This game is fine. My area has a growing player base and more players show up everyday on the games various Facebook pages. I played at a tournament in Chicago a couple weeks ago and it was full of new players, who played Destiny but actually enjoyed this game more. So they switched over. They have sold more tickets for Gencon than they did for worlds, and I honestly believe that worlds wouldve sold more had they not JUST DID IT 5 months earlier. Gencon would have more as well if Nova wasnt 2 weeks later, its the same prize support so players in the New England area are opting to go there instead of Gencon. This game isnt dead yet.

Also the EPIC delay to start up this latest cycle is a good sign, it means they maybe giving time for development of new cards and to test the next cycle. We all know FFG has one designer on this game who is also developing L5R, so I am sure that most of his time is being devoted to that at the current time.

Personally, I don't feel a reboot is necessary. I think a lot of the issues with weak sets and NPE (not OP, most of the powerful sets are just not fun to play against,) could be fixed with a more aggressive rotation, including boxed sets. there is no reason 5 cycles need to be active at any given time.

Hoth could be cycled out, and replaced with a Hoth boxed set, fixing issues with the various Hoth sets. It really only affects tournament players anyway.

Eventually, we won't see MTFBWY in every light side deck, and that will be a joyous day. The biggest issues with sets like that are they artificially limit deck building, because it doesn't hurt your deck at all to put it in there, no matter what type of deck it is. Tournaments are always going to be full of the most powerful sets, and that's OK, but when lightside deck building turns into Yoda plus 8 other pods, that is boring to face. I'd love to see a hard ban on some sets during tournaments, MTFBWY, IE Tarkin (or just reverse the stupid enhancement blanking ruling,) maybe some others.

Basically, i don't feel a total reboot is needed. just a more aggressive rotation and/or banning list.

53 minutes ago, InbredJed said:

Personally, I don't feel a reboot is necessary. I think a lot of the issues with weak sets and NPE (not OP, most of the powerful sets are just not fun to play against,) could be fixed with a more aggressive rotation, including boxed sets. there is no reason 5 cycles need to be active at any given time.

Hoth could be cycled out, and replaced with a Hoth boxed set, fixing issues with the various Hoth sets. It really only affects tournament players anyway.

Eventually, we won't see MTFBWY in every light side deck, and that will be a joyous day. The biggest issues with sets like that are they artificially limit deck building, because it doesn't hurt your deck at all to put it in there, no matter what type of deck it is. Tournaments are always going to be full of the most powerful sets, and that's OK, but when lightside deck building turns into Yoda plus 8 other pods, that is boring to face. I'd love to see a hard ban on some sets during tournaments, MTFBWY, IE Tarkin (or just reverse the stupid enhancement blanking ruling,) maybe some others.

Basically, i don't feel a total reboot is needed. just a more aggressive rotation and/or banning list.

I disagree with this, I think a massive rotation will actually hurt the game in the long run. Granted lots of cards aren't played currently, but we finally got a robust card pool. Each Objective set is 1 card so currently this game only has about 250 cards, that's only 2 cycles if a standard LCG. So if we go back down to let's say 50 sets spread between 6 factions we begin to creep into lack of diversity. Which let's be honest was one of the main reasons this game lost so many players at release.

In order to make playable different decks each faction will need at least 10 to 12 resource pods. That's 60 pods right there, half the card pool youre suggesting. That's the reason we currently have a decent amount of diversity on the DS, they started giving us resouce pods. The LS is starting to come around this cycle but still behind the DS.

The Objective set system is both this games greatest asset and worse enemy.

On 6/7/2017 at 11:28 AM, DJRAZZ said:

The only way to save this game much less grow it, is to have a 2.0. version. Yes initially it will anger existing players but it will freshen the game and make a good springboard for new players. The reason 2.0 versions of LCG's cause problems for it's existing players is that their cards hold no value in the secondary market like CCG cards do. This make players feel like their investments are simply out the window. I guess the other option is to let things be and allow the game to slowly retire naturally.

I would add one other suggestion: decrease the number of tournament-legal cycles. This would allow new players to jump into the game at a lower price point and would allow FFG to re-release more of the old objective sets with minor alterations or old cards in new objective sets.

Yeah FFG is still not quite there when it comes to organized play. Sanctioning events, offering rewards, and holding championships are one good step and a far cry from like 2011'ish when everything was so spotty...but with so many competitive play products in the marketplace I feel like there's no clear focus on what COULD be done to support competitive and organized play at both the local and national levels. It's like there's an internal struggle within ANA about whether they want FFG to fully embrace what it means to keep product lines fresh.

M:TG offers new players a once a year easy point to buy in and get on the competitive cycle. That's aggressively managed by a huge team of folks, so I wouldn't advocate for ANA/FFG to do anything that crazy, but restricting cycles would be a great first step. The champion decks are another good step in that direction to let someone buy a taste of the game with a SOLID deck.

They already have cycle rotation planned. Announced it in 2014.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2014/11/5/a-new-stage-of-growth/

for Star Wars LCG specifically

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2014/11/5/the-balance-of-the-force/

On 6/9/2017 at 8:18 AM, Wh0isTh3D0ct0r said:

I would add one other suggestion: decrease the number of tournament-legal cycles. This would allow new players to jump into the game at a lower price point and would allow FFG to re-release more of the old objective sets with minor alterations or old cards in new objective sets.

Kiramode has a great vlog about a competitive entry price-point. This would be the link to share when getting new players into the game.

The SW LCG is still one of my favorite games (including boardgames or other LCGs) and I will support it till the end - even if there aren't many players in my area to compete with (that's the only negative thing). In my opinion the SW LCG is immensely underrated.

Destiny on the other hand seems bland and too casual for my taste. Never bought a single pack. It scratches a different itch.

Right now I'm heavily invested in L5R and looove it so far. But I have to say.. I'm missing the edge battles. That's by far the coolest mechanic in any LCG / CCG I've played so far. And I'm more the Sci-Fi geek than a Samurai nerd. But they're both brilliant.

tl;dr: Star Wars will not die. I'll support SW:LCG and L5R until they start to suck.

On 17.10.2017 at 2:28 PM, xo_rocinante said:

I'm missing the edge battles. That's by far the coolest mechanic in any LCG / CCG I've played so far. And I'm more the Sci-Fi geek than a Samurai nerd. But they're both brilliant.

Aren't Edge Battles just mostly inspired by Duel mechanic from L5R CCG?

https://rules.alderac.com/cr_for_20f/#duel

12 hours ago, kempy said:

Aren't Edge Battles just mostly inspired by Duel mechanic from L5R CCG?

https://rules.alderac.com/cr_for_20f/#duel

Yea it's similar but on the one hand there isn't much dueling in New5R right now (Maybe like 2 cards out of 223 <=> every round one edge battle) and on the other hand they're different because putting cards in the edge stack is way cooler than bidding honor on a dial. You got more tricks in SWLCG (fate of destiny etc.) and the decision making is much more complicated (Do I put my best card like Palpatine in it or do I use him later as a unit?). Edge battles are the heart of the game while dueling seems like a rather bland mini game.

4 hours ago, xo_rocinante said:

Yea it's similar but on the one hand there isn't much dueling in New5R right now (Maybe like 2 cards out of 223 <=> every round one edge battle) and on the other hand they're different because putting cards in the edge stack is way cooler than bidding honor on a dial. You got more tricks in SWLCG (fate of destiny etc.) and the decision making is much more complicated (Do I put my best card like Palpatine in it or do I use him later as a unit?). Edge battles are the heart of the game while dueling seems like a rather bland mini game.

I put link to L5R CCG ruleset, not L5R LCG one. As you see, in CCG, during dueling, you could go nearly random, when puting face-down cards from top of your deck, or decrease your future game posibilities by using cards from your hand directly while creating focus area (like edge stack in SW). In SW LCG you have edge symbols, in CCG every Fate card had Focus Value (0-5). In L5R when you go face up while resolving you could launch Focus effects on your cards (like effects of Fate cards in SW LCG).

It's just clearly visible that Edge battles are just slightly modified version of L5R CCG duels. A nearly 20 years old mechanic.

http://imperialassembly.com/oracle/#cardid=11995,#hashid=53227abbbd53dc6e4a8040011b1e536e,#cardcount=4

I talked to a friend this past Saturday and let him know I'm passing on Star Wars . I've been playing it since it came out but, at least where I live, there are only really the two of us who play. But everyone and their second cousin is playing L5R. And I love L5R and have since Celestial Edition.

On Saturday's when we played Star Wars , again, it was pretty much just the two of us. Sometimes a third guy would show as his schedule allowed. With L5R on Saturday, there are 6-10 people there. And games being played at our main store and other locations throughout the week.

I don't know if L5R will be the deathblow to the Star Wars LCG, but I know what I'm moving to. I'll still buy Force Packs, and I plan to hit a regional tournament (don't want to waste my bye), but for regular games, I'm putting it away.

I only hope FFG finds a way to revitalize the game because I want to play it, but the players simply aren't there.

I sure hope not!!! I just got a friend into the game and I hope that I can start a local play group!!

If if any one thinks otherwise please say.

The cult of the new is hard to trump. In my meta we've been fairly down, but I keep contacting the crew, and we're starting to tick up. The dads in our group are getting our sons involved. Mine has played for three years now and can really pull off some quality wins. One of our local game stores just secured the regional tournament. SWLCG is an excellent game. People will play quality. It takes awhile to play and some prefer quicker experiences. It might be interesting to test play some quicker games with new folks (dial to 8 & 2 objectives destroyed). You might get more buy-in before ramping up to the full game.

This game feels like Chess + Poker. The mind power and bluffing rush are a great combo. Giving folks an easy way into the game is key. The learning curve is a little steep on this one, but so worth it. Additionally, the community is stellar and the warmth of even the top players has really helped to keep this game attractive.

Local play groups tend to be small. One of my local game store owners suggested I demo the game on some Saturday to get folks more aware. The Kiramode list for buy in is essential to help new players get going quickly. I've even bought cards for folks who were struggling with price point.

We've got about 6 in the main group with 2-3 on the fringe. When we have store tournaments, we have around 8 show up. At times, though it has been down to just a couple. Keep going strong and keep after others to get involved.

Thank you for the reply. I hope to get one going!!!

I will continue playing the game because I enjoy Star Wars and the price point to play is manageable. With the Skype play group really becoming a thing and a number of very successful online tournaments hosted, I think the current strength of the game is fine for even a casual player like me to play.

Am I the only one that wishes FFG would reformat the Star Wars LCG in the style of Arkham and Lord of the Rings? I know I would love to see what that would look like. I am sure my wallet would not like the idea though.

With the closure of the game I will no longer buy any lcg product. It’s a terrible time in the force. Greedy asmode at it again!! Thanks destiny!!!

Could they at least give us a reason why?

2 minutes ago, ScottGilbert25 said:

Could they at least give us a reason why?

Because FFG didn’t market the game well enough and people lost interest in this great game way too fast. But we all knew this anyway. The writing was on the wall.

Here’s hoping for a rebirth of the game, but I seriously doubt it.

12 minutes ago, Wh0isTh3D0ct0r said:

Because FFG didn’t market the game well enough and people lost interest in this great game way too fast. But we all knew this anyway. The writing was on the wall.

Here’s hoping for a rebirth of the game, but I seriously doubt it.

I will blame the innovative deckbuilding mechanic well before the marketing team.

6 minutes ago, vilainn6 said:

I will blame the innovative deckbuilding mechanic well before the marketing team.

I can understand that. However, I personally disagree. I like that part of the game, as did others in this area. But I acknowledge that a lot of people didn't like it.

1 hour ago, Wh0isTh3D0ct0r said:

I can understand that. However, I personally disagree. I like that part of the game, as did others in this area. But I acknowledge that a lot of people didn't like it.

I'd take a guess and say most people didn't like it. Forcing people to build a deck where half the cards are discard trash and then making them figure out how to draw through the trash faster than their opponent isn't super intuitive.

I'd buy a relaunch with tweaked mechanics and typical deckbuilding structure. ****, I'd buy 2, or 3, or however many copies FFG's contentious distribution model required to get a play set

Bad deck building mechanic. Mixed theater where Rancor can attack a Star Destroyer. Game design around ditching your hand every turn to filter for one or two cards that power your deck. It just wasn’t a well designed game with big misses in playability, deck building and theme.

Although perhaps not direct causes, I'll also add:

1) There was at least some disappointment when this game was shifted during its development from a co-op to a competitive game. A lot of people were looking forward to the co-op, because, as inundated we are with Star Wars, a co-op/solo experience was not something we had. I don't think competitive release was a big enough of a home run to overcome the disappointment of those who had gotten excited about the co-op;

2) The first cycle just crushed any momentum the game had out of the gate. Not only did if face delays, but the Hoth theme never really came together and folks were playing essentially core set decks for a LONG time after release.