I recently got myself the Hotshots and Aces pack and got my hands on Maul (Crew). And his text hit me a little, as the only Force Power he unlocks is Hate right now. Considering, that for the Rebels he actually costs 26 points, es he requires a mediocre Ezra Bridger (Gunner) or alternatively the Tie/LN, Sheathepide or Attack Shuttle Pilot version... Neither of which is very alluring. I was expecting to see more of those Dark Side powers available... So now I am curious, what could be an interesting Force Power to include, of the Dark Side nature? As a SW manbaby, I can think of a single classical option, that immediately hit me. Choke - because we saw Vader perform it across vast distances and it somewhat already exists in the Darth Vader (crew) card. But what else would be viable? Drain - speding two Force t transfer a damage card from you to one other ship nearby?

TLDR: Maul for Rebels needs to offer more Force options. What are your ideas?

It's crazy that after a year and a half in second edition's life cycle, this area of game design space is still unexplored or not fully capitalized on to better define factional identity. See also: Illicits, Scum;

Sinister Presence, gives stress for spending Force. Fear transfer. 'I've got a bad feeling about this'

Unnatural Endurance, when you would suffer a pilot/crew crit, discard it for spending a Force. Mauls uncanny survival. Sleeps with vibroblades. Vader.

Fury, Spend two Force tokens to perform a bonus primary attack against a target you have not attacked yet this round. Kylo wrecks a computer. Maul takes on two Jedi at once.

*******

See, not hard.

In general, I'd stay away from the more ground combat abilities. Like, Vader to me isn't a thematic ability because in Canon to my knowledge he has to actually be able to SEE the target to choke it. Notably, he doesn't just choke Biggs when he had an obvious opportunity, or Luke for that matter, while in the trench. Yes he gets an Admiral, who he knows, has nothing else like piloting a ship to distract him from focusing on, and the time needed to pull it off. Like, Vader would have been a better ability to me if it was Force choke a friendly to 'redouble the efforts' of nearby friendlies.

I would very, VERY, much rather not have literal interpretation of any Force powers in the game that we don't have consistent canonical reason for. No opening the cockpit to deflect lasers with lightsabers silliness. Like please for the love of baby Yoda don't put Force Push/Pull in this game. We really don't need ANOTHER tractor conversation. No Lightning either. (F-off RoS.)

6 minutes ago, ForceSensitive said:

Sinister Presence, gives stress for spending Force. Fear transfer. 'I've got a bad feeling about this'

Unnatural Endurance, when you would suffer a pilot/crew crit, discard it for spending a Force. Mauls uncanny survival. Sleeps with vibroblades. Vader.

Fury, Spend two Force tokens to perform a bonus primary attack against a target you have not attacked yet this round. Kylo wrecks a computer. Maul takes on two Jedi at once.

I'd like to see more Force Abilities that really tempt Dark Side pilots to use the Force in ways that don't include every round dice modification. These ideas fit the bill, submit your resume to FFG marketing please.

Just now, Cloaker said:

I'd like to see more Force Abilities that really tempt Dark Side pilots to use the Force in ways that don't include every round dice modification. These ideas fit the bill, submit your resume to FFG marketing please.

Well dang. That's awfully high praise. That's extraordinarily kind of you. Thank you most graciously. I'm actually a bit humbled. 🤗

I worked as a playtester for them for a project actually, which is how you usually get your 'in' with the company. Good fun. Great experience. Extremely cool look behind the curtain. Would recommend you all apply if the opportunity presented itself. 👍 😄

They didn't like my ideas very much though. Much of my feedback was dismissed and at times even ridiculed by other testers. It was very much a learning and growing experience. Still recommend it. So for the project I worked on, I don't think I passed the interview 😬 😅

Funnily enough, Locally people think my ideas were sampled to create second Ed. Comically so. Much of what the game got upgrades into was fan designed though so I don't personally think I had much to do with it but maybe help keep certain forum conversations going. For a fun time, check out the 'compilation idea' thread I started months before 2.0 was announced and check out how much was actually prophetic from many of us fans. Can't say FFG doesn't listen!

Oh well. I still like to play in the sandbox! So I love threads like this to see what they'll 'borrow' from in the future and we can all point to and say 'that was a fan idea'. WEEEEEEE!!! 🤪

(Oh and don't ask what the project was. "I can't talk about future releases"and all that 😳 .)

Shroud of the Dark Side - During the Modify Dice step, you may spend 1 [Force charge] to change one of the defender's [Evade] results to a [Focus] result or [Focus] result to a blank result. This die cannot be further modified.

Willpower - Adds purple [Boost] action. When you perform a red [Barrel Roll] action, you may treat it as purple.

I'd really like to see some Light Side upgrades as well, although I'm less certain what they'd look like.

11 minutes ago, Jarval said:

I'd really like to see some Light Side upgrades as well, although I'm less certain what they'd look like.

Knowledge and Defense. Light Side only.

+1 Force. You may only spend Force to modify defense dice or use a ship ability.

Anger unleashed: you may regenerate an additional force point during the end phase. Each time that you use a force token, if you have 5 stress or less, suffer 1 stress. Otherwise, suffer 1 damage.

Trust your Instincts, light side only. After you're assigned a red or orange token, you may spend 1 Force. If you do, you may perform a Focus or Evade action.

Search your Feelings, light side only. When you attack, you may cancel a (hit/crit) to recover 1 Force.

Mind Trick, light side only. At the beginning of the engagement phase, you may spend two Force to choose a Target in your front arc at range 1. You may choose to assign that ship a stress or focus token.

The one purely Light Sided force ability I can think of is Battle Meditation, but that is faction locked.

I really like the idea of two Force for a bonus attack. But it seems more in the line of the I4 Inquisitors.

Willpower for Purple Boost would be a must have on Vader, instead of the Afterburners.

Mind Trick (Light Side Only): When an enemy ship at range 0-2 declares an attack, you may spend 2 Force. The attacker's dice cannot be modified.

Wrath (Dark Side Only): When performing an attack, if the defender has a face-up Pilot damage card, you may discard that card and spend 1 Force in order to reroll any number of attack dice. This does not count as rerolling for the purpose of other effects.

On 2/19/2020 at 10:57 AM, Cloaker said:

It's crazy that after a year and a half in second edition's life cycle, this area of game design space is still unexplored or not fully capitalized on to better define factional identity. See also: Illicits, Scum;

Its funny, because the only illicit released since 2.0 launch can’t be used by a single scum ship.

18 hours ago, Jarval said:

I'd really like to see some Light Side upgrades as well, although I'm less certain what they'd look like.

Brillant evasion, but actually good?

Shi-cho Trance, light side, at the beginning of the engagement phase you may spend a(2?) Force. If you do, you may reroll one die when defending until the end of the round.

I was thinking about lightsaber forms and figured they're just as much mind states, so why not? As long as the effect matches the philosophy and not the lightsaber results.

Unlimited POooooowwwweer: Spend a force token to give every enemy ship on the board enough Ion tokens to Ion it.

Can only used when wrapping up your third game, after someone else played your list for you during your second game and threw away your game plan.....

On 2/19/2020 at 11:04 AM, ForceSensitive said:

Fury, Spend two Force tokens to perform a bonus primary attack against a target you have not attacked yet this round. Kylo wrecks a computer. Maul takes on two Jedi at once.

This would be really interesting to see in the form of a Maul Crew. I think Separatist needs Maul, and Having some sort of double tap ability would be pretty cool. The real challenge would be differentiating it from his pilot ability.

Not sure which side of the fence this falls on. Wording for idea only, you guys can extrapolate the intent.

Taunt - Spend a force charge. When an enemy engages, if you are in their fire arc and the closest ship, they must declare you the target.

So sort of like the automated target priority?? I think that would be really good on leia.

On 2/21/2020 at 1:32 AM, FlyingAnchors said:

Brillant evasion, but actually good?

Apparently it's decent on Luke, so be careful when making a better version.

Ideas:

Dark Side, Focused Rage: When you are dealt a faceup pilot damage card, you may spend 1 force to flip that card facedown (do not resolve its effects).

Light Side, Graceful Patience

At the start of the engagement phase, you may spend 1 force to treat your initiative as 0 for this phase. If you do, when you perform an attack, you may re-roll blank results (or just change eyes to hits? some dice modification thing).

THE TRUE POWER OF THE DARKSIDE

While attacking, you may spend force to change blank results to hit results. You cannot modify defense dice with the force.

THE WAY OF THE JEDI

While defending you may use the force to change blank results to evade results. You cannot modify attack dice with the force.

14 minutes ago, JBFancourt said:

THE TRUE POWER OF THE DARKSIDE

While attacking, you may spend force to change blank results to hit results. You cannot modify defense dice with the force.

THE WAY OF THE JEDI

While defending you may use the force to change blank results to evade results. You cannot modify attack dice with the force.

Oh god please no

Every darkside use becomes rey.

Every Jedi becomes a points fortress

3 minutes ago, Roller of blanks said:

Oh god please no

Every darkside use becomes rey.

Every Jedi becomes a points fortress

Maybe it's ok if they spend 2 force to do so?

Maaayybeee?

I'm very wary of giving force users a way to mod any die result without having to "earn/pay" for it somehow.

Maybe give them two strain, or a deplete, or something to make it so this is more of a 2 or 3 use per game effect rather than always on supermods

2 minutes ago, Roller of blanks said:

Maaayybeee?

I'm very wary of giving force users a way to mod any die result without having to "earn/pay" for it somehow.

Maybe give them two strain, or a deplete, or something to make it so this is more of a 2 or 3 use per game effect rather than always on supermods

It’s no worse than Kylo with AO imho