Fantasy Flight Games offers various accessories for their three Star Wars roleplaying lines. Among them are two different types of card decks intended as quick references.
First up are the Specialization Decks for Talent Trees (and, where applicable, Signature Abilities). These are currently available for most of the Edge of the Empire and Age of Rebellion published specs, and I assume FFG will release sets for Force and Destiny. Each “Spec Deck” costs $6.95 and is for either the talents or the signature abilities of a given specialization. There is one card per talent, repeated talents have cards that are duplicates, except for the XP cost and prerequisites. The FFG website also touts the artwork. Since I love their Star Wars art and the price was low, I ordered the Doctor spec deck to check out the product.
The art, as promised, is good. The back of each card and the title card feature the character from the Doctor specialization write-up in EotE, in a solo pose. Each talent card uses a unique illustration. Some pictures are familiar. I believe the McQuarrie concept piece for the bacta tank scene in Ep. 5 has been used in every SW RPG iteration, for example. But that’s fine, there’s a lot of reasons this picture is a classic. Others were new to me, like the art for Master Doctor, Anatomy Lessons and Pressure Point.
Unfortunately, these are just pretty pictures. I didn’t find the spec deck useful as a reference for talent/signature ability mechanics. Each card has the text you will find in the Doctor talent tree. At the bottom of the card, is a list–by card number–of possible prerequisite talents. All this information is less useful than it sounds, largely because of the deck of cards format. To use them as a reference in-game, I would have to pull out each card for each talent my Doctor PC/NPC has at the beginning of the session, shuffle through them to find what I needed multiple times, and put them back to keep my set together. So much easier to put the mechanics down on my character sheet and look at that when I can’t remember how many Strain Improved Stim App inflicts on the target. Plus, it doesn’t keep you from having to look at the rule book, since the cards, like the trees, have abbreviated text, as the instructional card warns. That “Using This Deck” card also doesn’t suggest any uses for the decks and the only other use I can think of is PC or NPC portraits for a variety of specs or NPC archetypes.
The Adversary Decks, also $6.95, on the other hand are very, very useful for whichever game you are playing. There are three 20 card sets–Scum and Villainy, Imperials and Rebels, and Citizens of the Galaxy. Each card has nearly all the information for a number of Allies and Adversaries from the books. Front has a picture of the NPC (Wonderful art again!), Characteristics, Soak, Wounds, Defenses, Skills and whether it is a Rival, Nemesis or Minion. The back has Talents, Abilities, important equipment (Yes, even weapon stats!), and an archetype blurb. The only things lacking are Ability/Talent mechanics, which just wouldn’t fit, so you do have to make sure you are familiar with them, or have the page marked for quick reference. Any of the Adversary decks are usable with any of the games, including Force and Destiny Beta. Granted, there aren’t any Force-using NPCs in the lot, but even a party of Force-sensitive PCs is most likely to meet up with non-Force-sensitives. I very much hope, though, that FFG is going to offer an Adversary Deck based on F&D–and a few other new decks as well.
I do use these in many sessions. I pull out the cards for my NPCs just before the session, making sure I have some scratch paper to keep track of Wounds and such. Once the encounter is over, I can put the card(s) that I won’t need later in the session back, since I don’t have a lot of room on my desk. If I am planning an original scenario, rather than prepping a module, the cards get pulled out during planning, too. Many times I decide what NPCs I need, but don’t have stats for them and know it would be a waste of time to write up some, because they aren’t Nemeses or recurring Rivals. I get out one or more decks and flip through the cards. The PCs will be visiting the Ambassador, who has bodyguards? Consult the Cards! Yes, there’s a Diplomat and a Wealthy Noble–I take the latter since I want more of a Tapani Saber Rake vibe. Bodyguards? Here we go, Alliance Infantry–they have Melee, which fits the theme–switch out Ranged (Heavy) for Ranged (Light) and write down the standard Blaster Pistol stats.
Maybe it goes without saying, but these stat cards aren’t for your important NPCs. Those you should be writing up from scratch. I can, maybe, see using just the Characteristics from a card for that archetype or to give you an idea of what specs you might look at when picking talents. Perhaps compare how powerful yours is to a related Adversary Card, the way homebrew spaceship designers are encouraged to compare their creations to existing official ships?
Linda Whitson
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