E11T - allows one hero to escape from its current predicament.
"They’ve gone to plaid!" - target pursuing ship overshoots player’s ship by a very large distance.
"Oh, no, not again." - target hero is knocked out for X turns by a falling bowl of petunias.
“That turns out not to be the case” - nullify an attack made against you by superior forces.
(Based on the scene in The Mote in God’s eye where a naval officer tells the Prime Minister of the Galactic Empire that he is wrong. Publically.)
**“What do we do now?”
Red monocle flips down
“We die.”**
Your enemy’s mothership explodes in spectacular fashion.
"I have a bad feeling about this." - Reveal one trap/ambush currently in play in the battlespace.
"Never tell me the odds." - Player may substitute the average value of a dice roll for the actual roll, rounding in whichever direction is more favorable.
"Not chess, Mr. Spock. Poker." - Played face down. Player may put a high-powered vessel into play; if this vessel attacks or is attacked, it will be revealed to be a much weaker ship; the card is discarded and the ship token is replaced with the correct one.
"Evil Twin Episode" - Player may put an Evil Twin token into play adjacent to the target. This token has identical abilities to the target, and acts independently. It will pursue and attack the target relentlessly for 2 turns, or until destroyed.
"You can’t change the past (except in the background)." - Replay the previous round. All engaged units must repeat the same actions, but any unit that was not engaged may take different actions, provided it does not engage any of the repeating units.
"Han shot first." - Player resolves all offensive actions for the turn preemptively.
"Don’t blink." - Once per round, if not engaged, the target unit may vanish and reappear at any location within twice its standard movement range.
"Good news!" - Increase defense of target unit by 2. Reduce movement by 2. May only be played on biological units.
Home again, home again, jiggity jig - Your spy gains trust of your opponent and acquires intelligence about your opponents hand, requiring them to reveal one of their hidden home base cards.
Space Herpes - Your opponent wastes 5 widgets of resources eradicating an infection on their base ship.
“Here we go…”
Player’s ship is able to pass through any obstacle.
“They mostly come out at night. Mostly.”
Opposing player must retreat two spaces.
“Jonesy! C’mere, you damn cat!”
Opposing player cannot leave a dangerous situation for two turns.
“Apology accepted, Admiral.”
Opposing player’s second-best token is permanently removed from the board.
“KHANNNNN!”
Player has a +3 bonus for next roll.
“Sleep… now.”
Opposing player cannot move on next turn.
“It is green.”
Effectiveness of opposing player’s next three rolls are halved.
Rashomon Episode. When played before a die roll/card draw, the dice are rolled three times instead of once and the player can choose which result to take.
It Was Only A Dream. Last turn is nullified, and everything returns to the state at the beginning of the turn.
We Can Rebuild Him. Play on a character that was just killed before they go to the discard pile. That character is returned to play at full health with +1 to all stats.
Q - select one card at random from either the draw pile or discard pile and play it immediately, if possible.
Grabthar’s hammer - discount of some sort on whatever resource.
Obviously I don’t know your game mechanics, so they might not work as written, feel free to change them up!
Star Trek TNG:
There are 4 lights! - Remove a (or all) negative ongoing effect(s) from a charector
she cannae take much more of this, captain! - take a minus 2 in some stat to get a plus 1 in a different stat for the remainder of the turn
Beam us up, Scotty - Ground units are moved back to ship without cost
Star Wars:
May the Force be with you. - Next die roll passes automattically or some action attempt passes automatically
The Princess Bride (I know, not sci fi):
I’m not left handed either! - reroll a failed attack
Terminator:
I’ll be back - killed/discarded charector is placed on the top of draw deck
Battlestar Galactica (reimagined):
It’s beyond the red line! - Ship can move farther but there is randomization on ending space and/or ship has chance of taking damage or being destroyed.
Frak! - Sacrifice one ship to allow a ship to move when attacked
A wrinkle in time:
There is such thing as a tesseract - One ship gets permenent + to movement
Soylent Green:
Soylent Green is People! - Planet produces no food (or some resource) next turn
The matrix:
There is no spoon - +2 to next die roll