STAR WARS DESTINY BOOSTER PACKS

This dad blogger has been having a lot of fun playing the Fantasy Flight dice and card game Star Wars: Destiny with his kids. This game that is part strategy and part luck lets players pretend they are engaged in a duel between some of their favorite characters from a galaxy far, far away.  Build a deck of cards to equip your characters with weapons, gear, special abilities and vehicles. Roll dice to determine a character's success, or failure, at using these features. Defeat your opponents to win control of Star Wars places ranging from Hoth to Jakku. Star Wars: Destiny is a great way to spend some game night family time.



Up to now, we've been playing with the Star Wars: Destiny starter kit which limits players to four characters (Rey and Poe Dameron [Resistance] versus Kylo Ren and Captain Phasma [First Order]. While we've been having a good time playing with these characters, it was time to add some more depth to the game. So when I saw GameStop had a sale on Star Wars: Destiny booster packs, I picked up a few packs to enhance our gameplay experiences.

Fantasy Flight Games releases booster pack sets approximately every four months that add new content to Star Wars: Destiny allowing players to expand beyond the starter kit. These are sold at hobby stores and other retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart, and GameStop in a blind bag format so you don't know exactly what you are adding to your Star Wars: Destiny game collection until you rip open a pack. This adds an element of surprise to the game as you never know what you will get from a booster pack or what other opponents might be able to bring to the table in a match against you.

Booster packs include 1 die and 5 cards in each blind bag. Not all cards are equally easy to find as there is a variety of rarity and randomness to placement in booster packs. The cards consist of 1 random legendary (which are ultra rare or rare to find), 1 uncommon, and 3 common per blind bag.  So you may never be able to find some of the legendary cards, have a hard time collecting the uncommon ones and could have a number of duplicates of the common variety.

The cards you receive could let you play as a specific character, choose a battlefield location, get a boost from an event or provide support or upgrades to a character. So you could receive a card that lets you play as a CHARACTER such as Luke Skywalker, choose a BATTLEFIELD location like Crait, use an EVENT to give yourself an edge, receive  UPGRADES that include weapons (lightsabers for example) and gear, or SUPPORT like a health bonus through getting some encouragement from Obi-Wan Kenobi's force ghost.  Each time a new booster pack set comes out a combination of 180 new cards and die are added to the playability of the game. The blind bags they come in are sold in boxes which contain 36 packs. These packs can be purchased individually or you can buy a whole box at once.

So here's what we discovered in the three booster pack blind bags that we purchased from GameStop to expand upon our Fantasy Flights Games Star Wars Destiny Experience:

Star Wars Destiny Booster Pack 1

The good news is we added our first new player character that can be used in Star Wars: Destiny matches. Bad news is it was Jar Jar Binks. Doah! The die included in the blind bag supports that player character card. Ok we are starting off with adding a clumsy outcast to the characters we can play with.

We also pulled 3 event cards. One can be played during the match to improve a die roll when on the attack. Another when used lets you reroll the number of die during a turn that matches the number of upgrades your character is equipped with. The third event card lets you inflict some extra damage on your opponent by showing some bravado.

This blind bag also contained one support card. When used you can reroll up to 2 of your die during a turn thanks to the assistance of a backup specialist intervening in your duel.  We didn't get any battlefield or upgrade cards in the first booster pack we opened.

Star Wars Destiny Booster Pack 2

In this pack we pulled 4 event cards that can be played during the game to provide a one-time advantage. We also received our first new upgrade card that came with a related die to its abilities. This card and die combo gives you some extra control over how you utilize your character and support cards during a match. There really wasn't anything too exciting in this booster pack.

Star Wars Destiny Booster Pack 3

We just added a Jedi to our playable characters! My daughter was excited about us pulling Jedi General from the Clone Wars Aayla Secura from this blind bag. She has the special ability of being able to manipulate die rolls during a match when you roll a specific symbol on her accompanying die from this booster pack.

We also pulled 3 event cards and a support card that can be used for deck building. Using these type of cards throughout a game makes strategizing and thinking out moves an important part of this game. The Dark Scheme event card could really come in handy as it lets you look at the cards in your opponents deck, exhaust one so it can't be used, and manipulate the order in which the others can be utilized in the game.

So as these blind bag openings show, you don't know beforehand how purchasing Star Wars Destiny booster packs will impact your gaming options. We were hoping to get some new characters to use in our Star Wars Destiny duels and that was a mixed result. Aayla Secura … yeah! Jar Jar Binks … boo!



We were also hoping to get some new upgrades that our characters could use during matches and battlefield locations to use in Star Wars Destiny games which the blind bag results were disappointing. But on the other hand we did get some really good event and support cards that add some interesting new dynamics to the playability of the game.

From our experience, we've shown you can obtain some nice additions to build out the playability of the Star Wars Destiny Starter Kit. But you also are going to need to purchase a lot more than 3 packs of booster packs to really enhance the content of the game. How many that is really depends on how much you want to be invested in the game.

For more information on Star Wars Destiny including the rules of the game and available cards/die in booster packs, go to fantasyflightgames.com

STAR WARS DESTINY

We enjoyed a fun family game night on May the Fourth playing the STAR WARS DESTINY dice and card game from Fantasy Flight.  This is an exciting fast-paced two player game that lets you imagine some of your favorite Star Wars characters dueling against one another for control of an iconic Star Wars location.  Each player controls a team of two characters of the same persuasion from the Star Wars movies (Light Side  / Dark Side / Neutral) who fight using blasters, lightsabers, and other weapons that are represented by dice which are rolled to inflict damage on their opponents.  To win the game you need to wipe out both characters from the other players team by depleting their hit points. Last one standing wins!

This game is more than just rolling dice though.  Each player also has a deck of support cards that can be utilized to provide benefits such as using the force, upgrading a weapon, boosting damage in an attack, restoring lost hit points, or shielding a character.  These support cards add suspense, strategy and skill as elements of the game so that winning at STAR WARS DESTINY is based upon both how your dice fall and how you utilize the cards in your hand.

We played the STAR WARS DESTINY starter kit during our May the Fourth family game night.  It comes with everything you need to play a match which pits Rey and Poe Dameron (Resistance) versus Kylo Ren and Captain Phasma (First Order).  Each of these four main characters has a description card that lists various attributes such as their unique hit points and exclusive special abilities.  These description cards also come with a corresponding die that is the device used in conducting each character's primary attack versus opponents.  Both teams also have a deck of 20 support cards that they can access during the game to assist their characters.

Plus there are additional dice within the starter kit that are attached to some of the support cards.  For example, Poe Dameron's blaster upgrade support card when activated provides that character a second die that can be rolled along with his first during attacks that increases the damage that can be inflicted.  Kylo Ren has a lightsaber upgrade card that also allows for a second die to be rolled during attacks. Of course having double dice doesn't mean you are going to hit your target ... every die in addition to having sides that indicate causing damage to your enemy's health also has a side that designates you missed in your weapon's swing or shot allowing your opponent to getaway with zero damage to their hit points. Doah!

A nice aspect of this game is that the average game only takes about twenty to thirty minutes to play.  We played three games in an hour and a half.  First my son and daughter matched up. I played the winner of that game ... my daughter. Then I played a bout versus my son.  Have to admit not taking it easy on them as A Geek Daddy is currently undefeated at STAR WARS DESTINY.

STAR WARS DESTINY does have a bit of a learning curve when it comes to getting a grasp on the rules and a comfort level with the game play.  Once you've delved into it though it is easy to catch on how to play the game.  It reminds me of another game my family really enjoys playing, Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle from USAopoly. This was our first time playing the game and we enjoyed it from the get go. 

We really had a fantastic time playing this game.  STAR WARS DESTINY has earned A Geek Daddy nod of approval for combining cards and dice into the gameplay, its incorporation of elements from the sci-fi space opera that provide a vibe of being transported to a galaxy far, far away, and the impressive artwork displayed upon the game's character and support cards.  Bravo Fantasy Flight!

While the starter kit only allows you to play Rey and Poe versus Kylo and Phasma, Fantasy Flight has included a collectible deck building component to this game similar to Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering.  Fans of the game can purchase expansion pack that allows them to play as another team complete with their own set of unique support cards and dice.  Expansion packs include Luke Skywalker + Han Solo, Boba Fett + Imperial Stormtrooper, Rey + Finn, and Kylo + First Order Stormtrooper.

There are also booster packs based upon different themes from the various Star Wars movies that can be collected. The themes are Awakenings, Spirit of Rebellion, Empire at War, Legacies, and Ways of the Force. Each theme consists of 36 blind bag booster packs to discover that cost approximately $3 each. Every booster pack includes five randomized cards and one premium die, broken down into three common cards, one uncommon card, and one rare or legendary card with a corresponding die. In booster packs you can find new primary characters to play as (like Mace Windu, General Grievous, Ezra Bridger, and Admiral Thrawn) support cards and dice to help players to enhance their Star Wars game playing experience.

We bought our starter kit at Best Buy and it is available at a number of other major retailers.  Expansion and booster packs are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart and specialty comic book, gaming and hobby shops as well as directly from the Fantasy Flight website.  For more information about STAR WARS DESTINY head over to fantasyflightgames.com/SWDestiny