We were considering a house rule where in each Side Mission stage you're dealt two Side Mission cards, and after you choose one the other cards are discarded. Side Missions are then one time opportunities, with a new pair of options in every Side Mission stage.

Here's the reasoning:

• More realistic: The side missions happen without you if you don't go on them, they don't just wait for you forever. Luke's not going to be recruiting on Tatooine forever, Han Solo's "target" in Sorry About The Mess isn't going to stay in the same place forever.
• More choice: The side mission choice is more meaningful, picking one closes off the other. You've got to really think about it rather than do one and do the other next side mission. You really get a feel that this is a choice. Plus the Agenda side missions become serious decisions rather than auto-"Do the agenda mission": if you get a mission you really want to do and the Imperial plays Dark Obsession then you've got a major choice to make.
• See more of the deck: In the one campaign I've played the character missions never came up. While cycling through side missions more quickly has the potential side effect of giving you two orange missions at once, the normal setup has the risk of that orange side mission not coming up at all. This way you see most of the side mission deck. It also makes Sabotaged Plans from IG-88's agenda set less useless, as it's no longer going to just cycle you into a worse mission: most of the deck'll be seen anyway so it's much more sensible to remove a dangerous mission.

And finally, we figured it'd be more fun.

Sounds like a good idea.

Our campaign has had "luxury cruise" looking sad in the corner since the first side missions were dealt. I don't think they will ever have a reason to play it over any other mission they could possibly draw and it's essentially taking up a space that could otherwise make their decision a little harder.

This would mean that you would lose the shot at half the side missions. Might be kinda soul-crushing for the rebels if two character side missions come up at the same time, knowing that one will NEVER get a chance to get done. in my opinion, this is actually *LESS* choice.

Additionally, this puts an even greater emphasis on the imperial player buying an Agenda Side Mission card, since that would mean that if the rebels chose to play it, rather than letting the Imperial player auto-score it, the rebels would lose TWO missions. If your rebel players are "auto-running" the Imperial Agenda missions RAW, this house rule would flip that the other way and Imperial Agenda missions would *never* get run. (Remember that in the case of villain rewards, the Imperial Player has to bring them as one of their Open Groups, and they all have pretty hefty threat costs).

It is a good idea, but maybe tweak it a bit? Some thoughts:

• Instead of discarding them each phase, you shuffle the unplayed rebel mission back into the side mission deck? Then the mission at least has a chance of showing up again, and since you're shuffling every side mission round, it wont sit on the bottom of the deck. The rebels would still cruise through the deck faster than they would normally, and there would still be that additional "choice is important" additive.
  
• Roll a die of the rebel player's choice, on a SURGE, discard the mission. This would represent the rebels putting out communications and gathering intel to keep the mission active if they choose a red die (which has one surge), or maybe they don't want it at all so they choose a yellow die (with four surges on it) or maybe a blue or green die if they are indecisive?

This would mean that you would lose the shot at half the side missions. Might be kinda soul-crushing for the rebels if two character side missions come up at the same time, knowing that one will NEVER get a chance to get done. in my opinion, this is actually *LESS* choice.

But you're likely to never get the chance to do one of those missions anyway.

You lose a shot at half the side missions anyway because they never show up. If you never ran an agenda, you see a maximum of five missions of the 12 (assuming 4 heroes, otherwise 11 or 10) in the deck (two to start, then one drawn after every side mission but the last). If you discard, you see ten, regardless of if you do agendas or not. Choosing between, say, Gaarkhan or Diala's mission is more choice than Gaarkhan's mission never coming up at all or The Spice Job sitting there for the whole campaign.

Additionally, this puts an even greater emphasis on the imperial player buying an Agenda Side Mission card, since that would mean that if the rebels chose to play it, rather than letting the Imperial player auto-score it, the rebels would lose TWO missions. If your rebel players are "auto-running" the Imperial Agenda missions RAW, this house rule would flip that the other way and Imperial Agenda missions would *never* get run. (Remember that in the case of villain rewards, the Imperial Player has to bring them as one of their Open Groups, and they all have pretty hefty threat costs).

Not necessarily true. You miss the two missions immediately available but you'll get a new two in the next side mission phase. It becomes a three way choice rather than a two way choice. The Rebels don't lose any missions, they still play 5. It's just the available missions that change.

You're not losing a shot at half the side missions when you otherwise wouldn't get the shot to lose, if that makes sense.

I agree with this, so much that I literally just posted something like this today on the BGG forums. Had the exact same idea.

In our campaign:

-Side Mission #1 we got the Rebel Saboteurs

-Side mission #2 it was either chewie or gaarkhans side mission (probably the crappiest of the character rewards), so we did the IMP Agenda side mission Breaking Point (which was conveniently purchased)

-Side Mission #3 we did Gaarkhan's side mission

-Side Mission #4 we got Chewbacca, but Han also came up.

Now we're faced with Han or Luxury Cruise for Side Mission #5. Suffice to say it sucks not having choice (or, both choices are lame), and sucks the fun right out of the game. Luxury Cruise might've been better after the Sabs when it would've reduced the cost of them usefully, but not when the IMP is at Threat Level 6.

The side missions for neither of our other characters never came up, nor did we get any of the other (better) general reward missions.

This would mean that you would lose the shot at half the side missions.

You already lose a shot at half the side missions.

This provides variety without making it too easy in a "every campaign is the same" sense.

An undrawn card is not the same as a card you discard. Yes, in RAW you wont get enough draws to cycle through all the available missions, but there is a distinct difference between the chance at drawing a mission at a later time versus drawing most of them, and ditching half of them. Sure, on the one hand you *see* more missions, but on the other hand you are *guaranteeing* that 5 specific missions will not be played. That's not choice, that's a rhino's bargain. Hence my suggestions to either reshuffle missions or add a surge roll mechanic to either keep or ditch them.

What you see as loss of choice and what I see as loss of choice are two sides of the same coin.

An undrawn card is not the same as a card you discard.

The one you discarded you had the chance to play. The one you never drew you never did.

Sure, on the one hand you *see* more missions, but on the other hand you are *guaranteeing* that 5 specific missions will not be played.

You'll only ever play five missions. If you have a deck of twelve you're already guaranteeing seven won't be played because it's not possible with the base rules to get further than six cards into that deck. Six cards will never be available.

What changes if you discard is that you know which cards aren't available, but they're no more closed off than the six mission cards that end up on the bottom of the mission deck. If anything they're less closed off because you had the chance of doing almost all of them. If you got to choose your mission from the whole deck you'd still never get to do seven of the missions.

When you think about it, the base game gives you five side missions and what you're choosing is the order you do them in.

An undrawn card is not the same as a card you discard.

False.

The RAW method of choosing side missions is effectively:

1. Shuffle all 10/11/12 cards.

2. Flip over 6.

3. Choose 5 of those 6 for the campaign.

In statistics, the deck is random , the 6 side missions you get in theory are the same if you pick:

the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th cards

or

the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th cards

without looking at them. Probability is counter-intuitive, but if you have 6 specific missions you want, the probability of getting them is the same if you use either of those 2 methods of choosing the cards.

The problem is, you don't even get to see the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, or 12th side mission. You can't even choose those.

You still never even get a chance at seeing half the deck!

Essentially, RAW side-missions are random. That is the difference.

The new method is effectively:

1. Shuffle the deck.

2. Flip two cards. Chose one. Discard the other.

3. Repeat step 2 four more times.

4. Those are your side-missions for the campaign.

To me, the 2nd method I am directly choosing the side missions. The RAW method is random chance (draw 6 choose 5).

Both ways you ditch half the side missions, just one method is random and the other is a choice. To me, the choice is more thematic.

Further house-ruling it to shuffle the discarded cards is fine. I mean we're talking house rules here, those are always personal preference.

That said, I much prefer having to deal with the consequences of throwing a mission away. It feels much more thematic with missed opportunities. I just have a beef with random chance vs never having a choice to begin with. In the movies, the rebels always had a choice.

The rebels did not save Alderaan, so Alderaan blew up (*spoiler alert* ). They had no 2nd chances.

There needs to be some mechanism to see more of the deck. Draw 2, play 1, keep 1 would work. However I'd probably make the kept mission discarded the next turn in that case. So you'd be able to both character missions if you drew two at once. You'd just chew through the deck faster.

The other idea I've been toying with is allowing the rebel players to spend credits for extra draws. Maybe 50 or a 100 credits to get a draw. That way can try and buy your way to the ally or character missions. Maybe even getting a random character or ally mission for a higher price. Or maybe they can pay 25 credits to drop one of the missions that has been clogging up the deck for a few missions and draw two that round instead.

I really want to use a similar concept in my next campaign. Red missions stay out even when not chosen, since they represent personal vendettas of the player characters. All the rest are missed opportunities and get discarded when not resolved.

There needs to be some mechanism to see more of the deck. Draw 2, play 1, keep 1 would work. However I'd probably make the kept mission discarded the next turn in that case. So you'd be able to both character missions if you drew two at once. You'd just chew through the deck faster.

What if you drew three?

I really want to use a similar concept in my next campaign. Red missions stay out even when not chosen, since they represent personal vendettas of the player characters. All the rest are missed opportunities and get discarded when not resolved.

The issue there is that leans you heavily towards playing the four red missions and two other missions every time, which might make things more stale on replay. That, and red missions, while character specific, don't actually give that vastly better loot than any others. Well, except the Lightsaber.

Actually when we first started playing, in our excitement we thought this is the way you did it. Wasn't till our third session that we realized we were doing it wrong. We liked this way better because of all the reasons you listed ironically. Might go back to it.

There needs to be some mechanism to see more of the deck. Draw 2, play 1, keep 1 would work. However I'd probably make the kept mission discarded the next turn in that case. So you'd be able to both character missions if you drew two at once. You'd just chew through the deck faster.

What if you drew three?

You would have even more cards? I mean aside from the initial draw you always end up with one left. If an imperial mission is played you have more to choose from, but those are typically do it now or the imperial gets a reward. You would still have 1 card carry over from mission to mission like normal. Or maybe I'm not understanding what you're getting at.

red missions , while character specific, don't actually give that vastly better loot than any others . Well, except the Lightsaber.

Strongly Disagree.

-Mak's armor is pretty awesome. Auto cancel surge and he can use his pierce 2 anytime (even wounded).

-Diala's lightsaber, as you said, is downright awesome

-Jyn's peacemaker is pretty powerful, it grants a free attack action for 1 strain (if a figure attacks her). Actions are the key commodity in this game, if something gives you more, it's pretty powerful.

-Gideon's mission gives Rebel Troopers as an ally, makes them cost 2 less (for a total of 4), AND he heals 1 strain when using command. Which, remember, command can be used on figures and not just Heroes. Allies cannot rest, but they can still gain health through Gideon's "heal 1 strain".

-Fenn add's +1 attack when using Blast Shot (havoc shot), and he gets 2 health back when he rests.

The only one that kinds sucks (comparatively) is Life Debt (admittedly biased because we have a 3 player -- it's probably better in a 4 player), where the wookie gets focus if someone else takes 3 damage, from within 3 spaces away.

Math and all that aside, I think this sounds like a great idea from a story stand-point. Especially missions like Viper' Den where you need to meet up with a guy before it's too late. In fact, most side missions are along the lines of "we have an opportunity to do something."

There needs to be some mechanism to see more of the deck. Draw 2, play 1, keep 1 would work. However I'd probably make the kept mission discarded the next turn in that case. So you'd be able to both character missions if you drew two at once. You'd just chew through the deck faster.

What if you drew three?

You would have even more cards? I mean aside from the initial draw you always end up with one left. If an imperial mission is played you have more to choose from, but those are typically do it now or the imperial gets a reward. You would still have 1 card carry over from mission to mission like normal. Or maybe I'm not understanding what you're getting at.

I mean if three red missions turned up in a row. Would you not then be forced to discard one anyway?

I'm going to pitch this to my heroes, I like it. As for the further variation of paying to draw another, I think I like paying to Save a mission. Thinking of it as diverting resources to stall an event makes sense; and gives them more of a chance to take an agenda mission with two red cards on the line.

Think I'll stick with just the base concept until we wrap up the campaign; then we might have a better sense of what credits are really worth, and what an appropriate save fee is.