I am pretty new to CCGs in general. I have been following Destiny for about six months now. I am very familiar with the game from watching people play online, but I have never played locally. So, I have a couple of questions that I have not had the opportunity to ask. Here they are:

1) When Convergence drops, what will be included in the Trilogy format? Only Convergence and the two new starter sets? What about the two-player game?

2) Just curious about FF's design philosophy. Why do they make different versions of characters? I see how it helps keeping the more popular characters in rotation, and it is interesting from a character development perspective (Episode IV Luke with a blaster vs. Episode VI Jedi Luke). But, what is the difference between, say, "Sith Lord" Vader and "Terror to Behold" Vader? If they wanted to keep Vader in rotation, why not just reprint him? Is there a "lore" reason for bumping up his HP and giving him a third damage side?

Edit: Jyn is perhaps a better example; she has appeared in a single movie, but has two versions in this game, changing from Yellow to Red. And, her dice are thematically the same, but have nevertheless changed, and so has her point cost. What is the reason for this? It does not seem to have much to do with character development.

Just curious. Thanks in advance!

Always happy to help a new(or prospective) player, so welcome!

First, after rotation trilogy format will just be Convergence itself(and it's starters). The 2 player set likely won't be legal still, unless they do a re-release of it or explicitly choose to keep it in the format. Same with the draft kits btw, probably won't be legal still unless they choose to have them be.

Secondly, having multiple card versions of a character is something every collectible card game under the sun has done since MTG. From a certain point of view, think of a card is just a snapshot of a characters abilities at that time and not representative of their whole skill set. Like, there easily could be a Red Luke that focuses on his piloting ability! But that doesn't mean he's still not the same character, it's mostly about weighing the themes and mechanics of the card. Remember Yellow is Rogues, Red is military, and Blue is Force.

To look at the Jyn cards, Jyn is a scoundrel type character(yellow), but also a rebellion soldier(red). Sure, there's not a lot of difference, but the Jyn we see on the red card is a Jyn dedicated to her mission as before she was in it for selfish reasons. I'm sure we'll see a Red Han someday, just as we saw a Yellow Leia. So that's one reason you see new, color shifted cards.

The other speaks to the Darth Vader question: Game Balance is the reason why you want new cards! Vader1 May have won worlds, but he quickly became obsolete as the game moved forward, which happens with new games as the designers find their steps in balancing the game. But people LOVE Vader, particularly the idea of Vader as a powerful character as illustrated by the end of Rogue One. So what do you do? You make a new Vader! It seems redundant sure, but it also lets you find the flavor of the character that you like best and makes players happy.

On ‎1‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 1:50 PM, Dirtcarver said:

2) Just curious about FF's design philosophy. Why do they make different versions of characters? I see how it helps keeping the more popular characters in rotation, and it is interesting from a character development perspective (Episode IV Luke with a blaster vs. Episode VI Jedi Luke). But, what is the difference between, say, "Sith Lord" Vader and "Terror to Behold" Vader? If they wanted to keep Vader in rotation, why not just reprint him? Is there a "lore" reason for bumping up his HP and giving him a third damage side?

Welcome. To mainly answer this, there are two reasons:

#1 because they ARE different versions of characters. Look at Palpatine. There's an Emperor version and a Sidious version. Look at Luke: A New Hope, Jedi Knight, Hermit Jedi Master. These different versions represent their different stories in their lives at the time. They can't make just one Luke with 20 different abilities to cover his 50+ years of existence in the SW universe. Also think of it this way, if you enjoy a more "agro", "control", or "mill" deck and your favorite character is Leia, it would suck if the one Leia version out there was only for "mill"...but you enjoy playing "agro"...this at least potentially gives you an option at some point to play her in that kind of version/deck.

#2 because of the game always evolving, they created a 2-year rotation. So in major event tournaments, it plays in the most current Standard format. So older cards eventually "rotate out". It's not that you can't still use them locally via house rules or in the support format they call "Infinite"...it just means at major tournaments, you have to play with the most recent expansions allowed. This allows old cards to cycle out that may have been problematic or the fact that if you had all of these cards to use, it might create an unforeseen combo that a new card that came out with to combo together with a card that is 5+ years old that the developers just didn't see coming. This way, it allows them to do better play testing with more current cards and not have to forecast using everything. Plus it allows them to then create a new Vader3 for example in the most recent set because Vader1 and Vader2 will both be "cycling" out with the next rotation.

Hope that makes more sense and again welcome! Also a lot of CCGs do this to keep the game in a more healthy format. As well as keep sales going b/c let's face it, if they're not making money, they're not making additional expansions of the game.

~D

Sorry for the delayed response. Thank you for your replies. It all make sense in light of what I already assumed.