I would like to share with you a package of materials the Dutch crew have developed to provide interested gamers with a 10/40 minute experience of the game and its defining features. Based on the epic events on Cloud City in the Empire Strikes back, we developed a scenario in which a number of locations, and starship and character cards had already been deployed to table. Each player’s deck consists of 30 cards, and both DS and LS are given guidelines on how to proceed on their first turns. The pitch, basic instructions, and the T1’s take about 10 minutes. After, that an interested player can choose to continue and resolve the game (+30 minutes) or leave.
We keep the intro game materials at our local game store, and display them when a passerby shows interest in the game. It consists of four components:
#1 The ‘board’: Contains an intro to the game, its rules, and sets up the Cloud City intro scenario. We printed this once on an A2 format to play on, and printed it on A3 for distribution. You can find the pdf-file at
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jug7etjhapckd ... e.pdf?dl=0; it is about 30 mb and may not load in your browser >> click the download button. Give your pdf-reader some time to load the layers.
#2 The decks:
Dark Side:
1. Darth Vader With Lightsaber
2. Boba Fett (CC)
3. Admiral Ozzel
4. Lieutenant Sheckil
5. Captain Bewill
6. Elite Squadron Stormtrooper
7. Stormtrooper
8. Stormtrooper Cadet
9. Sergeant Wallen
10. Lando Calrissian
11. Lobot
12. Cloud City Trooper
13. Trooper Jerrol Blendin
14. Ugloste
15. Ugnaught
16. Commander Brandei
17. Obsidian 7
18. Obsidian 8
19. OS-71-1 in Obsidian 1
20. OS-71-2 in Obsidian 2
21. Slave I, Symbol of fear
22. Tie Interceptor
23. Blaster Rifle
24. Cloud City Blaster
25. Cloud City Occupation
26. Trooper Assault
27. Ghhhk
28. All power to weapons
29. Imperial Barrier
30. Dark Maneuvers
Light Side:
1. Captain Han Solo
2. Son Of Skywalker
3. Lando With Blaster Pistol
4. Chewbacca With Blaster Rifle
5. Lobot
6. Princess Leia
7. Kebyc
8. Trooper Utris M'Toc
9. Cloud City Trooper
10. Sergeant Edian
11. Harc Seff
12. Pucumir Thrys
13. Leesub Sirin (v)
14. Yoxgit
15. Millennium Falcon
16. Z-95 Bespin Defense Fighter
17. Red Leader in Red 1
18. Gold Leader in Gold 1
19. X-wing
20. X-wing
21. Lift Tube
22. Anakin’s Lightsaber
23. Cloud City Blaster
24. Cloud City Celebration
25. Dodge
26. Lift Tube Escape
27. Houjix
28. It’s A Trap!
29. Organized Attack
30. Rebel Barrier
#3 The goodie-bag: Packages of cheap but flavourful cards (e.g., stormtrooper, x-wing) to give away after the intro.
#4 The email signup list:
After they have received some goodies, ask them whether they would be interested in the local newsletter (we have a Dutch one) and get them to sign up.
Before going to the frequently asked questions: It cost a lot of work to develop this but we hope you'll find it useful. Thanks for any feedback in advance.
FAQS:
Q: Why don’t you use the existing demo-decks?
A: The demodecks are great but can be overwhelming if you are new to the game. That’s why this intro does without an objective (typically the most complex cards), starts with cards on table, limits the number of cards starting in hand to 2 (reducing the need for comprehension), and provides T1 instructions. We hope that when players take a first step of learning the cards and the game's basic mechanics through this intro they will proceed to the demo-decks.
Q: Is this fun for someone who knows the game?
A: Surprisingly, it is! Many cards that otherwise don’t see play are featured here (and no need to worry for a Maul & Dr.E blowout), and at the same time, the decks are more balanced than a sealed game (the deck-lists will be updated the more we play). It is great fun to play both sides in 60 minutes to see who manages better overall.
Q: Why does LS start?
A: Thematically, it seemed appropriate to allow the LS player to move to the dining room on the first turn of the game. DS player has to verbally respond with “we would be honoured if you would join us”.
Q: The sizes of locations aren’t accurate.
A: The A2-format isn’t large enough to display the accurate sizes. The width of a site matches the width of a character-card.
Q: That T1 strategy is not optimal.
A: It’s not meant to be, but we don’t want to overload a new player with the intricacies immediately.
Q: Recirculation is not a separate phase, it’s part of the draw phase!
A: We know. But it is a mandatory event that is markedly different from drawing cards. For purposes of instruction, it is much clearer to mark it as a separate phase (just as ‘untapping’ in MtG). We would update the rules as such if we were SWCCG Czar.
Q: Great! Lets give this intro at event Y..
A: Take it easy flyboy. Remember, being non-licensed this community has to tread softly. For now, this package of materials is shared by the Dutch crew (not the PC) for your
local convenience. We don't want to be seen competing with licensed companies as that may have bad consequenses for the game. You can find the marketing guidelines here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x529cp4ydvvoy ... 7.pdf?dl=0