At long last Fantasy Flight is giving us a Star Wars narrative adventure board game! Star Wars Outer Rim takes us to the seedy underbelly of that galaxy far, far away. Take on the role of a smuggler, bounty-hunter, and general antiestablishmentarian with a ship and a dream. You get to pick from the likes of Han Solo, Boba Fet, Doctor Aphra, Jyn Erso, Lando Calrissian, IG-88, and Ketsu Onyo. There are eight characters you can play in all, each with their own personal goals.
Want more Star Wars personalities in your game? Outer Rim has them in the form of Contacts, characters like Chewbacca, Maz Kanata, and Hondo Ohnaka. You can fight these characters, capture them for bounties, or add them to your crew to gain the special abilities they bring to your ship.
Speaking of ships, you’ll have one of those as well. Like the characters, each has its own personal missions that allow you to transform a fairly run-of-the-mill modified YT-1300 Light Freighter into the Millennium Falcon.
The Outer Rim itself is a six-segmented track that includes planets and other points-of-interest where you can meet the various personalities of the game (represented by face-down tokens you can only peek at when allowed to). What you can do at each planet is dictated by cards, each planet beginning the game with two options. Perform one of the actions at a planet and it’s replaced with a fresh card.
You’ll also draw encounter cards that could have missions, events, opportunities and dangers on them. These often deal with the various factions that attempt to control the Outer Rim, including the Empire, the Rebels, the Hutts and the Crime Syndicates. You’ll track your reputation with all four factions while attempting to avoid their patrols as you make your way around the Outer Rim.
Finally, there are six markets in the Outer Rim that supply you with gear, ship-upgrades, missions and bounties, and Fame-scoring luxuries. Do the job and get paid, but do you spend the money to improve your crew or ship, so you can take on the bigger jobs? Or do you invest in the luxuries that bring you closer to victory?
Outer Rim is about living a Star Wars adventure on the bleeding edge of galactic civilization, where the risks and the rewards are high and danger is always lurking nearby. As such, the game is on the fairly complex side of things, with lots of moving parts. A playthrough usually runs two to three hours, so you’ll want an entire afternoon free to enjoy this game. It can entertain 1-4 players (so yes, you can play solo while playing Solo). If you’re ready to risk it all in a high-stakes game of sabacc, dare Imperial censure by stealing their supplies and smuggling them to the Rebels, or go mano-a-mano against the toughest bounties in the galaxy, all to become a living legend, ask the good folks at your neighborhood Dragon’s Lair Comics and Fantasy® about Star Wars Outer Rim today.
