| abstract | - The game pits the crew of the USS Enterprise and a squadron of three smaller Federation cruisers against the crew of a Klingon D7 class battleship and a squadron of three Klingon Bird-of-Prey cruisers. Both squadrons are exploring planets in the Organian Treaty Zone a.k.a. the Federation/Klingon Neutral Zone (in reality, various planets visited during the run of TOS) in an attempt to get the most planets to join either the Federation or the Klingon Empire, and thus earning the most Reputation and Political Points. Players start by setting their ships & bases along their side of the Neutral Zone, and sorting their crewmembers into the ships. Players can move their ships up to 12 "hexes" (board spaces), but risk "burning out" the ship's dilithium crystals if the player cannot roll a number equal to or higher than the number of spaces moved by the given ship, limiting it to a maximum future movement of two hexes (three if a crew with Engineering skills is aboard). Ships landing on unexplored star hexes in the Neutral Zone portion of the board can then draw a Planet Disk for that star, and thus "explore" the planet. Such exploratory maneuvers are played out in much the same way as reading a "Which Way Book"; each planet has an assigned number, which is looked up in the Paragraph Book. This leads to the start of your exploring, and gives you various decisions to make (some dependent on which skills your ship's crew have), which then lead to other numbered paragraphs, and eventually to a resolution which can either help or hinder your efforts in earning "Political Points", which determine which side wins the game (the higher the planet's "Cultural Level", the more points can be earned). In addition, players can encounter "Random Events" by rolling a six on one of the dice BEFORE moving any of their ships, which can also lead to "space-bound" encounters that can affect gameplay. Players can also affect these outcomes by using special personnel; Federation "High Commissioners" or "Klingon Agents" can be used once an outcome is determined to add to or subtract from the end resolution (as well as having other influential effects). After playing ten turns, players figure their Reputation and Political Point totals. The player whose side has the most Political Points (or the player whose symbol is displayed on the Political Point Marker if the point score is at zero) wins the game. (If needed, the player with the higher Reputation Point total can buy Extra Turns if they are behind on Political Points.) Rules are included that allow for Solitaire Play, using either the Federation or the Klingon side, requiring a player to earn at least 5 Reputation Points and 9 Political Points in ten turns of play.
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