Mutability and Materiality in Star Trek - Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games - page 102

have to solve three major crises happening at the same time. By exploring the
planet and uncovering diferent missions, the characters attempt to use their
resources, crew, specialized knowledge, and any artifacts they may ind (each of
these is worth a certain number of points) to help solve the crises and help the
Nibian people.
Both Expeditions and Fleet Captains embrace a sense of materiality in their
gameplay and HeroClix components. his materiality serves to cohere the players
to the franchise universe. Here, I am deining the materiality of the game as the
speciic tactile interaction players can have with the individual pieces within
the set. Many paratextual board games relect a concern with materiality—in
Battlestar Galactica , the Cylon ships are molded plastic models, and the charac-
ters in he Lord of the Rings: he Complete Trilogy appear as miniature versions
of the actors from the ilms. here are multiple types of pleasures associated
with this materiality. As Raph Koster notes, “nobody actually interacts with
games on an abstract level exclusively … delivery is important.” 10 For Michael
G. Robinson, the pleasures of the HeroClix system are speciically threefold:
he irst is competition…. While it is not the only game to ever do so, HeroClix
thus ofers a superhero fan a second appeal, the opportunity to manipulate
favored characters and to play out favorite scenarios. he third appeal to players
is collectability, a feature obviously encouraged by WizKids in the booster
distribution system. 11
he irst HeroClix igurines were based on Marvel and DC comic characters,
but additional franchises have since used the system. For Fleet Captains , the
clicks can change the power distribution of the ships, so, for example, the USS
Enterprise could reroute power from the sensors to the main engines if she needed
to traverse a greater region of space with a few simple clicks. Alternately, during
a battle, the Enterprise could channel all her power to weapons and shields. In
Expeditions , there are two types of HeroClix: characters and ships. he clickable
base on the character igurines indicates a reduction in efectiveness, usually as
a result of in-game fatigue or damage. For example, the character of Dr. Leonard
McCoy initially starts the game with a “command” power of 8, a “science” power
of 10, and an “operations” power of 8. Were he to take two “clicks” of damage,
he would be reduced to 7 command, 9 science, and 8 operations. he other
HeroClix igures in Star Trek: Enterprise are the ships orbiting the planet Nibia,
the Enterprise and a Klingon Battle Cruiser. hroughout the game, combat
between the two ships produces damage, indicated by turning the Clix base to
the right, resulting in a reduction in power for shields and both long-range and