Star Wars ccg design intent, notes and other musings.

We don’t want to make a card that turns a battleground into a non-battleground.  It can lead to bad times for all…especially when dealing with certain mobile sites with round things attached to them.

So battlegrounds = good. Nudjs = ok too.  Altering presence on a battleground making it a non-battleground = ok.  Making a card that turns an already battleground by itself into a non-battleground….really, really, bad.  Unless its sandwhirl or some other Decipher card in print already (BoShuda, etc) that does it.

We want to use this blog to share info on the direction that the PC has for the game as far as new cards go, some of which will be seen in this set, and also to discuss some of the behind the scenes things that go on in D&D.

Altering The Deal

One change we’re making in the direction of the game is related to Alter. While all of us in D&D can remember the days when SAC and mains and toys dominated the scene, Alter has been the member of the SAC team that has been the hardest hit over the years. In Decipher’s earliest days, immunity to Alter was uncommon: insert cards, skill-adding cards, Disarmed, Undercover, Eject Eject were the kinds of cards that were protected. Pre-Dagobah, the only immune to Alter Effect with game-changing significance was Echo Base Operations. Later on, especially since virtual cards have come into existence, immunity to Alter became commonplace. Part of this was so that the card could be started with Prepared Defenses/Heading For The Medical Frigate. And yet, Decipher’s final set (Theed Palace) had more than half the cards vulnerable to Alter, and they gave it to us again (as a Lost Interrupt) in Coruscant. D&D decided that while Alter should not be allowed to dominate the game, it should be allowed to serve as a check for those cards made to be vulnerable to Alter, such as Goo Nee Tay, or to deal with things like Come Here You Big Coward or Honor Of The Jedi if the opponent is hiding out at non-battlegrounds.

For this reason, we’re making two changes. One is to virtualize a new Alter (we kept it as Alter to preserve most of the existing interactions) for both sides. The other is to make immunity to Alter less ubiquitous – cards will be immune to Alter if we feel it is necessary to avoid such cancelation, not for any other reason. This led to something you’ve already seen in our preview card and spoilers, which is the Setup icon. Previously, excluding immunity to Alter would hit a card twice, first by its vulnerability to cancelation, and second by not being started. The Setup icon allows us to keep only the first if we wish. They’ll be startable by the new Starting Interrupts, and if you’d prefer using a different Starting Interrupt, there are Effects which can do a once per game pull of a Setup icon card. So the Setup icon isn’t just about the new Mission card type, it’s about what we call redrawing the power curve (more on that in a later article): by making cards like HFTMF/PD stronger, we can make new Effects that are in a way less powerful by being vulnerable to Alter while keeping them playable because they can be started. It should be noted, though, that not every card that is vulnerable to Alter will have the Setup icon, as you’ll see in this set. The icon just allows us to choose whether or not it can get out at the beginning of the game.

As with many things in SWCCG, there isn’t a full agreement among the thirty or so people involved in the entire process on whether the new Alter goes too far or not far enough. In the end, D&D designed the card in the following way:
-We should start with the Coruscant version, as being a Lost counter to Effects, Utinni Effects, and Political Effects means it’s not going to keep going Used.
-It should remain as a strong counter to Sense. Immunity to Sense is far less common on Interrupts than Immunity to Alter is on Effects of all kinds.
-It should not be a dead card against opponent’s decks. Especially with the dominance of Watch Your Step, we felt it needed to always be playable.
-We did not want to extend Alter beyond its intended scope, such as countering Immediate Effects or Mobile Effects. We did not want this to become the go-to counter card for everything. We tried to have this Alter function in the game the way it would if it was designed the way Control was, with Decipher having experience to balance it against the other cards it had created.
-You should not be punished for using Alter by the opponent, but they should still be able to protect themselves.

So these are the final versions of our new Alter:

Alter (Dark) (V) 4
USED OR LOST INTERRUPT
Text: USED: Cancel Sense. LOST: Target an Effect, Political Effect, or Utinni Effect, and one of your characters on table. Draw destiny. If destiny < character’s ability, target Effect is canceled (you lose no Force to Do, Or Do Not). (Immune to opponent’s Objective.)
Set Icon 7.1•X

Alter (Light) (V) 4
USED OR LOST INTERRUPT
Text: USED: Cancel Sense. LOST: Target an Effect, Political Effect, or Utinni Effect, and one of your characters on table. Draw destiny. If destiny < character’s ability, target Effect is canceled (you lose no Force to There Is No Try). (Immune to opponent’s Objective.)
Set Icon 7.1•X

“Immune to opponent’s objective” means that it can’t be canceled or have the destiny draw modified by opponent’s objective. It does not protect you from your own. Likewise, you are not protected from your own DODN/TINT Force loss. It is not immune to those cards because we want you to still have Wise Advice/Oppressive Enforcement as an option for protection, and we do not want this to get around the combo card versions of those Effects.

We’ve decided to allow this particular virtual card to be usable with either the Premiere or Coruscant versions of Alter. It cannot be used with the combo card.

Ever since the Victory left Development, there’s been an intense argument over whether it was far too good, fine, or overpriced for its stats and abilities. This leads into one of the most difficult areas to gauge and one where D&D has had a great deal of concern, which is the area of balancing card stats. Now I mention the Victory because it has kind of become the poster child for why we need this because the Victory was produced in an area where we hadn’t yet devised any kind of guidelines. Cards such as Victory, Dengar With Blaster Carbine (V), and perhaps even R2-D2, Subversive Droid illustrate why we have been working on this and why we intend to stick with it.

So far we have come up with guidelines for starfighters and certain characters. I say certain because it doesn’t as yet cover droids, maintenance cards, permanent weapon cards, or cards that deploy undercover. Those cards all have advantages and disadvantages that make them so different from other cards that we haven’t factored in yet, so for those cards we continue like we did for the cards above: look at other stuff and try to hit the right balance. That’s not very ideal because some things are just beyond the ability for playtesting to accurate reflect, such as whether or not a point of forfeit is going to make a card too strong or too weak. So coming up with guidelines is a way for us to try to balance the card’s stats mathematically so that we can avoid power creep by being consistent.

I don’t want to get into too many specifics on how this works for a couple of reasons. First, because these are our guidelines, it’s not like an RPG where there’s a system to stop you from munchkining to make some extreme character or ship. It’s there to help us see if the card’s stats are too strong or too weak. Second, because as I said, the entire system is still a work in progress.

One part of the system we do factor in is maintaining original card stats. That is, you can keep the stats of the original card you are virtualizing, though it’s important to note that you can’t do this if you’re removing an obvious balancing aspect of the game text. For instance, Kir Kanos stats are very high for a deploy 2 character, but is balanced by his game text, so in order to use the same stats, he would need to have a comparable disadvantage. And it’s only the stats of that card, not some other card. If you don’t like this card’s stats, you have to follow the guidelines.

That being said, with starfighters we do tend to keep in mind how the other ships in that class match up. For instance, Red 3 (V) has identical stats to its original because they’re typical of all the X-Wings. In other cases, we sometimes find that a starfighter’s class is overall underpowered. For instance, when we went to make Black 1 (Black Leader’s special TIE), the existing TIE Advanced x1 are so far below the power stats for all other ships that we decided we’d up the stats to more accurately reflect what the power should be.

For characters, we generally follow the stat system we put up. For instance, a power 3 ability 3 character would be deploy 3. If you check Decipher’s cards, most are deploy 3; some are 2 and some 4, but overall that’s where they all fall in, and it maintains the balance. The forfeit can then vary depending upon the destiny number: someone like Boss Nass with a destiny of 1 has a forfeit of 6, while someone like Captain Gilad Pellaeon with a destiny of 2 has a forfeit of 5. If you look at a list of just the 3/3 characters the destiny, deploy, and forfeit are all over the place, but for balance the general results of our guidelines would have the forfeit be 6 if they were destiny 1, 5 if they were destiny 2, 4 if they were destiny 3. You might say that takes away from the variety of stats, but that’s why we also allow the option to preserve the original stats. It’s also why we do not allow taking stats from other characters, or else everyone who’s a 3/3 with destiny 1 would take Princess Organa’s stats of forfeit 7.

That being said, there are rare occassions where we will use the stats of another character, and that’s if we’re creating mirrors. In the case of Ice-Heart, a character designed as a counterpart to her nemesis -Corran Horn- we used the same stats even though we could have lowered the deploy on the card if we’d used our stat guidelines. On the other side, when we created a new version of Biggs for this set, we also wanted to make a dark side counterpart to him (DS-61-5; we made a new persona rather than virtualizing DS-61-4 because we wanted to give dark some additional matching TIEs and pilots). Since we were using Biggs’ original stats (otherwise he’d be less playable than the other Biggses, or Biggsi, whatever the plural is), we decided to give both Biggs’ stats even though his forfeit is higher than what we might normally use. What we would definitely not do, though, is give both Wedge Antilles’ stats – we’re not just using the best stats there are, we’re just making these two counterparts equal to each other. Likewise, we’ve created a new counterpart to the Special Edition Red pilots, and so they have the same stats – but only because they’re being made as that counterpart. Sergeant Torent (V), who has the same power and ability that they do, doesn’t have his other stats the same because he is not being created as a mirror of a light side card.

The stats guidelines are one example of how we’re working to avoid overall power creep.

There are several ways of defining power creep, which is why almost any card that is not downright awful can be called “power creep” and have it be accurate according to some definition. Now, simply calling something “power creep” is useless unless it means something, or else we could call it “flagpole muffin” or “Martian hatdance” and get the same result – just a label without meaning. Since power creep is usually identified as something bad, let’s examine some definitions to see why they’re not adequate for a label of “power creep” over “Obama unicycle.”

We want to define and identify power creep because overall power creep is considered bad for a game.

Rejected Definitions

Superior to the previous iteration: If this is the definition, then we must accept power creep as a way of life. The following cards fit this definition of power creep:
-Attark (V)
-Fozec (V)
-Hem Dazon (V)
-Kalit (V)
-Labria (V)
-Mist Hunter (V)
-One-Arm (V)
-Reserve Pilot (V)
And that’s just a small sample. In most cases, a new iteration of the card will be superior to the existing one, simply to be worth playing (or making other cards worth playing). We designed a ship in a fairly recent set that was cut because the playtesters hated how weak it was. Its stats were either equal or superior to every single one of the original and had more functionality, and was considered unplayable: in other words, the “power creep” hadn’t crept far enough to make the card worth using. So as a definition, this one is useless to us.

Superior to another card: This definition is really just a modified version of the previous one, it’s just comparing to a different card instead of the same one. By this definition, though, the original Your Insight Serves You Well is power creep: it does what Resistance and Corporal Beezer both do, but better (protect from 3,720 to 1 and Scanning Crew completely rather than conditionally or limiting the damage) and has other functions. Or let’s compare Red 1 to Red 10: same stats, but Red 10 does everything Red 1 does and lots more and has no drawbacks at all; would that be power creep? Now, you might say that is missing the point – those cards weren’t doing their jobs, so Decipher had to make a better counter and they had to make the ship worth playing. Which, actually, is precisely my point: this too is too simplistic a definition for us. Simply doing something another card does is not enough to be power creep, so we need to move on.

Combining the functions of two or more cards: Similar to the last one (Your Insight Serves You Well fits this as well), perhaps most commonly seen on combo cards. This is admittedly where we can see power creep often: Sorry About The Mess & Blaster Proficiency, to just pick one example, trades the existing ability to cancel Levitation Attack (back when all it did was throw devices at people) for the ability to fire a weapon during control phase. Same destiny, same bonuses, but now instead of canceling a useless card it can offer removal before your deploy phase. But then, let’s look at another combo card: The Bith Shuffle & Desperate Reach. The card’s only real usefulness is canceling Imperial Barrier and being an easily tossed back destiny-5. Then Inconsequential Barriers came along, and even by making it worse in other ways (one less destiny and unique) the additional canceling of Set For Stun makes it the superior choice. Even though we have a combo card that is superior to its components overall, it still struggles to be playable. So this definition is also inadequate for power creep, if it results in a card that struggles to be played.

At this point, you might be think I’m missing the point by giving examples of non-power creep when there are so many examples of power creep in those areas. I admit there has been power creep that fits those definitions, BUT if a definition only applies to some and not others that meet the same criteria, then it’s not a useful definition of power creep. Power creep may have some of these characteristics, but it doesn’t serve as a litmus test of what is and isn’t power creep.

What Power Creep Is

Power creep is defined as the continual increase in power from release to release until the game is unbalanced.

That sounds nebulous, and that’s because it is, for the most part. Star Wars CCG is a complicated game, with elements that can’t be readily measured and a pool of thousands of cards that all interact. This is further complicated because, in its final year of official publication, the game underwent significant power creep. Attempts by the PC over the years to keep the old power creep in check have met with disaster (pre-redux Boba Fett (V) to make the new stuff at the same power level) or hatred (maintenance counters). Yet I’ve witnessed people who would scream to all that will hear that maintenance cards are balanced and yet cry “power creep!” at the first sign something they don’t like getting stronger. Many of the things over the years that cause such cries have been used to help balance the game, such as Starting Effects and shields, which led to enraged people taking to the message boards demanding users of shields try to take them on with only fifty card decks. Shields have become a necessary evil, curbing abusive strategies that would make rock-paper-scissors matchups more likely.

So, since this is what power creep is, let’s talk about what D&D believes is not power creep:
Power creep is not increasing power to balance the game.

Examples include things like the aforementioned Your Insight Serves You Well, which was more powerful than all previous counters, or Scrambled Transmission (V), which did the same with other weak counters to its decks.

Power creep is not increasing power to be playable.

For instance, Wes Janson (V) does almost everything his original version did, plus a whole bunch of new things. Yes, he has become more powerful, but that power level is merely to the point where he might be considered worth playing in a matching pilots deck. The existence of Wes (V) has not raised the stakes so that we have to fear imbalance.

Power creep is not measurable by word count.

One of the most wordy cards in the game is Attack Run. Our current Epic Event template allows for ten lines – this one has fifteen. Yet if you look the card over, none of these provide any real bonus, it’s simply creating a mechanic in as balanced a way as it can, where you have to do certain things to succeed and your opponent has an opportunity to thwart it. In many instances, more words are there to balance a mechanic rather than make it stronger.

I mentioned in the article on Alter about redrawing the power curve. We in D&D spend time reading about game design theory and the experiences of developers in other games to help us do our job better, where we’ve heard a lot of interesting ideas regarding power creep. A point that Magic: The Gathering brought up based on their experiences was the concept that we can redraw the power curve of a card concept without necessarily having it be power creep – it’s just putting the card at the level we feel it should be at overall for the game, to have it be strong enough to benefit the game without unbalancing the game. With Alter we said we would allow the card to go so far, but no further.

In the survey results, suggestions from several respondents included ideas related to dogfighting between starfighters. Like many of the suggestions that we’ve taken first steps towards in Ultimate Power, we felt that the first thing to do if we were going to help dogfighting (whether it would be a special mechanic or just more direct involvement between starfighters) is to allow the dark side’s starfighters to be a bit more playable. Otherwise, any dogfighting attempt would likely make them less playable except in decks such as Taco TIEs which are all about exploiting TIEs. Perhaps the most notable disadvantage of TIEs is their lack of a hyperdrive, and while it’s addressed by Flagship Operations (V), by requiring it just as a way of getting around we’re doing more to push the idea of TIEs out of being splashable space support and into only TIE-specific decks. For that reason, we created the following:

•Combat Response (V) 5
[Virtual Set 7.1 - Death Star II - C]
EFFECT
Text: Deploy on table. Tallon Roll is canceled. Once per turn, may reveal an unpiloted starfighter from hand to /\ its matching pilot character (or vice versa) and deploy both simultaneously. Your unique (•) TIEs (except Scythe Squadron TIEs) at systems may use 1 Force to relocate (as a regular move) to a system within 3 parsecs. [Immune to Alter]
Set Icon 7.1•X

Every card that can use Squadron Assignments has hyperdrive; very few that can use the original Combat Response did as well. So in some ways, all this card does is make those two Effects more equal. Of course, TIEs and rebel starfighters aren’t the same exactly, so we did make some allowances by removing the outliers in TIE power, the Tallon Roll and the move-fire of the Scythe Squadron TIEs. Yes, the card is better than its original version. Yes, the card combines two card’s functions. But no, we do not feel it is power creep. In addition to the restrictions on what can move (only uniques, and even then, excluding some) and no Tallon Roll, this Effect requires a cost be paid for the movement, and while it lacks the drain bonus of FO(V), it also lacks the power bonus that card provides. It provides card efficiency, but only within limited boundaries and at a cost.

We are concerned about power creep, of course, and later today I’ll give some examples of how D&D is working to avoid it.

One of the things the PC started doing a couple years back was having individual set designers. While this gave us some variety in styles and themes over that time, it led to a couple of problems. One was that designing cards and designing entire sets is a lot more complicated and involved than it might seem at first glance, and you don’t really learn much until you’re already done and someone else is going to do it. What we’ve been working towards in D&D is to have an actual team of people whose job is only to Design and offer creative feedback to each other. You’ll have a chance to see them in action this fall, as the Design team will be running sans yours truly to continue the Darkness Rising Block into the new tournament season. The only thing I’ll be responsible for are stuff pushed back from Ultimate Power, so this’ll be a great chance for us to begin to shift to a more diverse interpretation with numerous experienced designers.

For now, let’s talk about the other aspect I just mentioned, the pushing back. That’s been a problem for a while, especially with the previous individual set approach. If a card needs more time than is available, and it’s something the Designer really wants to see, then it’s a temptation to either overcompensate just to get it in the set or to put it through anyway rather than push it back, because they knew pushing it back would likely lead to it changing or dying. For instance, there was an Effect that I believe aided in setting up Maul on Tatooine that was pushed back from 14 to 15, and the team for 15 was left scratching their heads over the card, and eventually it was just scrapped. With our team in place, there’s less of a fear of abandoning a card or theme when it’s time to cut cards from a set.

Rebel Spy Network is an example that you’ve been aware of in an unintended way, so let’s use that as an example. RSN was one of our 6 Missions planned (there are now going to be 5 in this set), intended as (obviously) a helper for creating a spy-centered deck. It proved to be one of those problem children you sometimes get; the mechanics of the card itself were fine, but there were ways to combine them with other unintended mechanics that required revision after revision. It started with the simple “Deploy on table if your War Room on table.” That was fine until it was used in Throne Room with Rebel Leadership (V) getting an early War Room and just exploiting the non-thematic elements. We spent over a month hacking and yanking on this card to try to keep the soul of the card while cutting out the unbalanced interactions, even forming it into the objective that was erroneously released (you should have seen the looks on the playtesters faces when that happened). It was what usually happens, you know just one more week can work all the bugs out, but there are no more weeks left. The message from playtesting was (hope they don’t mind an anonymous quote): “we all love the concept and i think this has the potential to be really cool. but let’s make sure we get it right”. And that’s what we have been really working to do, get the cards right.

It has resulted in a broken heart or two. Mon Mothma & General Madine likewise had to be pushed back, but better that than overcompensating and making it useless. It’s going to weaken another of Light’s Missions to not have that in its arsenal, but it’s just a wait until fall and hopefully with it tapped into balance that card and the decks it’s intended to help will have their time.

We do have one orphaned card still in the set from Rebel Spy Network. It’s playable on its own, so we felt no need to push it back, but it’ll benfit your spies even more once we release Rebel Spy Network. It’s an Utinni Effect, something the PC hasn’t done very often, and for good reason, especially for the light. You can’t have them retrieve, because then they get stacked on Code Clearance and hurt you, and you can’t have them causing direct damage, because that gets stopped by Imperial Decree, and you can’t have them cause non-retrieval or non-damage, because that just upsets people for getting around rules and cards, and you can’t make the card too long, because that upsets Scott and he feeds another kitten to his python. So here is our spy-related Utinni Effect:

•Emperor’s Sinister Plans [•Critical Error Revealed (V)] 6
[Virtual Set 7.1 - Death Star II - C]
Lore: Hologram technology allows efficient communication of complex intelligence during war room briefings.
UTINNI EFFECT
Text: Deploy on your non-droid spy at Back Door. Target your war room. Until completed, spy may not relocate or be Undercover. When Utinni Effect reaches target, stack there: opponent’s battle destiny draws are -1 and your spies may not have their forfeit reduced below 3.
Set Icon 7.1•X

This is a blog entry that was originally made by Chris Schoenthal.

We all know that Star Wars is an ‘alphabet soup’ of crazy letters and words that can be daunting for those who don’t know what they mean. Here, then, is a glossary of these terms and their meanings. This is by no means comprehensive, and I would love it if everyone would add ones missed, or correct things messed up!

Big thanks to Ben Kline and Greg Zinn for their Decktech articles that I combed for some of these!

•3/2 Mains: A deck type that starts Naboo: Theed Palace Generator Core (A site with 3 light icons and 2 dark icons)

•Ability x3 (and v): Ability, Ability, Ability- Dark Side Effect, originally from Cloud City and virtualized in V6
•Accelerate: We Must Accelerate Our Plans- Dark Side Interrupt from Coruscant
•AFA (and v): Anger, Fear, Aggression- Light Side Effect, originally from Dagobah and virtualized in V15 as a Starting Effect.
•AitC: Agents in the Court- Light Side Objective from Jabba’s Palace Sealed Deck
•AJR: A Jedi’s Resilience- Light Side Interrupt from Tatooine
•Angry Chewie- Chewbacca, Enraged- Light Side Character from Reflections III
•ANH: A New Hope (Star Wars Episode IV)
•AO: Short for the card type Admiral’s Order
•AoBS: Agents of Black Sun- Dark Side Objective from Reflections II
•AotC: Attack of the Clones (Star Wars Episode II)
•AR: Advanced Rulebook- Comprehensive rules document released by the PC. Contains current rulings, erratum, and rules and examples for nearly every mechanic in the game.
•AUAOF: An Unusual Amount of Fear- Light Side Starting Effect from Reflections III

•BD: Abbreviation for the game term “battle destiny”
•BH: Bounty Hunter, a characteristic. Often used to describe a specific group of characters, including Boba Fett, Bossk, IG-88, Dengar, 4-LOM and Zuckuss.
•BHBM: Bring Him Before Me- Dark Side Objective from Death Star II
•Boba Fett, BH: Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter- Dark Side Character from Reflections III
•Booker v: Master Qui-Gon v- Light Side Character from V12, created by James Booker
•Bossk in Bus: Bossk in Hound’s Tooth- Starship from Special Edition
•Broken Fett: Refers to Boba Fett, BH (See entry)
•Bullet: A card that counters specific other cards or strategies.

•Capture Fett: Boba Fett- Dark Side Character from Special Edition and virtualized in V8
•CC: Cloud City. Can refer to the set or to locations there. OR Coruscant Celebration- an effect from Special Edition
•Chicken Walker: AT-STs- Dark Side combat vehicles from Endor
•CCT: Carbon Chamber Testing- Dark Side objective from Special Edition. Platform for the popular IG-88 Superstar deck.
•Choke Vader: Darth Vader Dark Lord of the Sith- Dark Side Character from Special Edition
•CHYBC: Come Here You Big Coward- commonly, Dark Side Defensive Shield from Reflections III, also a Dark Side Effect from Special Edition
•Counter: Similar to bullets, but more widespread. Counter cards generally render larger strategies or decktypes ineffective.
•Coward: See CHYBC
•CPI: Commence Primary Ignition- Dark Side Epic Event from A New Hope. Can also refer to decks based around this Epic Event.
•CPv: Careful Planning (virtual)- Light Side Starting Interrupt from V8
•CRv: Combat Readiness (virtual)- Dark Side Starting Interrupt from V8
•CTV: Control & Tunnel Vision- Light Side Combo Interrupt from Reflections II

•D*: Death Star
•DB: Docking Bay
•DBO: Dantooine Base Operations- Light Side Objective from Special Edition
•DDN: Do or Do Not- Light Side Effect from Dagobah and Defensive Shield from Reflections III
•D!ickhat: A rearranging of the letters in “AITC KDH”- a popular deck that uses the Agents in the Court objective and starts KDHv
•DNOFB: “Delete Now Or Face Ban”- a phrase used quite often here on the PC forums, sometimes jokingly
•DoS: Daughter of Skywalker
•Download: A card or effect that lets you play a card directly from your deck to the table. Symbolized on cards by the \/ symbol.
•Dr. E: Doctor Evazen- Character from Premiere.
•Dr. E & PB: Doctor Evazen and Ponda Baba- Combo character from Reflections II.
•Drop: Refers to Drop v-Dark Side Starting Effect from V8. Often used as in “I download a card, take a Drop.” meaning using the text of Drop v/Thrown Back v to activate and draw a card.
•DS: Dark Side OR Death Star
•DSII/DS2: Death Star 2- Refers either to the Dark Side Mobile System or the expansion of the same name.
•DVDLOTS: Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith- Character from Special Edition

•E1: Episode I, usually used in reference to cards with the Episode I icon.
•EBO: Echo Base Operations- Light Side Effect from Hoth. Platform for many objectiveless light side Hoth decks.
•EBOX: Echo Base Operations deck with a focus on X-wings in space.
•ECC: Enhanced Cloud City, a Decipher boutique product in slip cases
•EJP: Enhanced Jabba’s Palace, a Decipher boutique product in slip cases
•EOps: Endor Operations- Dark Side Objective from Endor
•EPP: Literally, “Enhanced Premiere Pack,” a product produced by Decipher, but functionally refers to any character with a permanent weapon.
•ESB: The Empire Strikes Back (Star Wars Episode V)

•Farmboy Luke: Luke Skywalker- Light Side Character from Premiere and virtualized in V1
•FIMA: Fear Is My Ally- Dark Side Starting Effect from Reflections III
•Flash: Term used for showing one half of a ship/pilot or character/weapon pair to download the other half with cards such as Sai’torr Kal’fas v or Squadron Assignments
•Flash v: Flash of Insight (virtual)- Light Side Effect from V5
•FTL: For the loss
•FTW: For the win
•FWKTIL (and v): Fear Will Keep Them In Line- Dark Side Effect, originally from Premiere, and virtualized in V2

•Gemmeperor: The Emperor v- Dark Side Character from V6, created by Mike Gemme
•Generic: Refers to cards with the <> icon, usually sites, such as <>Farm, <>Jungle, etc.
•GG: “Good Game”- said after games as a show of sportsmanship. Also used to describe a situation that cost someone the game. Example: “Once he was able to hold the site, it was pretty much GG.”
•GLiG1: Gold Leader in Gold 1- Light Side Starship from the Rebel Leaders Promo Pack, and in V10.
•Grabber: Cards (generally Effects or Defensive Shields) that ‘grab’ an opponent’s interrupt and stack it on the card.

•HB: Hidden Base- Light Side Objective from Special Edition
•HCF: Han, Chewie & the Falcon- Light Side Starship from Reflections III
•HD or HDADTJ or Hunt Down: Hunt Down and Destroy the Jedi- Dark Side Objective from Special Edition
•Helper: The opposite of a counter. A card meant to strengthen or aid a specific strategy or Objective.
•HFTMF: Heading for the Medical Frigate- Light Side Starting Interrupt from Death Star II
•HotJ: Honor of the Jedi- Light Side Effect from Death Star II
•Hyperdrive: The Hyperdrive Generator’s Gone- Light Side objective from Coruscant

•IAO/ IAO/SP: Imperial Arrest Order- Dark Side Effect from Endor, or Imperial Arrest Order & Secret Plans- Dark Side Effect from Coruscant
•ICM: Imperial Council Member. Refers to decks and characters based on the mechanics found in V-12, especially on the card TINT/OE v (See entry).
•ICSD: Imperial-Class Star Destroyer- Dark Side Starship from Premiere
•IDNTSE (and v): I Don’t Need Their Scum, Either- Light Side Interrupt from Cloud City and virtualized in V11
•IHYN- I Have You Now- Dark Side Interrupt from Premiere
•IITFYS (and v): It Is the Future You See- Light Side Jedi Test from Dagobah and virtualized as an Epic Event in V12
•Insert: Refers to cards that are inserted in your opponent’s reserve deck. Sometimes referred to as “Numbers” (See entry)
•Int: Shortened version of the Interrupt card type
•IO (and v): Imperial Occupation- Dark Side Objective from Special Edition and virtualized in V4
•ISB: ISB Operations- Dark Side objective from Special Edition. OR Imperial Security Bureau, from whence the name comes.
•ISB Agent: Any character that fulfills the requirements found on the ISB objective
•IWYT (and v): I’m With You Too- Light Side Effect from Death Star II and virtualized in V9

•JCC: Jedi Council Chambers- Light Side site from Coruscant
•JM: Jedi Master
•JP: Jabba’s Palace. Can refer to the set or locations there.
•JPSD: Jabba’s Palace Sealed Deck, a Decipher boutique product that allowed for immediate sealed deck play. Contained a pack of premium cards as well as packs of the Jabba’s Palace expansion.
•Juice Obi: Obi-Wan Kenobi v- Virtualized in V8, hence the name.

•KD/K&D (and v): Knowledge and Defense- Dark Side Effect from Dagobah and virtualized in V15 as a Starting Effect.
•KDH (and v): Krayt Dragon Howl- Light Side Interrupt from Premiere and virtualized in V8
•KDY (and v): Kuat Drive Yards- Dark Side Effect from Special Edition and virtualized in V3
•KTOD: Kashyyyk Train of Dominance

•Leia RP: Leia, Rebel Princes- Light Side Character from Reflections III
•LS: Light Side OR Lightsaber
•LSC: Lightsaber Combat. Refers to decks based around a pair of objectives from Reflections 3- Let Them Make the First Move for Dark Side, and We’ll Handle This for Light Side.
•LSD (and v): Look Sir, Droids- Dark Side Interrupt from Premiere and virtualized in V15 as a Used or Starting Interrupt
•LSJK: Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight- Light Side Character from Death Star II
•LSRS (and v): Luke Skywalker, Rebel Scout- Light Side Character, originally from Reflections II, and virtualized in V9
•LU (and v): Local Uprising- Light Side Objective, originally from Special Edition, and virtualized in V4

•Mains: A term for main characters from the Star Wars saga.
•Math Vader: Darth Vader- Dark Side Character from Premiere
•MBO: Massassi Base Operations- Light Side Objective from Special Edition
•Meta: A shortening of the term ‘metagame,’ it has 2 definitions: As a noun, it refers to what decks people expect to do well in a certain tournament or time period. Example “Right now, Hunt Down and Lightsaber Combat are the meta.” As a verb, it refers to building one’s deck to be favorable against the top decks in the meta. Example: “I am going to meta against Hunt Down with my deck.”
•MKOS: My Kind of Scum- Dark Side Objective from Jabba’s Palace Sealed Deck
•MM (and combo): Masterful Move- Dark Side Interrupt from Special Edition, and part of a Combo Interrupt from Coruscant
•Mob Points (and combo): Mobilization Points- Dark Side Effect from Death Star II, and part of a Combo Effect from Coruscant
•MPC: Match Play Championship, an annual high-level tournament using the match play format.
•MWYHL: Mind What You Have Learned- Light Side Objective from Special Edition

•Naked 3PO: Threepio With His Parts Showing- Light Side Character from Tattoine.
•NPE: Negative Playing Experience. Generally, a deck or strategy that is annoying or not fun to play against.
•Numbers: Refers to the cards Never Tell Me The Odds and 3,720 to 1, Light and Dark Effects from Dagobah that were inserted into an opponent’s deck. Generally considered one of the worst NPEs in the game’s history.

•Obi-Wan JK: Obi-wan, Jedi Knight- Light Side Character from Reflections III and virtualized in V11
•OMDH (and v): Our Most Desperate Hour- Light Side Uttini Effect from Premiere, virtualized in V11
•OOP: Out of play
•OTE: On the Edge- Light Side Interrupt from Premiere OR Off the Edge- Light Side Interrupt from Cloud City OR Order to Engage- Light Side Effect from Dagobah
•OTSD: Original Tournament Sealed Deck, a Decipher boutique product that allowed for immediate sealed deck play. Contained a pack of premium cards as well as packs of unlimited Premiere expansion.
•OWIR7- Obi-Wan in Radiant VII- Light Side Starship from V14

•Ping: Direct damage, cards that cause direct force loss to your opponent, usually 1 force. Examples are Visage of the Emperor and Search and Destroy.
•POOP: Place out of play
•Profit: You Can Either Profit from This…- Light Side Objective from Enhanced Jabba’s Palace
•Pull: To remove a card from your reserve deck via uploading or downloading.

•QFT: Quoted for truth
•QMC: Quiet Mining Colony- Light Side Objective from Enhanced Cloud City

•ROps/RalOps: Raltiir Operations- Dark Side Objective from Special Edition
•RotJ: Return of the Jedi (Star Wars Episode VI)
•RotS: Revenge of the Sith (Star Wars Episode III)
•RP: Rendezvous Point- Light Side System from Special Edition
•RST: Rebel Strike Team- Light Side Objective from Endor
•RTP: Rescue the Princess- Light Side Objective from Special Edition

•SAC: Refers collectively to the cards Sense, Alter and Control, interrupts from both sides of the force that cancel Effects, Interrupts, and each other in various combinations.
•SATM (and combo): Sorry About the Mess- Light Side Interrupt from A New Hope, and part of a combo interrupt in Reflections II
•Screaming Lando: Lando, Scoundrel- Light Side Character from Reflections III
•Senate: Refers to decks focused around the Coruscant Senate, using the objectives Plead My Case to the Senate for Light Side and My Lord, Is That Legal? for Dark Side, both from Coruscant.
•SFS: Sienar Fleet Systems- Dark Side Effect from Special Edition OR Set for Stun- Dark Side Interrupt from Premiere and part of a Combo Interrupt from Reflections II
•SoS (and v): Son of Skywalker- Light Side Character from Dagobah, virtualized in V5 OR Strength of Schedule-a means of determining standings in a tournament.
•Sonn v: Refers to It Is the Future You See v- Light Side Epic Event from 12. Name refers to creator Chuck Sonnenburg.
•Space Vader- Darth Vader- Dark Side Character from Premiere and virtualized in V1
•Speeders: Refers to either the Light Side snowspeeder combat vehicles, or the objective that most commonly uses them, Local Uprising v
•Squabble: Squabbling Delegates- Dark Side Interrupt from Coruscant
•Squassins: Squadron Assignments- Light Side Effect from Death Star II
•SYCFA: Set Your Course For Alderaan- Dark Side Objective from Special Edition

•TA: Team Albany
•Tank: Bacta Tank- Light Side Effect from Hoth OR an AAT.
•Tanks: Refers to the Dark Side combat vehicles, the AATs, from Theed Palace, or a deck based around them.
•Tat Maul: Darth Maul- Dark Side Character from Tatooine
•TDIGWATT: This Deal Is Getting Worse All The Time- Dark Side Objective from Enhanced Cloud City
•TBM (and v): Tusken Breath Mask- Light Side Utinni Effect from Premiere and virtualized in V8
•Threepio WHPS: Threepio With His Parts Showing- Light Side character from Tatooine
•TIGIH: There Is Good in Him- Light Side Objective from Death Star II
•TINT: There Is No Try- Dark Side Effect from Dagobah and Defensive Shield from Reflections III
•TINT/OE (and v): There Is No Try & Oppressive Enforcement- Dark Side Combo Effect from Reflections II and virtualized in V12. The virtual version is the basis for ICM decks.
•TMNALTC: They Must Never Again Leave This City- Dark Side Effect from Reflections III
•TO: Team Ohio
•Toys: Weapons used by main characters, especially lightsabers.
•TPM: The Phantom Menace- Dark Side Effect from Coruscant OR Star Wars Episode I
•TRM: Throne Room Mains, a popular Light Side deck type that started only Yavin IV: Throne Room, rather than an objective.
•TTO: That Thing’s Operational- Dark Side Epic Event from Death Star II
•Twix: A location with two icons for one side of the Force and none for the other-”Two for me, none for you.”

•Upkeep: Another term for maintenance cost.
•Upload: A card or effect that lets you take a card from your deck into hand. Symbolized on cards by the /\ symbol.

•(Card name) v: The virtual version of that card
•V(##): Virtual set (number)

•Walkers: Refers to either the Dark Side AT-AT combat vehicles, or the objective that most commonly uses them, Imperial Occupation v
•Wayne Brady: (See entry for Choke Vader)
•WHAP: We Have A Plan- Light Side Objective from Theed Palace
•(character) With Gun: Refers to an EPP character with a blaster
•(character) With Stick: Refers to an EPP character with a lightsaber
•WMAOP: We Must Accelerate Our Plans- Dark Side Interrupt from Coruscant
•WYS (and v): Watch Your Step- Light Side Objective from Reflections II, and virtualized in V9

(No current entries for X)

•YCHF: You Cannot Hide Forever- Dark Side Effect from Death Star II and Defensive Shield from Reflections III
•YMSYL: You May Start Your Landing- Dark Side Effect from Tatooine
•Yoda, MOFO/Yoda MOTF (and v): Yoda, Master of the Force- Light Side Character from Reflections III and virtualized in V14
•YPAW,OM- Your Powers Are Weak, Old Man- Dark Side Interrupt from Premiere.

•ZiMH: Zuckuss in Mist Hunter- Dark Side Starship from Enhanced Jabba’s Palace

Unfortunately I don’t know the answer to that question.  I have some friends of 15+ years that used to be big time DnD players.  And they had a group I always heard about called the GSF.  Ask what it means and they joke about Ghoul Slashing Fiends.  But alas, its not.  So on thier death bed, they are going to tell me and I honestly won’t care.  Its not about the destination, its about the journey.

That being said, here is a design blog.  Sometimes I’ll write, sometimes Sonn and other times maybe even the other designers, some developers and more.

Enjoy.