It’s been a good year for Star Wars fans. Disney bought Lucasfilm, and announced that a new trilogy — with some of the original actors, but without George Lucas directing — will kick off in 2015. We also saw the return of Star Wars gaming with a slew of new releases from Fantasy Flight Games: The Star Wars card game, expansions for the X Wing miniature combat game, and finally a new Star Wars role-playing game.
Miniatures Games
The X-Wing miniature games is hitting its stride. After launching in April 2012 the game has seen a series of expansions that introduced new fighters, such as Y-Wings, TIE Advanced, and additional X-Wing Dice. Additional expansions have been announced, including The Millenium Falcon, Slave I, A Wing, and TIE Intercepter.
My group’s just started experimenting with the game, and so far are liking what they see. I haven’t tried it myself, but I’m sorely tempted to buy the basic edition.
- Corsec Engineering – X-Wing Compatible Template: Plastic maneuvering templates for the X-Wing games.
- Tabletop Gaming News – Battle Foam has new custom trays for X-Wing Miniatures game: One of the challenges with minis is storing them; these trays help by offering custom-cut foam templates for the X-Wing game.
- Shut Up and Sit Down – Review: Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game: A photo-packed review of the basic game.
- Kotaku – X-Wing: Miniatures Review: The gaming site takes an in-depth look at the mini game, with well-shot photos. Their opinion? It’s an amazing tabletop alternative to the classic X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter video game.
- Wired – The Force is Strong with the Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game: The Geek Dads at Wired offer their thoughts on the game, which can be summed up as “serious fun”.
Role-Playing Game
Star Wars: Saga Edition will likely always be my favorite Star Wars role-playing game, but I continue to be intrigued by Fantasy Flight Games’s efforts. Not enough to buy the hardcover of their beta, but I may pick up their Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game. Retailing for $29.95, the game includes basic rules, dice, four pre-generated player characters, and an adventure. It seems like a decent way to try out the game before investing in the core rulebook.
- Fantasy Flight – The Long Arm of the Hutt: A free follow-up adventure for the beginner game.
- Second Left – Unboxing: Star Wars Edge of Empire Beginners Game: Step-by-step photos documenting what’s in the new boxed set.
- Game Nation: Review of the Beginner Boxed Set: A first-look review of the game, without a playtest
- Strange Assembly – Review of Edge of the Empire Beta: A review of the print beta of the new RPG.
- Sterling Hershey – Star Wars Wednesday – Transition Order 66: The former Saga Edition writer talks about the Order 66 podcast’s transition from d20 to Fantasy Flight’s system
- Good-bye Saga-edition.com: More sad news for Saga Edition fans; Saga-Edition.com has gone offline, taking with it tons of fan generated content. I’m sorry to see it go.