So im thinking of all the Expanded Universe Characters that could be in the first Block of Star Wars

So lets starts thinking of who they were and the faction they would be in

(I think for now we should only do characters from books stay away from the video game characters)

GRAND ADMIRAL THRAWN. Imperial.

I would like to see Armand Isard for the Imperials. Perhaps with his daughter Ysanne, or maybe leave her for the future New Republic expansions (because there WILL be some!)

I suppose Horton Salm and Tycho Celchu are both technically EU characters, so along with Winter (as Targeter, maybe?), I'd like to see them in Rebels.

I've seen Mara Jade alluded to in card art, and even in one of the card titles itself, so with all that teasing, I may be a little miffed if she's not in the Core Set somewhere. I wouldn't have normally thought about it too much, but they're just dangling The Emperor's Hand in front of us, it would be lame if she wasn't in it.

cleardave said:

Perhaps it's better if she is left out early on, given her role in the mythos. She is the Emperor's secret weapon, so her presence ought to be felt, but not necessarily by busting out the door with a Mara Jade card in the Core Set.

Then again, the set-based deckbuilding system does make it difficult to believe that there will be a card related to Emperor's Hand, but not Mara Jade herself.

How about Han's Togorian friend from the Han Solo trilogy? I just threw that out there because most of the characters I think of with expanded universe are actually New Republic era (like Thrawn and others from Zahn's work). It's hard to come up with other EU. I suppose there's the whole Shadows of the Empire line to run with. Prince Xizor, Dash Rendar, etc. (And that is a book, not just a video game).

Budgernaut said:

Oh yeah! Muuurgh (sp?) and Mrrrov (again, sp?) - they'd be handy to have in a pinch! I hope a lot of the Scum and Smuggler factions involve some of those Nar Shaddaa denizens from the trilogy.

I kinda hope we see some Trianii too, talking species in general, from the Brian Daley books. The last Saga RPG I ran I had a Trianii Ranger involved, that was lots of acrobatic fun

I think I could get carried away with this thread…

Well I think Shadows of the Empire should have it own intire Force Pack

So how will they do expansions you guys think will they be themed like a return of the jedi a empire strikes back a new hope pack a shadows of the empire pack or will they be set up some other way?

As the core set seems to be a mix of all sorts, I have the distinct feeling that they'll do expansions like they did for AGoT, and we'll get deluxes for each faction regardless of theme. That said, it is my most fervent wish that we have a Battle of Hoth deluxe expansion…ah, the snowy possibilities…

If they don't go down this route, however, I would like to see more specific themes than just the films. Which could take a few boxes to fully flesh-out. For ANH, I'd like to see a Death Star expansion, giving the Imperials folks like Tagge and Motti, the Rebels folks like Porkins and Biggs (if he isn't in the core set), a Mos Eisley box, where we basically get the cantina folks, although perhaps a more general Tatooine one, to incorporate Uncle Owen and suchlike.

For ESB, it'd have to be Battle of Hoth and Cloud City (though I would prefer they called it Lando's Palace, like the cue in the film score). Seems like we're getting all the Dagobah stuff, as much as matters, in the core set.

I'm not sure about SotE, I could see the whole book in one box, but then there are specific things like the Rodian and Tatooine episodes, not to mention all the crazy that goes down on Imperial Centre. Probably one, though maybe a cycle of Force Packs (or whatever).

Finally RotJ would have to be split with Jabba's Palace and Battle of Endor. Can't wait to see the event card It's a trap! - because you just know that'll be coming…

I feel like there's plenty of possibility if they did a Deluxe Box/Force Pack cycle for each movie. That's 60 cards (which we'll assume is 10 Objective sets) per pack, plus a Deluxe Box to provide for some potential new rules and mechanics based on ideas in each respective movie.

From there, it would be just as easy to do a Shadows of the Empire themed cycle, and so on. I don't think we'll really be short on cards or things to plunder from the movies alone, given that there are 6 factions in total to support.

So what do you mean Delux box sets? Only LCG ive played is Invasion so like the Legends expansion?

Jvirtue55 said:

Exactly, if you go to each LCG's page (excluding Netrunner and Star Wars), you will see a product listing for Deluxe Expansions for each one, that comes out in addition to the regular pack cycle. Invasion currently has 3, Thrones has 6 (1 per House I believe), Cthulhu has 3, and Lord of the Rings has 2 (depending on how you want to semantically classify the Hobbit set, because FFG has a separate category for it)

So what do you guys think a Deluxe Expansion for each Movie at the least?

Jvirtue55 said:

Easily. Going Core Set, A Force Pack cycle, then a pattern of Deluxe/Cycle alternating, they can easily do that for the three movies and cover a 2-3 year period right there. Beyond that, who knows, if we get 3 years of consistent card support, and the quality of the game is high, then for a couple hundred bucks over 2-3 years for a full set of cards to game with is pretty solid.

Remember, there's a Dark Side/Light Side split, so you literally will have every card you'd ever need for two players, so your deck building options are wide open with that kind of card pool.

I still don't think we'll see the films represented in this way. There is just something deep within me that makes me feel we'll get thematic expansions, such as a Jabba's Palace or Death Star deluxe box, or completely original stories represented much as they have done with LotR. In some ways, this recent Hobbit expansion for the LotR LCG has opened a door for us to expect more of the same.

spalanzani said:

I would prefer this sort of thing as well, because it gives you something to focus on with each box, pack and cycle, but part of me thinks they may go the "Episodes" route for brand recognition outside of us, who are buying the cards regardless of what they call them.

Wait, "Episode Packs"?! Hmmm…I wonder if that's what they'll go with, if the obvious "Force Packs" doesn't get used…

spalanzani said:

For LOTR we got the Khazad-Dum expansion which was obviously dwarf-focused. Then the corresponding Dwarrodelf cycle ended up being just as much elf-focused as dwarf-focused. From that perspective, I could see the first three deluxe expansions being episode-themed and the corresponding cycles being only loosely related and focusing more on EU than the deluxe boxes. That has the added benefit of getting the mid-level gamers wanting to get at least the deluxe expansions even if they don't get all the cycles' expansion packs because they'll want those key movie cards and characters.

But then, the core seems to cover the main characters anyway, so episode boxes may be superfluous. I mean, they'd only focus on lesser-known characters unless they re-did main characters.

Budgernaut said:

This is what I'm thinking - the core set has got so much film stuff in anyway that there may not be enough left to do film boxes too!

Thrawn goes without saying as well as Mara, i would also like to the the the Hand of Judgement storm troopers as well as Kyle Katarn. The Shadows cast between empire and return of course, and well as many as they can get in. But those r my tops.

I have just remembered a really iconic (for me) Imperial that I hope gets involved - Grand Moff Trachta. It'd probably be too difficult to figure in, but if they could give him some sort of mechanic that reflects the Betrayal story arc, that could make for some tremendously thematic gameplay!!