First, let me say, I don't have my books in front of me, (at work, oddly they don't appreciate me bringing my toys).

Setting the scene. I have a regular gaming group that meets irregularly, (I work shifts, my daughter is in Uni with an odd sched, the other three players work 9-5 type jobs, plus most of us are avid campers, so, scheduling games days can be hard). That said we have been playing IA for a while and just about to finish the core campaign and looking forward to starting Hoth.

My main issue is that it can be difficult for players to pull their Character quests consistently. This makes the game just tad less thematic and less fair as some players get theirs and others don't. What we do, currently, is if you don't pull a character quest after two side missions, you auto pull one, (randomly chosen).

This causes a problem because now you get fewer side missions, which I, as the Imperial, quite enjoy, (partly because I own the game and have all the boxes and want to use them).

TLDR - start here

So, possible solution that might satisfy everything, but, could unbalance things. After every side mission, run a random character mission, (basically add another line in the quest log after every side mission). Not sure if it would unbalance things as the Imp gets rewards from character missions as well, don't they?

Thoughts? Concerns? Questions? Llamas?

possible houserule: Each side have a one-shot chance (per campaign) of playing any mission you like, and it doesn't even have to be a mission from the side mission deck. Imperial (me) still need to pay those influence, but this guarantees that I'll have a chance to get stuff like 501st training/Vader/Sorin... at some time in the campaign. Rebel side is free as always

possible houserule: Each side have a one-shot chance (per campaign) of playing any mission you like, and it doesn't even have to be a mission from the side mission deck. Imperial (me) still need to pay those influence, but this guarantees that I'll have a chance to get stuff like 501st training/Vader/Sorin... at some time in the campaign. Rebel side is free as always

Not bad, (I kind of like it actually), but, that still means either a lack of side missions, or, hardly anyone gets their character side mission.

And easier solution might be the following, to guarantee better results. Remove some of the green and grey missions, to increase the chances to draw hero missions.

Alternatively, leave it as is, but allow them to play a random hero mission at certain points of th campaign, in addition to the other side missions, but then don't get XP, credits (except crates) or influence. That way it won't unbalance much.

And easier solution might be the following, to guarantee better results. Remove some of the green and grey missions, to increase the chances to draw hero missions.

Alternatively, leave it as is, but allow them to play a random hero mission at certain points of th campaign, in addition to the other side missions, but then don't get XP, credits (except crates) or influence. That way it won't unbalance much.

That is a good one. All they get from teh mission is crate creds and teh character upgrade. Thank you. THAT I will keep.

Thoughts? Concerns? Questions? Llamas?

A mus wonce bit mi sister.

Thoughts? Concerns? Questions? Llamas?

A mus wonce bit mi sister.

Mynd you, moose bites Kan be pretti nasti...​

If you're going to give the Rebels access to all their side missions, you need some kind of counter balance for the Imperial player. Either they get to choose some missions to autoplay, or give them the chance to get get influence off missions or something. Unless you want to stack things against the Imperial player. Otherwise the Rebels will get some extra, powerful (in some cases, very powerful) gear, and the Imperial player gets nothing.

Also one thing to remember is that this will extend the period of time when players don't get upgrades - so if the 'RPG' aspects of the game is something the group likes, this will cut into that.

That is my concern. I think the idea of the rebs getting NO mission bonuses aside from teh character reward and crates is a good one. Maybe give the Imp an extra xp if they decide to pursue that, or some extra threat on teh next mission.

It wouldn't be any more unbalanced than if the Rebels drew 4 hero side missions in a row. If they're not playing the hero missions as the proper side missions, they're just playing more Ally missions, and you can only ever take one ally... Also they stand a chance of losing the hero mission... So if anything, the Imperial Player taking any rewards risks skewing it in the Imperial Player's favour...

Though what you can do is possibly look at getting XP/Influence based on how badly the Rebels beat you? If you win the hero mission, don't take any Imperial XP, if you lose, take the standard reward, and if you lose badly, take the reward as if you'd won it?

The rebels get quite an appreciable boost in getting to decide when they get to resolve their hero mission(s). I think side mission 2 is probably the best time on average, especially if the rebels have won the previous story mission.

It wouldn't be any more unbalanced than if the Rebels drew 4 hero side missions in a row.

That's the thing - this is statistically unlikely, and I'd argue that (generally) hero missions are about the best thing they can draw when it comes to rewards. Or, you're generally filling up the side missions deck with the some missions the Rebels are probably never going to pick, but hero missions are almost always going to be worth it.

Personally, I'd probably recommend something like +1 or 2 Influence for the Imperial Player, or possibly give them a bit more control over the agenda deck. Heck, maybe even let them pick some one shot agendas cards that they can only use in the hero missions, so they can guarantee a few surprises (and maybe they get it back if they lose? Or get to keep it as if they had bought it if they win the mission?).

Lol, in our first game the heroes drew only Red missions and a couple Gray missions. They were shocked when I told them about allies when we started Hoth because they never came up in the first game.

Lol, in our first game the heroes drew only Red missions and a couple Gray missions. They were shocked when I told them about allies when we started Hoth because they never came up in the first game.

I don't see that as much of an issue as most people aren't fond of bring allies anyway, Mind you, my group has toyed with the idea of trying to get one of the multi figure aliies, (Echo Base Troopers or something). So far they have only pulled the "elite" allies tho, (Ie Luke).

My group has the Echo Base Troopers and the Wookiees in Return to Hoth, they're using them quite affectively, choosing which one based on objectives and amount of difficult terrain.

i lower the number of green cards (allies) sometimes, it is more rare if they get an Obi-wan or a luke, which excites them a bit. but sometimes because my group doesn't always bring allies into missions

I heavily suggest that of the 4 green cards the Rebels pick, one is for Leia and one is for the droids. I've found in my experience that each of those allies tend to usually be easily worth their threat price. At 2-3 pts a piece, C-3P0 and R2 are basically free, and that extra activation you get from them goes a really long way. Leia is 8 pts, but she has some decent abilities, including some pretty reliable health regeneration. Sometimes she'll get decimated pretty quickly, but generally she sticks around long enough to do more damage than her 8 pts probably deserves.

With those missions, they can hopefully score at least one ally that they can reliably use, and can pick up others for more situational use if they want.

Here are the two house rules I have used as the IP. The first couple campaigns we did not use them, but have made the last one standard the last two campaigns.

• The Rebels can draw an extra mission card, if they choose the third mission, the IP gains the rewards as if they had won regardless of the actual outcome (the IP does not get double rewards for winning though). The problem here is that the rebels generally scale better than the IP, so an extra influence does not matter nearly as much to the IP as the reward will for the Rebel players.
• For every two failed missions by the Rebels they can draw an extra mission card immediately after the second loss. This gives more choice to a side who probably needs the help. It is also not guaranteed to be game breaking, but rather just a minor boost.