I'm just gonna throw this bone out and see where it goes.

It's now been over a month since I got Star Wars: The Card Game. The novelty of it has started to fade. While it's still a great game, I find that when I lay down to sleep at night, my thoughts turn toward the 2011 demo. I would love to try my hand at that game. I play LotR and from what I've read of the SW game, there were lots of differences between the two and LotR just doesn't satisfy my desire to play the cooperative SW game.

It is my sincere hope that FFG takes those mechanics and creates a new, stand-alone game, much in the same way they released the A Game of Thrones card game based on that LCG. I'd love to see three boxes that take you through the stories of the original trilogy as you and your friends take on the roles of the heroes, trying to overthrow the evil Galactic Empire.

The game we have is nice, and I'll definitely pick up the big box expansions, if not the Force packs, but my desire for the first version hasn't diminished.

I know they said the rules will pop up in the future in other games or even this games multiplayer rules.

I for one would never have played the coop version. LotR is a bore. I love Star Wars. Fast and fun.

I've been thinking about multiplayer rules. Obviously these are casual game types, so while balance is important, there's some more leeway than a normal cutthroat game. Just brainstorming at this point, but if anyone tries anything cool, let me know.

Some thoughts:

2v2. Both players play each phase together. The death star requires more tics and the light side need to kill more objectives.

2v2. One light and one dark player are a team. You should be able to help your ally (vader vs clone vader), but there probably need to be restrictions, like focusing to pass to the other side of the board or something. Also some strange bughouse/shogi rules could be used in a variant like this. Maybe units killed get passed to teammate's hand at the end of the turn or something. First side to win wins.

1v2. Light side needs to kill more objectives, Dark side gets more objectives and more cards in hand. Light side players play their phases together.

Anyway, multiplayer should definitely be possible, at least with two core sets. I would love to see some specific rules that people have had fun with.

Budgernaut said:

What was different about that demo? Can you give a description?

thopol said:

Obviously it is possible, the rules are on the way in The Balance of the Force deluxe expansion.

thopol said:

I've been thinking about this a lot too. However, I don't think you need to increase objectives or death-star dial ticks. The ida is that you should have more units out so the battles get bigger, but you still have the same restrictions. So in this version, one team could only attack three objectives. This forces a lot more defense (in theroy) I haven't tried it out because I don't have a lot of people to play with. Definitely worth some testing.

Holliday88 said:

It was a totally different game. Here's a review from BGG.

It was going to have a lot in common with Lord of the Rings. You had 1-4 players as the LS players. Together, they fought a DS deck controlled by artificial AI. I didn't get to play it, so can't describe it as well, but everything I've read sounded really fun. I get that a lot of people think it's not very exciting to play against a deck of cards instead of an opponent, but I find LotR pretty fun and would love the mechanical differences in the 2011 SW game.

Budgernaut said:

I can appreciate that you want to play that game and it'd be nice if you get the chance, but I don't think it will be compelling for most people. I can't really see this game being made.

I, for one, would have loved to see a star wars cooperative game as well. Almost like a RPG card game where you could have 4-6 charactercards each with gear cards, enhancment cards, etc & an AI deck with locations, events, & adversaries to deal with; perhaps with victory pt values to gain as "xp". A cooperative Star Wars card game would interest me greatly.

A game like that probably wouldn't fit into the LCG frame work. I also love LoTR but I don't hink the release structure works very well, especially when they intrerrupted everything for the hobbit tie ins. I would like to see the SW co op made a game but maybe a "card game" not a LCG- so stronger main set and expansions maybe. More like the other nonliving (undead?) FFG card games or like what the Shadowrun game promises to be.

I recommend keeping an open mind to this game's multiplayer variant: it's undoubtedly being made as a response to the negative feedback from players who wanted a cooperative experience.

You'll just need to find a friend who's cool with the idea of playing against everybody else.

MarthWMaster said:

Good advice. I think I will try to keep an open mind about it. It's just, I find most of my oponents on OCTGN these days, so the solo option would have been nice. And I doubt db0 will incorporate the cooperative into his OCTGN programing because he seems more like a tournament kind of guy. But hey, if I could get some extended family to play the multiplayer once or twice a year, that might be worth it.

Same here, I have a fervent hope that they resurrect the 2011 game as a silver-line game or something. It looked like lots of fun, and also intensely thematic. I think I'm still really traumatised by this current incarnation because I only have one gaming buddy, who told me a few weeks back that he just doesn't like this game, so I now have no hope of playing it. I'm going to buy a few Force packs and most likely Edge of Darkness to try and change his mind, but it's looking like an uphill struggle I could do without, to be honest.

Either that, or the multi-player rules will provide some way to automate the DS deck and make it possible to solo…

spalanzani said:

You've got to get on OCTGN! There are quite a few players there. If it weren't for OCTGN, I'd get one or two games a month, but the online version has allowed me to get two or three games a week.