A Template Adjustment

January 15, 2025  |  Written by Danny Schaefer and Ryan Serrano

Something we do periodically as the Star Wars™: Unlimited design team is evaluate the game’s complexity and see if there are any opportunities to streamline our rules templating in a way that isn’t too disruptive to the established way cards work. While the first several sets of the game were largely developed too early to have much real-world data, by the time we were working on A Lawless Time and Ashes of the Empire, the game had been out in the wild for a while, and we could see what was causing confusion.

One of the areas that was the most unclear—even to many experienced players—was the timing around triggers during and after combat. While “On Attack” abilities are relatively straightforward, the sheer variety of other triggering conditions and timing points that could happen during an attack created a web that was difficult to untangle. Between “When this unit is attacked”, “When this unit deals combat damage”, “When this unit attacks and defeats a unit”, and “When this unit completes an attack”, there were so many different ways that abilities were presented that it was hard to keep track of what each one meant. And even more confusing was the fact that some of these abilities had their own distinct timing points, while others were simultaneous with each other. It reached the point where even many of us on the design team would often have to turn to our Rules Admiral, Ryan Serrano, for clarification when multiple such abilities triggered during the same attack.

At the same time, we were running into some unanticipated design space issues with the rules templating we had. We often found ourselves wanting abilities that triggered at the end of an attack, agnostic of the whether the unit survived or took damage, and it was surprisingly difficult to word such abilities in a clean, approachable way within our existing rules structure. This combination of design limitations and confusing interactions led us to consider whether there was a better way—whether we could simplify our combat rules and triggers in a way that made more sense without losing important strategic elements.

Ultimately, we decided that there was indeed a better way! After a great deal of discussion within the team—and a lot of testing of different options—we settled on a streamlining of our combat timing and trigger templating. First, we changed “When this unit is attacked” to “On Defense”, helping make it clear that such abilities trigger at the same time as “On Attack” abilities. Additionally, and more significantly, we combined the previously separate combat steps of “dealing combat damage” and “completing the attack” into a single timing window with a new triggering condition: “When Attack Ends”. Now every ability that triggers when dealing combat damage or at the end of an attack will share this same triggering condition, making those abilities all occur at the same timing point and making it much easier to process what’s happening with those effects.

One thing I want to note is how this impacts the existing card pool. As we strive to improve and streamline our rules going forward, we want to remain true to our policy of not implementing functional errata to cards that meaningfully change their play pattern or power level. We believe it’s important that cards do what they say they do, and so even as our rules and wordings change, we want to keep cards doing what they’ve always done, as much as we can. However, we also have a responsibility to maintain the overall rules infrastructure of the game in as consistent a way as possible. Thus, any past cards that would have had “On Defense” or “When Attack Ends” abilities in the new system will receive updated text on our website and on any future reprints. In updating the text of these cards, we were cognizant to stay as close to the original functionality as possible, even if that meant using somewhat longer wording than we would use if making the card today.

In general, this means the individual abilities of past cards will still trigger the way they always have, but certain situations with multiple abilities may now resolve differently. For example, in the past, if a defending unit with a “When Defeated” ability was defeated by combat damage, that ability would have had to resolve before the attacking unit’s “When this unit completes an attack” ability could resolve. Now, these two abilities both trigger when the attack ends, and the active player chooses which player resolves their abilities first. From our internal testing, we’ve found that the situations in which this timing change makes a meaningful difference to a card’s play pattern are rare enough that we feel confident making these changes is what’s best for the overall health of the game line.

If you’ve read this far, thank you! More specific information on all rules changes for our upcoming set, A Lawless Time, will be available with the release of the Comprehensive Rules v7.0, which you can expect closer to the set’s launch.