When we released our first article last week about the future of Organised Play we said we would talk about support for in-person play in a separate piece. This was because we felt it was too important to be conflated into a large article and therefore lost in that.
When A Renewed Hope was formed to continue the legacy of Star Wars: Destiny it was because we all loved playing the game and wanted to keep doing exactly that. From weeknights on kitchen tables and regular game days at the local game store all the way up to Regional, National and World Championship events. The chance to test skills and ingenuity of deck building against friends and strangers alike in competition. To meet new people, reconnect with old companions and to socialise with fellow gamers and Star Wars fans. Obviously worldwide events sort of got away from us last year but now as things are beginning to return to normal across the globe we are proud to launch our first Game Night Kit.
Well we have some good news! These kits are available now from the link below and are designed to support a local community for up to six players. The cards chosen for these sets will, hopefully, be of more use to players and communities perhaps than some of the ones done before. They will broadly fit into three categories; updated versions of cards that have had errata or points costs altered, cards which are in demand for multiple decks and lastly cards our amazing art team thinks would just look awesome This first Game Night Kits contains examples of all three
These kits will remain eternally available and new kits will be released every three to four months.
We do not feel it is our place to suggest to local communities how these should be distributed as every area is different and we would not presume to know how each group of players would like the kits to be used.
Click here to order your Game Night Kit now!
These are not the only kits we will be making available for players and TOs to purchase as we will be making many kits including those for post-release events for the next set as well. The contents for those will be announced nearer the time.
Future Premier Events
Our future plans for Premier events include – National (or groups of states) Championships and a World Championship but those plans must remain fluid for now. We are actively talking and taking applications from TOs wanting, willing and able to organise such events around the globe. These are what will be ARH: Premier Events along with the Galactic Open Series (which will be an in-person as well as online event series)
With in-person play comes another challenge – How to handle proxy cards and dice in events.
Because everything ARH produces is print and play it is important that for events proxies are of an acceptable standard so that all players feel the contest is even. Cards need to either be printed on card or paper over another card and sleeved in opaque sleeves so that from the back the cards are indistinguishable from each other. What would not be acceptable nor fair to other players is hand written pieces of paper stuffed into sleeves.
Dice are a trickier issue as printing proxies of cards is relatively easy, dice stickers are a little more difficult and not everyone will be able to do it. For local and community events we would recommend that where they can players use stickers but if this is not possible each die must be clearly different from anything other die except cards with the same title and set number or elite characters. That is to say that each card’s die/dice should be noticeably different from the others so as not to cause a delay in play related to identifying which die relates to which card, especially when re-rolling a dice pool.
There would be an expectation that for Premier level ARH events that dice are stickered or printed directly on the dice so as to eliminate any confusion.
At ARH our aim is to be as inclusive as we possibly can and do everything that we can to facilitate that aim. With that in mind there are two other proxy related aspects to talk about.
There are certain cards from previous sets that are referenced on cards designed by ARH. If players wish to use proxies of those cards in ARH events then they should feel free to do so but as above they should be indistinguishable from other cards in the deck or in play and dice should be appropriately clear. Many of these are common cards but we recognise that some of them are in-demand rares and we would not want players to feel unable to play a deck of their choice for these reasons.
As mentioned above, at higher levels of ARH players should ensure any such proxies meet the production standards of such an event.
At ARH we are not unaware that there have been shortages of Covert Missions and as such if local communities and TOs feel this is the case then they should allow proxies from that set only because we want players to be able to play the game to the fullest.
These proxies however will not be allowed at Premier level ARH events.
Other In-Person Considerations
It has also been noted that the detect mechanic has some in real-life practical issues, when discarding cards from a player’s hand. Should there be any dispute as to how to make a random determination without other game information being revealed (such as when a player has a detected and an undetected copy of the same card in hand) then players should roll a die. In most cases a standard D6 will work but it may be that a D10 is a good choice for any player using these mechanics to bring to the event.
For matches where Extremist Campaign and/or Kendal Ozzel are involved and there is a need to determine which player chooses something prior to the starting character roll then players should randomly determine this and the winner of the roil decides which player acts first.
There will be a new set of Tournament Rules released later in the year in time for ARH in person events but players and TOs should use the existing rules except where the above is contradictory.
