What affiliations do you put stuff in with the prequels.  Some things make sense with Jedi and Sith, but some don't.  Would you have light and dark side clone troopers to cover before and after the order to kill the jedis?  Does the jedi card pool get a lot larger than the rebel card pool because of prequel expansions?  Do they release new affiliations like republic with either no jedi or no sith?

I'm sure there are solutions to this, but if anything says to me that they won't do explicitly prequel stuff, it's that issue.  Some one-off prequel cards, I could expect to see, but not a 'The Clone Wars' expansion.

I think EU and sequel-related expansions are more likely than prequel.

(EDIT: Ninja'd)

Well, not every card in a single Force Pack has to be from the same moment in the timeline, so while one objective set could cover something on Naboo, I don't see why that would restrict another on Endor…

I would probably prefer a separate game than expansions for this game with prequel material, partly because I couldn't stand the pages and pages of whining that would come from people who think the prequel trilogy is something worse than Hitler for them, but also because I think it would be better to have a stylistically different game for these stylistically different films. The prequels are Star Wars, though, as far as trade marks and other legalities go, and this is Star Wars: The Card Game, so purports to cover the whole saga, so who knows. The current factions would seem to preclude any prequel material, but they may break the mould sooner or later. 

There are only 18 years between the trilogies, of course, so the likelihood of seeing some folks who survived the events of RotS cropping up is that much more possible. Moff Panaka for the Imperial Navy, for example. A decrepit Watto from a Tatooine expansion, who can increase the cost for enemy units to be played or something, also springs to mind. Whether there's enough stuff to do an expansion in these terms would remain to be seen, of course. 

There is so much to enjoy about the prequels, and the stuff spawned from them in the EU. The opportunity of fielding a Count Dooku, Quinlan Vos, Mace Windu or Qui-Gon Jinn shouldn't be lost just because a small demographic will spit their dummies out as one. 

There are two obvious issues with the incorporation of non-GCW elements into this game, one of which has been mentioned already. The affiliation system, sort of a signature element for FFG that exists, as far as I'm aware of, in each and every LCG in some form or another. Maybe the design team realized during development of the release format that factional divisions would be necessary to mitigate the ever-expanding card pool without the use of a block system. If so, that's not something that could have been avoided.

The Death Star dial, though, could have been. Don't get me wrong: I love the time-limit it imposes on the game. But it does feel like a tacked-on afterthought to some degree and might have been thrown in to assuage fans' fears that the game would eventually visit eras in which the Death Star does not exist. I still believe that it could, but the battle station is of course emblematic of the Classic era.

It is really in their own interest to make it a separate game. Doesn't piss off those that hate the prequels, keeps both games "pure", and makes them more money as it is a separate game. All of this assumes they even have the rights/interest to do anything with the prequels.

For the record I don't hate the prequels, I am a huge Clone Wars tv show fan but I do want both time periods separate and distinct from each other. The prequels and the classics have very different tone to them and I think the prequels deserve their own game that can match their own unique style.

Admittedly the death star dial does seem to suggest only allowing a gcw timeline. But the genosians gave the plans to dooku at the end of ep. 2 and we see it being built at the end of ep. 3. I don't think it would be a stretch to extend the dial as a timetable for the dark side amassing enough power.

One of many problems though would seem to be the idea that the jedi at the beginning of the prequel are to some extent in the position of power and it would be the dark side that would have to try to wittle away at the light sides power. On the other hand, the jedi order had been weakening so it might not be such a stretch to say that they are trying to slow the almost inevitable rise of the dark side. 

There's also the problem of factions and what we do with things like imperial navy or rebel alliance during this period. I own quite a bit of the sw minis game by wotc and although they didn't have a built in system of struggle like this game does, it did divide the factions across periods (Including going into the old repbulic). There were restricions on assembling your squad based upon faction with some units allowing cross-faction squad builds:

Palpatine existed as an imp that made clones playable in that faction via order 66. There was also a separatist Darth Sidious.

I love star wars, and I mean all of it. I can accept that some of it is better than others, but I don't like the tediuousness of having to pick a side just for the sake of drawing a line in the sand. For that matter I also like Star Trek. I can see lots of problems with bringing the other eras into the game, but if done properly I would welcome it (Don't bring Star Trek into it because that would be weird and I was just using that as an example of duality).

At any rate, I think ffg could do it, but they have plenty of material to work with just in this era. They have plenty of time to figure out how they can bring Qui-Gon and Maul into the picture, how the Solo twins can make an appearance, and maybe even figure out a way to get the Shans onto some cardboard. But for now, they still need to get me hoth, jabba's palace, and why not there better be some Xizor coming at us as well (Scum and Villany FTW!).

All this talk about crossing timelines…

You guys do realize that SW is all ONE timeline.  It's the story of one person's life.  To suggest that there is some sort of weird timeline mixing between the two…that's just rampant fanboyism (or rampant hating on Episodes I-III).

And then there's the whole problem you run into with the light side playing Anakin Skywalker… and the dark side playing Darth Vader.

You gotta keep um' sep-a-rated…

Missa ganna t wait to open da Phantom Menace core set and pull out missa binks!"

sWhiteboy said:

Yes its all one timeline in the grand scheme of things, but it is absolutely not the story of one person's life. Episodes I-VI follow the events in the star wars universe from the perspective of the Skywalkers, specifically Anakin and Luke. But the Star Wars franchise is so much more than just the Skywalkers and this particualr time period.

As for it being one timeline, you are correct, but it is about like saying if you are making a game about European warfare that you should include, without restricition or recognition of the differences, Napolionics era military units and the world war era military units (which could easily be sub-divided between the two wars and almost always is [even further world war two is often divided between front and even early and late war]). Yes all of these events took place between the 1800s and early 20th century, and therefore they are part of one timeline. That does not mean that we can't divide that timeline into parts between the periods.

edit: double post

Muad Dib said:

The same "problem" will inevitably arise when both sides are playing Lando Calrissian. And I'm sure this situation will have a solution worked out in the rules. FFG is never shy about adding mechanics to their games when necessary, and wresting control of contested characters, perhaps using Force icons, would certainly be a welcome mechanic in a game based on the Star Wars setting.

Or….they could just let both players use the same named character.  It's not like the game makes sense from a cannon standpoint anyways.

I liked the way Decipher handled the Lando issue in the SW:CCG.  In that game, the DS Lando could be replaced by the LS Lando (LS player would pay to deploy LS Lando, had to do it at the same location as DS Lando), but the DS could not replace the LS Lando (which makes sense from the standpoint of the movies since when we first meet Lando he has been forced to work with the Empire but then crosses back over and remains with the Rebels for the remainder of the movies).  I think a similar replacement mechanic could work in this game as well.

There will just be new factions - probably one new faction for each side. 

But I think we'll see cards for all of Episodes IV - VI and perhaps even all of Episodes VII - IX before we see any prequel stuff.

I'd like to see the prequels in a stand-alone product, much like a fusion of the Core Set and Edge of Darkness. i.e, does not require the base Core Set to play. That way, you can easily feature it in its own timeline, or if you are not a stickler for accuracy, mix it up with what we currently have