The Made-Up Games of Star Trek

Star Trek has shown a myriad of recreational games, from board games to the Ktarian headset game, so let's take a look at some of these more prominent ones.

Kotra Rule Set:

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Star Trek, Star Trek Enterprise/Voyager/Deep Space Nine/Discovery/Lower Decks/Picard/Prodigy and The Next Generation are all owned and distributed by CBS.
Star Trek Films are owned and distributed by Paramount Pictures
Image stills are from Trekcore
This Video is for critical purposes with commentary.

[marshallhuffer]

1:42 - Jonathan Frakes said he was disappointed with the computer graphics used to depict the game, stating "They told me it was going to be this incredible graphic, and all it was… was a tuba on a checkerboard"

[dmkatelyn]

I also remember Strategema from TNG Season 2, though that seemed to be just finger flailing, high speed Reversi.

[SchneeflockeMonsoon]

I always thought Kadis-kot was like a deck of cards. You can play different games with it. One is just connect four, one is chess, and one is pure chaos.


Also: yes. Perfect ending.

[caspianmk]

Kadis-kot could have multiple ways of playing. A simple match set for kids, a area controller for advanced players, and individual rules sets for hobbyists

[TerzaGuardia]

The ability to play your pieces anywhere makes Kadis-Kot seem much more like Go than Othello.

[TheAsvarduilProject]

"42" "Send help!" "Biscuits"

...I...have to agree with you Rick. Trying to understand that game has things in common with psychological warfare.

[planescaped]

"They are a Federation member world too. But their plan to take over Enterprise had some kind of military or political backing, it's a weird situation"

Maybe it was some kind of well organized fringe group, like Cerberus from Mass Effect.

[chrisferatu]

I always liked the fact that Kal-Toh is basically Vulcan Jenga

[amazedsatsuma]

lol the ending was pretty much this

Subs: Hey Ric what about the Wadi game
Rick: nothing to see here, SO move along home!

[Jimbits.]

Surprised not to see Stratagema mentioned, great video none the less!

[thedarkdragon]

08:55 reminds me of an old russian game played on the checkers board: the goal is to eat all the pieces of the enemy. each player starts in the corner (up to 4 players, usually 2 players) with 9 pieces for each player.
And the reversal of same game: instead of eating, you want the enemy to eat your pieces and the winner is the one who got his board cleared first. This, ironicly is much harder than the first variant, where you're there to defend, instead of losing on purpose.

[lonsunocook]

I think your tongo video is how I first discovered your channel, thanks for continuing to make good content.

[Jawmax]

I hope you do a episode on Sports in Trek, What do we know about (probably going to mess up the name) Paresee Squares?

[hotscottrulz]

I wonder what your thoughts are on Pai Sho, the board game commonly seen in the Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra universe. I found a ruleset and digital board online, but it seemed too complex for me to enjoy.

[Peregrine]

I sometimes wish they'd hire some board game company or game dev to come up with canonical rules for some of these. Kadis-kot would be a top seller for sure. Problem is, it would be hard to maintain consistency with the 'prop manager randomly laying out pieces for actors to randomly move on cue' top-level gameplay we see on screen.
One thing that sometimes bothered me about the non-canonical and largely fan made rules for 3D chess is the apparent movement of some of the platforms. We never see anyone move platforms on-screen, and there's no precedent for it in real chess, so why make that a feature?

[Wimpoman]

"Allamaraine, count to four,
"Allamaraine, then three more,
"Allamaraine, if you can see,
"Allamaraine, you'll come with me."

[Interitus]

I would say Kadis-Kot is akin to checkers. It's more for children to play, but adults play it as a casual game to pass time. Also on Voyager if you look at the primary people that play it, Naomi, Seven and Neelix. Naomi is a child, Seven is in some senses is still a child due to being assimilated at such a young age. And Neelix is childish. Samantha WIldman likely plays it simply because her daughter enjoys it.

[boss-anova]

This video topic was in my head yesterday. You deserve all kinds of kudos!

[hamder]

I've been subscribed to this channel for a few years now, and the pun in the channel name just now dawned on me, I've never felt so dense.

[danielbonzaibuckerooo]

The headset game from TNG was shown on Star Trek Prodigy recently