Star Wars: Unlimited, Optimism through the Uncertainty

Is SW:U a Lorcana killer?

The ever-so-subtle subtitle “A Lorcana Killer?” is, of course, as tongue in cheek as it gets. Lorcana, who only recently announced an organized play circuit for 2024, and has still yet to release comprehensive rules, needs no help advancing its own death. Mentioning its death implies it ever really had “life”.

Star Wars Unlimited is worthy of boarding the hype train all on its own, independent of its relationship to other titles. Not only is it literally Star Wars, Fantasy Flight Games (“FFG”) has a track record of making good games. Sure, sure, they abandon those games not too long after making them, but boy howdy are the games themselves good.

I’ve had quite a few conversations with trading card friends the past few months about SW:U, FFG’s relationship with its community, and whether this game has legs. I want to communicate my thesis upfront: I’m worried about the longevity of SW:U, but I’m willing to ride the boat so long as it lasts.

What is “longevity”?

One of my annoyances in gaming these days is pre-emptively calling a game “dead”. It seems that if a game doesn’t last five or ten years, it doesn’t garnish respect as a game worthy of attention. This thinking is a mistake.

Not every game can be World of Warcraft. WoW is 20 years old. Magic: The Gathering is over 30. Brands like Pokemon and Yugioh, and others not too far off their heels like League of Legends, are also relatively ancient. These games should be seen as spectacular anamolies, not the rule. Judging any game by how it compares with the lifespan of Magic, Pokemon, or the like is at best disingenous.

So, what do I mean when I say that I worry about SW:U’s “longevity”? It comes down to me wanting to feel like my purchases matter and that my investment was rewarded. I don’t mean “investment” in the “stonks go up” sense. I just mean that, for everything out there competing for my economic vote, is SW:U the most worty of it? Will I look back a year from now thinking, “This game was cool, but I sure wish I hadn’t bought all these cards and just drafted a couple times instead.”

I had those same concerns with Flesh and Blood. When my friends first introduced me to the game, I was genuinely nervous about starting another TCG. Now, almost four years removed from when I first tried the game, I’m thrilled at my Flesh and Blood collection. The game could close its doors tomorrow, never to hold an event again, and I would be happy with what I have and the purchases that I made. That’s what I want for SW:U.

Anyone that has been in the TCG scene for long knows that a game can be good, but it can die in an instant. Argent Saga, for example, was a game I really enjoyed. Despite being a great game, it died quickly. I had fun while I played, but I sure wish I didn’t have all these cards laying around. That’s what I don’t want for SW:U.

For what it’s worth, if Lorcana closed its doors today, I would still look fondly on my collection. The look on my wife’s face when we opened the enchanted Elsa is worth every dollar, and her surprise when it came back with a 10 grade was priceless. That card will sit on my fireplace mantel until I die, and it was worth every booster pack - even if I never play the game again.

FFG and the curse of brevity

It’s a commonly accepted meme that FFG makes good games but doesn’t long support them. My first forray into FFG’s world was through the Legends of the Five Rings LCG (“L5R”). That game was incredible. I enjoyed the worldbuilding in that game, and the stronghold mechanic/win condition was something I hadn’t really experienced before.

FFG’s organized play for that game was also great. They incentivized being loyal to your faction (that is, playing the faction you liked best) regardless of how competitive that faction was in the meta. There were prizes for first place in your clan. If you loved playing Dragon, but Dragon was off meta, you could still get prizes for being first Dragon.

I appreciated FFG not wanting to make L5R tournaments “money” tournaments, and I really appreciate their dediction to the LCG model. It made the game affordable by allowing both my wife and I to maintain complete playsets without breaking the bank. There was lots of developer interaction, erratas, and product releases that felt like the game was going to be a flagship of their brand.

Until FFG stopped its support. Then, all the Kotei championships, promo cards, and clan loyalty felt like they meant nothing. It was unceremonious, and I felt like L5R was cast aside for the more profitable Keyforge.

This is also really without getting into what they did to Star Wars: Destiny. I wasn’t around that community at all, so I’ll defer to better sources than myself. I only mention it to say that the gaming community’s hesitancy towards FFG is both longstanding and reasonable.

“You must unlearn what you have learned” - Yoda

If you’ve made it this long, you’re probably wondering why I’m willing to “ride this boat as long as it lasts.” After all, I have my biases towards FFG, and I’ve made clear that I don’t want to waste money on a game that won’t satisfy me. So why give SW:U/FFG a chance?

Maybe it’s foolish. A classic “fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice” scenario. Maybe it’s falling victim to capitalism taking advantage of my boyhood infatuation with Star Wars, and the “machine” capitalizing on my consumeristic/gambling oriented brain.

Those aren’t the reasons. At least, not as I understand them. At Gencon 2023, my wife and I scheduled an hour long demo of the game. We almost didn’t because I had sworn off FFG as a company. I’m really glad we went through with our demo. The game was incredible. We had an excellent teacher, which helped a lot. Funny enough, she was actually a middle school teacher as her day job, and she was just there helping her husband, who I think was working in exchange for a free Gencon badge. Her teaching skills definitely shined through in the demo. Probably the best demo we played at Gencon. Anyway, I digress.

Our first introduction to the game was “Do you want to play as Luke or Darth Vader?” How cool is that? Darth Vader pairs off against Luke? This isn’t just Abbie and I throwing cards around. This is Luke Skywalker leading troops into battle against Darth Vader. Abbie and I argued briefly over who would play who, and I was stuck with Vader. We had plenty of time for our game, and actually got in three or four total games inside the hour we booked. It was awesome. We got some pretty sick promos too.

FFG’s website for SW:U also feels like it takes itself seriously. The amount of information available on oragnized play is refreshing. The event locator actually works. The website as whole feels like it was designed to be a hub for the game, not just a promotional afterthought. Lorcana’s “organized play” system isn’t half as thought out as SW:U’s, and Lorcana’s system is allegedly launching this year.

I haven’t even mentioned the game mechanics yet. They’re the best part. The two lane combat system (ground troops and space troops), guaranteed resource system, and back-and-forth action system make this truly a fun, deep, and strategic card game. If you’re unfamiliar with how to play the game, check out this “how to play” video.

Conclusion

So for all the hesitancies I have towards FFG, I’m willing to give them a chance. They built a very fun game, presented it well, and have outlined a structure for the game’s success.

Yes, they’ve done this before, and I’m totally willing to get hurt again. For that reason, FFG doesn’t get many, if any re-dos or do-overs, but they do get this one chance from me. I’m excited to see how it plays out.

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If you’ve read this far, I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d consider subscribing, for free, to this newsletter. The weekly newsletter will hopefully grow as I get feedback and experience, and I truly look forward to sharing it with everyone.

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I’d also appreciate it if you check out my Lorcana podcast which I co-host with my good friend Dan Norton (DJGigabyte). Quest for 20 started as a Lorcana podcast, but it’s really just a TCG podcast now, and we will certainly be talking about all things SW:U as the game really takes off.