Here I am again with another round of guessing at future "-oids" (twisted versions of our beloved bridge crews) that might (or more likely might not) show up in our dear game, either as Personnas or as AU Personnel. As I'm reaching the end of TNG, I fall upon the king of all -oids, Captain Picard! Hope your eyes aren't too tired, 'cuz there's a bunch!
PICARDOIDS
Jean-Luc has, at least for now, the most Personnel cards (I ain't countin' Arbiter of Succession here). Yes, he comes in all shapes and sizes:
1-Premiere Picard (not an -oid)
2-FC Picard (again, not an -oid, though he sure looks it)(pardon the pun, I'm incorrigible.)
3-Lt. (j.g.) Picard: -oid from "Tapestry", what if Picard had been a wuss ALL his life.
4-Admiral Picard: The Barash illusion Picard.
5-Locutus: The oh-so useful Borg counterpart.
6-Galen: The oh-so useful Non-Aligned counterpart.
But what about what's left:
7-Ensign Picard: The OTHER Picardoid from "Tapestry". Johnny comes in two models: Actual age and Really old for a recently graduated cadet. Some have proposed giving him Guramba, I say let him be affected by Wesley Gets the Point.You say tomato... Anything to be done with Artificial Heart though? (Look! A Picard with Youth!)
8-1st Season Picard: The last of this premium set of out-of-character crewmembers. Back then, I don't believe he had Honor or Archeology for example, or Music for that matter. A special Download Saucer Separation seems a natural.
9-Younger Picard: Briefly seen "Violations", this is Picard as captain of the recently lost Stargazer and comes with a tuft of hair and some weird electronic "bandages". Since Jean-Luc is already cleared as matching commander of the USS Stargazer, there's not much point to making this guy, is there?
10-"The Picard": From "Who Watches the Watchers", when the Mintakans mistook him for a god. Now, let me refer you to my article on Troids, and in particular, to "Pregnant Troi", for a somewhat disturbing gameplay mechanic. Other than that, godling Picard might work better as an AU Interrupt or Event like Kevin, Amanda or Q. As a Personnel, I'd give him immunity to Archer, all the skills needed to complete Cultural Observation (Anthropolgy, Leadership and Strength 31 - for purposes of mission and dilemma resolution only to be fair - hey, he's a god!) and a broken arm so he can't use equipment. Overboard? I thought so.
11-Picard the family man: From "Generations", Picard's Nexus fantasy. Since family relationships are ALWAYS mentioned in a Personnel's lore, I predict and eventual "Family" event which will affect characters who hold such relationships. Family Picard then, might be a Picardoid able to name any Personnel as a family member. (See, what I found interesting about the whole Nexus fantasy is that Jean-Luc's wife looked exactly like the crewmember who sought Deanna's help in "The Loss". Um, was Janet her name?)
12-Dixon Hill: Picard's Holographic Personna (defined by me as: a Personna only reportable on a ship with a Holodeck). Dix can Download a Tommygun and his Business Card and/or overcome Holographic Dilemmas (the next logical step).
13-Yesterday's Enterprise Picard: With Wartime Conditions available, I don't think that episode can be mined much for Personnel. They could all be given attack authorisations against the Klingons or bonus in combat situations, but I think that would detract from the Federation's uniqueness as an affiliation.
14-Little rascal: We've got Rascals, so why would we need or want a 12-year-old Jean-Luc? I can't answer that question.
15-Robin Hood: I just thought of this. Could Q-Personnas be a card type? Imagine hitting a Q-Flash, turning the next card over, and seeing your perfectly good premiere Picard (or Galen, or Locutus, or whatever) turned into Robin Hood (probably with some special ability you really don't want, but not totally useless). The entire bridge crew could have such Q-Personnas (Friar Tuck, Little John, etc.) Problems: 1) targets are too specific to warrant inclusion in the Q-deck (unless they can be applied to anyone or that only the Q-Personna change card is included and an appropriate Q-Personna from outside the game is gotten); and 2) once a Personna replaces a Personnel, that replaced Personnel goes back into your hand and can replace the Personna again as soon as possible, making the whole thing pretty moot (unchangeable until next Q-Flash?). Well, I tried...
16-Kamin: From "Inner Light", Picard's "other life". Connection to Ressikan Flute is obvious for one thing. A selection of skills bent towards the Sciences also seems appropriate. How about this? The Spot-like ability to serve as an extra life for Jean-Luc. ("He only died in that other reality and woke up on the bridge.")
17-Spy Team Picard: The black-clad, black ops Picard from "Chain of Command". An entirely new collection of SECURITY and SCIENCE skills reprensenting the actions of the episode. Worth mucho points to your Interrogator.
18-Mot: The Barbering Picard-Personna from "Starship Mine". I love the Barbering jokes and don't mind at all when they take up a card slot in an expansion. Besides, anyone else notice that "Mot the Barber" is an odd name? I certainly leaves room for a completely different one called "Mot".
19-Romulan Picard: To go with Romulan Data and Major Rakal, Picard in Rommie drag is actually the least likely to be made of the batch. Major Rakal gave the Green Team much-needed Empathy, Data would mean an actually Romulan android, but what does Picard have to offer? Diplomacy? This card would just pretty much be yet another Fed-mission thief.
20-Picard the fop: A really useless holo-version created by Barclay to make himself feel superior. Maybe all these fops could just cumulatively boost Barclay's attributes and skills... imagine a deck based on the strategy of including 5 or 6 useless Personnel just to make Barclay a super-skilled 20/20/20 mission-solving machine. Fun if nothing else.
21-Picard the lonely cloud: Picard becomes a wisp of energy in "Lonely Among Us", yet another -oid that could survive the vacuum of space (Picard in spacesuit from FC would be similar). Couldn't interact with crew or away teams though. Alternately, the Picard-Cloud hybrid also seen in the show could be made, but it was more a function of behaviour than of skills etc.
22-TAK replica: Like Cloud-Picard, another Picard that acted so strangely, he was almost placed off-duty. This one has more potential though. The Telepathic Alien Kidnappers connection could be used for some game effect. He could attempt Study Lonka Pulsar too. And what a great singer! (Music x2?) Or, your opponent controls him and takes the real Picard prisoner!
23-Lemur Picard: Jean-Luc was almost turned into a lemur in "Genesis". Not enough to build a card around unfortunately, but enough to mention here. This little guy might trade off some Strength for the ability to escape Personnel battles at any time, that kind of thing.
24-Ambassador Picard: From Q's Future in "All Good Thing...". This is a natural since Governor Worf, Bev Picard and the Future Enterprise (among others) already enjoy lots of popularity. Let's face it, it was the richest AU show ever made for TNG. Unfortunately, Picard is weakened so much by age that he pales incredibly next to his younger selves. And he'd have to have some really great skills to counter the restriction brought on by urimodic(sic) syndrome (involontary discards? that kind of thing).
25-Time-hopping Picard: From "All Good Thing..." again. You might play him on the table or some such and be able to travel to Time Locations simply by switching Personnas. Come on! More's gotta be done with this Time Locations concept!
26-12-hour Picard: The confused Picard from "Time Squared" who was from 12 hours into the future. There's potential for this guy as a short-term lesser-skilled Picard unruled by duplication rules. You COULD have two Picards on the table, even if one was Locutused, for example. Short-term? 12 turns doesn't sound short enough; and until 12 points have been scored might be too short. 3-4 turns? Sounds about right.
27-Mr. Pickerd: Picard's identity in 19th century San Francisco ("Time's Arrow"). He was supposedly the leader of a theater troupe. Yeah, right... cool. Cooler when he's rules "native to a timeline" though...
28-Korgano: I invite everyone to check out my article on Datoids for a fuller discussion on the Masaka Archive characters. This is one such Personna.
29-Sarek-Picard: The mindmeld hybrid from "Sarek". Picture would feature J-L's face contorted with Vulcan emotions. Skill box would have Diplomacy x4... NOT!. I mention this because the episode showed us a very different mindmeld than the one made into a card. Here, Picard becomes a repository of emotion (suspends Bendii Syndrome?) rather than of skill. Not a viable card of course.
30-Lwaxana's Lover: Scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one. Remember how Jean-Luc made the Ferengi from "Ménage à Troi" believe he was Lwaxana's paramour with a few cheesily rendered lines of Shakespeare. Thought I'd mention it just 'cuz it was so funny.
To save space (SAVE SPACE?!?), I've omitted Picardoids such as the amnesiac Jean-Luc from "Conundrum", the one in Lwaxana's head in "Dark Page" and the holographic soldier from Henry V played by Patrick Stewart (but technically not Picard). I also won't go into the Picard doll seen at the beginning of "The Pegasus" (but twist my rubber arm). Miss any? Let me know. (Thanks to jSarek for his helpful notes to this article.)
