Babylon 5 Collectible Card Game

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Babylon 5 CCG is a discontinued collectible card game set in the universe of the sci-fi television series Babylon 5. This CCG is distinct from most others of the genre for being specifically designed to be played by more than two players. The gameplay tends to have strong political elements, appropriately for a game based on a series with such a strong element of political intrigue. The CCG was released by Precedence Entertainment.

History

The first edition, Premier, was released in 1997. In late 2001 Warner Brothers chose not to renew Precedence's licence to produce the game. The company went out of business in 2002. Precedence also released CCG's based on Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time and the Tomb Raider computer game, among others.

Gameplay

Each player in the game assumes control of a specific faction, represented by one of the four main races in the TV series - Human, Minbari, Centauri or Narn. Later expansions allowed people to control the League of Non-Aligned Worlds as well as separate "Home Factions" of the four main races. The Vorlons and Shadows, although not a playable race in their own right, are available as supporting characters and fleets, as are Babylon 5, the Drakh and the Interstellar Alliance. The object of the game is to use various agendas, events and conflict cards to build power and influence points for your faction. Actions in the game have to be carried out by the characters that you control, for example if you only have one character in play you can only initiate one action per turn. Unless otherwise stated, Characters can only perform one action per turn. Politics and alliances between players become very important in a multiplayer game, in fact there are certain cards which require the calling of a player vote in order to pass. If one person seems to be surging ahead, the other players will often band together to prevent him from winning. The makers of the game deliberately incorporated roleplaying elements into the game to try and give the feel that the participants are telling the story of Babylon 5. Although not strictly necessary, players are encouraged to take on the persona of their Ambassador and develop an in-game narrative to explain why they are playing the cards they are.

The Round

Each player begins with a starting hand which includes their Ambassador and 3 other cards of the players choice, a draw deck of cards (45 or more) and 4 influence points. Each player takes it in turns to initiate conflicts and spend influence points to bring different cards in their hand into play, then uses those cards to try and either build up more influence for themeselves or prevent other players from building up influence. When everyone has done everything they want to do, any conflicts in play are resolved, points are allocated and players have the opportunity to play Aftermath cards. Finally, all players draw a card from their draw deck and take it into their hand.

Example: A Narn player decides to play a Diplomacy Conflict against a Minbari player. The card specifies that if the Narn player wins, he will gain 1 influence point. In order to win, the Narn must put more diplomacy points into the conflict than the Minbari. The Minbari player, not wanting the Narn to gain the extra influence, chooses to oppose the conflict. The characters available to the Narn player have a combined diplomacy of 8, whereas the Minbari players available characters have a combined diplomacy of 10. The Narn player puts all his diplomacy points into the conflict, but the Minbari is still winning by 2 diplomacy points. The Human player decides to help the Narn and supports the conflict with 4 of his own diplomacy points. The Narn player wins by 2, and increases his influence rating by 1 point.

Play continues in this manner until one player either reaches 20 power/influence points or fulfills a specific game-winning criteria.

Online Playing

Since this game is no longer in production, there has been a decrease in the number of players for this game. For those who can not find others to play with in person, programs such as LackeyCCG and Vassal allow players to meet and play online.

Card Sets

Premier

The Shadows

Deluxe 

A re-issue of the Premier series with errata and other minor updates

The Great War

Psi Corps

Severed Dreams

Wheel of Fire

Crusade

Anla'Shok 

A never-released expansion which was being planned at the time WB pulled the licencing rights from Precedence

The Collector's Set 

A never-released set of 12 special foil cards.

Card Types

Aftermath

Cards which are played at the end of the round during the resolution of a conflict, representing plot developments and character growth in the game as a result of these conflicts. Won or Lost Aftermaths can be played on the conflict's initiator, depending on the outcome of the conflict (with Won aftermaths typically providing a benefit and Lost Aftermaths further damaging the initiator's faction). Participant Aftermaths can be played on any faction or card that took part in the conflict, regardless of whether it was won or lost, and typically represent simple development of the ability used in the conflict.

Agenda 

A faction may have one Agenda in play at a time. The effect text of an Agenda will either provide benefits in pursuing a certain strategy towards victory, such as increasing the Diplomacy of the faction's characters in a diplomacy-oriented deck, or can create new victory conditions by stipulating what the Agenda's owner must achieve to win the game.

Character 

Each card features a character from the TV series and includes a short explanation of what the character can do in the game as well as a sidebar indicating what stats they possess and their values. A character's stats can be of four types - Diplomacy, Intrigue, Psi and Leadership. The main character in a deck is known as the Ambassador, and acts as the player's avatar in the game.

Conflict 

Conflicts are the main way in which players build up influence points. At the start of the round, players can declare a conflict, either from a conflict card or another effect that allows a conflict, such as a state of war or another card's effect text. There are 4 main types - Diplomacy, Intrigue, Psi and Military. Each conflict can only be supported or opposed using its specified stat ie: Diplomacy conflicts use a characters Diplomacy stat. Military conflicts typically only allow fleets to participate in them.

Contingency

A special type of card that is played on a card already in play and usually remains hidden until the card it is played on is affected. These cards usually negate the action that an opponent has played on that card, such as preventing a character from being neutralised.

Enhancement

Improves a targeted card of the specified type, usually with a stat bonus. Most cards that remain in play (characters, agendas, fleets etc) can be enhanced.

Event

Event cards are usually played in order to disrupt an opponents current strategy or enhance your own.

Fleet

Fleets, like characters, can use their stat (military) in conflicts or can, by attacking, target an opponent's fleets in order to try and damage them, impairing their abilities or removing them from play.

Group

Similar to Enhancements, groups are often used to enhance stats or abilities of characters, but may have other effects.

Location

Locations are planets or space lanes that grant bonuses to the faction as a whole. For example, Homeworld locations can be used to increase the amount of influence gained from winning a conflict. Locations have a military value and can oppose Military conflicts if they are targeted by them.

External links

• The Babylon 5 Collectible Card Game (TM) - History
• CCG Workshop - No longer active
• Vassal - Online game play
• LackeyCCG - Online game play
• Vorlon Space - Fan site, card database, trading zone.
• Precedence's discontinuation statement - Statement on the old Precedence site about the disconinuation of Babylon 5 CCG