Future Card Speculation (Card Mechanics)

By Crabbok, in Star Wars: Destiny

As I play more, I tend to brainstorm on new things that future sets might include. Here are some things I could see them doing with cards/dice.

  • Dice with resource costs of greater than one - Perhaps two resource crates printed in yellow as opposed to just one?
  • A Character with shield capacity greater than 3.
  • A Character who can equip more than 3 upgrades. - And/or -
  • An Upgrade that doesn't count against the upgrade limit.
  • Event cards that give a nice boost if a character has SPECIFIC weapons - Spot a character with TWO Lightsaber Weapons to resolve all of their dice and then immediately ready that character. While it might seem like common sense which weapons are lightsabers, it might not always be clear in the future as to which ranged weapons count as blasters, blaster rifles, heavy blaster rifles, etc, in the absence of keywords, this mechanic might work better if you simply refer to it being a melee or ranged weapon (or both if it's die has both symbols).
  • Battlefields that HURT you when you claim them - punishing you for going first.
  • A 7 point Hero character. I mean come on - please?
  • 30 point characters - The Emperor or Yoda? a 3 Die version for 30 points?

Just some thoughts on things they may do. Anxious to see an expansion already rofl!

I'd like to see generic upgrades that modify a character's basic stats, but otherwise have no effect.

Personal Force Field

Upgrade - Equipment

This character adds 1 to the number of shields it can have at a time.

High Constitution

Upgrade - Ability

This character gains +5 to its health stat.

I could also see double sided characters that flip when they die or achieve some trigger condition.

Old Ben Kenobi (Front)

Rules Text: After this character is defeated, return it to play showing the "Obiwan, Force Spirit" side.

You'd lose all upgrades and Obiwan, Force Spirit might only have 5 or fewer health with an ability that helps other characters. I don't know. Just spit balling. I could also see a Droideka character who could flip from open to closed mode. Open mode would be 'normal'. Closed mode would ignore the first damage dealt to it every turn, but would count ranged or melee dice facings as blanks. Something like that.

Doublesided Battlegrounds that flip every turn or when certain trigger conditions happen.

I could also see double sided characters that flip when they die or achieve some trigger condition.

Old Ben Kenobi (Front)

Rules Text: After this character is defeated, return it to play showing the "Obiwan, Force Spirit" side.

You'd lose all upgrades and Obiwan, Force Spirit might only have 5 or fewer health with an ability that helps other characters. I don't know. Just spit balling. I could also see a Droideka character who could flip from open to closed mode. Open mode would be 'normal'. Closed mode would ignore the first damage dealt to it every turn, but would count ranged or melee dice facings as blanks. Something like that.

Doublesided Battlegrounds that flip every turn or when certain trigger conditions happen.

Ewwww no thanks. While it's very thematic in this case, double sided cards are annoying. You have to play certain kinds and colors of sleeves. Then you have to fiddle with the cards, take them in and out of the sleeve all the time...so annoying.

I could also see double sided characters that flip when they die or achieve some trigger condition.

Old Ben Kenobi (Front)

Rules Text: After this character is defeated, return it to play showing the "Obiwan, Force Spirit" side.

You'd lose all upgrades and Obiwan, Force Spirit might only have 5 or fewer health with an ability that helps other characters. I don't know. Just spit balling. I could also see a Droideka character who could flip from open to closed mode. Open mode would be 'normal'. Closed mode would ignore the first damage dealt to it every turn, but would count ranged or melee dice facings as blanks. Something like that.

Doublesided Battlegrounds that flip every turn or when certain trigger conditions happen.

Ewwww no thanks. While it's very thematic in this case, double sided cards are annoying. You have to play certain kinds and colors of sleeves. Then you have to fiddle with the cards, take them in and out of the sleeve all the time...so annoying.

Double sided characters and backgrounds wouldn't require fancy sleeves because they're not deck cards. They all start out on the table. I would NOT ever want to see double sided events/supports/upgrades. That would be a nightmare.

My first thought was neutral characters, but seeing as how the Tusken Raiders were made villains, that doesn't seem likely. I'm sure we'll eventually see creatures like dewbacks and banthas that act as vehicles, but maybe wampas and rancors as neutral characters? Although Heroes using them wouldn't seem very, well, heroic...

My first thought was neutral characters, but seeing as how the Tusken Raiders were made villains, that doesn't seem likely. I'm sure we'll eventually see creatures like dewbacks and banthas that act as vehicles, but maybe wampas and rancors as neutral characters? Although Heroes using them wouldn't seem very, well, heroic...

Protocol Droids would be a good example of a neutral character. Both sides use them.

I think one mechanic I am interested to see how it develops is the Pilots/Vehicles interaction. If Poe is an indication, I expect Characters like Wedge and Red 2 would be a support. It'd be interesting if that interaction had more synergy. Like the Vehicle being able to be rolled simultaneously with the character if you have the matching pilot. Or gave you a free reroll on the die/dice. Something like that.

I think another interesting idea would be something like the Decipher Objectives. Something that starts in play and rewards you for doing specific things at the cost of deck/play restrictions. It would help with the pilots thing too, could have one that made supports matching the pilot characters you had cheaper or something, but you can't roll upgrades on your characters if you had the objective.

Also, Star Destroyers. Might be interesting if Capitol Ships worked like a character maybe. started in play and could only equip "hardpoint" upgrades or something. IDK

A yellow neutral character that either side could hire. Maybe he'd have a gun.

But neutral characters.

Grey characters which don't add access to any extra colors for your deck.

Neutral characters that either alignment could use.

Characters without dice.

More cards like Finn that provide access to cards that would normally be illegal: maybe an Emporer character that lets you play a Hero Anakin Skywalker on a villain team, maybe a yellow Maz that gives access to blue weapons, etc.

Battlefields with dice.

Battlefields that have a color or alignment.

Non-characters that count against your 30 points: maybe a battlefield with points or a card in your deck that requires spending points to put in the deck.

Characters that turn into supports (or upgrades) when they die (force spirits).

I like the asymmetry of the villains having the cheapest character, maybe the heroes could have the most expensive character or the card with the highest resource cost?

Cards that alter deck size for the player using it - I think this would need to be a character.

Maybe a non-d6 die.

More effects that trigger when characters' health values are above or below certain threshold values or percentages of their total health (i.e. when ~ has less than half their health, when ~ has less than 4 health, when ~ has more than 15 health, etc).

In future maybe I would like to see new mechanics in this game, but honestly - most of your ideas are simply dumb and pointless.

  • A Character with shield capacity greater than 3.
  • A Character who can equip more than 3 upgrades. - And/or -
  • An Upgrade that doesn't count against the upgrade limit.

Why for? There could be some mechanics that will give you faster shield regeneration than usual (like Dooku).
If any character could wield more than 3 upgrades I bet that would be Grievous - and as he does not - I think this kind of thing wouldn't be introduced.
For now Heroes with 3 upgrades can generate up to 5 dice (2 dice character with those upgrades can be 150% more potent than without them), what is a huge amount and can overcome swarm of enemies. So I would not like to see something overcoming this.

There can be awesome new mechanics that are not simply breaking main rules.

  • A 7 point Hero character. I mean come on - please?
  • 30 point characters - The Emperor or Yoda? a 3 Die version for 30 points?

Another shallow ideas. 7 and 30 point characters would put this game out of balance in my opinion. If you want play heroes band - you can, 2 strong ones or maybe 3 of the cheapest ones. 4 character teams are swarm of generic and that's their strong point. 7-point heroes would break this balance and in future it could cause no reason for playing "2 badass heroes" or "4 generic swarms". I think that "named" characters should stay in 8-23 points.

30 point character in normal game would also be out of balance - no decisions for you opponent which character target now, and all they do is throwing everything at your, lets say. 20-hp character, and you are doing everything to keep him alive and roll milion dice. 2+ characters is reasonable because there are more decision to take, starting with choosing characters, upgrades and also you need to wise manage them because when one of them dies - you lose power.

30-points "bosses" would be good if there would be some casual variant of game like scenario boss fight.

Also, Star Destroyers. Might be interesting if Capitol Ships worked like a character maybe. started in play and could only equip "hardpoint" upgrades or something.

As we can see AT-ST is one of the most expensive and powerful support cards - 6 cost, huge amount of damage on it's die - so if you want compare Capital Ship it should have 20+ ranged damage on its die ^^ And the reason that supports like AT-ST, Millenium Falcon and stuff does not have hit points is that designers want to focus the game on dynamic fight beetween small bands of characters.

Again - maybe in some scenarios something bigger would be introduced. But for now I think that capital ships could be only a kind of battlefield.

Battlefields that have a color or alignment.
Characters that turn into supports (or upgrades) when they die (force spirits).
Maybe a non-d6 die.

If Jedi Temple has no alligment to light side and Death Star Throne Room to the dark side - I think this won't be coming.
There is "One with the force" doing this stuff. Why add something similliar?
Non-6 die.. geez. Why for? With custom die you could do almost everything (especially when you add special abilities). Why add more randomness by giving more sides to a die? Pointless.

High Constitution

Upgrade - Ability

This character gains +5 to its health stat.

Geez, please, no. Second Chance for now is one of dumbest cards in game. Cards that can heal should cover your need.

A yellow neutral character that either side could hire. Maybe he'd have a gun.

If character named "Hired gun" is dedicated to good side, I think this won't be coming. I also think that characters that you can think that can be "neutral" for terms of game (like Anakin) could simply have two versions of cards.

Non that I am a hater but I am glad that none of you guys are responsible for future development of this game.

What I would like to see in this game, that is VIABLE:

> Casual scenarios with different objectives - blow something up, 2 players ganing up to defeat the boss(es) (something like raid decks in WoW card game) or "horde" encounters.
> Maybe some kind of casual duel mode (one character vs one character, smaller decks) - probably I'll do something like this myself to run casual tournaments just to have fun or for players that are not yet into game.
> Cards that cost 1-4 "squad" points that lets you get something in return for playing i.e. 27/28-point squads. Maybe it could be some kind of "title" of "squad special rule". Some of them could be available while running specific heroes or "colours" together. Nothing big, small profits.
> No overpowered ill cards. Hope this game will stay theme-friendly and will not become something frustrating in gameplay like Yu-gi-oh! or MTG nowadays.

For now i do not see any need new mechanics in fresh game, especially that card's special rules can cover almost everything. New mechanics should be introduced rarely, not being forced into each new expansion.

Sorry for poor English, it's not my native language.

EDIT: Sorry for posting You, Crabbok, in each quote. I did screw something.

Edited by Raviael

OK, there is already a 7point character - First Order Stormtrooper - so why would one for the Hero side put the game out of balance?

I think that Yoda and the Emperor will both get 3dice versions but agree these will probably top out at 23points, 24points if we get generics costing six points (Ewoks, Droid Troopers, Jawas maybe).

Furelli

OK, there is already a 7point character - First Order Stormtrooper - so why would one for the Hero side put the game out of balance?

I think that Yoda and the Emperor will both get 3dice versions but agree these will probably top out at 23points, 24points if we get generics costing six points (Ewoks, Droid Troopers, Jawas maybe).

Furelli

I think there was some confusion on the 7 point characters. I can't speak definitively for Raviael, but from his comments it appears that he was considering non-unique characters and not hero faction characters.

Personally, while I like 6 point characters for filling in decks with leftover points I am not a fan of 5 character decks becoming the norm. If there was some other restriction on them explicitly or a new limit of four characters per squad I could get behind it. If not, they become a trivial way to start with 5 dice on the table.

Yeah, I misunderstood Crabbok. I was talking about 7-point hero as of unique named character for any side (Maybe exception for guy called Wicket the Ewok ^^). My intention was that there shouldn't have been non-unique character below 8 points, cause 4-character swarm teams should mostly be composed of non-unique characters.

I also think that if there will be 6 or lower cost character they would be abused to make 5/6-character decks which not fit in this game, at least in my opinion.

Edited by Raviael

I would expect restrictions on 5/6 point characters to limit them in a way that still makes 4 dice totals the maximum.

Speculation:

Ewok Scout - Hero - Non-Unique - Yellow - 6 points - 6 Health

May only be used if starting character also includes at least one of: Threepio, Leia Organa, Wicket or Chief Chirpa.

Furelli

Clone Troopers should be neutral.

I would expect restrictions on 5/6 point characters to limit them in a way that still makes 4 dice totals the maximum.

Speculation:

Ewok Scout - Hero - Non-Unique - Yellow - 6 points - 6 Health

May only be used if starting character also includes at least one of: Threepio, Leia Organa, Wicket or Chief Chirpa.

Furelli

This! Excellent idea! :)

Imagine if they did some characters with more than 6 sided dice - Imagine an Emperor with a D10!

A Chewbacca that costs 12 points on some level.

Even more, he will probably cost 12/16 like Leia.

I also think there will be more characters that will be able to use other types of cards (a yellow character that can build with and use blue cards [force sensitive], but is not a blue, so doesn't count for spotting or blue only restrictions)