Summary

• In the expansion for the Star Wars Villainous board game, titled "Revenge at Last," players will be able to pit Darth Maul and Captain Phasma against each other in a standalone game or combine them with other villains to achieve their unique objectives. The game draws inspiration from the characters' extensive lore, with Maul focusing on manipulating heroes to defeat their friends and Phasma working to train and promote First Order Stormtroopers.
• The game designers chose these characters because of their unique motivations within the Star Wars Universe, incorporating different game mechanics and play patterns.
• Revenge at Last can be mixed with other Star Wars Villainous titles or played on its own, with different Star Wars eras represented.

Villainous spin-off, Power of the Dark Side, launched in August 2022 with iconic villains such as Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, General Grievous, Asajj Ventress, and Moff Gideon, and its 2023 expansion, Scum & Villainy, introduced three more villains in the form of Boba Fett, Cad Bane, and the Empire's Seventh Sister, with each character having their own unique objectives and abilities.

With Revenge at Last, Darth Maul and Captain Phasma will be ing the roster, with their objectives drawing from the characters' extensive lore. Players will be able to pit the once Sith Lord and crime boss against the First Order commander directly in a standalone game or combine the expansion with the other packs to have several villains competing to achieve their goals at once. To celebrate Revenge at Last becoming available for pre-order on June 24, Game Development Manager Mike Mulvihill answered some of Screen Rant's questions regarding the characters' lore, objectives, and gameplay.

"Their Characters Have Such Unique Motivations": Why Maul And Phasma Were Chosen For The Revenge At Last Expansion

Screen Rant: The Villainous games all have the more devious characters from Disney-owned IPs at the forefront, each with their own specific goals. When bringing Darth Maul and Captain Phasma to the game, what were the key elements in defining their objectives and setting them apart from other Sith and Imperial or First Order characters from the base game and the previous expansions?

Mike Mulvihill: We chose Darth Maul and Captain Phasma, two of the most iconic Star Wars villains, because their characters have such unique motivations within the Star Wars Universe. Leaning on their personalities, we were able to incorporate totally different game mechanics and play patterns never before done on any previous Star Wars Villainous sets.

For Maul, our team felt inspired by his post-criminal storyline in the Star Wars Rebels animated series. In the game, he only has one specific objective – to defeat the Jedi. But that is not enough – When playing as Maul, players must do it by tricking a Hero into being his apprentice first and manipulating the Hero into defeating one of their Heroic friends. The players also have a unique objective as Captain Phasma. As leader of the First Order Army, her goal is to train and promote the First Order Stormtroopers until she has Officers at every location.

Screen Rant: Revenge at Last notably covers two characters whose main lore stems from outside of the live-action movies - Despite his popularity, Maul only appeared in live-action in The Phantom Menace and briefly via a hologram in Solo, but much of his story was explored in spin-off series such as The Clone Wars or Rebels for example, while Phasma’s backstory was reserved for the spin-off novel Phasma, or comic book runs despite her appearing in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi - so while these characters do have their fanbases, was it an intentional choice to incorporate elements of this deeper lore into Villainous to bring it to yet another audience who may only have been familiar with the movies?

With Maul’s role in Revenge at Last, in particular, with the character having such a long arc across the Star Wars timeline, is there a specific part that you pulled from for the game? For example, is this from his time before and during The Phantom Menace, during the Clone Wars a decade later, or some time in between then and his final showdown with Obi-Wan in Rebels? The idea of “revenge” indicates that it could be after his showdown with Obi-Wan in The Phantom Menace, at least.

Mike Mulvihill: Disney and Lucasfilm have always been awesome at giving us all the resources we need to create immersive stories with matching mechanics. That emphasis on quality gameplay is our signature calling card at Ravensburger, and we take that very seriously. For all the Star Wars Villainous expansions, we researched the villains from multiple media representations to develop a fun and unique experience that is true to the Star Wars universe and the fan’s expectations.

For Maul’s character, we had done deep dives into the three phases of his life – Sith Lord (Phantom Menace), criminal leader of Crimson Dawn (Solo, Clone Wars), and, finally, as the revenge-seeking Sith on a power-hungry rampage to destroy the Jedi (end of Clone Wars and Rebels). We chose to focus on that last phase to really capture Maul’s story and personality into the unique gameplay mechanics you see in the final product.

For Captain Phasma, we looked at key storyline moments from multiple sources, including The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, and incorporated them into her Fate deck.

Screen Rant: Revenge at Last can be mixed with the other Star Wars Villainous titles or played on its own. With Darth Maul and Captain Phasma stemming from two different eras of the Star Wars timeline, what inspired you to pit these two characters against each other in Revenge at Last?

Mike Mulvihill: With each Star Wars Villainous expansion, we try to include at least one character who is a Force and one non-Force . We slotted Maul in as a cover character long before we actually started conceptualizing this set. So, our goal after that was to find a non-Force character that could stand on their own with his Villain character. We had covered bounty hunters and rogue assassins with previous sets, and we wanted someone who was an official non-Force Villain character that would be part of the Imperial or First Order forces. Captain Phasma checked all those boxes.

We also love the idea of having different timelines in the same product. The Star Wars Universe has such a rich and deep timeline that one of our goals is to have as many different eras represented as possible.

"Both Characters Have Unique Game Engines": How Phasma And Maul's Gameplay Will Work In Star Wars Villainous

Screen Rant: These two characters have very different skillsets, with Maul primarily known for using his double-bladed lightsaber and Force abilities and Captain Phasma being more of a tactician in her role as a commander of The First Order’s Stormtroopers. Can you elaborate more on how this will impact gameplay and what players can expect from these two different approaches to situations?

Mike Mulvihill: Correct – in the game, both characters have unique game engines, but like all Star Wars Villainous sets, they also share a singular focus – destroying the Heroes!

In Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last, Maul is a revenge-driven master manipulator looking to destroy the Jedi. His Vanquish action doesn’t remove Heroes from play, but, instead, reduces their Strength. When a Hero’s Strength goes down to zero, he “recruits” and rebuilds their Strength so they can go on to fight Heroes at Maul’s command.

In the game, Captain Phasma is focused on directly damaging the Heroes, or as she calls them, “Rebel Scum!” For every Hero defeated, she can scout out which ‘troopers she wants to promote and indicate that with a new colored Pauldron token. Fans will quickly recognize that First Order Stormtroopers indicate their rank using colored pauldrons on their right shoulder – Those without pauldrons are of the lowest rank, a Squad Leader’s is white, a Sergeant’s is black, and an Officer’s is red. In the game, players will need to place four Officer-ranked Stormtroopers in Captain Phasma’s four locations to win the game.

Screen Rant: Are there any other specific elements you’re particularly looking forward to players discovering during their time playing Revenge at Last when it releases this Summer?

Mike Mulvihill: We’re really excited about these two Villain sets as they lend themselves to new and open play. These Villain characters fit great with the existing ones in the Star Wars Villainous line and make for intriguing interactions. Players can pit Maul against Darth Vader in the game as they try to convince the Heroes to their side. Having Captain Phasma compete against other non-Force s in the game lets players experience aggressive gameplay and hone their card management skills.

As always, our Art Director Jake Breish led our Villainous design team to create the quality aesthetic Star Wars and Villainous fans have come to expect from Ravensburger.

There are some deep cuts and cool things to note. For example, Captain Phasma's Fate card (Restriction) We Know What You Did comes from the backstory comic about Captain Phasma after the events in The Force Awakens, and since she is the head of the Army and not the Navy, the character in the game only has one ship. The Holocrons (both Sith and Jedi) also play an important role in Maul’s strategy in the game, and Emperor Palpatine makes a very unwelcome appearance in Maul's Fate card (Effect) "You Have Been Replaced".

This interview was conducted via email, so some answers have been restructured and lightly edited for clarity.

Star Wars Villainous: Revenge at Last is currently available for pre-order and will be released on July 21, 2024.