What is a Collectible Card Game?

Most card games have just one deck of cards that never changes. But a collectible card game, or CCG, has hundreds of different cards you can collect. And you choose cards from your personal collection to make your own decks just the way you want them.

What is the Young Jedi Collectible Card Game?

Young Jedi is a fast-paced Star Wars: Episode I battle game that lets you carry the movie experience with you wherever you go.

One player's deck represents the Light Side of the Force (the Jedi and all the other good guys). The other player's deck represents the Dark Side of the Force (the evil Sith Lords, the Trade Federation and all the other bad guys). Young Jedi is easy to learn and quick to play, with games lasting about ten to fifteen minutes. It features all of the memorable characters and scenes from the movie, along with weapons, Podracers, ships, droids and aliens.

COLLECTING AND TRADING
You can buy Young Jedi at toy stores, card and comic shops, game stores and bookstores everywhere. The cards come in 60-card Starter Sets, 11-card Booster Packs and 132-card Collector's Boxes.There are 140 different cards in the third expansion, Battle of Naboo. But not all cards appear in the packs with the same frequency. Some are rare, others are uncommon and still others are common. A complete set of the Battle of Naboo expansion has 30 rare, 40 uncommon and 60 common cards, plus 10 different exclusive cards found in this Starter Set. Also, there are 18 special diffraction foil cards inserted randomly in Booster Packs.

Starter Sets - Each 60-card Starter Set includes a rulebook, a 30-card Light Side starter deck and a 30-card Dark Side starter deck. Each Battle of Naboo Starter Set contains the same configuration of 60 cards.
Booster Packs - Each Booster Pack contains 1 rare, 3 uncommon and 7 common cards, mixed between the Light Side and the Dark Side. On average, about one in every nine Booster Packs includes a special diffraction foil card. Foil cards also have different rarities (ultra-rare, super-rare and very rare) and are harder to find than regular rares.
Collector's Boxes - Each Collector's Box includes a card list, 12 Booster Packs and a card storage box designed to hold a complete collection of Young Jedi (all three 140-card expansion sets).

Playing Your First Game

Right now, you are a young Jedi in training. Using the 30-card Light Side and Dark Side starter decks that came in your Battle of Naboo Starter Set, you'll be battling on the planet Naboo.
Once your training is complete, you can begin building and playing with your own 60-card decks and battling on three different planets!

YOUR GOAL
You have two ways to win the game:
(1) Planet Victory: You win if you take control of Naboo.
(2) Deck Victory: You win if your opponent's deck runs out of cards before yours does.
No matter which way you win, your opponent is bantha poodoo!

GETTING STARTED
For your first game, you will be playing the Dark Side of the Force. Take the 30-card Dark Side deck (with the red Darth Maul card backs) from your Starter Set, and give the 30-card Light Side deck (with the blue Obi-Wan Kenobi card backs) to your opponent.

• Take one of the Naboo ¥ Theed Palace locations from your deck and put it face up in the middle of the table. This is the "starting location" for your game.
  Locations are where all the action takes place - where all the characters come into play and battle each other.

• Shuffle your remaining cards and put them face down on the table to make your draw deck. (Your opponent does the same.) Each player draws 6 cards from the top of his own deck to make a starting "hand." (Don't let your opponent see which cards you have in your hand.)
  Now, the game should look something like this:

• You will take the first turn of the game. (Later on, we'll talk about a more exciting way to decide who goes first in the game.)

Each of your turns has three steps (in this order): 1. Deploy (play Character, Weapon, Effect and Location cards).
2. Battle (attack your opponent's characters on Naboo).
3. Even Up (draw or discard until you have 6 cards in your hand).

WHAT TO DO ON YOUR TURN
You don't have to do the first two steps if you don't want to, but you always have to Even Up. After you Even Up, your turn is over and your opponent then takes his turn. Now let's take a closer look at the three steps.

1. DEPLOY
You've probably noticed that Character, Weapon and Effect cards have a little picture of the character or weapon in the top left corner of the card. See how most of them also have a row of silver bars under the picture? We call them "counters," and they tell you how much it costs to put that card into play. Each turn, you get to put up to six counters into play.
You can put out as many characters, weapons and effects as you want, as long as all together they don't have more than six counters. On your next turn you can put out six more counters, and so on. For example, you could play

• three battle droids (2+2+2=6 counters); or

• Darth Maul plus a Blaster (6+0=6); or

• two battle droids plus two Blaster Rifles (2+2+1+1=6).
  (It's okay to put out less than six counters in a turn if you want to.)

Place your deployed cards next to each other on your side of the Location card, so both players can see how many cards you've deployed.

THE HIDDEN CARDS RULE
On your first turn of the game, the Character, Weapon and Effect cards you deploy must be hidden (placed face down). They are concealed from your opponent for one turn. (You may not use the game text of any hidden cards until they are turned face up.) At the start of your second turn of the game, you have to turn those hidden cards face up (and all the cards you deploy to Naboo after that will be face up). Your opponent will do the same thing: deploy cards face down on his first turn, and reveal them at the start of his second turn. This gives both players a couple of turns to deploy cards before any battles can break out.

The diagram on the previous page shows what the game might look like at the start of your second turn - just before you turn up your hidden cards.

DEPLOYING LOCATIONS
The action takes place at only one Naboo location at a time, but you can change the scene by using different Location cards. (Some of your characters fight better at certain locations.)

When you want to change the scene during your deploy step, just deploy a different Naboo location from your hand and place it on top of the one on the table, covering it up. (Locations have no counters, so this doesn't go against your limit of six.) When you change the scene on a planet, this represents all of your (and your opponent's) characters and weapons moving from the old location to the new one.
Your deck includes one Location card for the planet Tatooine and one Location card for the planet Coruscant, but you can't use them to change the scene on Naboo. (Later on, we'll talk about what to do with those two Location cards.)

2. BATTLE
Now we're getting to the really fun stuff! On each of your turns, you may declare one battle on Naboo if you and your opponent both have characters face up there (hidden cards cannot battle). You don't have to declare a battle if you don't want to.

Before the fighting starts, temporarily put your hand face down on the table, away from your draw deck. Then pick up all your characters on Naboo. (If you have any weapons there you will pick those up, too - but for right now let's assume you don't have any weapons on Naboo.)

Now, you're going to make a "battle plan" for your characters. (Your opponent picks up his own cards and makes his own battle plan at the same time.) Each battle is made up of a series of individual fights between two opposing characters, so you must put your cards in the order you want them to fight. This is called a "battle plan." The card you put at the left of your battle plan will be the card that fights first; the one at the right end will fight last.

When your battle plan is finished, close up the cards into a pile and put the pile face down on the table. When your opponent also has his battle plan ready, it's time to battle!

Both players turn up the first character in their battle plan (the one on top of the pile). These two characters fight each other using their Power.

LOCATION BONUSES
Look at the Power number on your Character card. See those three little pictures just below the word POWER? Each of them matches a different Location card. If the Character card has one or more red Power bonus dots for the location where that character is fighting, you get to add the number of dots to that character's Power!
For example, when this battle droid is fighting at the Naboo location that matches the middle picture on his card (it's the Battle Plains), he adds a location bonus of 2 to his Power number, for a total Power of 4.

WHO WINS THIS FIGHT?
The fighting characters compare their Power numbers (plus location bonuses) to see who wins.

• If your character has more total Power, you win the fight! Your character stays at Naboo (move it over to make room for your next character to fight), and your opponent's character is defeated. He must place that character face up in a discard pile next to his draw deck.
  
  Your opponent also takes damage to his draw deck for that character's loss. The Damage number on the defeated character's card shows how many cards your opponent must discard from the top of his draw deck.

• If your opponent's character has more total Power, his character stays at Naboo and your own character is defeated; place your character in a discard pile next to your draw deck. Also, you must discard a number of cards from the top of your draw deck equal to your character's Damage number.

• If both characters have the same total Power, they both stay at Naboo. Neither of them is defeated, and nobody has to discard any cards from the draw deck.

The diagram on the next page shows what the table might look like if you won the first fight.

After the first fight is over, you each turn up your next character from your battle plan and they fight each other in the same way: compare their Power numbers (plus any location bonuses); the player who loses the fight has to discard his character and take Damage to his draw deck.

Keep turning up characters to fight each other until one player's battle plan runs out of characters.

At that point, if you (the attacker) have any "leftover" characters that didn't fight your opponent's characters, each one of them "breaks through the battle line." Your opponent must discard one card from the top of his draw deck for each of your "breakthrough" characters.
You can't hit your opponent with breakthrough unless you are the attacker! (This is an advantage of attacking.)

Now the battle is over. Return your surviving Character cards (if any) to your side of the Location card, and pick up your hand. It's time to Even Up, but before we get to that, let's see how the battle would have worked if you'd had some Weapon cards.

USING WEAPON CARDS IN YOUR BATTLE PLAN
Weapon cards include powerful stuff for your characters to use in battle, like lightsabers, blasters and Podracers. A weapon adds to the Power of the character who uses it.

• When you're picking up your characters to make a battle plan, pick up the Weapon cards there, too.

• After you've put your characters in the order you want, put each Weapon card to the left of the character you want to use it.

• Although you can use lots of weapons in battle, you can use only one Weapon card in each fight.

• When you turn over a Weapon card from your battle plan during a fight, immediately turn over your next card (which must be a character). The weapon will add to that character's Power in this fight.
  For example, the battle starts and your opponent turns over a character who has Power 4. You turn over a Blaster Rifle and (since this is not a character) you immediately turn over your next card to show who is using it; let's say it's a character who has Power 2. Normally the opponent's character would defeat your character (4 to 2). But since your character has the Blaster Rifle, he has a chance to win this fight!

The Weapon cards in your starter deck can work with any character, and they add a random number to your character's Power. (This represents the unpredictable result of a weapon in battle. A blaster shot might hit its target, or it might miss; a Podracer might help a character out-maneuver the enemy, or it might not.)

See that small picture of Watto's chance cube with a question mark on it? It means you draw destiny to find out how much Power you are going to add. Here's how you draw destiny:

• Draw the top card from your draw deck, and put it face up on the table. (This is called your "destiny card.")

• Look at the larger picture of Watto's chance cube in the upper-right corner of your destiny card. Read the white number on the front of the cube, and say it out loud to your opponent.
  It doesn't matter what kind of card you draw for destiny (a character, a Battle card, whatever)... you only need to look at the destiny number on the chance cube.

• Add that destiny number to your character's Power.
  Suppose your destiny card has a 3 on Watto's chance cube. This is added to your character's Power of 2 to give him a total Power of 5 for this fight. Your opponent's character still has a Power of 4 (since he had no weapon to provide him with a destiny draw), so your character wins this fight!

• Put your destiny card in your hand. (Remember, your hand is temporarily sitting face-down on the table, so just set the destiny card on top of it.)

Of course, if your opponent's character is also using a weapon, then both players will be drawing their own destiny cards.

If a character is defeated when using a weapon, discard the weapon along with the character.

If you have too many Weapon cards for your characters to use them all (or if there are weapons that you don't want to use in the current battle for some reason), just place the extra ones at the right end of your battle plan. Since there is no character to come up "after" those Weapon cards, they will not be used in the battle (and they won't be lost if any of your characters are defeated).

CONTINUE >>