Review – Star Wars: Outer Rim – Unfinished Business

Unfinished Business fills out the Outer Rim experience with more jobs, more encounters, more ships, more bounties. However, Unfinished Business also offers some new: destiny cards provide more of a story for each player, new bounty hunters with new powers make for more interesting combinations, and new, powerful contact tokens can create game-changing opportunities. 

Short caveat: Star Wars: Outer Rim is a top 10 game for me. You can see Derrick‘s thoughts on it here. 

Review 

First, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of what Unfinished Business adds to Outer Rim, along with some comments:

• 6 Ship Sheets
  • Cool new ships, including 2 that cost 25,000 credits, which are now the 2 most expensive ships in Outer Rim. It may feel wrong to some that a ship is worth more than Slave I and the Millenium Falcon, but both of these ships are far bigger, so it makes sense. I would have liked to see the Razor Crest, but given that there is no Mandalorian, it makes sense. 
• 8 Ambition Sheets
  • These essentially act as a story card for each player. They provide a specific list of actions that\ must be completed, sometimes chronologically, and they all relate to the sort of ambition you choose (for instance, Hero of the Rebellion will need to destroy many TIE Fighters, etc.). You don’t have to play with these, but if you do, you should play to 8 fame because in order to complete the last part of your ambition, you need to have the requisite amount of fame. Moreover, playing to 8 fame will keep the playtime around 1-2 hours. 
• 2 Core Worlds Endcaps
  • These provide players with a way to travel from the end of the map to the other end of the map and also include some interesting new encounters in their own right. Beware, enemies of the Empire: you are not welcome!
• 11 Orange Contact Tokens
  • These are big boys in Outer Rim and often include either playable characters or powerful acquaintances like Ashoka Tano. What I like about these is they allow players to collect bounties for each other and also allow players to interact with bigger names in the Star Wars universe without breaking cannon too bad (for instance, you can’t get Ashoka as a crew member, but she can help you with your next mission and give you fame). 
• 4 Debt Tokens
  • These are for players to give to one another as a reminder of who owes who. Debt tokens were specifically introduced because players can now request help from other players during combat, jobs, etc. and can gain skills other players have. However, assistance is often not free, hence the debt tokens for players who don’t have enough credits handy. This game mechanic is an excellent addition and can help speed the game along as players assist each other with jobs, etc. 
• 3 Dice, 4 Credit Tokens, 4 Damage Tokens, 12 Goal Tokens
  • Yay. More dice, which are always welcome. More tokens, which are slightly less welcome but necessary for this expansion (Cad Bane will have credits out his boots at times). 
• 8 Character Cards, along with Their Respective Standees and Plastic Stands
  • The 8 new characters are: Black Krrsantan, Cad Bane, Chewbacca, Dengar, Enfys Nest, Hera Syndulla, Hondo Ohnaka, and Maz Kanata. They all bring interesting new abilities, and many of them involve flipping their character card back and forth. Hondo can force other players on his space to give him cards, and Dengar can fight other players pretty much anytime he chooses. Designers Tony Fanchi and Corey Konieczka did a good job infusing themes into gameplay here. 
• 45 Market Cards
  • More stuff, including some interesting new cargo that’s a multi-step process for a big payoff (taking coaxium to get refined, then delivering it to the client). 
• 91 Encounter Cards
  • This effectively doubles the number of possible encounters on each planet, which is a much-needed and welcome addition. 
• 52 Databank Cards
  • To go along with the new contact tokens, jobs, and ambitions. 
• 21 AI Cards
  • While I much prefer playing against human players, the revamped AI deck adds more robust flavor to AI players, now allowing solo players to choose who they’re playing against (different AIs will have different special powers). 
• 1 Rulebook
  • The rulebook does an excellent job of catching players up to speed on what Unfinished Business has to offer. 

Whew. Now for more broad thoughts. 

I will not be playing Outer Rim without the Unfinished Business expansion again. It’s not too much for new players to try and grasp because it’s not anything crazy new. Moreover, it fixed my only gripe about Outer Rim: lack of significant depth. Now, even if everyone is into the wretched hive of scum and villainy (aka, encountering Tatooine until the banthas come home), it is highly unlikely to encounter a repeat card. Adding such beloved characters as Cad Bane and Hondo Ohnaka only helps. Oh, and everything fits in the core box. 

The ambition sheets are well-executed, and while I would have liked to see more of them, I can’t critique their lacking because I won’t always play with them. They’re a fun changeup, but the core of Outer Rim remains the wonderfully enjoyable “How can I get 10 fame first?” sandbox. If you weren’t all that into Outer Rim, Unfinished Business gives you more of what you’re not all that into. If, like me, you think Outer Rim is an absolute blast, Unfinished Business won’t disappoint.