Designer Diary 2: Thrilling Action

One of my favorite parts of The Mandalorian™ are the action scenes and tense firefights. There are few things better than watching a bunch of stormtroopers getting their due.

I’ve designed MANY combat systems over the years; from dungeon crawls to games of galactic conquest. When designing The Mandalorian: Adventures, I wanted to make sure combat was strategic and more than just “charge the nearest enemy and punch it in the face.”

We tried lots of different systems, and eventually came up with a novel mechanic. Each character has a unique deck of cards full of thematic abilities. Any card can be used to perform any action, with the strength (number 1 through 4) dictating how powerful the action is.

On your turn, you play 2 skill cards from your hand of 4. You must play each card to a different action shown at the bottom of the map: Move, Attack, Intel, and Plan. When you play a skill card, place it faceup on any action and perform its effect using the card’s strength.  

For example, if you play a “4” strength card on the Move action, you can move up to 4 spaces. Likewise, if you play a “3” strength card on the Attack action, you can deal 3 damage to an enemy in your space or an adjacent space.

The Plan and Intel actions are a little trickier. The Plan action lets you draw a number of planning cards equal to your skill card’s strength. For example, if you play a “4” strength card on the Plan action, you can draw 4 planning cards. You may keep 1, place 1 on the top of the deck, and discard the other 2.

You keep planning cards faceup in front of you, and you will be able to use the ability in the future. These cards have powerful effects, such as blocking damage or retaliating when attacked.

The Intel action allows you to secretly look at a facedown threat token OR move an enemy. 

For example, if you play a “2” strength card on the Intel action, you could look at a facedown token up to 2 spaces away. Why would you do this? Well, missions will always have facedown tokens that you are trying to find and/or avoid. In the first mission, you are looking for the door controls and then The Asset. Facedown tokens could be the features you are looking for, or they could be dangerous enemies. Knowledge is power.

Alternatively, if you play a “2” strength card, you could choose an enemy up to 2 spaces away from you and move it 1 space. There are many reasons why you might do this; for example, to avoid enemy abilities (we’ll talk about those in our next journal).

Other Action Rules 

Now that you understand how the basic actions work, let’s talk about what makes each character unique. Some characters might be faster, stronger fighters, or better at planning. This is represented by bonus icons on some of their cards. The icons provide +1 strength when the card is played on the matching action. For example, the “3” strength card below has 4 strength if played on the Plan action.

The real identity of characters comes from abilities on their skill cards. You can only use the ability if you play it on the matching action, but you gain this benefit in addition to the action’s ability.

We’ll dive deeper into what makes each character unique in a future journal, but for now, just know that they have different play styles, tricks, and combos.

End of Turn 

At the end of your turn, you’ll refill your hand of skill cards and then the next player takes their turn.

Easy, right? Well, there is one important thing that I haven’t discussed yet, and this is the magic glue that holds the entire game together. When you play a skill card, it stays faceup below that action. When the total value of cards in an action slot equals 5 or more, you need to resolve an event (and possibly a crisis) and then discard the cards.

This means you need to balance what actions you want to take with the knowledge that they might cause detrimental events. Events are the main way enemies fight back, and we’ll dive into those details in our next journal.

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