Welcome to the NeoGAF Star Wars Destiny CCG Official Topic!
What Is Star Wars Destiny?
Essentially its roots are a CCG from Fantasy Flight Games (makers of X-Wing miniatures game, Android Netrunner LCG, Imperial Assault miniatures games, Star Wars LCG, etc). However unlike a traditional CCG (Magic, Pokemon, etc), the two highest levels of card rarity comes with a matching die per each card. Each booster pack comes with 3 common cards, 1 uncommon card, and a rare card with its corresponding die. In mostly fixed distribution, 6 random packs per booster box have their rare card/die replaced with a legendary card/die.
How To Play
The most important card/die type to start with in the game are characters. The game is divided into two factions (hero and villain), and each faction has its own characters. Whether Luke Skywalker or a Rebel Commando for the heroes, or Darth Vader or a Tusken Raider for the villains. Each of these factions then has their characters divided up between three colors. Red for command (military), Yellow for Rogue (smugglers and bounty hunters), and Blue for Force (Jedi and Sith).
You start by fielding characters up to a 30 point limit. Characters have character costs associated to them, allowing you to mix and match characters and colors from within your faction until you hit 30 points. Generic characters (like a Commando or Tusken raider) only have one die per character. Unique characters like Luke or Vader can be played with one or two dice per character, with the two die version (called elite) costing more points.
Once you have your characters, you put them out on the table in front of you, put all of their dice on their cards, take two resource tokens and pick your battlefield, which we'll come back to later. You both roll out all of your character dice. The person who rolls higher gets to pick who goes first. The player who goes second gets two shields to split up between their characters.
The Turn
Now that we know who goes first, the turn starts. Destiny at its heart (though this is getting more... complicated) is "you take an action, then I take an action". So the first player takes his turn. He can do one of the following actions
Play a card from his hand
Activate a character or support
Resolve dice
Discard a card from his hand to reroll any number of his dice
Taken an action printed on a card (that says Action)
Pass (do nothing)
Claim the battlefield
After he does his action, then his opponent takes their action. This continues back and forth until the round ends. Once the round ends, all players ready their activated/exhausted characters and cards, draw cards from their deck up until they have a total of five in their hand, get two more resources, and start the next round.
How to Win
The game continues as explained above until all of one player's characters are defeated, or if a Turn ends with one or both players having no cards remaining in their hand or in their deck.
Actions
So what are the actions a player can take?
Play a card - This is the action every CCG player knows. Play a card from their hand. It can be an Upgrade that they attach to a character, a Support that they play to the field (often vehicles or droids), or an Event that affects the game (think Instant in Magic or Trainer card in Pokemon). When you play an Upgrade or Support, most of the time these cards have a die associated with them. You then place the corresponding die on the card. Each card has a cost associated with it in the upper right corner, and you pay for that cost with resource from your resource pool.
Activate - When you activate either a character or support, you roll out all dice that are attached to it. For supports this will usually just be the one die for the card. For characters, it will be the one (or both for elite characters) for the character, AND all dice for the upgrades attached to that character. So elite Darth Vader (two dice) has three upgrades attached to him that all have dice, you will be rolling out five dice. Non-elite Luke (one die) with one upgrade will be rolling out two dice. By rolling their dice in, you've now activated that character or support.
Resolving dice - So now that all of those dice are rolled in (or maybe you even activated multiple characters or supports), what can you do? You resolve dice! Every die can have one of eight faces: Ranged damage, Melee damage, Shield, Discard, Disrupt, Resource, Special, or Blank. To resolve dice, you can pick one type of face for that action, and resolve as many dice rolled into your pool showing that face as you want. Have 6 dice showing ranged damage? Resolve all six!! Have one die showing Discard, but three showing Range? Choose to resolve the discard or instead choose to resolve the range.
Most of these faces appear to be self explanatory. Damage does damage to the opposing characters trying to kill them. Shield allows you to place a number of shields on a character. Discard forces your opponent to discard a number of cards. Disrupt gets rid of a number of your opponents resources. Resource gives YOU a number of resources. Blank does nothing (and can't be resolved). Finally special is exactly that. It does specifically what the text says on the card for its special effect.
Reroll - So what happens when you rolled out 5 blanks? Are you just stuck with it? NO!! As an action, you can discard a card from your hand and reroll any number of your dice already rolled into your pool. In fact in some games this ends up being the primary use for the cards in your hand
Of course you ultimately have to decide if that super awesome card is worth getting rid of to change your dice results, but that's what's so great about this game. A high risk vs. reward if things just seem to not be going your way.
Action - Some cards have the word "Action" printed on them. This is an effect you can take at anytime by simply saying so. "Action - Take 1 damage to reroll a die" would mean you deal 1 damage to that character to reroll any die in the pool (this is a real effect, and yes you can even use it to reroll your opponent's dice!!)
Claim the battlefield - Remember how I said there was a battlefield before? Well each battlefield has a claim ability on it. Maybe it's get a resource. Maybe it's do damage to your opponent. Maybe it's remove one of their dice from the pool. Once you claim the battlefield you have effectively ended your turn. Only one player can claim the battlefield per turn. Once they've done that, they pass the rest of their actions and their opponent keeps taking actions until they similarly pass their turn.
Pass - Lastly, you can pass. Don't have any good action at this second but don't want to claim the battlefield quite yet in case you can stop your opponent from doing something? Just pass. They can take their action and you now still have an opportunity to respond. Once all players have passed consecutively, the turn ends. (remember, if you claimed the battlefield, you automatically pass for all actions after)
So what's out and where can I buy!?!
Fantasy Flight has stated their goal is to release one core set with starter decks, and two expansions every year.
Awakenings (170 cards) - Released December 2016
So this is sort of the core set, but not really. This was the original release of Destiny. Unfortunately retailers and distributors pre-ordered a very small quantity initially, and as a result the set sold out very quickly. Unfortunately this makes it very difficult to buy booster packs, and a little expensive to buy single cards. However the starter decks are finally once against readily available in most game stores for $15 each. And good news!! The set is currently back in reprinting and will be available once again in June 2017. Fantasy Flight has called this a limited reprint, but have acknowledged that it will be substantially larger than the initial print. Reading between the lines, it seems clear that Awakenings is now intended to be this year's core set.
Available as:
Starter Decks $14.99 MSRP (Hero or Villain versions)
Booster packs $2.99 MSRP (5 cards and one die per pack. 36 packs per box. Each box includes 6 legendary cards/dice replacing the rare card/die in 6 packs)
Spirit of Rebellion (160 cards) - Released May 4th 2017
This is the first expansion, and fortunately seems to be fairly readily available in most parts of the world. Again, it seems to have been under-/late-ordered by a number of stores, but most gaming shops seem to have plenty of boxes still in almost a week later, and there's another wave of boxes coming in two weeks later, and still two more waves after that. In the rare chance you can't get boosters from this set, wait two more weeks and plenty should be available.
Available as:
Booster packs $2.99 MSRP (5 cards and one die per pack. 36 packs per box. Each box includes 6 legendary cards/dice replacing the rare card/die in 6 packs)
Can I play an online version?
Obviously the number one way to see this game succeed is by buying it. However given the scarcity of the original set, and the difficulty that can be found in playing locally at a game store because of that scarcity.. I really feel that Tabletop Simulator needs to be addressed here. Tabletop Simulator is a game available on Steam that does exactly what it's name says. There is a module available for it on Steam Workshop that allows you to play Star Wars Destiny pretty close to perfectly. On top of that, the TTS community for Destiny is in fact very active. So if you like the game, please please please please obviously buy the packs, find a local game store and play it in person. By far the best way to play it!! But in the times where it simply doesn't work to make it down to the store, or if you just are having a hard time buying packs, TTS is really a tremendous alternative to those issues. Just note that the TTS module is unofficial, community supported, and presumably up for a cease and desist (they use copyrighted material) at any moment. That being said, it is currently a viable way to play the game.
edit - Per a post in this thread, it seems the TTS mod author sort of obtained permission from FFG? It sounds like this is allowed to fly under the radar of FFG until it's not. Basically it sounds like they said they aren't going to shut it down now, but that could change in the future.
Notable Resources:
Official FFG page: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/star-wars-destiny/
Official forums: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/forum/510-star-wars-destiny/
Destiny DB (Deck builder and database): http://swdestinydb.com/
CardGameDB (official FFG deck builder for all LCG/CCG): http://www.cardgamedb.com
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/swdestiny/
Knights of Ren (podcast): http://shoutengine.com/KnightsofRen/
TinyGrimes (podcast): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyGXHChyrL8tOKEwlQrq3bg
Jedi Trials: https://www.facebook.com/TheJediTrials/
Organized Play (currently starting the Store Championship season): https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/op/events/
What Is Star Wars Destiny?
Essentially its roots are a CCG from Fantasy Flight Games (makers of X-Wing miniatures game, Android Netrunner LCG, Imperial Assault miniatures games, Star Wars LCG, etc). However unlike a traditional CCG (Magic, Pokemon, etc), the two highest levels of card rarity comes with a matching die per each card. Each booster pack comes with 3 common cards, 1 uncommon card, and a rare card with its corresponding die. In mostly fixed distribution, 6 random packs per booster box have their rare card/die replaced with a legendary card/die.
How To Play
The most important card/die type to start with in the game are characters. The game is divided into two factions (hero and villain), and each faction has its own characters. Whether Luke Skywalker or a Rebel Commando for the heroes, or Darth Vader or a Tusken Raider for the villains. Each of these factions then has their characters divided up between three colors. Red for command (military), Yellow for Rogue (smugglers and bounty hunters), and Blue for Force (Jedi and Sith).
You start by fielding characters up to a 30 point limit. Characters have character costs associated to them, allowing you to mix and match characters and colors from within your faction until you hit 30 points. Generic characters (like a Commando or Tusken raider) only have one die per character. Unique characters like Luke or Vader can be played with one or two dice per character, with the two die version (called elite) costing more points.
Once you have your characters, you put them out on the table in front of you, put all of their dice on their cards, take two resource tokens and pick your battlefield, which we'll come back to later. You both roll out all of your character dice. The person who rolls higher gets to pick who goes first. The player who goes second gets two shields to split up between their characters.
The Turn
Now that we know who goes first, the turn starts. Destiny at its heart (though this is getting more... complicated) is "you take an action, then I take an action". So the first player takes his turn. He can do one of the following actions
Play a card from his hand
Activate a character or support
Resolve dice
Discard a card from his hand to reroll any number of his dice
Taken an action printed on a card (that says Action)
Pass (do nothing)
Claim the battlefield
After he does his action, then his opponent takes their action. This continues back and forth until the round ends. Once the round ends, all players ready their activated/exhausted characters and cards, draw cards from their deck up until they have a total of five in their hand, get two more resources, and start the next round.
How to Win
The game continues as explained above until all of one player's characters are defeated, or if a Turn ends with one or both players having no cards remaining in their hand or in their deck.
Actions
So what are the actions a player can take?
Play a card - This is the action every CCG player knows. Play a card from their hand. It can be an Upgrade that they attach to a character, a Support that they play to the field (often vehicles or droids), or an Event that affects the game (think Instant in Magic or Trainer card in Pokemon). When you play an Upgrade or Support, most of the time these cards have a die associated with them. You then place the corresponding die on the card. Each card has a cost associated with it in the upper right corner, and you pay for that cost with resource from your resource pool.
Activate - When you activate either a character or support, you roll out all dice that are attached to it. For supports this will usually just be the one die for the card. For characters, it will be the one (or both for elite characters) for the character, AND all dice for the upgrades attached to that character. So elite Darth Vader (two dice) has three upgrades attached to him that all have dice, you will be rolling out five dice. Non-elite Luke (one die) with one upgrade will be rolling out two dice. By rolling their dice in, you've now activated that character or support.
Resolving dice - So now that all of those dice are rolled in (or maybe you even activated multiple characters or supports), what can you do? You resolve dice! Every die can have one of eight faces: Ranged damage, Melee damage, Shield, Discard, Disrupt, Resource, Special, or Blank. To resolve dice, you can pick one type of face for that action, and resolve as many dice rolled into your pool showing that face as you want. Have 6 dice showing ranged damage? Resolve all six!! Have one die showing Discard, but three showing Range? Choose to resolve the discard or instead choose to resolve the range.
Most of these faces appear to be self explanatory. Damage does damage to the opposing characters trying to kill them. Shield allows you to place a number of shields on a character. Discard forces your opponent to discard a number of cards. Disrupt gets rid of a number of your opponents resources. Resource gives YOU a number of resources. Blank does nothing (and can't be resolved). Finally special is exactly that. It does specifically what the text says on the card for its special effect.
Reroll - So what happens when you rolled out 5 blanks? Are you just stuck with it? NO!! As an action, you can discard a card from your hand and reroll any number of your dice already rolled into your pool. In fact in some games this ends up being the primary use for the cards in your hand
Of course you ultimately have to decide if that super awesome card is worth getting rid of to change your dice results, but that's what's so great about this game. A high risk vs. reward if things just seem to not be going your way.Action - Some cards have the word "Action" printed on them. This is an effect you can take at anytime by simply saying so. "Action - Take 1 damage to reroll a die" would mean you deal 1 damage to that character to reroll any die in the pool (this is a real effect, and yes you can even use it to reroll your opponent's dice!!)
Claim the battlefield - Remember how I said there was a battlefield before? Well each battlefield has a claim ability on it. Maybe it's get a resource. Maybe it's do damage to your opponent. Maybe it's remove one of their dice from the pool. Once you claim the battlefield you have effectively ended your turn. Only one player can claim the battlefield per turn. Once they've done that, they pass the rest of their actions and their opponent keeps taking actions until they similarly pass their turn.
Pass - Lastly, you can pass. Don't have any good action at this second but don't want to claim the battlefield quite yet in case you can stop your opponent from doing something? Just pass. They can take their action and you now still have an opportunity to respond. Once all players have passed consecutively, the turn ends. (remember, if you claimed the battlefield, you automatically pass for all actions after)
So what's out and where can I buy!?!
Fantasy Flight has stated their goal is to release one core set with starter decks, and two expansions every year.
Awakenings (170 cards) - Released December 2016
So this is sort of the core set, but not really. This was the original release of Destiny. Unfortunately retailers and distributors pre-ordered a very small quantity initially, and as a result the set sold out very quickly. Unfortunately this makes it very difficult to buy booster packs, and a little expensive to buy single cards. However the starter decks are finally once against readily available in most game stores for $15 each. And good news!! The set is currently back in reprinting and will be available once again in June 2017. Fantasy Flight has called this a limited reprint, but have acknowledged that it will be substantially larger than the initial print. Reading between the lines, it seems clear that Awakenings is now intended to be this year's core set.
Available as:
Starter Decks $14.99 MSRP (Hero or Villain versions)
Booster packs $2.99 MSRP (5 cards and one die per pack. 36 packs per box. Each box includes 6 legendary cards/dice replacing the rare card/die in 6 packs)
Spirit of Rebellion (160 cards) - Released May 4th 2017
This is the first expansion, and fortunately seems to be fairly readily available in most parts of the world. Again, it seems to have been under-/late-ordered by a number of stores, but most gaming shops seem to have plenty of boxes still in almost a week later, and there's another wave of boxes coming in two weeks later, and still two more waves after that. In the rare chance you can't get boosters from this set, wait two more weeks and plenty should be available.
Available as:
Booster packs $2.99 MSRP (5 cards and one die per pack. 36 packs per box. Each box includes 6 legendary cards/dice replacing the rare card/die in 6 packs)
Can I play an online version?
Obviously the number one way to see this game succeed is by buying it. However given the scarcity of the original set, and the difficulty that can be found in playing locally at a game store because of that scarcity.. I really feel that Tabletop Simulator needs to be addressed here. Tabletop Simulator is a game available on Steam that does exactly what it's name says. There is a module available for it on Steam Workshop that allows you to play Star Wars Destiny pretty close to perfectly. On top of that, the TTS community for Destiny is in fact very active. So if you like the game, please please please please obviously buy the packs, find a local game store and play it in person. By far the best way to play it!! But in the times where it simply doesn't work to make it down to the store, or if you just are having a hard time buying packs, TTS is really a tremendous alternative to those issues. Just note that the TTS module is unofficial, community supported, and presumably up for a cease and desist (they use copyrighted material) at any moment. That being said, it is currently a viable way to play the game.
edit - Per a post in this thread, it seems the TTS mod author sort of obtained permission from FFG? It sounds like this is allowed to fly under the radar of FFG until it's not. Basically it sounds like they said they aren't going to shut it down now, but that could change in the future.
Notable Resources:
Official FFG page: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/star-wars-destiny/
Official forums: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/forum/510-star-wars-destiny/
Destiny DB (Deck builder and database): http://swdestinydb.com/
CardGameDB (official FFG deck builder for all LCG/CCG): http://www.cardgamedb.com
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/swdestiny/
Knights of Ren (podcast): http://shoutengine.com/KnightsofRen/
TinyGrimes (podcast): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyGXHChyrL8tOKEwlQrq3bg
Jedi Trials: https://www.facebook.com/TheJediTrials/
Organized Play (currently starting the Store Championship season): https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/op/events/
