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Pojo's Star Wars Minis
Play Options
5.02.06
By jhernandez

I grew up playing RPG’s … West End game’s Star Wars included. Today, I try to find time between my day-job and freelancing to game with my son and his friends and a few of my friends as well. Over the course of playing Star Wars minis, we’ve come up with options and house rules derived form the d20 rules (and from our own testing) just to make the simplicity of the minis game more interesting. Like the special conditions set in the published mission books, these options have broadened our gaming experience.

Everyone has their set of house-rules … some that work and some that throw the game completely off-balance. In this series of articles, I’d like to share some options that my gaming group has come up with and encourage other players to provide feedback and perhaps share their “house-rules.”

Some of the more popular house-rules I’ve noticed cover the following:
• elevation
• range  
• terrain
• custom characters and maps

Some of the options presented in this series will be supported by reference images and printable game materials.

Play Options 1.0: Modular Maps & Starting Zones
By Vornargith
Game format: Casual Play
Supporting Files: 3 PDFs … Base Panels (Deck & Grass) / Cargo Tiles / Starting Zones

For a miniatures game, the map is arguably the one element that can keep the game interesting. Besides new figures, players want to play on a field that changes. Playing on the same map over and over gets boring, and even a selection of 3-4 maps eventually becomes repetitive.  

Modular Maps
Start every skirmish with a blank map made of base panels. The PDF below contains two base panels that can be reproduced and mounted on foam board. 6 panels can be placed side-by-side to form a full map (minus 3 inches because of the trimming).

Take the maps that came with the miniatures and cut out each room and prominent feature, or you can create your own pieces as I have. The web is also a good source for custom maps that can be sliced into sections. The sections should be small enough to fit in one panel (within 10” x 16”) and should also be mounted on foam board or poster board with a spray adhesive. Black foam board or matting board has worked best for me and spray adhesive prevents warping.

Before setting up the miniatures, players take turns selecting map sections. The player with the highest initiative chooses first. After selecting the sections, the player with the lowest initiative places one of his sections on the base map. Each players takes turns placing sections until the map is filled out. The sections cannot overlap each other, but can overlap the base panels of the blank map.

The number of sections to fill out the base map is up to the group, and other smaller pieces like low objects and small obstacles (pillars, statues, etc…) can be thrown into the selection. Include in this article is another PDF of some cargo tiles that can be used on the base map. If there is a good response to this article, more custom sections and objects will be made available.

Starting Zones
In casual skirmish play, players often argue about starting points – where to start and how an opponent’s army of 20 figures can’t possibly fit in the given space. To prevent this, players need a visual representation that obviously designates their starting point.

Print out the starting zones (in the downloadable PDF file) on transparencies and cut out the grid patterns. Place the transparent grids over the map to clearly mark a each player’s starting zone. There are two types of starting zones. The edge zone is place long side to the edge of the map, and the area zone grid is place within a designated part of the map.

Miniatures can only be set within the starting zone designated by the transparency. Excess characters can be set on the following round only after characters have left the starting zone and cleared a space on the transparency. Reinforcements and back-up also start off in the starting zone area.  

Casual play is probably the best way to experience Star Wars miniatures, and because the rules are a condensed version of the d20 game – there are many options that players can experiment with to enhance their skirmishes. Game on!