In case you’re skimming, these are my personal ideas for what I think Organized Play should be. Nothing has been agreed upon or set in stone, but as someone with a say in the matter, these are the things I’m saying behind the scenes.

Originally I had no intention of volunteering to take part in the committee to continue Star Wars Destiny so soon. For one, I’ve been a little disenchanted with Destiny since a performance that did not meet my expectations; that, combined with the seeming completion of the game (which eventually came to pass) I didn’t see myself really digging into Destiny. I got a random message from someone I’d never met about continuing the game via fundraising, with a pledge for an initial donation. The person said they’d only reached out to me and one other person, and so I kind of got sucked into figuring out what to do with this responsibility; whether I like to admit it or not I seem to have had an impact on people who play the game and my reach could benefit a whole mess of people that I care about (The Destiny Community)

Based on some very loose observations it seemed like the committee had card design in mind as the forefront of their activities which seemed backwards to me. When I reached out to them behind the scenes to tell them that I thought fundraising and Organized Play are the two most important things to start with, they thought I was the one who was thinking of things backwards. Regardless of which side you agree with, there seemed a hole to fill, and my new partner and I were the perfect people to start to do that.

And so I’ve taken a leadership role in helping form the Organized Play structure. It is by no means just me, and there are a lot of “admins” overlooking at all, but I’ve been working on constructing a team of good people who can do their jobs well. I think we’re well on the way. For these people, I promised I would put together what I think OP should be – I thought the best way to do that would be to share it with the community at large. What follows are those ideas, and these are just my ideas; they are in no way what the OP team will do, but based on the massive conversation we all had on Facebook last week about prizing, and my own experience with the Star Wars CCG Player’s Committee, this is what I think we should do.

It starts with this: We have a whole year of cards being printed by FFG, first with Covert Missions and then Wild Horizons, we don’t need committee created cards in 2020, we need to give people a reason to play with the ones we’re getting.

Fundraising

Fundraising is such an important part of what we’re going to be doing with Destiny. One thing that all of the competitive SWCCG players know, but few outside of that group realize, is that the SWCCG Player’s Committee has had a massive benefactor over the course of its 20 year existence. That benefactor has facilitated the purchase of massive collections of product as well as all of the Uncut Sheets of cards Decipher had printed but never used. Because of the donations of this benefactor, as well as the sale of cards and OP kits, the game has been able to continue in perpetuity. We need to get to that point, but I question whether or not we can raise $10,000 annually.

The committee will start by opening a non-profit account, soliciting donations privately, and then likely a gofundme type crowdsourcing to try and fill the initial coffers.

It is my opinion that we first use this money to create organized play kits, first local OP kits as well as one major event on each continent in 2020. Running quarterly kits and one major in each continent will allow for the committee to get acclimated to their new roles without overextending.

It’s really important to me that the first round of local kits knock the socks off players and get people to come out in droves because of what we’ve put in them. To do that we probably have to spend some bucks.

Local Organized Play Kits

I think the most ambitious thing we can do is make quarterly OP kits. Cards and tokens take some time to print, and adding some sort of shipping routine to the process will only make things take longer. However, getting these things together and shipped regularly is really important to me and in the best interest of the continuing committee.

I also feel that the local kits should be customizable in how they are given out and should support either league play or monthly tournament play with enough “good stuff” in them to give out at weekly game nights as well.

The first thing I want is for every local kit to have something collectible and part of a set. That will have people checking in with the game at least once a quarter if they want to complete the set locally, and I think attending the one major event in 2020 should also include the exclusive item.

The idea I had was an enamel pin, and to make a set of pins for each year. So for 2020:

Q1 Baby Yoda Q2 IG-11 Q3 Cara Dune Q4 Kuiil Major Mandalorian

By attending each type of event for the year you get the set. It doesn’t have to be pins, and if it were pins for 2020 it could be something totally different for 2021, but having that collectible aspect to attending will be interesting to people.

What I’m most hyped about doing is bringing Spot Glosses BACK to Destiny. There’s an X-Wing Content Creator who has been making Spot Glosses that look IDENTICAL to the FFG ones for their patreon subscribers. After months of digging I’ve finally been able to find someone who can tell me where to get them. If this all works out, the most sought after prize in Destiny history will be back in the game and in the hands of Destiny players.

High Quality Custom Spot Glosses

Regular alt art cards and tokens will also be important, but tokens less so. We already have so many tokens out there that making too many of these will really force people to lose interest. I think Alt art cards are okay, but they should specifically be of Wild Horizons cards that people want more of. Also, I think we should double-side alt arts as much as possible, especially with Plots, Battlefields, and Characters, simply to maximize the usage people get out of the prize.

Possibly the most important thing about making alt arts in the future is enforcing the use of fully opaque sleeves. Right now that’s a pretty soft rule in Star Wars Destiny, but as we get more and more alt arts into the main deck, the more we’ll need that to hold up.

Having a championship mat is also important because they’ve become a collectible trophy for many people over the course of the game. I think each local kit should have four mats, either for the top 4 of the league structure, or one for each monthly winner plus one random prize for participation or perfect attendance or good sportsmanship or whatever.

Is this a cool mat idea?

Then, having one super exclusive prize for the winner of the quarterly league or of one major event over the course of the quarter would also help push the kit into something the community really wants. I don’t necessarily think this needs to be custom, but if custom is cost-effective then I would be cool with it. I would love a high-quality deckbox, either like the ones given out at 2017 worlds and Gen Con, or even just those nice $90 Ultimate Guard boxes that stores sell.

Sorry this isn’t staged better, I thought to include it at 545 am when I was already

running late for work.

One thing I thought that could really push the cost-effectiveness of the kit is if a store or local organizer donated one of these to the kit for a discount on the kit itself. Those deckboxes likely only cost a store $55, so if a store could donate this and get a discount on the kit it might actually entice a store to buy one. As is, I think stores will be reluctant to try and pick up something like this, and it really has to be generated by the local players who want to organize tournaments, but it could be an incentive the local TOs push towards the stores to get a kit cheap in an attempt to get players in the store.

So I imagine the contents being:

A few different types of Alt Arts that are double sided, a bunch of a couple for participation, and then 1-2 more premium ones for people with a certain record or top cut. Something collectible for each kit that people can collect throughout the year. Four mats. Something exclusive, like a custom deckbox or a high quality store product.

I think we can add to this, but that basic idea would be enough, I think, to get people in the door locally.

New Player Packs

The other thing I think every Local OP kit needs are some new player packs. New Player packs can come from donations from the content creators who have tons of mats and tokens made, or even local players with too many of each. The new player kit should essentially be a starter deck that’s playable out of the box, sleeved up and everything. The new player should get a mat, and some acrylic tokens like a power action token or a set of shields from one of the many OP kits we never use, and be able to jump into a tournament simply by seeing one happening locally.

Being able to advertise thews Newb Boxes can help the game grow, and by having the kits feature ready-to-play decks they can immediately participate, get the quarterly enamel pin, the alt art cards, and feel well on their way to toward being a part of something.

Major Tournament Kit

I think the major kit should be more acrylic/mat based, with a top 8 mat, and top 32 acrylics, as well as the afore-mentioned spot gloss cards as the participation prize would work great at a major event.

The major thing to consider is just where to have these. Destiny has always had a major presence at Gen Con, but Gen Con is one of the most expensive conventions in the country, having it there this year might be great because people were already planning to attend, but we’ll probably have to look elsewhere in the future, probably NOVA or Origins (both of which are solid conventions).

One idea that I thought would be awesome for the grand prize of Gen Con would be this awesome Star Wars Arcade. I came pretty close to grabbing one of these this summer, but held off. Now it’s on sale and has free Prime Shipping through Amazon!! Having this shipped to the winner for free, and not that expensive, is an idea I’m really going to push as I think it’s just awesome and fun.

I think that’s it. I probably have more ideas outlined, but this is long and I want to wrap it up. I hope to get some solid feedback about this plan, and I hope I can get everyone involved in Organized Play for the continuation of Destiny on board with something along these lines. It’s really important that we both establish and continue to have great Organized Play for Destiny in 2020 and beyond.

So far I’m really happy with having joined this crew, especially since I feel like I have something meaningful to contribute. I’m not ready for Destiny to be out of my life completely, and this venture is the perfect final step for me.

Thanks for reading,

BobbySapphire