Just wondering if anyone has heard if the Star Wars LCG will be multiplayer?

CoC:LCG has a variant that was designed after the fact, and was the deciding factor that finally sold me on the game.

Netrunner LCG seems to have a variant, but it seems more strict on the number of players and how it can be played by more than 2 players. Based on this, I cannot justify buying the game.

Also, does anyone know why FFG seems to design their LCGs for 2 players? LOTR being the exception and co-op… (which is a great idea).

CreepyBastard said:

Organized play. The fact that Lord of the Rings is the exception and also does not have an official tournament scene is no coincidence, I'm sure.

To be fair, Game of Thrones has a ruleset for more than 2 players, but its the 2 player version that gets used at tournaments.

It's my firm opinion that A Game of Thrones is the bar against which all CCGs that claim to support multiplayer should be measured. And Star Wars, frankly, is a 2-player setting. It would be difficult to develop a robust multiplayer system that retained the dualistic flavor of the light-dark struggle, without requiring one or more players to take the role of the Fringe/Neutral side.

MarthWMaster said:

Exactly. Even with a "Fringe" side, the cards still have to come from either the Dark or Light card pool, so you could do 2v2, but then you might as well just do two instances of 1v1 because mechanically, that's what it will boil down to.

The system as it looks like it is, doesn't lend itself to a free for all battle, with the Death Star dials and what not.

The AgoT LCG has quite a few multiplayer variants, and 4-player Melee is played at tournaments. In fact, the game comes with a board designed for 4-player games.

divinityofnumber said:

Dont forget the awesome plastic figures for all the different titles.

It's too bad that more games don't have a built-in multiplayer variant right from the start. Retro fitted variants are hit and miss.

I like this new deck building concept for the SW:LCG and I think it is a great idea.

Although it would be nice to have the option to play a big 5 player game of SW:LCG.

I think that one thing that people forget about card games, not to deny your claim that multiplayer variants right out of the box are nice, is that once you have the cards, the limit is really your own imagination.

Maybe you play 2 Vs. 2, and either person from one team can attack someone from the other; perhaps you can share resources. Maybe you play 3 Vs 1, and the person on their own gets double card draw and double resources? You can even make an algorithm for 2 players Vs a deck by itself -- you invent rules that the "autopilot" deck has to play by (e.g., it attacks the person with X, when Y, etc.).

Experiment with things, think up a really awesome new way to use the cards, and then share it with us!

This is one of the things that has bothered me about Warhammer: Invasion. There is the promise of an official multiplayer variant that has not panned out yet. The game has been out for 3 years! They still produce cards for the game that give the hope of one day having multiplayer rules, so who knows. Maybe in another three years.

Honestly, SW would not be the best game for a multiplayer platform. It would be always a 2vs2 game, not a real multiplayer-screw-your-neighbour kind of game.

A Game of Thrones has a great multiplayer background and has also a multiplayer tournament scene. Every official tournament has both Joust (1vs1) and Melee (4P) formats, at least the major tournaments. You can dig the Melee Final video from GenCon tournament in Team Covenant youtube channel.

A Game of Thrones is a great game to be played at a multiplayer level, with strong rules and stronger theme.
Star Wars being multiplayer?! I dunno! I don't see the purpose of it. Having a Sith player helping a Jedi player against a Rebel one?! Yeah, don't makes sense!
If it would be MP it would need to be as it is, asymmetric with both players per side. And then what? Both players win as team? Fight eachother in the end?

A game I miss a bit, not because its mechanics nor theme nor that I played a lot (I didn't, it gave me headaches each time I played it) but because the way it put people arguing in a table, is Vampire: The Eternal Strugle.
V:TES had the one little MP rule out of all CCG, the Political Action. I would really love to see that in AGOT. But only that, GOT is almost perfect the way it is, to really be perfect it would need a voting mechanic such as V:TES had.

I do agree that Thrones has a much better multiplayer setting and tournament system to support it. However, I do feel that Star Wars could be a great system for team tournamets, 2v2. Perhaps each of them play with fewer objective cards. You would have to strategize about building complimentrary decks. In addition, you cannot show each other your hand so you would have to resort to your jedi mind tricks (teamwork) in hoping your teammate can pull through for you when needed with key event/fate cards.

Our players have had great success with 3 players matches. just don't use the death star dial and must get rid of 5 of your opponents objectives to knock him out of the battle.

I'm pretty sure the Core rulebook says that there will be a multiplayer variant introduced in Edge of Darkness. This may not still be correct, I guess.

I think the format is similar to Magic's Archenemy, multiple Light Side players vs. a powered-up Dark Side.

Ah, found it. Page 26, under Other Rules, Multiplayer Rules:

"The Balance of the Force expansion set (available separately) contains rules and components for multiplayer sessions in which two to three LS players join forces against a single powerful DS player. The Balance of the Force expansion is expected to be released in the first half of 2013."

So not Edge of Darkness, but maybe the next mid-sized box?

I think SWs got a great setup for multiplayer in the future when there som more expansions out… maybe a 3vs3 game

Jedi-Rebel-smuggler

Vs

Sith-Imperial-Scum

Every player has to keep their decks inside their choosen fraction or something along that road.

kilbil said:

This seems like an amazingly simple "home-brew" method! Can't wait to give it a try…