Official Pocket Player's Guide to Star Trek: The Next Generation Card Game

by Brady Games

Loaded with successful combat missions and trading strategies, this work highlights the basics of the game, and shows how to customize your deck for maximum results.

Genres: Star Trek

265 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

BradyGames is a publishing company in the United States operating as a DK imprint, which specializes in video game strategy guides, covering multiple video game platforms. It published their first strategy guide in November 1993 as a division of MacMillan Computer Publishing. In 1998, Simon & Schuster (which acquired Macmillan in 1994) divested BradyGames as part of its educational division to Pearson PLC. BradyGames has grown to publish roughly 90-100 guides per year. On 1 June 2015, BradyGames merged with Prima Games, and future strategy guides made by the publishing company will be published under the Prima Games label.

Reviews

[Suden Käpälä · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Star Trek Customizable Card Game - the game that this manual is about (and I still do). But even when I first picked it up, back in 1995 when the game was still gaining ground, this book didn't tell me much about the game's mechanics that I didn't already know. It didn't tell even a moderately experienced tradable card game player a lot that couldn't be gleaned from the contemporary rule booklet and/or from early discussions with fellow gamers.) And I had bought the book (or, actually, traded it!) for that purpose. So, in that respect, I found it to be rather disappointing.
On the bright side, it is a beautifully laid-out volume, with glossy pages and many nice prints of the cards. The photos from the TV series are a bit dark, though; but overall, it is an elaborate piece of nostalgia for me.
The best about this book, in hindsight, for me is the great detail in the introductory chapters. These relate background stories on how the game was developed, being Decipher Inc.'s answer (in 1994) to Wizards' Magic: The Gathering (from 1993). It is an historic account of a succesful yet quick product placement answer. There was hurry involved, but by no means did this detract from product quality and the zest with which the makers - obviously, themselves fans of the Trek franchise - sought to combine their skill at game creation.
Sadly, the game's physical incarnation has long since died out (with Decipher's losing the franchise licence and, later, the company's closure) - but luckily, a lot of professional volunteers (some of them hailing from the Decipher era) perpetuate the game on-line with an ever-increasing supply of fresh, free-to-be-printed, game cards!
For aspiring players, this book holds virtually naught of interest. But for card game enthusiasts, and Star Trek collectors, it might come in handy.