Judge Apprentice - Lesson 2

Teaching Star Wars™: Unlimited

Also available are archives of live broadcasts, where the Program Director goes over the lesson, answers any questions that folks may have and sometimes goes on tangets about other elements of judging. You can find the playlist of broadcasts on youtube.
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Below is the full script of the lesson, if you learn or process material better through the written word!

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Hello there and welcome back to the Judge Program for Star Wars™: Unlimited - Apprentice Lesson Track.

As always, I’m your host Jonah and today we’ll be talking about teaching and demoing Star Wars: Unlimited. We’re starting with this, rather than a deep dive into the rules or explanations of policy because the fundamental role of a judge is educating players and helping people better understand how the game works. Being able to explain the core concepts and understanding how different people learn is foundational to developing that skill.

Some of the questions that we’re going to address today include: how should you structure teaching the game? Do you think it’s better to start with set-up or how to win the game? If a player is using technically incorrect language but understands the concepts, should you correct them? How should you go about getting players to understand the deeper strategy that Star Wars: Unlimited offers? Once the player has gotten their grips on the game, how should you wrap up the demo?

There will be some tips and pointers that can be used generically for teaching and explaining games, but we’ll also go into a bit more detail for Star Wars: Unlimited in particular, and put those best practices into context.

Before You Begin

Before you talk about rules, or deck construction or mechanics or really any elements of the game, spend a moment to figure out what has already hooked the player’s attention. If you’re at a game store, it’s probably the Star Wars theme that appeals, as there are plenty of other card games there. If you’re at a Star Wars convention on the other hand, it’s probably the card game aspect that is particularly interesting to them.

This is also a great time to ask them a few questions to get an idea of who they are as a player - do they have a lot of knowledge of the property and characters? Have they played other similar games? These questions help you better understand your audience and how to engage them effectively.

Setting Up For Success

Now, part of understanding a game is having an appropriate context for the pieces of it. As an extreme example, if you start by saying “If you use ECL to give this Guerrilla Attack Pod ambush, you can resolve your triggers so that you’re potentially able to attack with it twice!” your audience will have no idea what you’re saying, and even if they do, not really understand the importance of it.

This means, somewhat strangely, we’re going to start with the end of the game, introducing the greatest scope. An introduction of “You’re going to have a deck that features a leader commanding their units in battle, and trying to destroy the enemy’s base - whose hit points total is indicated by this number.” is a great way to begin. Now the player has the context of what their goal is, and what tools they have at hand.

Embed the story as a part of the game, because Star Wars: Unlimited is a great way to tell new stories in this universe - imagine the timeline where Qi’ra is defending Echo Base on Hoth and helping Leia lead an attack on the Death Star!

A Note On Language

It’s also generally helpful to use the language of the game itself - leaders and bases, units and events, resources and action phases - this helps the player better understand what the cards themselves are saying as they start to read more and listen to you less. However, as with all rules, there is an exception - if you’re working with just one player, using language that they’re familiar with if you both have experience with another TCG can help quickly explain complex topics. This can be terms like monster, inking, or tapping and untapping.

In particular, you don’t need to correct a player’s language if they’re using the wrong terms - just make sure to point out the differences, such as any card being able to be a resource and units always entering play exhausted. This is true when answering a judge call as well - as long as the players at the table understand what is happening, the language doesn’t need to be technical.

Be careful with colloquial terms as well - bounce, mill, scoop, buff... these are all phrases that you or players might know, but if not everyone knows them, it can feel like people are speaking another language and end up being exclusionary.

The Core of A Demo

With the endgame goal established, work back from there. If the goal is to destroy the base, how do you damage it? At this point explaining how attacking with units works sets up the next question - how do I get units into play? Once you’ve briefly explained playing cards and events, all that’s left is the last few details of mechanical action - how the turn passes back and forth, and the regroup phase.

With the basics in hand, it’s time to play a game! Either play the game with your student or have two new players play against each other, depending on how many people are interested in learning and how many decks you have. Most people learn better from playing, but if someone wants to just watch, give a gentle nudge, but don’t insist that they play.

Start playing, and go through each step of a round, announcing what you’re doing, and reminding players of the options they have at hand. Take it slowly, and be ready for any questions the players may have.

Teaching Star Wars: Unlimited

As mentioned above, start by introducing the core concept - you’re taking control of a leader and using their units to destroy your opponent’s base. In this intro, you don’t need to talk about aspects, aspect penalties, or base abilities, unless someone asks, but even then, it’s not necessary for playing right away, and it’s extra information that you don’t need them to keep track of.

From there, you can dive right into the back-and-forth nature of the game! Rather than introduce the five key actions, focus on the ones that are relevant - for most decks, attacking with a unit and using an ability won’t be possible on the first turn. However, as the options become available explain what they are as briefly as you can! Play out the whole action phase before explaining any of the regroup phase. Once you’ve both completed your turns, now you can explain this process - each player draws two cards, plays up to one card as a resource, and then readies everything that was exhausted.

Introduce mechanics as they come up. You’ll want to start the game by explaining that you draw an opening hand of six cards and play two cards as resources. Because this is a learning opportunity, this is a great time to play with hands face-up, or at least *your* hand. You can show them what you’re doing and explain (briefly!) why you’re resourcing those cards. This gives them context but doesn’t cost them a strategic advantage. Of course, if they play with their hand revealed, you can also give them better advice!

Explain that units and resources come into play exhausted when the first units are played - not before. By giving information one step at a time, it’s easier to put it into context, rather than trying to understand the game as a whole in one massive step. Similarly, you can explain that damage persists the first time that comes up, and talk about leader deployment around turn three or four, when players are first getting to the point where they can be deployed.

You don’t have to explain keywords if they’re not in the decks or are never drawn. If Grit or Smuggle never shows up, that’s information that the player doesn’t need to know to play this game. Remember, your goal is to make sure that they have a good time playing the game and want to play more, not make them ready for a tournament!

Demo Tips and Tricks

Demoing a game for a newer audience is different from teaching experienced players, and it’s very, very different than teaching your friends. There are a lot of small things that you can do that might not feel natural at first, but can drastically improve the player experience.

Don’t try to teach mastery: It’s okay if players make strategic blunders. One way for a player to get frustrated and quit quickly is if they’re constantly told “What you should have done is...” or even worse told what to do before they have the chance to figure it out. They’re here to play the game, not have you play it for them.

You also don’t need to go into details on mechanics - if somebody asks how Ambush works, you can just explain what is needed for the moment - that it lets you attack a unit when played - and you don’t need to talk about how it works with other triggered abilities or other more complicated concepts.

Verify communication: Different people will engage with you differently, and it’s important to track when the person you’re teaching doesn’t understand what you’re explaining. A lot of the game is dependent on understanding other elements, so if your student misses something, it can hinder their understanding of other mechanics.

Sometimes the words “okay” or “sure” can mean that they understand what you’re saying, and sometimes it means that they’ve heard you and are processing. It can take a few minutes and a few back-and-forth exchanges before you understand how the player learns, and it never hurts to confirm that they understand and are ready to move on.

You can also always prompt your audience to see if they have any questions - sometimes you’ll just repeat yourself with a slight rephrasing, and that’s all they need, and other times somebody is jumping ahead on the syllabus, and that’s okay!

Go In-Depth When Asked: This ties into that previous point - if someone has a lot of experience - decades of experience with other games, maybe a game designer, someone who knows a lot - you can meet them at their level and offer more complex answers and comparisons to other games. You don’t have to keep things simple just because it’s a demo, but that’s where you should start.

Also, if you do have a larger audience, like you might have if you’re running a learn-to-play day at a store, or helping out at a convention, make sure that you don’t spend too much time on those more complex questions - sometimes the best thing to do is to acknowledge the question as interesting, but that it’s a bit complex and you’d be happy to explain it once games have started to be played.

Work as a team: If you’re playing the demos yourself, keep an eye on your strategic advantage. Knowing the game is a huge boon, even if you don’t consider yourself a particularly skilled player. You don’t have to lose the game on purpose, but sometimes you let the Wookie win (not that your student will rip your arms off, but winning your first game does feel nice).

You can also ask for feedback from the people you’re teaching and adapt your methodologies to what works best!

Tying It All Together

Once you get games going, they don’t necessarily have to conclude. People do have other things that they need or want to do, especially at large conventions, and so you don’t have to have a base destroyed to end the game. Inversely, if folks are really engaged, but there’s a line of other people interested in playing, you may have to cut them off after they’ve finished a full game, rather than playing more.

However, even when the game ends, the demo isn’t over. As you’ve been working with the player, you’ve had the opportunity to evaluate them, and with that done, you can make recommendations for them based on their interest level. For many new players, picking up starter decks is always a great place to begin - it allows them to play a game immediately with their friends, and the decks are functional.

While there’s a lot of excitement in buying packs, unless the player already has some cards or intends to play a limited format, it can be difficult to get a good starting deck out of it. On the other hand, while purchasing singles is often the most efficient way to build a competitive deck, that’s often not the goal of new players - especially with a game that’s as rich in lore and story as Star Wars: Unlimited, some folks may just want to slowly explore the game or personally collect all of the cards, and getting packs is a way that they can do that.

Similarly, if they’re interested in growing their collection, going to prerelease events and store drafts is a great way to get started - there are opportunities to grow their collection and learn the game more with relatively low-stakes environments while also not requiring significant investment, like playing in Premier or Twin Suns events, even if those events are being run at casual-tier.

One of the best ways to wrap up a demo is to make sure that your players know how they can play more. Whether it’s giving them the information they need to play on their own at home, talking about upcoming events at an LGS, or something else - letting them know when and where they can play is a top-tier opportunity for helping them get really engaged in the game.

Finally, with more experienced players, there are a handful of advanced topics that you can dive into if they express interest, but you should generally avoid them with newer players. These include things like the constructed meta for Premier, larger tournament offerings, and set releases coming down the pipeline in future months.

That’s all we have for you today. To make your demos better, you can utilize the quickstart rules as a great jumping-off point to reinforce your explanations. The other lessons in this track will also help you establish a stronger baseline that you can utilize.

The next lesson will be the first one diving into the comprehensive rules covering some golden rules and game structure. Good luck, and have fun!
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