AMG recently revealed more insight into why they made Star Wars: Shatterpoint, along with more about the design and rule mechanics!
Some people were not exactly sure of the reason why they made the game, and some people are nervous that this is going to take away from the other Star Wars offerings. However, from the sound of it, AMG just wants to keep expanding the IP to get more people into tabletop gaming.
First Rules Teasers Emerge For Star Wars: Shatterpoint
The info about the game comes from this Transmission, revealing a bunch about the game, the design process, and why they actually made the game! Let’s take a closer look.
So, the question some people may be asking is, why did they actually make the game?
While we have incredible Star Wars games that cover the gamut of big starship battles, starfighter dogfights, and army scale engagements with Armada, X-Wing, and Legion, it was very important for us to create a game experience that truly captured the pivotal conflicts between small iconic groups of characters within these greater battles that we often see on screen
AMG’s second goal was to create a unique entry to miniatures skirmish games. William Pagani explained specifically that Shatterpoint “utilizes a distinct system for how and when units activate. The struggle objective system gives a sense of building tension and payoff as the game progresses creating a very on-edge and unique miniature gaming experience.
Well, there you have the two main reasons, but luckily, they revealed more about the game’s mechanics as well.
As with most things designed by AMG, the process began with Shick and Pagani locked in a room to hone in on how best to execute a game centered on the narrative of fighting in Star Wars. They decided that combat shouldn’t just be about dealing damage, but about using your abilities to claim objectives under fire, drive back your opponent, and create openings for the rest of your strike team – all while using the environment to your advantage. After a few weeks of discussion, they had initial design documents and development with the rest of the team began.
From the sounds of it, the game will be very objective-driven and, hopefully, will really be able to show off the real character traits of each hero and villain.
New Rules Mechanics
Pagani wanted to create something that showcased the themes of hope and struggle – with “combat trees, board manipulation of attacks and abilities, and a struggle mechanic” that charts the players’ course to victory. All these elements capture the feeling of fighting a life or death battle with your back to the wall.
Mechanically, “characters in Shatterpoint are expressed through their abilities and their combat stances,” Shick explained. “The abilities show the character’s talents, powers, and leadership which come together to give the foundational feel for the character as we see them on screen. How combat style is expressed through each character’s Combat Stance really brings out the narrative feel and their individual personality.” He provided further insight for players saying, “Lord Maul’s™ combat stances showcase an extremely aggressive and dangerous character who is focused on the destruction of his enemies above all else. While Obi-Wan’s™ combat tree is less about raw damage and more about manipulating positioning and exposing his opponent, wearing them down and setting them up to suddenly find themselves out of position to claim a critical objective.”
So from this, we know there will be Combat Stances that directly influence how they play and how much damage they can do. Then, there will be Combat Trees, and a character like Maul will be super aggressive, and Obi-Wan will be a little more subtle.
Pagani considered the breakthrough of how to get the moving and changing objective system to work a big turning point for him. “It is an innovative system that hasn’t really been done before in tabletop gaming and that is always exciting!”
The last big piece is this, the objective system is going to be very different, we’re not really sure how yet, but we’re excited to see it!
Are you excited about the new rules teasers for the Star Wars Shatterpoint game? Will you be playing when it comes out?
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
