Star Wars Board Games: strategy board game
Star Wars: Outer Rim Board Game: How Turns Work
Fantasy Flight Games released Star Wars Outer Rim in 2019. It’s a game for 1 to 4 players, with bounty hunters, smugglers and mercenaries. Fly your ship around the galaxy’s fringe, take jobs and bounties, and race to reach 10 fame first.
- 2019
- 1-4 players
- 120-180 minutes
- Ages 14+
- strategy board game
- Fantasy Flight Games
Designers: Corey Konieczka, Tony Fanchi
Choose a scoundrel, buy a ship and chase fame. Here’s how a turn goes.
Outer Rim has no shared rounds or phases. Players take turns one at a time, following the same pattern: planning, action and encounter. The bullets below walk through a turn in order. For a broader look at licensed Star Wars tabletop games, see the Star Wars board games page.
Entering a patrol's space stops you unless you have positive reputation with that faction.
A quick look at one turn of Star Wars: Outer Rim
Each turn moves through planning, action and encounter, and then play passes to the player on your left. The bullets explain the choices in each part.
You get one encounter per turn, so pick the one with the biggest payoff.
- Step 1:
Planning step: choose one option. Move your character up to your ship’s hyperdrive value in spaces, recover all damage, or gain 2,000 credits.
- Step 2:
You stop moving when you enter the Maelstrom or a patrol’s space, unless you have positive reputation with that patrol’s faction.
- Step 3:
Action step: take each of these four actions once: trade with a player in your space, take a market action, deliver cargo and bounties, or use an action ability.
- Step 4:
Market action: you may discard the top card of one market deck, then buy the top card of any market deck by paying its cost.
- Step 5:
After buying a market card, reveal the next card in that deck. If it shows a patrol movement icon, move that faction’s patrol toward you.
- Step 6:
Encounter step: resolve exactly one encounter. Fight a patrol, draw an encounter card for your space, meet a contact token, or use an encounter ability.
- 7Step 7:
For skill tests, roll two dice. Unskilled characters need a crit, skilled ones need a crit or hit, and highly skilled ones need a crit, hit or focus.
- 8Step 8:
Combat comes down to dice rolls. Each hit deals 1 damage and each crit deals 2. Both sides roll, then take damage from the other side’s roll.
- 9Step 9:
Your turn ends. Reach 10 fame (8 in your first game) and you win immediately. Otherwise, the next player starts.
A turn is straightforward, but your first game may raise questions about setup, reputation and what happens after a lost fight. The next section covers those topics, along with skill tests and combat. For a conquest game instead of a scoundrel’s journey, compare it with Star Wars: Rebellion.
A detailed guide to Star Wars: Outer Rim
Setup
Build the map with six map tiles and two endcaps. Put each faction’s level-1 patrol token on the navpoint beside its matching endcap.
For each faction, stack the remaining patrol tokens by level in a facedown pile on the matching endcap. Put level 2 on top and level 4 on the bottom.
Shuffle the contact tokens and place one facedown on each contact space, matching the color and pips shown there.
Put the credit, damage and goal tokens in a supply everyone can reach.
Each player rolls all six dice to decide who goes first, following the setup rules. In turn order, everyone chooses a character and takes its card, standee, player board, four reputation tokens, a starter ship sheet (G9 Rigger or G-1A Starfighter) and a reference card.
Starting credits depend on seat order: 4,000, 6,000, 8,000 and 10,000. Each player then follows the setup text on their character card, takes the named databank card and places their standee on the starting planet.
Split the market cards into six decks and the encounter cards into seven. Shuffle each deck and place the encounter decks by their planets. Reveal the top card of each market deck. Keep the databank deck in numeric order, with unused ships in a pile.
Turn by turn
Planning step
Choose one: move, recover all damage, or gain 2,000 credits. If your character was defeated, you must recover during your next planning step. Some cards give you “Planning” abilities to use here.
Action step
Take each of these four actions at most once, in any order: trade cards with a player in your space, take a market action, deliver cargo and bounties, or use card actions. You can trade credits anytime, anywhere on the map.
Encounter step
Choose one: fight a patrol in your space, draw that space’s encounter card, encounter a contact token, or use an “Encounter” ability. If you have negative reputation with a patrol in your space, you must fight it.
Buying cards
Pay the cost on a market card, then tuck it under your ship or board in a slot of that type. Discard cargo, gear or mods to reduce the cost by their value. When buying a ship, your current ship counts as a discount.
Patrols
One patrol from each faction is always on the map. Win ship combat against one and you lose 1 reputation with its faction, gain the reward on its token, and remove that token from play. Then a new patrol from that faction appears.
Jobs and bounties
To attempt a job, be at its destination at the start of your encounter step and follow the steps on its databank card. For a bounty, find the matching contact, win the combat, then eliminate or capture it.
End of the game and scoring
Fame is the only score. Each player has a fame marker on their board. The first player to reach 10 fame wins immediately. For your first game, the rulebook lowers the goal to 8 fame. You can gain fame from jobs, bounties, illegal cargo, level-2 and level-3 patrols, luxury market cards, and personal and ship goals.
Key rules
Reputation
Each faction has a token on a three-space track: positive, neutral or negative. Gain reputation to move it up; lose reputation to move it down. Positive reputation lets you pass that faction’s patrols. Negative reputation makes trouble more likely.
Defeat
You are defeated when damage equals your character’s health or your ship’s hull. Tip over your standee, lose 3,000 credits, and discard your secrets. Finish your current step, then recover damage during your next planning step.
Personal and ship goals
Each character card has a personal goal. Complete it to gain 1 fame and flip the card, revealing a new ability in place of the goal. Ships you buy have ship goals that work the same way.
Secrets
Some encounter cards are marked secret. Read these to yourself and keep them facedown. They take up no slot, and you can resolve them later by following the card’s instructions.
Solo game
Play one character against a second character controlled by an AI deck. You go first, the AI takes the G9 Rigger, and you draw and resolve the top AI card after each of your turns.
Tips for your first game
- For your first game, play to 8 fame, as the rulebook suggests.
- Keep the Rules Reference handy for exceptions the learn-to-play booklet leaves out.
- Check patrol locations before moving. If you stop in a patrol’s space with negative reputation, you must fight.
- Use the discard option to cycle a market deck when you want a particular card or want to deny one to another player.
- Check the contact class on a bounty before traveling, so you don’t end up at a planet with no matching token.
Defeat costs 3,000 credits and your next planning step.
The rules explain how to play, but not where the characters and ships come from. Here’s a look at who designed the game, when it came out and which parts of the saga it draws from. No single film is its source. For another ground-level Star Wars game, see The Mandalorian: Adventures.
The game and the Star Wars galaxy behind it
Set your first game to 8 fame, not 10.
The game
Design and release
Corey Konieczka and Tony Fanchi designed Star Wars: Outer Rim for Fantasy Flight Games. Released in 2019, it supports one to four players. Fantasy Flight describes it as a game about bounty hunters, mercenaries and smugglers chasing legendary status across the galaxy.
Editions and reprints
The Unfinished Business expansion arrived in 2022, adding eight characters, new ships, gear, jobs and bounties. It also includes two optional variants, favors and ambitions, and requires the base game.
The film or series it covers
The game draws from the wider Star Wars saga. Its rulebook doesn’t adapt a particular film or series, and it doesn’t pin the action to a specific era.
The board features named worlds, each with its own encounter deck, plus four factions: the Rebels, the Empire, the Hutts and crime syndicates. Characters, contacts and ships hail from across Star Wars, so a hunter might run into a familiar face on almost any planet.
Scenes and story beats in the game
- 1
Han Solo, Boba Fett, Lando Calrissian, Jyn Erso and Chewbacca appear as playable scoundrels or crew.
- 2
You can hire contacts such as Greedo and Doctor Evazan as crew, or hunt them as bounties.
- 3
Ship sheets cover the Millennium Falcon, Slave I and a YT-1300 light freighter.
- 4
One job card sends you on the Kessel Run to steal coaxium.
- 5
The Hutts are one of the four factions. Tatooine and Nal Hutta each have their own encounter deck.
What’s inside the Star Wars: Outer Rim box
- 6 map tiles and 2 map endcaps
- 8 character cards and 8 character standees with plastic stands
- 12 ship sheets
- 4 player boards with plastic fame markers and 4 reference cards
- 70 market cards, 70 encounter cards and 53 databank cards
- 10 AI cards for solo play
- 16 reputation tokens, 16 patrol tokens, 22 contact tokens
- 60 credit tokens, 40 damage tokens and 12 goal tokens
- 6 dice, a Rules Reference and a learn-to-play booklet
The base box is a complete game, and Fantasy Flight has added one expansion since 2022. Below is what it changes, what new rules it brings and whether you need the base game to use it.
Entering a patrol's space stops you unless you have positive reputation with that faction.
Star Wars Outer Rim expansion: Unfinished Business
Unfinished Business 2022
The only expansion, and it needs the base game. It adds 8 characters, 6 ship sheets, 45 market cards, 52 databank cards, 91 encounter cards, 21 AI cards and 2 Core Worlds endcaps. It also doubles the size of each encounter deck and adds the favors and ambitions variants.
Star Wars: Outer Rim FAQ
How do you win Star Wars: Outer Rim?
Be the first to reach 10 fame. The game ends as soon as a player gets there; for your first game, the rulebook suggests aiming for 8 fame.
Can you play Star Wars: Outer Rim solo?
Yes. Play one character against a second character controlled by an AI deck. After each of your turns, draw and resolve the top AI card.
What does reputation do in Star Wars: Outer Rim?
You track your reputation with four factions on a three-space scale. Positive reputation lets you pass through that faction's patrols and unlocks rewards on encounter cards. Negative reputation can bring fights and penalties.
What happens when you are defeated in Outer Rim?
You lose 3,000 credits, discard your secrets and tip over your standee. Finish your current step, then recover all damage during your next planning step.
Is Star Wars: Outer Rim based on one movie?
No. It pulls characters, ships and worlds from across the saga, including Han Solo, Boba Fett and the Millennium Falcon, rather than retelling a single film.
How long does Star Wars: Outer Rim take to play?
Fantasy Flight lists a full game at about 120 to 180 minutes. For your first game, playing to 8 fame makes it shorter.
Do you need Star Wars: Outer Rim to play Unfinished Business?
Yes. Unfinished Business is an expansion, adding characters, ships, and cards to mix into the base game's decks.
You get one encounter per turn, so pick the one with the biggest payoff.
Defeat costs 3,000 credits and your next planning step.
Sources
- Fantasy Flight Games: Star Wars: Outer Rim fantasyflightgames.com
- Fantasy Flight Games: Star Wars: Outer Rim learn to play booklet (PDF) cdn.svc.asmodee.net
- Fantasy Flight Games: Unfinished Business expansion rulebook (PDF) cdn.svc.asmodee.net
- Fantasy Flight Games: Outer Rim living rules reference (PDF) cdn.svc.asmodee.net