Roll Casual – How to Stop Worrying and Love the Game

The X-Wing Miniatures Game has the theme of Fly Casual. It is printed in the rulebooks, and Fantasy Flight Games even had an article about it on their website. The basic premise is simple, yet exceedingly complex – “don’t be a dick”. What does that mean, exactly? Well, over the past 5 years, many people, and podcasts, have attempted to answer that question and we have a good idea of what it means in our collective heads, but putting it down in words is difficult. Its like the senator who was asked to define pornography. His reply was, “I will know it when I see it.” Here are my reasons why we need to Roll Casual, and what it means to do so.

I suggest we take the radical step for Star Wars: Destiny and apply the same theory. Why? This is a brand new game. I, along with many of you, really enjoy playing it. So much so that I want, and try, to get many players interested in it, and want them to play it as well. I want to grow the community. One of the easiest ways to do that is make a great impression, not only of the game, but the community as a whole. I know a lot of players who play X-Wing because while it is competitive, people have a great attitude about it. We aren’t dicks. In the same way, I know many people who don’t get into CCG/TCG style games because of the toxic atmosphere.

You have to remember, this is an extremely young game, having been out for only a couple of months. With the extreme shortage of cards, some people are just now receiving their product, or have enough to make a competitive deck. Even though you have been playing since the first Friday night pre-release event, playing 3+ games every day and know the rules inside and out, your opponent many have only been playing for a few days. The best recruiting tool I have ever had in getting players into a game of X-Wing or Armada is to get them to a casual tournament. They see the atmosphere there. For the overwhelming majority, it is not what they were expecting.

Rules are still being hotly debated, and Fantasy Flight Games is doing quite a bit to address issues that have come up, so much so that they have already released a major update to their FAQ on Jan 24th. As someone who thought that they knew what was coming and how FFG was going to rule things, I myself was unprepared for the Inherent Dice Abilities (pg 16). It totally changed how certain cards interacted, and set the stage for interesting combinations in the future. And, there are still questions that need answering from FFG.  But, there is a right way and wrong way to debate rules.

We have a lot of Facebook groups out there, local, national, and worldwide. The vast majority of people there are kind, considerate, and polite, responding to questions in a great manor, even if the question has been asked many times before.  Some aren’t so kind, so much so that people are quitting Star Wars: Destiny or creating their own Facebook group. That isn’t healthy. Just think of the debate that was recently had on the effectiveness of pile shuffling in one of the Facebook groups. Some good, downright great, posts were made. Some were downright hate filled and hurtful.

There are three major tiers of competition for this game, and all three are outlined nicely in the Tournament FAQ.  As a player, you need to understand what type of event you are going to, and adjust accordingly. That is not to mean don’t bring the deck you want to play, be it a top tier competitive deck or an experimental one, but to adjust to the type of opponent you may be facing, and the questions that they may bring to the table. Treat others how you want to be treated. Remember, you may face that opponent again and again at different events.  You may be longtime friends or have never met them before, treat them all the same.

I recently attended the Game Café Game Of Thrones Store Championship. I am a very casual player to the game, as there isn’t a big player base here in Kansas City. And, as a result of that, I could be considered new to the game, at least as far as knowing all the details of the game, timing windows, and such. Heck, my previous game before that took place months beforehand. Which, in the LCG world, means at least 2 chapter packs ago. At the Store Championship I let my first opponent know that I was a pretty casual player, and he was more that gracious and considerate. And, while I lost the game, which wasn’t a big surprise, I had a blast playing, and I am sure my opponent did as well, as it was a hard fought game to the bitter end. And, I thanked him for not only the game, but for going through all the steps and actions and such so I remembered what I was doing, and how to do it. Because of the refresher game, I ended up winning the remainder of my games that day and ended up in 4th place.

In the above mentioned, and the linked article about Fly Casual, replace X-Wing with Destiny. All of it still applies. Now, that doesn’t mean you let your opponent walk all over you.  But, like I was saying before, when confronting someone doing something wrong, be nice about it. You are playing for your own reasons, they are playing for theirs. You might not meet in the middle, but that doesn’t mean you need to be mean to each other. This game is suppose to be fun for everyone. And everyone plays. I was at an event the other day and there were men, women, and kids as young as 8. You can’t talk to a young kid the same way you talk to an adult.

Roll Casual doesn’t have to be overt and obvious. Do you shake your opponents hand before and after the match? If you don’t know their name, do you take the time to learn it, and use it? Do you look them in the eye when applicable? When you are unfamiliar with a card and how it is worded (or works) do you just grab the card, or ask first? When you have a question, how do you ask it? Do you speak out loud every action you take, and how other cards interact with your action? Do you make sure you give your opponent time to think about their action, and have time to act on it, or do you try to rush them, and are blatant about it?

Be nice, be kind, be considerate. Roll Casual.

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