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Major Rakal's Romulan Review #51: Make Us Go (06/04/1998) |
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Aefvadh! The next in my series on the OTSD dilemmas has the best lore I have seen in a long time. It's right up there with Ooby Dooby. Join those lovable Pakleds who want you to... MAKE US GO
My, but this looks familiar. Take Hippocratic Oath, substitute ENGINEER for MEDICAL, and make the consequences a little more drastic and urgent. The Pakleds make the Jem'Hadar look almost benign. Once again, we have a wall dilemma, with the conditions to get past it being to help some aliens by "volunteering" the services of your most CUNNING ENGINEER. The ENGINEER's destination is a bit more nebulous, though; he isn't really going anyplace specific, but rather is being "held by the aliens." Since this may be at a space or planet location, placing the personnel on the mission does not mean he is "beaming to the planet" or "beaming to a ship." It's more like Alien Abduction, only the dilemma tells you where to put the abductee. Let's assume he's nearby (still at the same location), but where you can't get to him. Unlike Hippocratic Oath, there is no trigger, of a required planet location elsewhere, to possibly invalidate the dilemma entirely. If you encounter Make Us Go, you were attempting a mission, and that's where you put the cards. But like HO, you don't have a choice; if you have an ENGINEER present, and the most CUNNING one can be sent off the ship or out of the Away Team (and still be an ENGINEER), you have to do it. So, I attempt a space mission with Sirol (ENGINEER skill, CUNNING 8) and Palteth (ENGINEER classification, CUNNING 8) in my crew, and encounter those fun Pakleds, who demand that we "make them go." It's a tie for most CUNNING, so my opponent gets to choose. He's no fool, and Sirol gets placed on top of the mission with the dilemma, symbolically ensconced on the Pakled ship. Since I overcame the dilemma, the rest of my crew continues the mission attempt. At the end of my next turn (not before), I must have CUNNING>24 at that location in order to "cure" the dilemma (discard it) and get back Sirol. If I can't meet that timing, Sirol (and the dilemma) go out of play. If I have a Engineering Kit and OFFICERS present, each OFFICER will have ENGINEER skill. If the most CUNNING ENGINEER present happens to be an OFFICER, he will have to relocate rather than a personnel with the ENGINEER personnel type printed on his card; the catch is that he has to take the Engineering Kit with him. (If this sounds familiar, you're right...I copied it from Hippo Oath and changed Medical to Engineer.) Again, if there is no ENGINEER present or the most CUNNING cannot help the aliens, the crew or Away Team is "stopped" and the dilemma is replaced under the mission. When it comes to not being able to comply with the conditions, Make Us Go is a little different from Hippocratic Oath because the ENGINEER is not sent to a different location.
Who's hardest hit by this dilemma? The Romulans will most likely lose Sirol (CUNNING 8, who is apparently smarter than Telek R'Mor at 7), unless they have one of the good Non-Aligneds like Dr. Reyga or Roga Danar hanging around. Klingons have essentially no good ENGINEERs anyway; Ja'Rod is the best, but with his CUNNING of 5, he'll be safe from the Pakleds if you have almost any other ENGINEER. The Federation will be most likely to lose Data (Prem) (12), though if he doesn't happen to be present it's a tossup between Geordi, Scotty, and Wesley. If I were your opponent, I would take Geordi, for sheer appropriateness of the storyline. You can protect anyone but Data from this dilemma by having an ENGINEER [univ] Soong-type Android, Dr. Soong or Lore in your Away Team. The Major's Combos:
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