"If there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from."

– Luke Skywalker, Star Wars: A New Hope

You may begin your journey in the Star Wars™ galaxy as a nobody on some backwater planet, but that doesn't mean you have to stay there. With some credits to your name and a little bit of scoundrel's luck, you can begin to make a name for yourself on the wild frontier of the Outer Rim. Completing jobs brings in hard-earned credits that can be used to improve your gear, hire crew, upgrade your ship, and most importantly, expand your fame across the galaxy.

Join us today as we preview the action step in Star Wars: Outer Rim, a board game of bounty hunters, mercenaries, and smugglers for one to four players!

The Tools for the Job

Following the planning step, the action step is where you begin to make your mark on the galaxy. During this step, you may perform any number of actions, including exchanging cards with another player in your space, resolving an action ability, dropping off bounty and cargo at their destinations, or most often purchasing a card from one of six market decks.

If you’re anchored at a planet, you may purchase one card from these market decks by paying the credit cost of the card listed in the upper right-hand corner. These six decks each represent a vital part of your life on the Outer Rim, providing new goals and gear to propel you to fame and infamy. You can repeat this action as many times as you like, provided you have the credits and space aboard your ship.

If you’re short on credits to purchase cards from the market decks, you can always take a job from the job deck. These jobs don’t cost credits, instead giving you an opportunity to earn your keep on the Outer Rim. These jobs will list a destination, an encounter ability and a reward. When you reach the destination, you can use the encounter ability on the job card, which will test your skills and wits as you pull off some kind of daring heist detailed on a seperate databank card. The rewards for completing the job can be substantial, but failure is a setback you can’t afford.

Purchasing a card from the cargo deck, like a shipment of Coaxium Crystals will send you across the Outer Rim to some far-flung planet. Once you reach the destination, you deliver the cargo and receive the reward during the action step. While hauling legal cargo carries little risk, carrying illegal cargo can up the risk and the reward of your operation, gaining you fame across the galaxy.

If you prefer a straight fight to all this sneaking around, you can claim bounties from the bounty deck to increase your fame across the galaxy. Scattered across the Outer Rim’s planets are tokens representing iconic Star Wars characters, from Maz Kanata to Greedo . While these characters can be recruited to your crew, you might be tracking them down for a more sinister purpose.

During the encounter step, you can choose to have an encounter with a facedown contact in your space through a matching databank card. However, if the character matches a bounty you have, you may instead choose to fight them. Should you prove victorious, you can either eliminate the contact for an immediate reward, or place their token on the bounty and deliver them to a specific location for an even bigger reward.

These tokens will be spread facedown across various planets, and you won’t know who they are until you encounter them. However, each token is separated into one of four different colors that match the color of their bounty, giving you a vague idea of where to begin to tracking them.

The gear and mod deck will not actively contribute to your fame or credits, but it will enhance your character and ship for your adventures to come. For example, a Jetpack allows you to avoid damage during ground combat, while mods like the Improved Nav Computer allows your ship to gain an additional hyperdrive value.

Items from the luxury deck are expensive purchases that always provide a way to directly gain fame. For example, an Extravagant Wardrobe gives you additional fame when you gain positive reputation with the various factions around the galaxy.

Whether you plan to gain fame through jobs, cargo, bounties, or luxury items, you’ll need to do it fast. That’s where your ship comes in handy, while traversing the galaxy, the basic G-1A Starfighter and G9 Rigger will get you started, but everyone knows real legends have iconic ships to call their own. The ship deck provides expensive but vital new ways to explore the galaxy. Most of the ship cards instructs you to gain a new ship sheet that will prove to be an upgrade over your starting vehicle. These ships can be enhanced and personalized even further when you complete their personal goal, granting you fame and unlocking a special ability.

When you choose to take a market action, you can discard the top card of any of these decks, allow you to cycle through your options and dig into your scoundrel’s luck to find something you need at just the right time. These market decks provide all the opportunity you need to gain fame, will you seize the initiative and become a living legend?

Credits to Spare

Credits and fame are calling, you were meant for more than wasting away on the Outer Rim. Do you have what it takes explore the galaxy and claim the title of the most notorious Outer Rim scoundrel? For more information on Star Wars: Outer Rim, read additional previews here or view a full playthrough of the game on our Youtube channel here!