I seem to recall back in the 1.0 days when Paul Heaver was dominating the competitive scene the winner of worlds was allowed to create a new upgrade card. Does anyone else remember this?

WHAT IF this concept was made more widespread at ffg events?

OPTION 1. Have a design a card competition that is started well before big events where players put forward suggestions for new content and then players at the event vote for what they like. Best ideas get sent onto ffg HQ for review. FFG can still modify the card if needed for play balance before the card is officially released to the general public. They could even let people proxy the upgrade and test it allowing them time to release the card and eventually create it for release in an future expansion.

OPTION 2. Have a side event separate from the main event that allows new ideas to be proxied and tested. Could establish some parameters around points allocation for 'prototype cards' allowed per list eg. max of 25pts worth of original content. At the conclusion of each match players score their opponents proxied cards using set criteria such as - balance, theme, usefulness. At the conclusion of the event players could vote for what ideas they liked best. Best ideas get sent onto ffg HQ for review. Could even do some 'blind testing' with players given a specific upgrade to build a squad around or even have a squad list there ready to play and swap with another player.

OPTION 3. Have a group of people (3-4 ppl?) working together on creating something new for each faction. This could be a group challenge or simply a pitch my idea to the rest of the group. If you knew this was taking place beforehand you could come prepped with your ideas. Let the each group vote/score ideas based on criteria eg. balance, theme, fun etc. These groups might even be faction specific since some players have a better knowledge/experience with a specific faction. Best ideas as voted for players for each faction get sent onto ffg HQ for review.

OPTION 4. The winner of the event can design a new card to be released by FFG in future expansion.

I've often wanted something like this... More for Battle tech than X-wing. BUT with the sheer # of players out there, other than a competition to design say one or two cards, there's no real way to do it..

They do, you just have to win World's first. Simples.

Jokes aside, I'm all for taking suggestions from the masses, but leave the game design to the professional game designers. It is not at all an easy task, and even those who did win the chance to make a card for any of FFGs games did so under the direct guidance and revision of those designers for a reason.

I believe this was it???

thnx @JBFancourt thats it. think there were 1-2 others by other winners also eh?

1 minute ago, Greedo_Sharpshooter said:

thnx @JBFancourt thats it. think there were 1-2 others by other winners also eh?

I always dreamed of winning and designing Thrawn Crew !!! ❤️❤️❤️

2 hours ago, JBFancourt said:

I always dreamed of winning and designing Thrawn Crew !!! ❤️❤️❤️

imo ffg needs to introduce more ways for players to get into the design space. sure give the winner this a prize but why not open it up to players via another pathway?

@JBFancourt what would be your Thrawn crew design?

I don't know, I kinda like having the only player designed card in 2.0 so far.

5 hours ago, Cpt.Kirk006 said:

@JBFancourt what would be your Thrawn crew design?

Ooooo... glad you asked! 😁😁

I really wanted a reflection of his original character created by Timothy Zahn in the Heir To The Empire trilogy. A master strategist that knew what his enemy was going to do before the enemy knew it. The absolute BEST villain in Star Wars history. Primarily, he did this by studying specie art or the past combat history of his foes... and played them like the incompetent fools they were! 🤣

Obviously this is a tall order. The art studying aspect I don’t think would translate into the game other than flavor text or card art, perhaps. Especially since Thrawn tended to study art prior to engagements. X-wing occurs at the point of engagement.

The big design question is: do you (a) just give X powerful ability to an expensive Thrawn crew card because he was awesomeness incarnate, OR (b) do you allow the PLAYER to BE the white uniformed admiral himself (if he dares)?

If Option A, it’s easy. Just a decision on power level and points most likely managed with charges. If Option B, then the power lies in the gamble of the player (like X bonus for guessing correctly what an enemy ship’s dial is, similar to Casssian crew).

Two notes: (1) I would want him GOOD. I especially want him more expensive than Vader for thematic reasons. This sort of point level probably means either taking some opponent agency away or giving you red dice. Both are taxed pretty heavily by FFG. (2) There is also a subtler Thrawn theme I would want to pick up on. He could take on more powerful forces with weaker forces. And Thrawn used standard Imperial equipment, the whole TIE Defender plot line aside. He handed people’s butts to them with the TIE/LN!

Thus, I present for your consideration, with a little bit of Option A and B:

Grand Admiral Thrawn

(Unique, 2 crew <Noghri Bodyguards 😁>, Imperial Only)

Adds Action: White Coordinate linked to Red Focus

3 recurring charges

”At the start of the engagement phase, you may spend three charges to choose one enemy ship. If you do, every friendly ship with a V primary attack value of two may roll one additional attack die when attacking the chosen ship with a V primary attack.”

Thoughts on balance.

Obviously the card is limited by hard prices like cost, 2 crew, and 3 charges. Also, the hidden cost of 2 crew is needing a ship that costs 41-76 points plus Thrawn’s price.

The strategy balance is a bit similar to Leia. Yes you can use his ability for a single shot, but the bigger upside is in getting multiple arcs on the target (Thrawn would KNOW where they were going to fly to 😉)

This does not empower Imp Aces. Which is what I want. I want Thrawn to be the ace. And his execution of the battle strategy with a bunch of generic TIEs to be deadly.

Obviously I mention 2 die only attacks... Idk... allowing for 3 die guns to use it seems scary. I guess you could just cap at 4 dice like 7th fleet gunner. Then you could choose which squad to best run with.

I don’t know. No play testing. Thoughts??? Tweaks??? What should Thrawn do? Maybe we can start a petition for FFG!

18 minutes ago, JBFancourt said:

Ooooo... glad you asked! 😁😁

I really wanted a reflection of his original character created by Timothy Zahn in the Heir To The Empire trilogy. A master strategist that knew what his enemy was going to do before the enemy knew it. The absolute BEST villain in Star Wars history. Primarily, he did this by studying specie art or the past combat history of his foes... and played them like the incompetent fools they were! 🤣

Obviously this is a tall order. The art studying aspect I don’t think would translate into the game other than flavor text or card art, perhaps. Especially since Thrawn tended to study art prior to engagements. X-wing occurs at the point of engagement.

The big design question is: do you (a) just give X powerful ability to an expensive Thrawn crew card because he was awesomeness incarnate, OR (b) do you allow the PLAYER to BE the white uniformed admiral himself (if he dares)?

If Option A, it’s easy. Just a decision on power level and points most likely managed with charges. If Option B, then the power lies in the gamble of the player (like X bonus for guessing correctly what an enemy ship’s dial is, similar to Casssian crew).

Two notes: (1) I would want him GOOD. I especially want him more expensive than Vader for thematic reasons. This sort of point level probably means either taking some opponent agency away or giving you red dice. Both are taxed pretty heavily by FFG. (2) There is also a subtler Thrawn theme I would want to pick up on. He could take on more powerful forces with weaker forces. And Thrawn used standard Imperial equipment, the whole TIE Defender plot line aside. He handed people’s butts to them with the TIE/LN!

Thus, I present for your consideration, with a little bit of Option A and B:

Grand Admiral Thrawn

(Unique, 2 crew <Noghri Bodyguards 😁>, Imperial Only)

Adds Action: White Coordinate linked to Red Focus

3 recurring charges

”At the start of the engagement phase, you may spend three charges to choose one enemy ship. If you do, every friendly ship with a V primary attack value of two may roll one additional attack die when attacking the chosen ship with a V primary attack.”

Thoughts on balance.

Obviously the card is limited by hard prices like cost, 2 crew, and 3 charges. Also, the hidden cost of 2 crew is needing a ship that costs 41-76 points plus Thrawn’s price.

The strategy balance is a bit similar to Leia. Yes you can use his ability for a single shot, but the bigger upside is in getting multiple arcs on the target (Thrawn would KNOW where they were going to fly to 😉)

This does not empower Imp Aces. Which is what I want. I want Thrawn to be the ace. And his execution of the battle strategy with a bunch of generic TIEs to be deadly.

Obviously I mention 2 die only attacks... Idk... allowing for 3 die guns to use it seems scary. I guess you could just cap at 4 dice like 7th fleet gunner. Then you could choose which squad to best run with.

I don’t know. No play testing. Thoughts??? Tweaks??? What should Thrawn do? Maybe we can start a petition for FFG!

pretty cool concept. if ffg ran with the idea of giving players input like this you could proxy it and test prior to pitching it.testing it at an event and gather feedback from other players

1 hour ago, JBFancourt said:

Ooooo... glad you asked! 😁😁

I really wanted a reflection of his original character created by Timothy Zahn in the Heir To The Empire trilogy. A master strategist that knew what his enemy was going to do before the enemy knew it. The absolute BEST villain in Star Wars history. Primarily, he did this by studying specie art or the past combat history of his foes... and played them like the incompetent fools they were! 🤣

Obviously this is a tall order. The art studying aspect I don’t think would translate into the game other than flavor text or card art, perhaps. Especially since Thrawn tended to study art prior to engagements. X-wing occurs at the point of engagement.

The big design question is: do you (a) just give X powerful ability to an expensive Thrawn crew card because he was awesomeness incarnate, OR (b) do you allow the PLAYER to BE the white uniformed admiral himself (if he dares)?

If Option A, it’s easy. Just a decision on power level and points most likely managed with charges. If Option B, then the power lies in the gamble of the player (like X bonus for guessing correctly what an enemy ship’s dial is, similar to Casssian crew).

Two notes: (1) I would want him GOOD. I especially want him more expensive than Vader for thematic reasons. This sort of point level probably means either taking some opponent agency away or giving you red dice. Both are taxed pretty heavily by FFG. (2) There is also a subtler Thrawn theme I would want to pick up on. He could take on more powerful forces with weaker forces. And Thrawn used standard Imperial equipment, the whole TIE Defender plot line aside. He handed people’s butts to them with the TIE/LN!

Thus, I present for your consideration, with a little bit of Option A and B:

Grand Admiral Thrawn

(Unique, 2 crew <Noghri Bodyguards 😁>, Imperial Only)

Adds Action: White Coordinate linked to Red Focus

3 recurring charges

”At the start of the engagement phase, you may spend three charges to choose one enemy ship. If you do, every friendly ship with a V primary attack value of two may roll one additional attack die when attacking the chosen ship with a V primary attack.”

Thoughts on balance.

Obviously the card is limited by hard prices like cost, 2 crew, and 3 charges. Also, the hidden cost of 2 crew is needing a ship that costs 41-76 points plus Thrawn’s price.

The strategy balance is a bit similar to Leia. Yes you can use his ability for a single shot, but the bigger upside is in getting multiple arcs on the target (Thrawn would KNOW where they were going to fly to 😉)

This does not empower Imp Aces. Which is what I want. I want Thrawn to be the ace. And his execution of the battle strategy with a bunch of generic TIEs to be deadly.

Obviously I mention 2 die only attacks... Idk... allowing for 3 die guns to use it seems scary. I guess you could just cap at 4 dice like 7th fleet gunner. Then you could choose which squad to best run with.

I don’t know. No play testing. Thoughts??? Tweaks??? What should Thrawn do? Maybe we can start a petition for FFG!

Give it a systems trigger instead of an engagement trigger. Thrawn is a strategic genius who doesn't need perfect board knowledge to pull off a master stroke.

In game terms, by allowing that window for opponent agency, you create a wonderfully tense activation phase where you work to tighten the noose while they try to thwart your carefully laid trap. It also creates space for mind games! Perfect Thrawn flavah

8 minutes ago, Maui. said:

Give it a systems trigger instead of an engagement trigger. Thrawn is a strategic genius who doesn't need perfect board knowledge to pull off a master stroke.

In game terms, by allowing that window for opponent agency, you create a wonderfully tense activation phase where you work to tighten the noose while they try to thwart your carefully laid trap. It also creates space for mind games! Perfect Thrawn flavah

I LOVE THAT SOOOO MUCH

I was gonna say, i was pretty intrigued by most of the "fix" cards from 1.0. I believe these designers actually make some good designs even if they were really off the mark with certain things (especially while trying to min-max, see turrets and super efficiency).

Generally, I'd say most people would probably make stuff that is 75% as interesting, with similar balance problems.

I could see submitting one idea with registration to a side event at a huge event, full card costs, etc. 1 month out from the event all the suggestions are pulled aside and then one for each faction and one generic one is added into the card pool for all players to build around, with an email to all players attending that event about which cards are now legal. Maybe even print and play? Could be a lot of fun! And since anything horribly broken would be fleshed out and probably built around it could be a great test bed for other abilities.

It would take a huge amount of coordination to do it.

1 hour ago, Jyico said:

I could see submitting one idea with registration to a side event at a huge event, full card costs, etc. 1 month out from the event all the suggestions are pulled aside and then one for each faction and one generic one is added into the card pool for all players to build around, with an email to all players attending that event about which cards are now legal. Maybe even print and play? Could be a lot of fun! And since anything horribly broken would be fleshed out and probably built around it could be a great test bed for other abilities.

It would take a huge amount of coordination to do it.

Print and play. Like it. This could be a lot of fun at ur local game store too.

a LEGO Ideas type thing would be very cool

I wonder if licensing stuff prevents it, always kinda interesting how things work with the Star Wars IP

Do you know what the best thing about this is?!? THERE IS NOTHING STOPPING YOU FROM ORGANISING YOUR OWN CASUAL LOCAL TOURNAMENT WHERE YOU DO THIS! (The best thing about this I that you then learn how difficult a task this is).

I for one am happy that cards in 2.0 have been designers only - not that I want them not to be inspired by what we here on the forum come up with - I DO - that is fantastic. However I want them to stay on the path and keep things as balanced as possible.

Coincidentally and for some of you to get inspired, back in 1.0, I suggested an idea for making the TIE Phantom more than just Whisper with Advanced Cloacking Device.

Which can seen as pretty close to what the designers ended-up with for the 2.0 TIE Phantom ship ability.



So keep those card-ideas comming!!!!! The FFG Designers may be watching

17 hours ago, NakedDex said:

They do, you just have to win World's first. Simples.

Jokes aside, I'm all for taking suggestions from the masses, but leave the game design to the professional game designers. It is not at all an easy task, and even those who did win the chance to make a card for any of FFGs games did so under the direct guidance and revision of those designers for a reason.

If they wanted to, what I'd suggest would be doing one or more community-created cards.

Legend of the Five Rings is one of FFG's own IPs* and they have rather more freedom for character and story development than they do with Star Wars, so a regular tournament prize is 'story choices' where the actual ongoing narrative is shaped by the players. But I don't see why the community-created card (with voting options moderated by a more professional designer) wouldn't work for X-wing too.

As an example, the L5R character "Worldly Shiotome" was created as a result of the series of articles and votes shown below.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/11/7/a-samurais-legacy/

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/11/14/a-samurais-heritage/

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/11/21/a-samurais-significance/

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/11/28/a-samurais-skill/

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/12/5/a-samurais-heart/

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/12/12/a-samurais-precision/

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/12/19/a-samurais-aesthetic/

4 hours ago, Kieransi said:

a LEGO Ideas type thing would be very cool

I wonder if licensing stuff prevents it, always kinda interesting how things work with the Star Wars IP

I'd love to see stuff from the Lego Star Wars series like M-OC and Tracker 1 (Totally-not-a-Phantom) or Jek-14 and his stealth fighter (Totally-not-an-E-wing), and - given stuff like Hotshots and Aces, a pack of one-new-pilot-for-each-faction no longer looks like as ridiculous an idea.

* Well...it's not originally. But they bought it lock, stock and katana rather than licensing it.

3 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

If they wanted to, what I'd suggest would be doing one or more community-created cards.

Legend of the Five Rings is one of FFG's own IPs* and they have rather more freedom for character and story development than they do with Star Wars, so a regular tournament prize is 'story choices' where the actual ongoing narrative is shaped by the players. But I don't see why the community-created card (with voting options moderated by a more professional designer) wouldn't work for X-wing too.

* Well...it's not originally. But they bought it lock, stock and katana rather than licensing it.

The player engagement in worldbuilding was actually a defining feature of the original AEG version of the game. One of the people I used to play with actually was able to choose a Scorpion card to Experience for a future product. It's one of the things that I hope translated well to the FFG-owned version of the game.

49 minutes ago, feltipern1 said:

The player engagement in worldbuilding was actually a defining feature of the original AEG version of the game. One of the people I used to play with actually was able to choose a Scorpion card to Experience for a future product. It's one of the things that I hope translated well to the FFG-owned version of the game.

So far it's been pretty good. Not only has the LCG had story choices that genuinely do shift the direction of the story*, but they've also incorporated RPG event results from GenCon into the story as well.

* Should we kill off the Crane Clan Champion's brother....or not? Given that the result of said decision has resulted in a civil war in at least one clan, FFG can hardly be accused of giving us minor decisions.

1. Most ideas that come out of this community are super broken, or could be due to unforeseen consequences (my own included)

2. We don't have access to what may be in their pipeline

3. So much of what is repeatedly suggested here on the forums and generally agreed to be in the best interest of the game ends up getting adopted in some form (gunboat, anyone?)

4. There's nothing stopping you from making suggestions, as specific or general as you want. The devs do see what goes on here.