In Star Wars: Outer Rim from Fantasy Flight Games, one to four players take on the roles of various smugglers, bandits, and cutthroats in the Star Wars universe such as Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, IG-88, Jyn Erso, Dr. Aphra, Boba Fett, and more. The game is an open sandbox game in which players attempt to complete jobs, deliver cargo, and engage in various adventures in the hope of becoming the galaxy's most infamous scoundrel. The game board is actually an arc of system tiles depicting the outer rim and various systems therein. The systems include planets such as Tattooine, Ryloth, Mon Calimari, Nal Hutta, and more. Each planet is connected by a serious of navpoints that players will move across. Each player picks a character and gains a starter ship and display panel. The ship and the display panel have spots for various items such as gear, crew, jobs & bounties, mods, and more. The display panel also has numbered peg slots to track your fame points. It also boasts a reputation tracker, where players put four dials to track their reputation with the Empire, the Rebels, the Hutts, and the Syndicate. A player may have either positive, neutral, or negative reputation with each.A player's turn consists of three phases. First, during the planning phase, the player may move his ship (the number of spaces detailed on his ship card), he may remain still and gain 2,000 credits (the game's currency), or he may choose to heal all of his character and ship damage (if he has been defeated during the pervious turn he must do this). Next, the player has the action phase. Here, the player may trade cards with another player in his space, or he may engage in a market action. There are six market decks in the center of the player area. These decks represent different missions or bounties the player may take, cargo the player may buy, luxury items the player may pick up, ships the player may acquire, and more. The player may buy one card form these decks, but he may also cycle through one of the decks by putting the top, revealed card on the bottom of the deck and revealing the new card. Sometimes, when a new card is revealed it will move one of the patrols across the board, toward the player. The patrols represent the space fleets of the Empire, the Rebels, the Hutts, or the Syndicates. During this phase players may also deliver cargo or take character or card actions. Finally, the player engages in the encounter phase. During the encounter phase different things may happen. If the player occupies the same space as a patrol, and the player has negative reputation with their faction, he must fight them in combat (more on that later). If on a planet, the player may turn over a contact token, which represents one of the many characters in the Star Wars universe, draw its numbered card from the databank, and resolve it. Often times this will result in the player having a chance to gain the contact as crew on his ship. Other times, a job may be offered. Sometimes, depending on the player's reputation tracks, other things might happen. Players may also choose to draw one of the planet's encounter cards (if at a navpoint the player draws from the navpoint deck). These cards offer stories and challenges to players - sometimes good, sometimes bad. Once the encounter is complete, player passes to the next player clockwise.Sometimes during a player's turn, he may have to engage in combat. There are two types of combat in the game, ship combat and character combat. Both the ship and the character have combat and health states, which essentially state how many dice are rolled and how many hits can be taken. The eight-sided dice boast four sides - blank, focus, hit, and crit. A hit counts as one hit, of course, while a crit counts as two hits. The focus can be changed or altered by certain cards or abilities. The player rolls and the player to his right rolls for the cards. The player wins if he rolls more total hits than his opponent, but is not defeated. A player is defeated if the total hits rolled against him equals or exceeds his current health, depending on his printed health value and any damage makers he currently has. If the player is defeated his standee is knocked down to its side, he must surrender 3000 credits (or all he has), and looses any special "secret" cards he may have. For his next planning phase he must remove all of his damage. As in combat, players will frequently be required to text certain attributes. Each character has two or three attributes such as Influence, Stealth, Tech, Tactics, Strength, Piloting, and more. Additionally, crew cards provide their own attributes for your roles. During a test, the player must roll two dice. If he does not posses the attribute, he must role a crit. If he does posses it he can role a crit or a hit. If he posses the attribute and so does a member of his crew, he can also role the focus icon to pass. The game ends as soon as one player reaches the agreed upon fame goal (usually ten in a standard game). Whoever succeeds in hitting the fame goal first becomes the most infamous smuggler in the galaxy and wins Star Wars Outer Rim.In my opinion, Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars Rebellion is the greatest Star Wars game on the market today, and Outer Rim is in no danger of dethroning it. However, Outer Rim is a really fun game that is quite a bit different from Rebellion. Outer Rim is a sandbox game that plays a lot like Firefly: The Game or XIA: Legends of a Drift System, or even Merchants and Marauders. Players have choices about where to go, what kinds of jobs to do, what kinds of cargo to carry, how they will customize their ship, and how they will obtain fame points. The game is a race to complete those jobs and deliver those cargos and bounties before your opponents get the edge. At its heart, however, this is a story-driven game that, like Rebellion, succeeds in sucking the players into the Star Wars universe (and thank heaven it is the original trilogy universe, and not the tripe that Disney is turning out these days with the Star Wars name attached to it - though some planets are from those films). This is also a dice rolling game, but the way you can customize your ship and character allow you to modify your rolls in interesting ways. Some missions you don't want to chance early in the game because you lack the skills, gear, mods, etc.. But as the game progresses and you obtain more of those things you're looking for those jobs and bounties that you are in a position to take. Several other mechanics in this game are very cool as well. The encounter phase is right out Fantasy Flight Games' Eldritch Horror and Arkham Horror games. The database deck is a great story-building engine that reminds me a lot of Fantasy Flight Games' Fallout board game (that was the only thing good about the Fallout board game!).I do have a few criticisms, however. The arc-shaped board, while interesting and visually appealing, is a bit gimmicky. I would have much preferred a standard game board. Also, the patrol mechanic is a bit hit or miss. I've played several games with 1, 2, and 4 players. With the lower player counts, the patrols really don't do a whole lot. With 4 players, there was a bit more to them. Players came in contact with patrols more often, and that often led to combat situations, which was pretty cool. Perhaps the biggest criticism I have, however, is downtime. Within a few turns new players will be moving through their turn pretty quickly, but still it does take time to read the cards, roll the dice, examine the market, etc.. There is downtime. It is not so bad in a low player count game, but when you get up to 4 you are waiting for your turn for a while. The downtime in a 4 player game didn't ruin it for me, but it was there. Just be aware you'll have friends on their phones during your turn.All told, however, I really enjoyed Star Wars Outer Rim and would recommend it fans of Star Wars games and Fantasy Flight Games' enthusiasts. As I mentioned before, like Rebellion it successfully transports players into the rich Star Wars Universe in a fun and interesting way.The Discriminating Gamer