Is anyone else confused by the factions? I don't really understand why they chose to put factions in this game. The way I've always taken it, Star Wars -- at least the Classic Era, this game appears to be solely focused on -- basically has three factions: Light Side, Dark Side, and the Fringe. It's a black-and-white setting without a whole lot of gray, and making variations on each side of the Force part of the game system itself strikes me as off somehow.

Also, at this point, I still don't actually know what the consequences are for choosing a particular faction card -- that part was murky in the demo video. Either they didn't mention it at all, or they glossed over it and I just missed it.

Basically, both light side and dark side have 3 factions. You could use any combination of the 3 factions in your deck, but need matching sources of resources to pay for cards from those factions. From my understanding, that's similar to how LotR works. You didn't see much of it in the videos because thry had single faction decks.

My take on it, again based entirely on that video, is that it's there to thematically balance out the decks. So for instance, as the Light Side, using the Jedi Faction, it looks like a Return of the Jedi era Luke Skywalker card, with beefy Force powers, probably represented by focusing opponents characters or refreshing your own.

I'd imagine in the Rebel Alliance faction, the Luke persona might be a more New Hope era, Rogue Squadron pilot kind of card.

Additionally, it would keep your Rebel deck from being full of Yodas and other Force users that just simply aren't there to lend a hand at that point in the movies.

That's as much as I could gather from the video. It's all speculation really, so hopefully when Netrunner hits retail, FFG will grace us with some more concrete info on Star Wars, since they're planning on bringing it out this year.

Oh is it really what 3 factions means ? Having Empire & Rebellion I was expecting the 3rd faction to be neutral,something like the Black Sun crime syndicate, including smugglers and bounty hunters I don't mean neutral cards from the demo but the full thing including specific objectives.

Beo said:

You'll get to play that kind of deck. Not out of the box apparently, since the "fringe" elements of each side are going to basically be this game's Greyjoy and Martell (you'll get a taste of those factions but not the whole meal), but as monthly packs begin to be published, you can quickly build the Scum & Villainy deck of your dreams.

MarthWMaster said:

Oh right, thanks for the clarification.

I think having factions in this game is a natural thing now that it has gone the way of PvP. I mean, every other PvP LCG that FFG put out (what a lot of acronyms…) has them. But specifically for this game, I suppose it makes sense because things like "Imperial Officer" aren't necessarily "Dark Side" characters, they're just people doing their job, so they can go into the Empire faction. But the Nightsisters were never strictly Imperial, so to allow for such an inclusion we have the Dark Jedi faction (which I know is not particularly well-planned, but as an umbrella term, I'm over it). Yoda was never a member of the Rebel Alliance, but needs to be included in the game for obvious reasons, so having a Jedi faction as distinct from the Rebel Alliance faction is also sensible. One of the biggest problems I've been thinking of since the game's initial announcement last year was how they would be including the neutral guys and fringe elements, and I think there is a requirement to have an element of separation between the "good" fringe characters like Han and Lando against the "bad" characters like the bounty hunters or Black Sun, which makes the idea of the Scum & Villainy faction and the Scoundrels & Spies (or whatever it's called) faction a good idea.

It is a bit of a shame that it looks like we'll be having a Warhammer/Game of Thrones experience, with not getting decks for each faction in the base game box. But that's the way it goes I suppose. I do kinda hold on to the thought that maybe one day we'll get a Silver Twilight experience, and have a deluxe expansion that will add in The New Republic as a faction. Get ready to take on Thrawn and Isard, and all that!

spalanzani said:

While we're hovering over the question of what the Light Side Fringe faction should be called, I've been thinking about it, and I feel like it should be a "[blank] & [blank]" name, for symmetry to coincide with the other factions: Rebel/Empire, Jedi/Sith, (?)/Scum & Villainy. My "vote" goes to Rogues & Scoundrels. You gotta have "Scoundrels" in there obviously, and there's just a nice ring to it. This was the name of the first primarily EU-based set in SWTCG, which gives it history. But everyone on this forum except me and a few others hated that game, so if anyone knows another name with a similar "roughnecks with a heart of gold" flavor that originates instead from the generally-accepted-to-be-superior Decipher game, let's hear it!

MarthWMaster said:

Yes, Rogues & Scoundrels does sound pretty good - I never played it, but I have collected hundreds of the TCG cards, and it does have a nice nostalgic feel for that. Gamblers and Scoundrels just doesn't seem to cut it. Smugglers and Scoundrels could work, provided this game remains firmly in the Classic Trilogy era. Not sure of any other flavoursome alternatives though!

Isn't it officially Smugglers & Scoundrels? That's the name given by the FFG guy in the Team Covenant video.

Inksplat said:

Aha! Well, that explains that, then!!

I think Factions to go along with the Light and Darkside asspect will help the game when it expands past the original Star Wars a New Hope movie.

Tangent Im hoping they will do one of these big starter boxes for each of the 3 movies I guess they can do thouse other three too to make it 6 and inbetween the large box realeases they do the 6 force packs

Cause when you tie in the new movies with the old movies im sure they want to defferenceate from the jedi order from thouse movies and Luke Yoda and Obi Wan from the orginal movie

Same the seperatists even though they are rebels they will be dark side

There are plenty of reason to have Factions in this game

I'd say the faction thing is a good idea. It'll add some more flavor to the game. In a way it does make sense. If you are wanting to play an Imperial Navy card, you'd need some backing power from the Empire to get things rolling for the card. If it is a Sith/Dark Jedi card, you'd better have some of that in your objectives if you want them to do your bidding. Bounty hunters and scum don't really listen to Sith, but if you have some objectives they deem profitable you will have them taking missions from you in no time, and so forth.

sinnerfold said:

I like your reasoning!