Of course, the game does have a somewhat limited level of replayability. I’ve only played it three times but there were a few adventures that were repeated. But that being said, I don’t think that it’s a game most people will play often. It’s playable solo, but really it needs another player to really get the most mileage out of the storytelling aspect of the game. Funny voices are essential. It’s a good “once or twice a year” title as it stands, but every time I play it I think that someone, somewhere really ought to redevelop it, modernize it, and it could very well emerge as the ultimate TREK game. I think it captures the themes and characters better than any other TREK title that I’ve seen.

As much as I love it, I don’t think the same could be said for ENTERPRISE ENCOUNTER, another West End Games title from 1985. Designed by EON, the same brilliant guys that gave us DUNE and COSMIC ENCOUNTER, this game was originally designed as a western shoot-out card game. And it shows. But that’s definitely Kirk, Spock, and Chekov on the cover. And it definitely has a TREK story. What gives?

OK, the idea is that Trelaine, the Squire of Gothos, makes four ENTERPRISES in some kind of alternate reality or some such typical pseudoscientific nonsense. He’s also made all of the other ENTERPRISES appear as Klingon ships, so everybody’s fighting everybody else. Each ENTERPRISE is commandeered by a player and a couple of crew members and they are charged with flying around to these story cards on a psychedelic map with a picture of Spock in the middle to rescue their marooned shipmates. The goal of the game is to round up a set of crew chits so that you’ve got one of each of the six specialties on board. It makes practically no sense, but strangely enough, the game is pretty great.

Each of the story cards scattered around the board are titled after a TREK episode and they’re kind of like TALISMAN-style adventures. Much like ST:TAG, certain crew members give you advantages or bonuses in certain adventures. Combat is a simple, take-that card play mechanic that finds players having to meet phasers with shields and so forth trying to score a single, unshielded hit or surviving long enough to reach the “Mind Meld” space in the center of the board. It really does feel more like a who-blinks-first quick-draw contest than STAR TREK. Whoever wins a fight gets to call out a particular crew specialty they need for their set and the losing player has to give up either a crew member matching that description. Yes, it is a mechanic from GO FISH.

ENTERPRISE ENCOUNTER is easy to play, and I swear you’ll see the words STAR TREK a billion times over the course of the game. I think it’s printed on every single card at least three times. There’s come cool art like a neat line drawing of Spock and the totally groovy psychedelic board so even if it doesn’t capture much of TREK, at least it’s fun and it has plenty of fan service. One of the neat effects of all the adventure cards being titled after episodes is that invariably the in-game discussion turns into conversation about the show. I think that makes up for the bizarre, almost abstract gameplay.

Oddly, brand new shrink-wrapped copies of both STAR TREK: THE ADVENTURE GAME and ENTERPRISE ENCOUNTER still turn up fairly regularly. Both games are fairly inexpensive as well; I believe I paid around six dollars for my ENTERPRISE ENCOUNTER on Ebay a few years ago. FEDCOM is more expensive than both of the other games put together at a $60 list price for the base set. Any respectable game shop should have at least KLINGON BORDER in stock.

So at least until Fantasy Flight or some other forward-thinking company picks up the STAR TREK license and finally does it justice, these three games ought to scratch that itch that only a phaser set on kill can satisfy.