I'm a long time LOTR LCG player, and I'm just starting to get into the SW LCG. Destiny looks interesting, but I have no interest in going all in, chasing rates and so on. Is Destiny a good (fun) game with just the two starter packs and a few boosters now and then? I would only be playing with my wife and/or kids.

Works perfectly well in your situation, I'd highly recommend it.

I'd say there are two big issues with playing it casually.

The first is the distribution of characters. Most characters are costed in a way to fit into specific builds, while closing off other options. However, with the characters being random, you mat struggle to put together teams based purely on not having options. This can be an issue where, for example, you could afford an Elite character but don't have a second dice; the deck is significantly hampered and there's nothing else you can spend those points on. One solution to this is to invest a little money in some singles, many characters are reasonably cheap and it'll open up your options a lot. The other possibility is to proxy dice, as that's simple enough for casual games (though it does take away from the 'cool' factor).

The second issue is sharing cards - most decks will want a basic core of similar cards. E.g. any decks that use Ranged damage will want upgrades like guns etc, any blue deck likely wants lightsabres and force powers etc. While you can probably build two decks along those split lines, it'll likely be tough to have more than two decks at a time, or two decks that play in a similar way. Unfortunately there's no easy way around this without buying more product.

That said, I know several people who play it with the family and enjoy it with a limited card pool, so it's probably a matter of how much not having options annoys you (as an LCG player, it's definitely been tough not being able to play anything I want).

I, too, very much enjoy the LotR and SW LCGs. I play Destiny "casually" also, and I think it's probably the BEST way to play it! Who cares about efficiency and stupid crazy complex optimization - I just want to roll cool dice and watch my favorite heroes and villans force choke each other and shoot each other with laser beams!

38 minutes ago, rbaker1978 said:

I'm a long time LOTR LCG player, and I'm just starting to get into the SW LCG. Destiny looks interesting, but I have no interest in going all in, chasing rates and so on. Is Destiny a good (fun) game with just the two starter packs and a few boosters now and then? I would only be playing with my wife and/or kids.

That's pretty much the best way to play it. Destiny doesn't have a tight enough rule set to support truly competitive play, but it's fun enough to play casually, and cracking the occasional pack is always a treat.

I concur, I play only casual and have great fun with the game, but I did go a little crazy with my purchase. But I can make 4 decent decks that play well. Multiplayer works well with this game.

Works fine, although you may want to wait for the next starter set, which may have each starter having full decks(current comes with only 20 when you need 30). I've been playing it for fun at the local shop in our tourneys, but it's nothing super serious. I'll probably bail out after the 3rd wave, which will hopefully be Rebels, where I'll grab like 3 boxes. Wave 2 I'm going for 2 boxes and a handful of singles. I'm enjoying the game, but I don't necessarily want to be buying forever

If you want to go in now, I recommend both Starters and a Booster box. between the 36 packs you should get a decent character to upgrade ratio enough to have the base you need. After that go singles when you want to

On a more serious note, though, Abyss does make some very valid points. Getting good/balanced characters and sharing a card pool can be issues!

If you are going to play casually I wouldn't even worry about building 'Legal' decks to begin with. Having cards, especially upgrades, of a colour that you cant use because you don't have the correct colour characters to field them can be frustrating. But if you are only playing casually at home it shouldn't really matter. I would still recommend sticking to the 30 points character limit though as things may become too unbalanced. On launch day last year I bought one of each starter and a handful of boosters, I pulled a lot of yellow cards for both hero and villains and couldn't legally play any of them because at that point I had no yellow characters to enable me to do so. Not a problem once I got home to play the game with my son as we just house ruled it at the time that we could play any colour card.

9 hours ago, rbaker1978 said:

I'm a long time LOTR LCG player, and I'm just starting to get into the SW LCG. Destiny looks interesting, but I have no interest in going all in, chasing rates and so on. Is Destiny a good (fun) game with just the two starter packs and a few boosters now and then? I would only be playing with my wife and/or kids.

I pretty much ONLY play this game with my wife. I have two other friends who I play with every now and again. I could not convince the rest of my gaming group to buy into this game. Hoping that changes this Winter.

You could always get 1 booster box for around £85. This would give you both plenty more options in creating various decks so you are not always playing against the same builds.

11 hours ago, rbaker1978 said:

I'm a long time LOTR LCG player, and I'm just starting to get into the SW LCG. Destiny looks interesting, but I have no interest in going all in, chasing rates and so on. Is Destiny a good (fun) game with just the two starter packs and a few boosters now and then? I would only be playing with my wife and/or kids.

I guess I'll present the dissenting opinion. With starters and a box I found myself very limited in what could be legally built for just one. I like Scoddyboy's idea of relaxing restrictions for casual play. It really depends on how casual you want to be here. You may get a Legendary Vader but won't get enough to properly combat him for example. You might not be able to make a certain yellow or red deck with this approach. At least Vader can legally fight Kylo in this game.

Personally, I would buy a cheap used LCG set and play with that. You won't have any deck creating problems, can have a full playset for casual or competition play, and it's cheaper. Destiny is simpler so it's great for quick family play. Ah, and the LCG has a set, Balance of the Force that most recommend to skip, but it includes special multiplayer decks where 2 or 3 players collectively fight a powerful special player.

But the LCG doesn't have these big beautiful fun dice to roll dice? I've played both games, LCG for over 2 years, it is fun. Destiny is funner. But also more expensive. If you feel pigeoned holes cause you didn't get a couple cards/characters buy me online as singles.

1 hour ago, theChony said:

I guess I'll present the dissenting opinion. With starters and a box I found myself very limited in what could be legally built for just one. I like Scoddyboy's idea of relaxing restrictions for casual play. It really depends on how casual you want to be here. You may get a Legendary Vader but won't get enough to properly combat him for example. You might not be able to make a certain yellow or red deck with this approach. At least Vader can legally fight Kylo in this game.

Personally, I would buy a cheap used LCG set and play with that. You won't have any deck creating problems, can have a full playset for casual or competition play, and it's cheaper. Destiny is simpler so it's great for quick family play. Ah, and the LCG has a set, Balance of the Force that most recommend to skip, but it includes special multiplayer decks where 2 or 3 players collectively fight a powerful special player.

I wouldn't recommend anyone get into this game without a starter. Those will be coming back to stores very soon. The game can be played between two players with just two starters and it's a lot of fun. Also, the singles market can be used to to put together fun decks for less than 50 dollars. (I've actually posted such a deck on this forum.)

Well, I'd planned on picking up the starter sets from CSI today, but from the time I got the mail to when I could get online they've already sold out. Guess if I do want to try it out I'll wait for the Spirit of Rebellion starter.

There is supposed to be a lot more starters coming to stores soon as part of the reprint of Awakenings. If you can get to an FLGS I'm sure there would be players to donate some of their very common commons to help you flesh out your decks with events and non dice supports and upgrades. If not there are job lots of commons going cheap on ebay.

53 minutes ago, rbaker1978 said:

Well, I'd planned on picking up the starter sets from CSI today, but from the time I got the mail to when I could get online they've already sold out. Guess if I do want to try it out I'll wait for the Spirit of Rebellion starter.

SoR will not have new starter sets, but between now and June you should see Awakening Starters for sale again. FFG has stated we should see a big supply hit stores in June.

5 hours ago, TryerImp said:

You could always get 1 booster box for around £85. This would give you both plenty more options in creating various decks so you are not always playing against the same builds.

Please point me to where I can find a booster box for that price!

A couple of my local flgs were selling them at that price when they 1st came out. another on the south coast cost a bit more due to the postage. That was with 10% discount