Return to Grace (RtG)

Overview card types: 10 3 7 3 9 20 2

Overview rarities: V 54

UCT-ID	Name	Rarity	Type	Affiliation
ST2E 30 V 1	Chained Environment	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 2	Chula: The Game (errata / first print)	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 3	Chula: Trickery	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 4	Discommendation	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 5	Legal Inflexibility	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 6	Nonlinear Existence	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 7	Pawn Against Pawn	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 8	"Rapid Progress"	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 9	Rejecting the Past	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 10	The Nth Degree	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 11	•Orb of Contemplation	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 12	•Orb of Prophecy and Change (first print)	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 13	•Orb of Time	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 14	Clandestine Kidnapping	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 15	Cutting the Strings	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 16	Planned Provocation	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 17	Self-Replicating Roadblock	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 18	Spiritual Exploration	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 19	Swift Justice	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 20	Trap Is Sprung	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 21	Accession	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 22	Leap of Faith	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 23	The Warrior's Anthem	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 24	•Bajor, Blessed of the Prophets	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 25	•Cardassia IV, Hold Secret Prisoners	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 26	•Denorios Belt, Locate Celestial Temple	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 27	•Dyson Sphere, Explore Mysterious Structure	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 28	•Kreetassa, Perform Intricate Ritual	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 29	•Metron Arena, Resolve Standing Conflict	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 30	•Parada II, Expose Security Threat	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 31	•Sha Ka Ree, Quest for Infinite Knowledge	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 32	•Starbase 718, Investigate Cryosatellite	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 33	•Alenis Grem, Occupation Historian	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 34	•Deela, Weary Caretaker	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 35	Heyath Yar	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 36	Mond	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 37	•Opaka, Healer (first print)	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 38	•Winn Adami, Renegade Priest	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 39	Logistics Drone	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 40	•Corbin Entek, Inquisitor	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 41	•Dakol, Lecherous Overseer	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 42	Gollek	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 43	Tajor	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 44	Vengar	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 45	•Yteppa, Obsidian Order Asset	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 46	Brian Sofin	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 47	•Julian Bashir, Nostalgic Doctor	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 48	•Nilz Baris, Agricultural Undersecretary	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 49	•Paxton Reese, Stellar Cartographer	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 50	•Russell Toddman, Security Conscious	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 51	Prak	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 52	•Leskit, Embittered Warrior	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 53	Orb Transport Vessel	Virtual
ST2E 30 V 54	Type III Galor	Virtual

It's been a long time coming, but today we are proud to announce the imminent arrival of Return to Grace, the 30th Second Edition expansion! Return to Grace will be released online and free at trekcc.org on Friday, March 14th, 2014. This expansion is all about "rebirth" and aims to place the Bajorans and the Cardassians firmly on the scene this competitive season. In addition, Return to Grace is a launching point for a new era of design philosophies and principles we have been calling "Phase II."

What is Phase II?
Return to Grace is the first expansion of what we've been calling "Phase II" of Second Edition design. From a design point of view, "Phase II" is a shift in philosophy that manifests in three key areas:

1. Create new and powerful cards. In the past, especially in the past few years, design has been reluctant to push the power level of new cards. Instead, we have just added new "teams", created new tools for existing strategies, or made weapons against powerful strategies. We will still do all of those things moving forward, but we are no longer going to be afraid to make good cards, especially for affiliations that aren't performing well at a competitive level (Accession). This philosophy applies to dilemma design as well, with dilemmas made to encourage deck strategies and innovative piles that are both fun and competitive, such as Chula: The Game.

2. Make affiliations matter. Over the past few expansions, there has been less and less affiliation definition. Likely due to the smaller virtual expansion size (at least in part), designers have made more "toolbox" cards like Tacking Into the Wind, i.e. cards that work in any deck. While these types of cards have a place in the game, each time one is made, it makes the affiliations and sub-affiliations a little less distinct. Phase II originated as part of a desire to return to the "old days," where each affiliation played and felt differently. We want all of the affiliations and sub-affiliations to have a distinct feel, with different implementations of mechanics. One of our mantras was that, even if you were playing a small, tight, solver deck, those decks would play and feel differently.

3. Dial back game speed. For the past several years, as we have made more and more cards to enable interaction decks, game length has increased. Specifically, the number of timed games has gone up, on average, as interactive decks became more and more viable. This isn't an inherently bad thing, as interaction is key and vital to the game, and it's something design wants to see. Imagine the game speed as a pendulum, with Second Edition-only speed decks on one end, and Maquis-disruption style chess match decks on the other. Right now, the pendulum is more on the side of the slower decks, and this point is simply to pull it a little bit closer to the middle. One of the ways we can enable this is with clean, simple cards that make solvers work, and you'll see several in Return to Grace.

by Charlie Plaine, Return to Grace Lead Designer

21st February 2014