I've made several maps for Epic Duels, several of which are extensible so as to support larger battles. Some of the maps don't have marked starting spaces for each character. On these, players first take turns placing their major characters on any open space. Then they take turns placing minor characters adjacent to their major characters, as on the basic maps. (You can also use this rule with the basic maps, to keep characters from starting too close together if they're both Dark Side or Light Side.) Some of the maps have other special rules; these are described below.

These maps are on offer:

• The Degobah Hut : Download (311K PDF)
• The Droid Factory : Download (158K PDF)
• The Endor Base : Download (423K PDF)
• The Shakmat Arena : Download (42K PDF)

In addition to the maps, there's other Epic goodness like decks and paper miniatures.

The Degobah Hut

Download (258K Zip'ed PDF)

This map was inspired by Yoda's swamp planet crib. The water and the window of the hut block movement, but it's possible to shoot over and through them. The walls of the hut block both movement and shooting.

The map offers open space by the water and a place to hide in the hut. I think it generally favors shooters over jedi. Cristyn points out that the leaves don't look slimy enough.

The Droid Factory

Download (158K PDF)

These maps are inspired by the scenes of Anakin fighting on the droid assembly line. It's modular--- the PDF file contains four factory sections. Print one and two, trim them, and you have a standard-size Epic Duels map.

Characters can shoot across the openning in the platform (on the left), but not across the computer console (on the lower right).

Conveyor belts are marked on the map with arrows. At the beginning of each player's turn, any characters on the conveyor belts are moved one space along. If you have a character on the conveyor belt at the end of your turn, they will have moved several spaces before you get a chance to move them again-- the more active players there are in the game, the farther they'll have moved.

If the conveyor belt at the top right edge of the map moves a character off of the map, she appears immediately on the incoming conveyor belt at the bottom right. Note that you can only cross the map in this way by riding the conveyor belt-- you can't pass the edge of the map with a normal move or as the result of a card.

Crushers are a special kind of conveyor belt space. There are two on each page of the map. If the conveyor belt moves a character onto the space containing a crusher, the character takes one point of damage. Note that if the character moves onto the crusher space during normal movement or as the result of a card, she takes no damage. This means that you can run ahead on the conveyor belt to avoid getting caught in the crusher.

Characters who have cards that move their opponents can move their opponents to the space just in front of a crusher. Since this only does one extra damage, it doesn't unbalance things too much.

Variants

The map was originally designed to be used with one copy eachof 1 and 2, but it's possible to play with two copies of Map 2 (as shown). If a character rides the conveyor belt off the map, they ride back in at the same end of the map. You could also rotate one of the map sections, putting the console in the middle of the map and providing more cover.

Alternately, use two copies of Map 1. This avoids having any conveyor belts lead off the map, but there's no cover. For a larger map, use Map 1 at each end with some number of Map 2 sections in between. Other variations are left to your imagination.

With Map 3 and Map 4, you can assemble a factory as large and dangerous as your duels require. One possible layout would be like this:

We've playtested these maps in countless two-player games, and the rules seem to work. If you are inclined to tinkering: change the speed of the conveyor belt, change the amount of damage done by the crushers (roll the die and subtract 1?), allow characters to play defenses against crushers, or... If you come up with something, drop me an e-mail.

The Endor Base

Download (372K Zip'ed PDF)

This map was inspired by scenes from Return of the Jedi and by attempts on the Epic Duels Yahoogroup to write AT-ST rules. It's rather rough, but it's usable. There are three pages. The first two go together to make a standard-size Epic Duels map (shown left). The third page can be put in between the other two to make a larger map (shown below). To make the map even longer, use the third page two or more times.

The map suggests open space by having Run Arounds. These were invented by Tim Lennox for his Coruscant Street map, but I thought they would add something here. For one thing, they give ordinary characters an edge at hiding from an AT-ST.

The Shakmat Arena

Download (42K PDF)

This map doesn't actually reflect any scene from the movies. It was designed for a scenario idea I had but never pursued. The checkered squares should be set up as a chess board. (You provide the chessmen.) The rules I had in mind went something like this:

After each turn, a player moves one of the chess pieces if any remain. Any player may move black or white pieces. A piece can make any legal move, but may not leave the checkered squares. Chess rules regarding check, stalemate, and so on are ignored.

The chess pieces block movement and shooting, although characters on the platform in the northwest corner can see over the chess pieces for the purposes of shooting. The chess pieces can be attacked and will not defend in any way. Two points of damage will destroy a chess piece; one point is ignored. (Area attacks like Thermal Detonator and Whirlwind can clear the board pretty quick.)

For an especially vicious game, allow the chess pieces to attack Epic Duels characters. A chess piece stops in the space just before the target character and inflicts one point of damage. A defense card may be played to avoid this damage.

This map is completely untested. The rules certainly need a bit of tweaking. If you try anything, write and let me know how it goes.