So, as of about 2:00 CST this afternoon, the last stat block from Evasive Action/Rebels (V-set 10) has been marked done and sent to quality control (no, I won't tell you which piece--not least because its official name might or might not be nailed down). We are all very proud of what we've come up with and excited to see what the community will do with it. As the *new* designer on this set (and giver of the spoilers), I wanted to share some words and thoughts with the community at large. To start off, there are a TON of people who need to be thanked/recognized, starting with my fellow designers: Les (leshippy), Tim (TimmerB123), and Deri (fingersandteeth). They were an amazing group of guys to work with, and I respect each of them immensely. And a special shout-out to Weeks, who as the reigning GenCon champion gets primary design credit for one piece in our set (expect to hear more from him about that very soon)--much respect to him as well. I should also thank all the active V-set designers for giving me the opportunity to design on this set through the application process last summer, without which, although I imagine I would have made it onto a design team at some point, I certainly would not have been involved as a designer on this set. The confidence and support they showed in letting me make the leap from playtester/squadbuilder to designer meant the world to me, and I must say, this has been one of the most fun, stressful, exciting, infuriating experiences of my life.

Also, it's been said before on a number of occasions, but a HUGE thank you needs to go to the playtesters on this set, who really went above and beyond. Every person who tested even one piece, please know that you made a major contribution to the set and we took every test to heart. Many suggestions from playtesters made their way onto finished pieces. The testers were actively involved in trying to help solve design problems, and their perspectives were invaluable. One of the things I learned working on this set is that people will not necessarily want to play a piece the way you would play a piece, and you can't necessarily anticipate the ways someone else might use something you designed. To everyone who took time to PM one (or more) of the designers to bring up concerns or ideas, thank you.

I also need to thank some of the less-sung heroes of the design process--Quality Control (QC). I have a strong background in language and write for a living, so I went into this thinking that I would be able to ensure that abilities worked as intended while also doing the main design work. I was so wrong! Although I was able to suggest some tweaks to certain abilities at times, there were many more times when I posted a bare sketch of an idea on a board before going to bed, and before morning the QC guys had taken it and straightened it all out so it would actually work. And of course Swinefeld was there every step of the way, helping us figure out what we could and couldn't do within the structure of the game. I will be on the QC team for set 11--I only hope I can be as efficient and brilliant as these guys have been.

Work on this set began just after Gen Con, with nailing down a set list and discussing what we wanted to bring to the game. Although we had some lag time around the holidays, due in part to the work to finish set 9, we have spent the better part of eight months working on and thinking about these pieces. That's a long time to ruminate on these issues, but even so, things can get missed (my lesson for the set--make sure that pieces that are supposed to have lightsabers get them!). Creativity is not always easy, and sometimes that wild idea you love has to be reined in. Inevitably, some pieces ended up VERY different from how they were originally envisioned, while some barely changed at all. Overall, though, I think we've added a lot of new and interesting things to the game, and I hope you all enjoy what we've done.

Over the next few weeks and heading into Regional season, we will continue to spoil piece names and full stat blocks, and hopefully someone will crack the Bothan Transmission. We are hoping to get the set to the printer in the next few weeks, so there's still a lot of finetuning to do, both for us and QC, and especially for Deri, who is once again designing the cards. As many of you know, TJ, Lou, Brad, and Jake K. are busily at work on set 11. But since the initial design phase is finally wrapping up, I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thanks to all above, as well as a general thank you to the community for your continued interest and commitment to keep the game going. Whether or not you actively support the V-sets, the fact that you're here means you love this game and are a part of keeping it alive.

Thanks! I got some good advice going in (basically, just jump right in and don't be afraid or intimidated) and, as I said, the other designers were fantastic to work with and really encouraged me to take risks and speak up, however crazy an idea might seem initially. We collaborated really well, and I think it shows in the finished product.



I'll look forward to that

To all the people involved on V-set 10,

I just wanted to express a lot of thanks also to the designers and all the other playtesters who worked on this set. I've been playtesting since Renegades and Rogues, and this was the first set that I got to be on the Playtest commitee, so my thanks go out to Matt Spry for inviting me to be on it. I loved being a part of the PT commitee and getting a chance to see the design process and I just wanted to say that the designers on this set were all great to work with. Being a designer, as has been said, is often a thankless job, but I just want to say a huge thanks to all those who worked on this set. There were times when it got pretty heated in discussing a particular figure in this set, but i think in the end people did a admirable job of not letting it escalate out of control and focused on getting this figure to where we all wanted it. I chatted with thereisnotry about one of the pieces in this set, and he was one of the players that was going to be leaving this game, but because of this one piece, he is now coming back! This is a great thing, because I think it will also be a similar thing that will happen with other players who have maybe gone away from using the V-sets for various reasons, such as some of the NPE's that have been mentioned in past bloomilk forums. The QC guys and our rules expert's also deserve major MAJOR props for their work on this set. We had some really tricky interactions in this set but these were handled with great skill, and also a lot of work has gone into making the abilities understandable and less confusing.

V-set 10 is going to be one of the best sets we as a community have made, imo, and I can't wait to see what people think about it when the stats are relaeased. There are some big game changers in this set, and a lot of thought and creativity went towards addressing NPE's and all the shooter dominated meta in this set. This whole experience of being on the PT commitee has been one of the best experiences in my gaming life, and I just can't say enough how thankful I am to everyone who was involved in the making of V-set 10! It is a job well done, and something we as a community will be very proud of for years to come.

-Trevor Chistensen (aka obikenobi1 on swmgamers)

Being on the Playtest committee was a blast.
Wish we could have played more, but you can't play with yourself....or can you?

Had fun, hope to do it again