A truly "multiplayer" Star Wars board game

[Crabbok 9,869]

So I'm pretty disappointed that Rebellion has only 2 sides and boils down to a 2-player game.   they SAY you can play in teams of 2 to make it a 4 player game... but I can do that with Chess just as easily.  Heck I can make chess a 20 player game if we all take turns touching the pieces.   It has been suggested that FFG was trying to capture some of the magic of War of the Ring.

 

  I wonder if they'll try to capture the magic of the billions of other board games that are more than 2-players.  I'd love a Star Wars themed game that truly supports 6, 7, or 8 players while not feeling like a 2-sided game.  Every play Epic Duels?  It was an Arena Free-For-All fighting game and was pretty fun.... but it had player elimination so maybe not the best idea moving forward. 

 

   Maybe a Scum a Villainy game?   "Rise of the Bounty Hunters", everyone gets a different character, you complete jobs, bid against each other for allies and equipment, and whoever makes the most credits at the end of the game wins.   Maybe even a PVP aspect to the game - If Dengar is about to capture Chewbacca and deliver him to Lord Vader, perhaps you can kill Chewbacca, so Dengar's bounty is only worth half credits (Higher bounty for living target). 

 

  Then maybe have an expansion with Heroes of the Rebellion.  You could have undercover rebel heroes in the game each with their own agenda.  Leia is trying to establish herself as a bounty hunter in order to save a friend.  Lando is going undercover in order to make enough money to buy a mining colony.  Dash Rendar is trying to track down the Bothans who stole Leebo.  They all do bountys/missions and earn progress towards their goal. 

 

  I dunno I just want to see a box, with Star Wars on it, that I can drop on the table with a bunch of people and say "Boom, lets play this".  

[Budgernaut 6,255]

I totally agree. A multiplayer Star Wars board game would be nice. I've developed a card-based Bounty Hunter game*. I'm working on a Vassal module for it. It technically works, but it's clunky and ugly.  Unfortunately, I don't think a bounty hunter game has a whole lot of wide appeal.

 

I can imagine FFG coming up with a great game. For example, imagine an Android-type game but instead you have Star Wars character archetypes all trying to solve a mystery for some personal reason. You could have several species and several archetypes that are independent. That means the Iktochi may be a Sith affiliate in one game but a smuggler in another game. You could get some fantastic story-driven excitement with that kind of board game.

[Crabbok 9,869]

Or put Han Solo on the cover.   Call it "Smuggler's Agenda" or something and every player gets someone who has their own agenda.  Scum folks easily have their own agenda for profit or individual rewards. 

 

  I could even see a Hidden Role Star Wars game:

   Your role is Han Solo.  Your primary goal is to get the most money.  Your secondary goal is get the best ship.  You lose if Boba Fett wins. 

  Your role is Chewbacca.  Your primary goal is to have the 2nd most money.  Your secondary goal is to get the best blaster.   You lose if Han Solo died.

  Your role is Boba Fett.   Your primary goal is to kill the most people.  Your secondary goal is to capture Han Solo (alive).   You lose if Han Solo Dies. 

  Your role is Leia Organa.   Your primary goal is to have the most diplomacy points.   Your secondary goal is to develop a love connection with Han Solo.   You lose if an Imperial Player completes his/her Primary Goal.  

  Your role is Luke Skywalker.  Your primary goal is to develop a love connection with Mara Jade.  Your secondary goal is to end the game with an X-Wing.  You lose if Leia makes a love connection with you. 

 

etc. 

[Audio Weasel 3,659]

I'd love to see a good Star Wars game with multiple players.

 

That being said, I also want to play Rebellion.

[Forgottenlore 9,838]

The problem is that Star Wars is, fundamentally, a story about the conflict between two sides. You can kinda stretch that by adding in "unaligned" as a third group, but even that little bit takes away from what makes it Star Wars. Trying to add a bunch of equal but different "sides" just moves it further and further away from being "Star Wars".

 

That said, in another thread along these lines (somewhere), I did (half sarcastically) suggest a reskin of Merchants of Venus with each player playing a smuggler trying to dodge bounty hunters and make a profit would be kinda good. You could make a section of the board be the Kesel Run, and, with the right upgrades to your ship, have it just be possible to get all the way across it in 11 moves.

[Crabbok 9,869]

I disagree about these "two" sides.   The Original Trilogy was certainly about 2 sides, but Star Wars is MORE than the original trilogy.  Even then, some would say Star Wars is fundamentally about the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker, and his eventual redemption.  Some would say now, that it is about the entire Skywalker Family, (Which is where it seems Disney may be taking it).  There have been 7 "saga" films, multiple Anthology films in the works, the Clone Wars movie, all the TV stuff, the comics, etc.   It is it's own universe and it is FULL of interesting content.   I would argue that "Star Wars" is fundamentally about this amazing universe.   It has the Skywalker story arc at it's core, but has had countless "sides". 

 

  You may say it's just Empire and Rebels... but I say it's also "Old Republic", "Separatists", "Manadalore", "First Order", "Resistance", "New Republic", "Old Jedi", "Sith", "Knights of Ren", etc.  Ask Jabba the Hutt who's side he's on.... he won't name any of the above factions either, ... so much of the criminal world has it's own affiliations. 

 

  So yeah, wayyy more than just 2 sides. 

[Dagonet 7,246]

Twilight Imperium is a game that lends itself to being Star Warsified. Or go a bit more bare bones and strip it down to Diplomacy in the Star Wars universe (which would actually be quite easy to do).

 

 

Of course, the trouble with many games that support large number of gamers is that they tend to bog down in long stretches of downtime.

[Forgottenlore 9,838]

TI is exactly the game that always gets mentioned and then commented on that it doesn't work for SW. There simply aren't other factions that can go toe to toe with the empire. TI would work much much better as a Star Trek reskin than Star Wars.

That said, I have never bad an opportunity to play the shards of the throne TI scenario that has a single player trying to fight off a bunch of other players who aren't fighting each other. Possibly something like that might work.

Overall though, to get multiple players in a Star Wars game you need to reduce the scale so that the players are individuals or small groups competing against the backdrop of the GCW, rather than galactic powers themselves.

[Crabbok 9,869]

TI is exactly the game that always gets mentioned and then commented on that it doesn't work for SW. There simply aren't other factions that can go toe to toe with the empire. TI would work much much better as a Star Trek reskin than Star Wars.

That said, I have never bad an opportunity to play the shards of the throne TI scenario that has a single player trying to fight off a bunch of other players who aren't fighting each other. Possibly something like that might work.

Overall though, to get multiple players in a Star Wars game you need to reduce the scale so that the players are individuals or small groups competing against the backdrop of the GCW, rather than galactic powers themselves.

Factions don't HAVE to go toe to toe with the empire.   The empire doesn't have to be a "Playable race", in fact it could be the game engine.   Perhaps we all play as worlds currently subjugated by the empire, and the winner is the first person to break away from the empire and join the rebellion?  

 

But yeah I prefer the idea of playing as a single person.   It hits the "fun factor" when during setup people are like "I wanna be Luke", or "I wanna be Chewy!" or "Awww, I always get stuck playing Jar Jar". 

[Forgottenlore 9,838]

Factions don't HAVE to go toe to toe with the empire.   The empire doesn't have to be a "Playable race", in fact it could be the game engine.   Perhaps we all play as worlds currently subjugated by the empire, and the winner is the first person to break away from the empire and join the rebellion?  

 

 

But yeah I prefer the idea of playing as a single person.   It hits the "fun factor" when during setup people are like "I wanna be Luke", or "I wanna be Chewy!" or "Awww, I always get stuck playing Jar Jar". 

 

 

That isn't really Twilight Imperium though, which is all about building up your military so you can go out and conquer worlds to accumulate the necessary resources to defeat all the other players and become ruler of the galaxy.

 

 

Your comments do spark an idea for a different kind of game. Each player is the ruler of a world that is under the Imperial shroud but secretly sympathetic to the rebellion. The game play would involve trying to supply the Alliance with material and personnel without tipping off the Empire. Try to give too much and a garrison of Stormtroopers gets stationed on your world, making it much harder to funnel stuff to the Alliance. the whole game would be on a timer until the Emperor is killed and the New Republic is formally established. The ultimate goal being to have provided enough assistance to the Rebellion that you get a powerful position on the New Republic Council.

[Grayfax 991]

Do Bounty Hunters on a Firefly type system themed for Star Wars? Um... YES PLEASE!!

[patox 2,020]

Even the original Star Wars talk about the independent powers in the galaxy.

 

 

 

The regional governors now have direct control over territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.

 

A multiplayer game could involve the smaller powers vying for influence with the Galactic Empire. Another option are the criminal syndicates. Or another about the various Moffs and their territories. And of course there could be a multiplayer with each player controlling their own Rebel Cell.

[Forgottenlore 9,838]

Even the original Star Wars talk about the independent powers in the galaxy.

 

The regional governors now have direct control over territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.

 

Those aren't independent powers, those are the various Imperial Moffs that have control of particular regions of the Empire. They no longer have a Senate to answer to.

[lordzel 84]

 

Even the original Star Wars talk about the independent powers in the galaxy.

 

The regional governors now have direct control over territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.

 

Those aren't independent powers, those are the various Imperial Moffs that have control of particular regions of the Empire. They no longer have a Senate to answer to.

 

But they still quarrel for power. I actually really like this idea. You could have different Moffs with different benefits, for example Tavira would have the Invidious, all trying to gain power.

[Dagonet 7,246]

You'd be better off then with the period right before and after the death of the Emperor with some renegade Grand Admirals such as Zinsj and the various warlords.

 

Dala getting a big research bonus.