VASSAL Engine
The VASSAL engine is an ancient, memory-heavy, clunky, open source board game engine that you can use to play Star Wars Epic Duels. However, it remains in use, it is highly flexible and adaptable, and it's still a place you can meet to play Epic Duels:
The Epic Duels module was pioneered by Roman Farraday with help from Rich Pizor, and ultimately completed with the visual talents of Aaron Shockley and Sultan of Dorkistan.
The real value of Vassal is that it is easy to create extensions for your decks with Deck Designer, and that makes it easy to test them out before you print them. The VASSAL website has help files and tutorials to aid in the download process.
Once you have downloaded both the Engine and the Module, to play a game is rather simple. First start-up VASSAL, then click "Play Module". Browse to the location where you saved the module and open it. If you've done everything correctly, once you get a game going, your screen should look something like this:
To play a game with someone you have to connect to the server and create a room. There is no "solitaire" mode or computer AI with VASSAL. The engine only facilitates, live, real-time play over the internet with other people. Once you've found a playing partner, the rest is standard Epic Dueling. The Epic Duels Module contains virtual representations all of the materials that came with the original game; 12 decks, 4 maps, 31 figures and a die. As there have been hundreds of custom decks and maps that have been designed over the years (many of which are located here in this WIKI), all custom expansions to the game are handled with "extensions" to the game module.
Extensions are separate files that must be downloaded in addition to the engine and game module. Many extensions are located here in this WIKI. For more on downloading files, playing a game, and dealing with extensions, check out the Epic Duels Online Tutorial.
back to Epic Duels Online
Comments (5)
Diminished said
at 6:07 pm on May 6, 2020
Is this Module still being maintained/updated? I actually starting adding my own improvements to it and I was wondering if it would be okay to upload my version once I've finished it.
Roman F said
at 10:48 pm on May 6, 2020
Hardly anyone uses it anymore, and for that reason I don't think it's worthwhile to update. If any 2 people were to dust it off to play a game, we want to make sure they're both using the same version. Appreciate the offer though.
Diminished said
at 3:39 pm on May 7, 2020
No problem! It's fun (and insanely frustrating) to start editing modules for the first time and learning the program a bit. I wish it was more popular because it's such a simple and quick way to get a game going. I guess my group can just use my version of it for the conveniences I've added, and if we ever get a game going with others in the community, we will switch to the more established version. Thanks!
Josh Danzeisen said
at 1:16 pm on Sep 10, 2020
Hey Diminished, I'm trying to set up Vassal so I can play Epic Duels with my group. Is there a way you could send me the module you created/updated? I'd be really interested to see what changes you made to the original. Thanks!
James Bungart said
at 1:15 pm on Jan 11, 2021
Does anyone know how to add expansions to the module?
You don't have permission to comment on this page.