History TabletopGame / StarWarsEpicDuels

* UnfortunateImplications: All the female characters are (relatively) expendable minor characters, who support a male Major. Granted, they didn't get that much of a role in the films either... and fans took care of producing new decks that put females in Major roles, such as Episode I Padme, or Ahsoka, Mara Jade and Rey.

* TradeSnark: Inverted. There are Trademark symbols everywhere on the board, HP plates and cards (next to proper names, such as Skywalker, Wookie, Jedi or even Geonosis), but it is completely serious and more a case of DisneyOwnsThisTrope. Which can make it even [HilariousInHindsight funnier in hindsight].

Star Wars : Epic Duels is a tabletop game for 2 to 6 players that was published by Hasbro in 2002, in coincidence with the release of Film/AttackOfTheClones. It is a miniatures and deck-based tactical game in which players control various characters from the two first Star Wars trilogies (minus Episode III, which would not come out before three more years) in duels that disregard continuity for the sake of UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny. Despite not being ever re-released, it was successful enough among its players that up to nowadays, fans have kept creating new decks for additional characters (or alternative decks for existing ones), new maps, and making up more and more bizarre confrontations.

The goal for each team is to eliminate every "Major character" on the other side by depleting their HitPoints count. Every main character comes with a unique deck of cards and one or two "minor characters" who have their separate HP track. A minor may be destroyed with limited consequences, and a player may keep acting as long as they have at least one character alive ''and'' their side still has at least one major.

Characters get a turn alternating between teams (not necessarily heroes against villains), to prevent ZergRush. A turn goes as follows : The player rolls a die which indicates how many of their miniatures (one or all) may move this turn, and up to how many spaces ; moves accordingly on the game board (orthogonally, but not diagonally) ; then gets two actions [[note]]that is, either drawing a card, playing a card, or discarding one to regenerate Hit Points[[/note]].
Cards may be used for attacking, defending, or special effects. When a character attacks another with a card, the attack value is at first kept secret : only the attacker and the target are known. The defending player may then select one of their cards for defense and reveal it (or chose not to defend), and the attack card is revealed : if the value is greater than the opponent's defense, the difference is dealt in damage to the defender. Then, any side-effect the cards may have are applied, and the action is over.

The game draws its strength from its [[AsymmetricMultiplayer asymmetric]] yet [[CompetitiveBalance balanced]] gameplay : every character has a unique gameplay and set of abilities, yet there is supposedly no completely overpowered character[[note]] Statistics over multiple games seem to indicate that characters from the original edition aren't perfectly balanced, so tweaked decks were made by fans to correct it[[/note]]. As such, every game can feel different as players will have to adapt their character's playstyle to the situation ; and given the amount of alternative decks, there is virtually no limit to the possible combinations, balance problems notwithstanding.

The base game includes six main characters for each side, 31 plastic miniatures, and four different maps from 3 different movies. Tropes concerning specific characters are best kept to the characters page.
More complete information can be found on [[http://epicduels.pbworks.com/w/page/9779461/FrontPage the wiki]], as well as on [[http://www.geektopiagames.com/ Geektopia Games]]. These two sites appear to be the main nexuses about the game that are still active today, alongside a discord server.

!! Star Wars: Epic Duels contains examples of:
* ArbitraryMaximumRange: Averted, replaced by DenialOfDiagonalAttack.
* ArbitraryMinimumRange: Averted as well. Blasters work fine at point-blank range, it's just not a very good option because shooter-types typically have poor defense and lower HP counts than melee fighters.

* CoversAlwaysLie : A weird example. The game box advertises duels that never took place in the films, but it is exactly the point of the game to do so. However, it also advertises "Relive classic duels", which is ironically harder, because most duels were precisely ''duels'', between only two characters. As such, all sidekicks are out of place for these, and unless you tweak the rules, it is never possible to recreate any actual fight from the films.
** There is a Fan-made variant that uses single-character decks only, but this is another story.

* EliteMook : The Super Battledroids and the Royal Guards.
* EnemyMine : It is possible without even tweaking the rules, to make heroes and villains team up. The players simply need to agree beforehand on who can fight with whom.
* EvilVersusEvil: Allowed and advertised.

* GeoEffects: the Kamino Platform map gives a boost to one of Jango Fett's attacks.
* GoodVersusGood: Same thing as EvilVersusEvil.

* HitAndRunTactics: Is a valid tactic for any character who has access to attack cards that allow for an immediate move after damage is resolved. Other characters may have trouble pulling this off, since standard move happens at the beginning of the turn and is optional.
* JokeCharacter: Greedo. Sidekicks that don't come by pairs usually have 10 HP, but Greedo does with a meagre 7 ; and he's only got three special cards : two of them grant him a free move, the third one is a decent attack card... That terminates him if it fails to kill his target !

* {{Mooks}}: Stormtroopers and Battle Droids.

* Main/RedShirts : Clone Troopers in the original edition.
* {{Sidekick}}s : All characters have at least one, who provides tactical advantage of varying importance.
* SignatureMove : Every character has one or two unique moves. Some are functionally similar, but never truly identical.
* TradeSnark : Inverted. There are Trademark symbols everywhere on the board, HP plates and cards (next to proper names, such as Skywalker, Wookie, Jedi or even Geonosis), but it is completely serious and more a case of DisneyOwnsThisTrope. Which can make it even [HilariousInHindsight funnier in hindsight].
* UnfortunateImplications: All the female characters are (relatively) expendable minor characters, who support a male Major. Granted, they didn't get that much of a role in the films either... And fans took care of producing new decks that put females in Major roles, such as Episode I Padme, or Ahsoka, Mara Jade and Rey.
* UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny : The premise of the game, taken up to eleven by the fan content, which regularly adds characters who aren't even from the franchise.

* WeHaveReserves : Usually averted, as you've got only two sidekicks at most per Major character. However, the heroes for once can pull off a small instance of the trope if they team up Mace Windu, Yoda and Obi-Wan for a total of... 6 Clone Troopers.

* [[AbsenteeActor Absentee Character]]: Qui-Gon Jinn isn't in the game, likely because there weren't enough villains to balance each side. Would the game have been released after 2005, General Grievous (for instance) would have been perfect for that purpose. Fans took care of that anyway.

More complete information can be found on [[http://epicduels.pbworks.com/w/page/9779461/FrontPage the wiki]], as well as on [[http://www.geektopiagames.com/ Geektopia Games]]. These two sites appear to be the main nexuses about the game that are still active today, along side a discord server.