Hmmm... tough call. As far as customs and such go, I guess new factions would be great, but as far as tournaments and such go, I think it might be too messy to try and get two new factions off the ground. The New Republic and Empire are already pretty expansive - the NR faction is pretty much the generic 'Post-Return of the Jedi Good Guys' and the Empire is basically a big conglomerate of the Empire under Palpatine, Thrawn, the Imperial Remnant, etc. I'm a little fuzzy on the details.

Anyways, I think it would be way better to just add the First Order to the Empire (maybe Snoke, Kylo and Hux can be their own Sith/Empire crossovers, allowing First Order into Sith, similar to GARY) and add the Resistance to the New Republic (this would also simplify things if we made generic characters for the new New Republic). That way they already have support systems.

On the other hand, starting two fresh factions would be a brilliant opportunity to make playable grunts that don't entirely rely on billions of Commander Effects. (I'm lookin' at you, Clone Troopers ).

But I vote pile them all into the system we already have. Maybe add the occasional Rival for flavor, or just add a special ability (as some already have) keeping the main guys from the First Order from working with the Imperial staples (i.e. Vader, Palps, Thrawn). It might feel weird to have Rey alongside Kyp Durron, but the OR, Sith, Empire, NR, and Mandalorians all already allow for plenty of anachronisms - Bane and Caedus would obviously never have seen each other, much less worked together. The Imperial faction has been messed up since Universe, anyways; was Thrawn even WITH the Empire before Vader died?

I think it would make sense to add the first order into the rebellion or NR and the first order into the empire or sith. You can always create subfactions within those for first order or resistance. What I can gather from the movie is that the resistance is already a part of the new republic and the FO is essentially the imperial remnant. Also, a sith verison of Ren and snoke or giving them affinity would be a great idea. Disney is saying that this point the the knights of Ren are not the sith but they certainly appear to be derived from it...maybe like the death watch.

Adding 2 new factions this far along in the game could result the factions being rather under-powered and take a while get them going. Considering that so much of the game is already considered non-canon I don't think it is going to hurt anything regarding continuity.

This is very important decision as it is going to effect the game from here on with all of the new content coming out. I'm glad you are asking everyone's opinion. This is a really great community. Thanks to everyone here who makes it what it is

For efficiency's sake, I say add them into the current system. I guess if you want to follow the new canon Disney has created, you could create new factions, but so much of the game and so many of us still consider the EU as a part of Star Wars whether its canon or not. Because the old canon that is so prominent in SWM is now little more than an alternate universe, it could be difficult to fit into the current system in the future but right now it would appear best to incorporate it into the system we have in place.

The First Order could easily be incorporated into the Imperial faction with a few Rival SA's since it essentially is the remnants of the Empire. The Resistance I would suggest is just an extension of the Rebel Alliance, only politically funded by the now destroyed New Republic. The Resistance would be the hardest to fit into the mix because its not as clear its affiliations to the Rebel Alliance which built the New Republic after the fall of the Galactic Empire. So it may be easier to add the Resistance to the New Republic since that technically is the only canon New Republic we have information on. I think adding a new faction would just completely throw the game into chaos and our beloved game would cease to evolve in the same way it once did. Just wherever the Resistance feels the most comfortable, with different characters working together, is probably the best spot for it, as it is the side of the conflict most significantly changed in the revised canon.

Certain characters are also hard too, specifically Kylo Ren and Snoke. If Snoke is running the First Order then I would not make him Sith and honestly we should wait till Episode VIII before doing anything with him because we have so little information. Kylo Ren is also somewhat of a mystery since he is a member of the Knights of Ren, which is still unknown to be the Sith or if they are force users more like the Jenessari. So maybe if Kylo were Fringe with some kind of bonus synergy to signify his affiliation to the First Order would be good.

There are many questions to ask, discuss, and answer about the direction of Star Wars and SWM and I'm glad we are taking the time to find out what the community thinks. Since we aren't any official organization, we unfortunately can't get preview access to future content like FFG probably got prior to the Episode VII release. This requires us to have a discussion such as this with lots of participation to determine the most likely and the best direction for Star Wars and SWM.

I've been thinking about this for awhile so sorry for the rant but I've put a lot of thought into this over the last two weeks and multiple viewings of The Force Awakens.

I also vote add both for all of Shmi's reasons. I have been for adding new factions since the beginning. It's a great way to develop new ideas and may attract new players instead of just inserting them into existing factions to actually tell people "Yeah there is this sweet minis game with the new force awakens characters." And not having to explain every minor character that we all know. I think adding both new factions are great ideas and clearly there is little to no relation between the NR and out new faction timeline. I vote new!

I know it won't happen but my opinion is to stick with the original post-RotJ continuity for our game. We're certainly not obliged to embrace Disney Wars unless the community demands it.

Seems premature for new factions when we don't have much information. Let's just stick with subfactions for now, so we don't have to wait until V-Set 15 or whatever for new characters. If new factions are created later then just let them be played with the subfaction pieces.

The first order pretty much parallels the EU. The imperials lose a war and flee to outer edges of the galaxy then return with a new alien supreme leader Thrawn/Snoke. Thrawn's Imperial Remanent doesn't even get a subfaction.

The Resistance is/was a sub faction of the New Republic. The New Republic felt the Imperials were no longer a threat and signed an armistice to end funding of the military campaign. General Leia Organa refused to stop fighting the First Order. She formed a small band of Resistance fighters secretly funded by New Republic senators. We don't even know if the New Republic was completely destroyed yet.

I'm not saying to throw out our EU but instead to accept that the first Order and resistance are not the empire or NR that we know. And trying to fit them in there just feels odd. As far as colours I would go orange for resistance and black for first order. And if we have the attitude that we should never add new factions because it's complicated and they aren't tournament capable right out of the box then we are backing ourselves into a corner. What if the next or another movie has some race of all droids or cyborgs trying to wipe out the Galaxy? Should we make them seps or Vong? Or instead create something new. I think this is an awesome opportunity to blend the new with the old in our game and have proper factions to reflect the uniqueness of new ideas

Even though in my personal canon, NuWarsTrek is apocrypha (and all of the EU happened, sans Legacy era or Vong post Rogue Planet/Vetor Prime),
Locals asked me to botch together a New Order/First Order statcard - I went with a fan first order symbol and sith-red for the card, even though it has elements of the imperial roundel.
They were pleased with the botch, and made some custom minis and stats.
One of these days, they'll stop by and share it hehehe

The Star Wars logo is an homage to the new-style packaging AND to super-starwars for nintendo.
(Since most of the fans for the new film loved super starwars...)

Vermillion or Purples also work - Red (Sith) + Blue (Empire) = purple? vong purple is more pantone-blue than red...
there's always brown - I don't think Khaki or Brown-Brown has been used yet. Dark Grey is also an option, alongside pastel yellow and pastel pink, and vibrant/fluro green... electric blue could also work

"The Resistance" would have that weird symbol, and orange to match 3P0's "WTF" arm...

For the set symbols, or to show a different continuity,
down the bottom, there'd be circa era disney - that lets folks know what continuity the piece can be with.
(I'd vote for a stylised thumbnail of JJ as that seal )

---

Having vs'd a few customs based on the new movies, I don't see anything resembling an "I-Win" button or deity-cards,
so the next few VSets will add pieces for players who collect those factions, and so long as balance remains near to the present,
it won't be too much an upset or frustrating game experience.
There was certainly that potential to do so - stop-time, avoid avoid defeat, ultra-force-mind-trick, Super-deadly attack (does triple damage on an odd number result for an attack roll); new abilities to match new shenanigans seen on screen.

So, the way I sees it, it makes sense to add both as a faction outright.
If there was a new rulebook, in the "Epochs and Eras" section,
alongside the others, there'd be "Disney Continuity/Disney Era"
"The Resistance" and "First Order", and they'd only be valid for play in the JJ-NuWarsTrek era/universe
(or, you can haggle for points to cross eras etc, which earlier rulebooks suggested)
Back in the day, when R2 Astrodroid was causing havoc,
OT players refused to have PT characters as opponent squads...
this was also trotted out for Boba BH (PT players refused to vs OT characters citing "Era inconsistency") and Jar Jar back in the day.

for the longest time - people said that TOR and KOTOR era didnt exist
(it's an awesome era IMHO, and exists)
and, really, when versing outside of those eras, TOR and KOTOR themed squads sucked.
VSets have corrected that substantially.

my main point, digressions aside,
so, TOR stuff couldn't vs Republic/rise of empire era, or Civil War, or Legacy,
Rise of Empire couldn't vs Civil War, TOR, or Legacy,
Empire/Civil War couldn't vs Rise of Empire, TOR, Legacy.
Legacy couldn't vs Civil War, Republic/Rise of Empire, TOR etc...
UNLESS your opponent and you both agreed, and usually there was a bit of points-haggle (similar to scenario play "I'll play the rebels in that scenario for +15pts..." "I'll play empire in that scenario for +20pts".
You could also mix era squads in "out of the box" format/booster draft,
Dynamic Duos,
Tile Wars
and the various points caps in the "open" category - which let you battle against squads from any era.

Tournaments would cater to the registered players on the day, with DCI ranked players having veto,
and that decided the round robin and formats (still a very common local way that tournaments are run)
Usually that meant a couple of OT-era only games, and a free-for-all in the open points cap games,
and in more recent years, dynamic duos and 'mega open' games at 500 or more points

that's my novel there -and I'm hoping there'll be custom minis to match the cards,
no matter the format future customs arrive in

The guy writing episodes 8 and 9 did say he was going to do something that has never been done in Star Wars before.
Who knows, anything could happen in these new cannon stories...

In the Expanded Universe 30 some years after Endor the New Republic is destroyed. An ancient and anonymous disfigured darksider brings about the destruction of Luke's New Jedi Order. The fragmented New Republic and Imperial systems join together to form the Galactic Alliance. The anonymous darksider who was secretly using the Empire reveals himself as Sith and with his order of Sith Knights usurps the Imperial government to form the One Sith Empire.

The new cannon does not exactly follow the EU but it certainly does parallel it in an almost mocking fashion.
So you make Resistance and First Order factions and discover they should have been Galactic Alliance and Sith Empire factions. At least the Galactic Alliance (the largest galactic government to ever exist) has a subfaction.
The One Sith Empire...nothing. I mean Lost Tribe was like just one planet of Sith. Ghost Crew was like 5 or 6 people.

Yeah, I'd be down for new factions, later, when we actually know stuff.

A superior effort for your six hundred and sixty sixth post fair Lady!