Game Review

Concept:

Travel to planets in the galaxy while answering Star Trek trivia questions.

Gameplay:

Players select a colored game piece, and are given a status console (plastic holder) with the icons of their ship (warp engines, shields, etc.). Players place their piece at the center of the board -- Starfleet command. Players roll the die to decide who goes first.

Players must move their piece around the board to visit each planet -- the planets are in each corner of the board (one corner has two planets, and you must visit both) . After successfully visiting each planet, players return to Starfleet command and dock to win.   The planets may be visited in any order.

On a turn, a player rolls the die to determine how far they may move.  After they move, they must answer a trivia question.  The difficulty of the question depends upon how many planets you have successfully visited. If the trivia question is answered correctly, the player rolls again and answers another trivia question.  (The rules state that it is possible for one player to win without ever relinquishing the turn.)  If the trivia question is answered incorrectly, then the turn ends.

Arrival at planets is by exact count. After answering the trivia question for the planet, a citation card is given to the player to note that they were successful.  With each planet visited, the difficulty of the questions changes by one level.

There are five levels of difficulty:  Warp 1  consists of  simpler trivia that most people who have seen Star Trek can answer;  Warp 2 questions almost uniformly require players to know episode names; Warp 3 questions require specific knowledge of  individual missions from specific episodes; Warp 4 questions typically ask the names of the planets visited in each episode; Docking questions require a recap of  a mission or event from the first three Star Trek movies.

As you move around the board there are several obstacles. Gravitational wells (triangular arrows) force a ship to move in a particular direction.  Time Portals allow a ship to move quickly from one end to another (thus speeding the travel process along). There are some special spaces on the board that the rules refer to as Attack spaces -- These stop your movement and cause components of your ship to be damaged (e.g. Lose phasers).

Contact with other ships is not allowed. No ship may come within 1 space around any other.  This can be used to force opponents into some of the board obstacles.

Winning Conditions:

• The first team to collect all 4 planet markers and return to the starbase wins.

Our Opinion:

I used to like the original Star Trek television series a lot.  I had many friends who did as well.  This game was nice to play with them about 10 years ago.  Now, since I haven't been watching the television show as regularly, these trivia questions are quite difficult.  This game is basically a trivia game with a small attempt at making the players feel like they are running their own star ship.

The mechanics of most of the board obstacles are almost entirely avoidable.  Rarely have I seen any ship actually get damaged or get into trouble on the board.  The board is too big to force most players into these situations.  Aside from racing to get the trivia answered correctly, there isn't much strategy required, unless you have multiple players who actively want you to lose and will waste their turns getting in your path.

The trivia questions range from incredibly simple to insanely difficult.  Usually this is at an appropriate time.  We found that the Warp 4 level is by far the most difficult of the game, and often required a question concerning planet Earth to get past.  The trivia covers the Original Series and the first three movies -- no animated series, and  no Next Generation subject matter.

The game is enjoyable for nostalgia.  The board movement can be a little competitive if players actually want to struggle with each other.  We liked it enough to bring it out again another time.  This is good for fans of the original Star Trek as long as you keep in mind that its emphasis is trivia questions not space combat.

Where to buy:

This game is out of print.  Check ebay and Star Trek collectors for a copy of this game.