Trek I through VI and the beginning of Generations, as the Original Series icon does for those original three seasons. That also applies to the flashback guys, since they're supposed to be in the setting of Star Trek VI. So it is now the Classic Films icon, and you're going to see it on a ton of cards in the set.
[07:00] Evan Lorentz: And that is as close to a ruling as this set has. This set actually has no rule sheet. The last time there was no rule sheet, in the booster boxes at least, was Deep Space Nine; all it had was a card list, but it had a rulebook in the starter deck. There is no rule sheet for this, basically because there was nothing to put on it. The only issue was that this icon's name is changing, and you'll be able to see that in the current rulings, and you really don't need to know the name of the icon to play it off the card.
[07:50] Kyle Heuer: I'm looking at some of these cards here on this one page, and I can just see the picture and tell you what the name of the card is going to be.
[07:58] Evan Lorentz: There are so many memorable moments from the movies. We tried to get as many of them into the set as we could without sacrificing the cards you would need to run the mechanics.
[08:10] Kyle Heuer: Well done. Are you happy with the set?
[08:12] Evan Lorentz: I am. It was a long road, and I'm not trying to do an Enterprise theme song pun there, but for a while in the middle of it, it was not working out too well, and then we turned that corner.
[08:25] Kyle Heuer: Why don't you pick one of these cards for me to show off at the Pasadena Grand Slam, so that anybody that comes and visits me at the Pasadena Grand Slam will get an exclusive spoiler?
[08:40] Evan Lorentz: I will do that. In the meantime, check out the website area for Motion Pictures, because next week I think is when we're going to start rolling out cards with a little more regularity. At the moment there's a contest there to guess which movie has the most cards in the set; I think that contest ends at five o'clock today, so be sure to enter. So there you go: all the Trek news that's fit for me to say right now.
[09:20] Kyle Heuer: We should make this phone call right now and get Chris and MaryGail on the phone so they can talk to us about all the good things going on down there in Florida. We've got Chris Coffee and MaryGail Coffee on the phone. How are you guys doing today?
[09:30] Chris Coffee: Fantastic.
[09:31] MaryGail Coffee: Wonderful.
[09:33] Kyle Heuer: From what I understand, you have a big event going on down there in central Florida. This is the first Star Wars Open ever to be run by the Players Committee, correct?
[09:40] Chris Coffee: Correct.
[09:42] Kyle Heuer: How did you wind up getting this event down there? Tell us a little bit about it.
[09:46] Chris Coffee: We have a core group of product champions down here, and we were pretty excited about trying to get an Open. Currently I believe we have a Regional slated much farther north, in Alabama, and we didn't have anything in Florida, and the Orlando, central Florida area is generally a pretty good location. We tried for MegaCon, and the time frame just wasn't working out, so I started searching for a good place to hold it. There happens to be a convention in Kissimmee this month. They had contacted me previously about getting some Decipher representation, so I gladly jumped aboard, and then we translated that into getting Open status.
[10:35] Kyle Heuer: Kissimmee: that is where DecipherCon 2000 was held, right near Orlando.
[10:38] Chris Coffee: Yes, it was.
[10:40] Kyle Heuer: Tell us a little about the convention itself and what events are going to be going on.
[10:45] MaryGail Coffee: There's a wide variety of gaming events. It's entirely a gaming convention: all kinds of role-playing and card games, and I think they have some large tournaments for all sorts of games. We wanted to make sure that Decipher had good representation. From what I understand, Howard Bush, one of the local [unclear], ran Conquest later last year, and he had an excellent response with Lord of the Rings, and we're hoping to continue that, along with having the Star Wars tournaments and our other Lord of the Rings events.
[11:40] Kyle Heuer: Which events do you have going on? You have big Lord of the Rings tournaments and the big Star Wars tournament, which is the Open, which will qualify players for the World Championships in Star Wars, but you also have an Austin Powers tournament.
[11:55] MaryGail Coffee: Yes. The head of the convention, her name is Gert, and apparently in the past they've done demos for Austin Powers, and one of her requirements was for us to run a tournament for Austin Powers, a kind of demo tournament, so that people could get involved, because it was such a smash last year. I haven't actually learned how to play the game, but I plan to learn from Mitch Velasco, the Jacksonville squadron member, at Conquest.
[12:30] Evan Lorentz: Well, Kyle is prodding me to tell you that I had a pretty heavy hand in the design of Austin Powers.
[12:35] MaryGail Coffee: Oh, okay. We heard from the people who played at MegaCon that they just had a rollicking good time, and they learned to play in a very short period of time. They said it was easy to pick up and a ton of fun at the end of a busy day.
[12:50] Chris Coffee: It's definitely nice to have a CCG where you don't have to worry so much about the strategy; it's just for fun. The funny thing was, after all the Lord of the Rings players had packed up and all the Star Trek people had gone away and all the Star Wars players had left, there was still a core group of Austin Powers players being raucous and having all kinds of fun. I was the last Star Wars guy to leave, and they were still there.
[13:25] Kyle Heuer: They're the real die-hard players. Tell us what kind of prizes you've got for these tournaments.
[13:30] Chris Coffee: For the Star Wars Open we have a set of tournament foils to give away, all of them. And that's not all: we have an Imperial uncut foil sheet from Reflections III to give away.
[13:50] Kyle Heuer: That is extremely exciting. And you don't see complete sets of all the tournament foils out there every day either. Have you figured out how you're going to give those away?
[14:14] Chris Coffee: It's such a windfall, we're not sure yet. I would like to give a few away in random drawings and then award the top several places with some booty to walk away with. And the top player in that tournament is going to get a bye at the World Championship.
[14:30] Kyle Heuer: That's DecipherCon 2002, where they'll get a bye. What about the Lord of the Rings tournament?
[14:35] MaryGail Coffee: I'm running Smackdown 2002, which is going to be Florida's first large tournament; we've tried to get people from all corners of the state to come. It's going to be Sunday the 24th at 10 a.m. My understanding is that the record number of players is 54, from [unclear], California, so our goal is to reach or beat that.
[15:00] Kyle Heuer: You have experience already running big tournaments, because you did one at that theater, I believe.
[15:05] MaryGail Coffee: That's right. We did a large sealed deck demo at Channelside in Tampa. It drew 42 people, and some of those people just showed up, learned how to play and entered the tournament. A lot of the people who learned to play that day are now regular tournament attendees. For Smackdown 2002 we have an Aragorn, King-in-Exile signed by Viggo Mortensen, and a rare Frodo foil.
[15:45] Kyle Heuer: So the Sunday is the Lord of the Rings, and Saturday, I'm assuming, is the big Star Wars Open.
[15:50] Chris Coffee: Absolutely, and that also starts at 10.
[15:53] Kyle Heuer: And on Friday? It's a three-day event, right?
[15:55] MaryGail Coffee: Friday we've got a Lord of the Rings Mines of Moria sealed event.
[16:00] Kyle Heuer: Very cool. I get to play in one of those tomorrow out in Las Vegas. Dan Bojanowski, Kendrick Summers and I are flying out to Vegas tomorrow for the GAMA convention, and Chris Hines, one of the local volunteers, has set up a Mines of Moria sealed deck for us out there.
[16:20] Evan Lorentz: Let me give you a secret to Mines of Moria: get The Balrog.
[16:25] MaryGail Coffee: We held a Mines of Moria sealed deck last week and drew 15 players, and we saw both a rare Balrog and a Twilight Witch-king. The Witch-king got pulled on me, and I was hating life.
[17:05] Kyle Heuer: Is there anything else you'd like to convey to everybody out there that will get them over the hump and make them come down for this event?
[17:12] Chris Coffee: I've been playing Star Wars a long time, and I took sort of a break from the game, but for the Star Wars Open I pulled out my cards and started playtesting again. Now is the time to pick those Star Wars cards back up and come to the Open.
[17:28] Kyle Heuer: Are you going to be playing with any of the virtual cards?
[17:30] Chris Coffee: Absolutely. I cannot wait to get that Light Side Bossk [unclear] into my deck, and I might have to go Dark Side space just to play with the new Vader. Those cards rock, and I think they were very well designed. The feedback from our local audience has been pretty positive. A lot of people like [unclear] and the blaster racks, to be able to get those unique weapons that didn't see a lot of play before. It's going to mix things up pretty nicely.
[18:05] Kyle Heuer: We look forward to hearing how the event goes. That's not this weekend but the following week, the 22nd through the 24th. Thanks for your time.
[18:12] Chris Coffee: Thanks, Kyle. We're hoping we put on a good show.
[18:20] Kyle Heuer: Everybody listening, if you have the chance to make it down to Kissimmee, please do. A couple of other things of interest: the Mines of Moria boosters released this week, and they're now eligible for tournament play. This Wednesday a lot of the people around the office went out to stores to buy some cards to play at home. Contrary to popular belief, the truck doesn't roll up to the office and drop off all the free cards we want. We have to purchase them from our own warehouse, and we aren't even allowed to do so until after they've been in stores for a while. Some of the guys were having problems finding them, because a lot of places were selling out, so they went around to all these stores to find a place that had boosters, bought them at full price, and took them home to build some decks for this weekend.
[19:45] Kyle Heuer: The last thing: there is a contest going on right now for a complete set of Mines of Moria foils, all 122, at gpngameplayersnetwork.com. Head on over there for the rules on how to enter. I think you submit your best Mines of Moria strategy article, and if you're chosen as the winner you get a complete foil set. Alas, the boys of Decipher are not eligible.
[20:40] Kyle Heuer: I'm not going to be here next week for Radio Free Decipher.
[20:45] Evan Lorentz: We'll figure out something: an all-Evan bonanza. I'm sorry in advance, people.
[20:55] Kyle Heuer: Summing up: this weekend, enjoy your Mines of Moria tournaments, now legal. Next weekend, if you're on the West Coast, check out Pasadena; if you're on the East Coast, check out the big tournament down in Kissimmee. And in between, watch the website for spoilers on The Motion Pictures.