Designed by Lukas Litzsinger and Corey Koniecza
Published by Fantasy Flight Games
For the uninitiated, Star Wars Destiny is a two-player Dice and Card game which makes use of Fantasy Flight's Dice Duel System (Or DDS, as it's referred to on the box and in accompanying literature). Using two characters, players can make use of weapons, droids, vehicles and random event cards to dispatch their opponent and win the day.
The Luke Skywalker starter variant for this game contains 24 cards, accompanying 9 premium dice, 2 of which handle Luke's attacks. The remaining 7 are split between abilities and equipment (such as Heirloom Lightsaber), and Luke's compatriot in this starter set, Han Solo himself.
A good choice, especially for the farmboy Luke they depict on the box and accompanying artwork. I guess you could make the case that Obi-Wan Kenobi would be a more natural fit but given that the new Legacies boosters depict the younger, Ewan McGregor flavoured, Obi-Wan Kenobi you can understand why they might steer clear of also adding the Alec Guinness depiction. Plus there's an R2-D2 in there as well as an attachment, and he's aged fantastically well over the years!
The thing that I would say I like best about the components of this game is the artwork and the art style throughout. The dice are substantial and chunky, with the character/object depicted on each face, and the cards do a great job of depicting scenes from the movie and images from the Star Wars universe in a consistent and very pleasing art style.
In terms of components contained within, in addition to the premium dice and accompanying cards players can also expect to find a sheet of punch-out-able cardboard tokens representing shields, resources and damage tokens which are used throughout the game. There's also a fold-out rulebook which, while nice, is probably a little excessive to just pop to one side while you play the game. What is cool, however, is how they integrate the cards you just bought into the rulebook within each set. That's a nice touch, which for me at least adds a little extra to the package.
Along with the rulebook and tokens, the starter set also contains a collector's checklist in case you want to go down the route of collecting everything from the set (which could of course get expensive, but this is one of those things that games do quite a bit, and I'm a sucker for it as anyone who watches the E14 Toybox videos knows all too well). What's good about this, despite the collecting element potentially jacking up your overall investment, is that that stuff is totally optional and the starter set does contain everything you need to get started...
Provided, of course, that you know someone else who has one of the available starters or a deck built. Spoilers: This criticism is going to find its way into the Boba Fett starter review when that drops as well.
When I look around at other games offering starter sets, while it's true that the Destiny starter sets are cheaper than some of those sets, the alternatives do at least include enough components for two players to get into the game and play. I'll grant that there's a certain amount of drama that's avoided if both parties have their own distinct set, rather than going in halves on one with a friend, but nonetheless it doesn't feel like the best presentation if you're looking to get people to play with friends.
Of the two starters released in this wave, the Luke Skywalker starter certainly makes a lot of sense for players looking to get stuck into the game (with the aforementioned caveat that you'll need someone with a Villain deck to play against), and the characters contained within look to make for a fun matchup. In the not-too-distant future I'll put together a playtest on the E14 Toybox and that'll probably help me decide.
Overall, though, I'm very positive on Destiny. It's a novel system, though owing to its difference players would benefit heavily from a guided playthrough using Fantasy Flight's rather good Youtube tutorials, and the presentation is visually very appealing with all the components shown a great deal of love. As to how it stacks up against the Boba Fett starter, that review will come later this week!
Rob is the host of the E14 podcasts "The Crazy Train" and "The E14 Gamecast", as well as the host of a number of pieces on E14's Youtube channel. He also appears on the Talk Star Wars podcasts.
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