Hi guys

I'm a huge Star Wars nerd, and I was looking forward to the release of this game, but after reading preview articles about it, and seeing the live playthrough FFG did on Twitch, I got the impression that there was almost no player interaction in this game. I have the impression that everyone just plays a solo game, and eventually someone will reach 10 fame and the game is over. It seems really odd to me that you can't attack each other, and I have since completely given up on this game thinking it wasn't a "real" game. Can you even call something where you don't interact meaningfully with each other a game?

Recently I came to think of the game again, and browsing through this forum, it doesn't seem like anyone else is bringing this topic up, so I was thinking if I may have judged the game too harshly.

Do you interact meaningfully with each other in this game? Can people gang up on the points leader for example to take him down?

If not, why is this game fun? Every other piece of entertainment is constantly competing for me and my friends' time. Is there any reason to play this game over Rebellion or Twilight Imperium for example?

Thanks in advance for any input

Player interaction is there, in many forms. But it is circumstantial.

Crew can be recruited to make bounties more difficult to obtain. They can even be dropped off on the far side of the board.

Cards allow for stealing of things (mostly credits) from other players.

Cards allow for messing with other players reputations

Players in the same space may trade belongings, and crew, and can even make loans. This allows for a bit of ganging up shenanigans.

Market actions allow you to bury a card in addition to purchasing one. You can certainly affect your opponents with strategic discards of key items.

Patrols can block paths, causing delays. This can be very useful, and the movement rules for patrols purposely allow some latitude for the person moving them to take a strategic path over a more direct one.

Lastly there are cards and abilities that allow you to directly attack another player. They might come up infrequently, but they make a difference when they do get used.

I have found that the rest of the players can certainly slow down the leader if they can set aside their differences and focus their efforts.

Thank you for your detailed answer. I'm glad the game isn't as simple as I thought it was.

Admittedly there wasn't a whole lot of player interaction in the first few games I played. Everyone is figuring the game out, understanding the rules, trying to get a basic grasp of how everything works.

Once it clicked and pretty much from the 4th game on (with the same group of people) it became a blast and had tons of interaction. You just never know what is going to happen and with friends cheering/jeering each other on and the one-handed deals everyone is trying to make and the exchange of credits for everything from minute information to bounties, everything is there. It's hard to explain but if you can get several games in with the same group of people the game will come alive and the interaction will absolutely keep everyone at the table week after week.