Imagine if the Emperor was a crew card…. then he could take joyrides in a Lambda Shuttle.

What special abilities would you give him?

DB Draft said:

Death by X-Wing

Emperor as crew makes me picture Palpatine manning a gun turret cackling crazily as he blazes away at the rebels

Well he could have the awesome ability of manning the "non existant" rear gun position on the Lambda… that apparently would require a Sith Lord to use! ;0

Unique, Empire Only, 8 points.

Before the activation phase select one rebel ship. That ship cannot perform actions or use its game text for the remainder of the turn.

"it is as I've forseen" etx.

That's a cool idea Norsehound!

You could make it a "Force on Force" style upgrade: The Emperor selects a Rebel ship and rolls a "Force" Attack at say strength 9 (9 red Attack dice) and counts all hits and crits. The Rebel ship rolls a number of green dice equal to their Pilot Skill, needing evades to cancel the Force Attack. Certain pilots with a strong affinity for the Force, ie: Luke could also count Focus results. If the Emperor wins the "Force Duel" he prevents their actions.

This just brought up another important character…. Obi Wan Kenobi!

So if you have ideas for him tas well hen please include them here.

Force lightning and saber throw. I can see him hanging on the lowered shuttle ramp with one hand and throwing his light saber and lightning bolts with the other. Or he could do that flying spin light saber attack thing that would be awesome!

Obi Wan Kenobi (Alive mode)

Rebel Alliance only, unique, 7 points

"This is not the ship you are looking for…" (Crew)

Any ship that declares an attack on a ship with Obi Wan Kenobi onboard must pass a "Force Test". They roll a number of attack dice equal to their Pilot Skill, needing hits and crits to count. Obi Wan Kenobi rolls 7 Defense dice needing evades to cancel. If the attacker fails their "Force test" then they cannot attack this ship but can attack another one.

Obi Wan Kenobi (Glowing Jedi mode)

Rebel Alliance only, unique, 9 points

"The Force is with you" (Modification)

" If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can imagine…"

The ship with this modification can perform an extra action after their movement. They may also remove any stress tokens after the Attack Phase.

not gonna lie.. some of these left field ideas are silly… just silly!

I know the ion cannon upgrade is a card that introduces a new mechanic (Ion tokens), but whenever I approach a custom card I try not to add new mechanics to the game. It just slows things down. "Force tests" Seem unnecessary IMO, it's enough that a Palpatine Card is powerful enough to shut down someone's actions or special abiltiy, and for 8 points. After all its not limited to range.

Having read Dark Empire with the Emperor's Clone's ability to create force storms in space, try this on for size:

• Palpatine's Clone

Action (Force Power) - All enemy ships within range 3 must immediately roll a red die as if they had moved over an obstacle. Ships damaged by this effect may not perform actions this turn.

Type: Crew | Cost: 21 - TBH I think it would be really hard to balance this - good game design and the fluff don't always go hand in hand!

Or a (slightly) less ridiculous crew card that reflects his importance as a target:

• Emperor Palpatine

During the combat phase any enemy ship that is able to legally attack you must do so.

Type: Crew | Cost: 8

executor said:

Ewoks defeating Stormtroopers silly? or Jar Jar Binks silly?

Crew, cost 7, The Lambda or any ally ship at range 1-2 may remove a stress token and take an additional action.

"the emperor is coming here?! we shall double our efforts."

You could easily imagine the presence of the Emperor would add stress! What about they recieve a stress token but get to perform an extra action?

In all seriousness (well sort of) I actually like the idea of a "The Force is with you" card. It represents the Light side of the force (de-stressing) and allows the pilot to perform skillful acrobatics. Sure not every pilot is "Force attuned" so it could be limited to certain characters.

Yes the "Force test" is not a great gimic and could be simplified or ignored. The best rule ideas are the simplest and avoid unnecessary mucking about.

I don't think that the Emperor would allow his own troops the choice of extra actions because everything that has conspired has done so according to his design. He has unlimited power on the battlefield.

Abily: Force Push. Range 1-3

The Emperor can Force any ship to perform a red barrel roll or boost at his command.

Ability: Force Throw. Range 1

Emperor can Force a ship to perform a red "k-turn 1."

or bonus agility against secondary weapons.

Ability: Force Choke. Range 1-3

Same effect as ion cannon plus a stress token.

Rebel player questions the viability of Emperor's abilities, "Is that legal?"

Imperial player, "I will make it legal."

I still don't think it's worth it to pile a lot of words and verbage on the Emperor. This is only an upgrade card, not a pilot in hismelf. Plus in this game less is more after all… Vader is among the most powerful darkside users in the galactic civil war, and his force ability is to take two actions.

Anyway, have fun.

Our pal friendpatine here can't stop passive upgrade abilities (like droids), but you can't have everything. Basically he can lock out all actions and upgrade cards which activate on an Action:(so and so)

Very nice, though it should be "rest of the round" instead of "rest of the turn." :-)

I'd give him the ability that he's prescribed in the thrawn trilogy - something about increasing combat effectiveness…

maybe something slightly less insane than giving all pilots skill X,

8 points : All friendly pilots within range 3 may change one focus result to a hit result when attacking.

Ravncat said:

Like battle meditation in KOTOR RPG?

Very cool looking card, kudos to whoever did it.

Now we need a Light Side representative aka Obi Wan Kenobi.

He appears in both real person and "post-living" forms I could see 2 versions of him. He is a guide and a mentor. As a crew he obviously flew in the Millennium Falcon. As a "spirit" he basically followed Luke around.

Here is a new take on him from my last effort:

Obi Wan Kenobi (crew)

Unique, Rebel only

7 points

"The Force has a strong influence on the weak minded"

A ship with Obi Wan Kenobi can select one enemy ship and look at their maneuver dial before they pick their own maneuver.

It represents some "foreknowledge".

I would amend Obi Wan Kenobi's ability as for 7 points it should be pretty good:

"The Force will be with you, always"

A ship with Obi Wan Kenobi can select one enemy ship and look at their maneuver dial before they pick their own maneuver. The ship then gains a free focus token.

Emperor Palpatine: Undefeatable.

" Yes, I assure you, we are quite safe from your friends here."

8 points. Action: Select one Imperial Ship. All shots miss vs. that ship this turn, regardless of dice results. At the end of the turn, destroy that ship anyway.

" Your overconfidence is your weakness."

Norsehound said:

You forgot to add:

Discard this card if the user does not cackle quietly to himself after every use.

Looks like we won't get Palpatine, but Vader as a crewmember with the shuttle (someone wrote this in the new ships thread at least), but afaik there was already a thread with ideas for that scenario some time ago, right?

But i would like to see new speculations about what that one does!

executor said:

not gonna lie.. some of these left field ideas are silly… just silly!

Ewoks defeating Stormtroopers silly? or Jar Jar Binks silly?

Ewoks defeating Stormtroppers was silly; Jar Jar Binks was dumb.