Check out Fool's interview with Peter Lee, lead designer on the upcoming Dark Times set for Star Wars Miniatures.

Fool: Peter first off thanks again for taking the time to sit down and respond to a few questions and also congratulations on the new position!  Without further ado, here are a few questions we have for you.  Please answer them to the best of your ability and thanks again for taking the time to do this!

Obviously when you were brought in you came in amid a work in progress and there had to be some prior work done on Galaxy at War and perhaps even Dark Times, whereas your predecessor had a clean slate when he started to work on Rebel Storm.  How much of these these sets were already done?  How much did you add? Were there any significant changes you made?

Peter Lee: Galaxy at War was pretty much finished from R&D’s perspective when I started into Star Wars, so my first set was Dark Times.  I had it pretty easy: For both Dark Times and Masters of the Force, the set list was complete, sculpts were finalized, and we were in final reviews for the paint jobs.  I could delve solely into the miniature game stats: about 75% of the cards were designed by me, the other 25% were done by Rob.

Fool: Working on games is a lifelong dream for many of us that are students of the game and play it on a regular basis.  Can you give us a quick take about how you got to be where you are today with Wizards of the Coast?

Peter Lee: I was 3 years old when I first saw Star Wars back in 1977, so it’s been with me for as long as I remember.  I was introduced to D&D by my older brother when I was around 8 years old, and I played the West End Games Star Wars roleplaying game quite a bit in High School.  That was also the time I got into miniature painting.  I continued playing and painting in college while pursuing a degree in Chemistry and Computer Science.

Flash forward to 2004: I was heavily participating on the D&D Miniatures board, where I was asked to expand on an idea I posted for a web article.  After submitting that, I was asked to submit articles for the new Star Wars miniatures game, releasing that summer at GenCon.  In a crazy set of coincidences, I was asked by the D&D Miniatures Head Judge to assist at that summer’s GenCon, where I helped run the big release for the Rebel Storm prerelease.

Over the next four years I continued to write online articles, judge major D&D and Star Wars Miniatures tournaments, and paint the trophy miniatures for the major D&D Miniatures championships.  I was hired by Wizards of the Coast at the end of 2007, with my first day in early 2008.

Fool: When sitting down to create a new set like Dark Times where there is little other than a base theme, what mindset do you apply to these sets?  Do you have a general idea of what you want to create?

Peter Lee: Each set needs to support a wide variety of fans.  For new fans, the set needs recognizable figures from the movies and television shows; for Dark Times, we have Chewbacca and a return to the bounty hunters from the Empire Strikes Back.  The die-hard collectors want something new, and we’ve drawn upon a lot of heroes from the novels and comic books that took place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope: Jax Pavan, Dass Jennir, Ferus Olin, and Bomo Greenbark.   Star Wars is famous for having a wide variety of alien creatures, so we try to have a few new creatures in every set.   The Togorian, Trianii, and T’surr fill that niche. 

Fool: What factors into creating a new version of a character that's already in the game?  For example fans of the Star Wars Miniatures line are looking forward to newer versions of characters as K’Kruhk, Chewbacca, and the updated bounty hunters in Dark Times.  Do you have an idea of a version of these characters you want to make or do you already have some form of template of these characters to work with?

Peter Lee: When doing an updated version of the figure, I try to capture the figure at another time of his or her life and bring in advances in the evolving game mechanics.  The K’Kruhk miniature was based on the character’s experience in the Dark Times comic book, and that pushed the design of the figure in a different direction to his previous incarnations.  The Bounty Hunters have been issued new weaponry, such as Zuckuss’s snare rifle and IG-88’s Pulse Cannon.

Fool: We know your job includes designing the stats and abilities for all the characters in a set like Dark Times, but how much influence do you have on what characters are included in a set and the set theme? Do you contribute in any way to the creation of the sculpt and paint scheme it receives?

Peter Lee: The set lists are generated by colliding the Mini Designer’s brain with the brain of the lead designer for the Star Wars roleplaying game, Rodney Thompson. So – we have a lot of freedom on what figures to put in a set, but we do have a Lucasfilm approval to ensure that it is what they require as well.  We work with the art director to create the look of the figure and review sketch, sculpt, and paint.

Fool: What’s your favourite thing you created for Dark Times? It can be anything—a character, ability, or other game mechanic.  And conversely, nothing is ever perfect so is there anything in particular you feel in hindsight didn’t come out the way you wanted, or maybe you had to compromise on more than you would have liked due to some other outside factor?

Peter Lee: I’m surprised how easy this question is: Bomo Greenbark is probably my favorite figure in the set.  Bomo fights for those closest to him, like his wife and daughter, so an ability that kicks him into overdrive when he loses a friend was a natural ability for him.

There are a lot of compromises, but everyone is trying to make the best game possible – so in the end, the changes make things stronger. There is always a “Oh, I wish I had thought of that earlier!” moment, but I’m not going to mention exactly what it is in case I can use it in the future.

Fool: When sitting down in the design phase for a specific set, what decision making process do you employee for the addition of new special abilities, Force powers or commander effects to design?  Do you look at the competitive game and decide an ability or commander effect is too powerful so you need to include a counter or rather, do you have an idea of what you want to see and look at it from that angle?  How much does the actual character and replicating his or her fictional personality reflect on what you bring to the table for new abilities?

Peter Lee: The fictional personality brings a lot of inspiration to the design.  I need to distil the core essence of the figure into something that fits on a stat card.  For Dark Times, I knew each bounty hunter had to have some sort of hook that made them each play slightly differently.  Bossk has a Stun Mortar for battlefield control and a damage boost against adjacent foes, Dengar fulfills his role as an assassin-for-hire, and Zuckuss has his immobilizing snare rifle.  A lot of the Jedi were under extreme stress in this time, so I introduced a handful of Force Powers that would give them a short term benefit with an unknown risk at the end – do you gamble with the Dark Side to win the battle?

When I don’t have a clear character to design from, I try to support unique squad builds and provide options for both constructed and sealed play.

Fool: Thanks for your time, Peter. We're all anticipating the Dark Times release.