This is a fan expansion preview that was designed in less than a day for the Star Wars: Destiny card game released by Fantasy Flight Games.

The cards seen here are very much work in progress, most of the designs are in the very early stages of the much needed prototyping.

All the artwork is not mine and is the property of Disney/Lucasfilm.

I'd love to hear your feedback (ANY constructive criticism is very much welcome). Many people told me that Revan seems extremely powerful to them, here is some insight I have to share on that specific card:

- Yes, restricting player agency with removal protection mechanics is a double-edged blade but a card with that specific playstyle, like Vader, needs something along those lines. I'd disagree about poor design in that specific case and argue that it enforces the player's fantasy. Then again, I'd consider increasing the card's health in order to somehow nerf/change up the power action.

- There are many downsides to the character such as its low health in contrast to the cost. Initially, he was at 14 health.

- I did tune down the parameters like the health down because I was afraid the card would prove to be too powerful given the special.

- While the power action and the special have some synergy keep in mind that you CAN'T use your power action to for example get a 4 and then resolve the special with that 4 (dice turned with the power action MAY NOT be removed, even by you).

When designing the cards, my main focus was on bringing to life the fantasy that they are meant to deliver. As long as I get that right, balancing is not something I am as concerned with, at least in the initial design process. Design space is there to balance out the parameters I think.

I firmly believe that good design is an iterative process, I'd rather go big and crazy initially and then work my way down from there. I am experimenting a lot with most of these designs, taking some risks.

An earlier iteration of the Force Drain card played around with the idea of utilizing excess shields and looked something like this (no special that fully heals tho): If this character has maximum shields, any additional shields you give it will instead deal 1 unblockable damage to a character and heal the character this upgrade is attached to for 1.

I think the initial design was more interesting but its offensive nature made the card too powerful. On the other hand, simply healing for 1 for any excess shields felt slightly lackluster.

Also, the new design is somewhat more UX friendly given how much CCG players despise gameplay mechanics designed for digital space (for example ones that force you to keep track of stuff).

Still considering changing the cost to 4 but like I've said before, tweaking such parameters is not really my concern as of right now.

There might be some potential game-breaking cases to consider with specific mechanisms. To be fair I haven't played Destiny in a while so I'd probably have to get acquainted with all the new cards. I did take a quick glance at the newest expansions to take note of the current power curve and the related power creep (and also to be consistent for clarity when wordsmithing - then again, that probably needs some tweaking as well so if you're an avid Destiny player let me know when wording on the cards is inconsistent).

Bastila's special is somewhat ambiguous for a physical CCG but hey, I personally don't mind such mechanisms at all as a player (I'd say her mechanic still does not cross over that line of something that does not work in a physical space). I would like to hear more opinions on this.

If you guys liked what you saw here I might actually consider designing the entire set. This time around though, I'd probably do it in a spreadsheet with a design skeleton of some sort and without art - way easier to balance/iterate that way.

To make it more thematic, I think it would be cool to add a bit more synergy between Mission and Zaalbar. Maybe like when mission takes damage, you may immediately resolve one of Zaalbar's character or upgrade dice. Overall I like the concept, personally I am not a fan of all the discard an upgrade from character thing. Omens of the future I think needs to be unique and only 1 unblockable or draw one card. Revan and Bastilla's specials personally are way too powerful. I would limit Bastilla's to like character dice only or upto 3 other dice. Revan's is way too powerful. Say you run him with Malak. turn one malak rolls his two 3 damage sides and then you roll in revan with his 4 damage and the special. Thats a ten health instant kill on the first turn. I think it needs to be limited to Revens own character dice so it can only be 4 at most or 8 with moxie. For Jolee I would like some sort of healing mechanic. Jolee is known to be the healer type. Maybe add a "you may remove this characters character dice showing melee to heal 1 damage from a character". Another thing you could add is Bastilla was known for her legendary battle meditation. I would like to see that employed somehow. Maybe a power action like "Resolve a character dice. (yours or an opponents) If that die is a Sith die resolve it decreasing its value by one, If that die is a jedi die, resolve it increasing its value by 1." The force drain should also read "heal Malak to full health" that way it is more specific to Malak but still a really good upgrade with all those shields. I am not a fan of the battle field at all, I would suggest making it clearer and not as powerful.

Just some thoughts, I hope I wasn't too critical.

40 minutes ago, Luner_Eclipse said:

To make it more thematic, I think it would be cool to add a bit more synergy between Mission and Zaalbar. Maybe like when mission takes damage, you may immediately resolve one of Zaalbar's character or upgrade dice. Overall I like the concept, personally I am not a fan of all the discard an upgrade from character thing. Omens of the future I think needs to be unique and only 1 unblockable or draw one card. Revan and Bastilla's specials personally are way too powerful. I would limit Bastilla's to like character dice only or upto 3 other dice. Revan's is way too powerful. Say you run him with Malak. turn one malak rolls his two 3 damage sides and then you roll in revan with his 4 damage and the special. Thats a ten health instant kill on the first turn. I think it needs to be limited to Revens own character dice so it can only be 4 at most or 8 with moxie. For Jolee I would like some sort of healing mechanic. Jolee is known to be the healer type. Maybe add a "you may remove this characters character dice showing melee to heal 1 damage from a character". Another thing you could add is Bastilla was known for her legendary battle meditation. I would like to see that employed somehow. Maybe a power action like "Resolve a character dice. (yours or an opponents) If that die is a Sith die resolve it decreasing its value by one, If that die is a jedi die, resolve it increasing its value by 1." The force drain should also read "heal Malak to full health" that way it is more specific to Malak but still a really good upgrade with all those shields. I am not a fan of the battle field at all, I would suggest making it clearer and not as powerful.

Just some thoughts, I hope I wasn't too critical.

Not overly critical at all, I am open to all kinds of criticisms and every opinion is very much welcome. xd Initially I am not really on the same page as you with some of the suggestions you made BUT its all a process, once I go through them again and personally iterate upon some stuff maybe I'll take some parts of what you wrote into account. Cheers!

Do you mind if I use these and adjust them to add an expansion to the game? some of them I am just completely redoing while keeping some text but still adjusting it. Thanks and they look pretty good!

This is epic! A few wording suggestions:

1. Revan: " They may not be removed until the round ends."

2. Darth Malak: careful with the wording here. Technically, this would mean that your other character would be saved from death by Malak suffering...exactly 0 damage, almost every time. Reason? Only when the character has damage on it equal to or greater than its health is it defeated. Example: opponent deals 2 damage to your...uh, Servant of the Dark Side I guess. Before this damage was dealt, he had 1 remaining health. 2 damage is placed on him. Then, since he has no remaining health, he is defeated. But wait--Malak's ability triggers! He is dealt 0 damage--since Servant has no remaining health--and Servant stays in the game. I don't know what to do about this exactly, but I'm sure you'll figure it out.

3. Force Drain: " ...to defeat one of your characters and heal all damage from a character."

4. Sith Marauder: "...for every 4 Blue upgrades in your deck, to a maximum of 3 (rounded down). "

5. Omens of the Future: you could probably remove the "choose one of the following" and then you could fit "unblockable damage to a character" onto the card.

6. Star Forge: watch the "your" in the first sentence. Should be "you."

7. Zaalbar: "...to deal damage to a character equal to its cost." Maybe shorten the quote to fit this in there.

8. Ebon Hawk: "Play an upgrade from your hand for free . Discard that upgrade after the round ends."

9.T3-M4: "...to an opponent." 3 player games are a thing.

10. Oath of Valor: "After that character is defeated, set this support aside and increase..."

11. Stand as One: " Before an opponent deals damage to one of your characters, you may prevent that damage if one or more of your characters was defeated by that opponent during the last round."

Of course, this is how I would put it, so you don't have to do that. I'm outta time for now, so I'll write down card balancing and stuff tomorrow.