Sabacc

The game was first mentioned in the 1983 novel Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu by L. Neil Smith and over the years has made appearances in a number of other Star Wars media, such as the "Idiot's Array", a 2015 episode of the animated TV series Star Wars Rebels; most notably it made an appearance in the Solo: A Star Wars Story 2018 movie, which featured Han Solo winning the Millennium Falcon from Lando Calrissian during a game of sabacc.[2][3][8][9] Despite this, the first mention of the game at which tables Han won his starship is one of a "sabacca game" in the second draft of the screenplay for The Empire Strikes Back.[10] The game's first official (licensed) ruleset and physical release was in the Crisis on Cloud City (1989) supplement for the Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game published by West End Games.[2][3][8] A simplified version based on the 1989 ruleset was given a limited release in 2015 during the Star Wars Celebration fan convention.[11]

In 2015, a mobile gaming app Sabacc by Ren Ventures has become subject to two lawsuits and a trademark dispute between its publisher and Lucasfilm.[12][13][14][15][16][17]

In 2018, another physical version of the game was published by Hasbro. Due to licensing issues it was named Star Wars Han Solo Card Game.[18][19][1][20][8] The next official version of the game, this one using the name Sabacc, has been distributed at Disneyland's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge themed area. Despite both games being licensed, they use relatively different rule sets and both in turn have differences from the 1989 and the 2015 releases;[21][22] this is sometimes rationalized by fans with the fact that within the Star Wars universe there are a number of sabacc variants, none of which have ever been described as official or main.[7][4][9][8]

Due to the lack of a single official ruleset, over the years, a number of fan-made versions of the game, and accompanying rulesets, have also been made.[22]

The game is often compared to blackjack and poker. No definitive sabacc rules were ever published as there are differences in the rules of the officially licensed variants (the first of which was published in 1989); for example, the Galaxy's Edge version contains no betting rules, likely with the aim to keep it "family-friendly".[1][21][22] Due to this, a number of variants exist. The game is generally described as a card game, but some variants, such as "Corellian Spike", also use dice, as depicted in the Star Wars sequel trilogy and in Solo.[22]

In the original ruleset, the game can be played with two to eight players, and uses a deck of 76 cards divided up into four suits, numbered 1-11. The suits are called Coins, Flasks, Sabers, and Staves, and the face cards are named Commander (value 12), Mistress (value 13), Master (value 14) and Ace (Value 1 or 15). In addition to those, there are also cards with values not usually found in blackjack or poker, such as The Idiot (value 0) or The Star (value -17). Players will place bets, aiming for the winning score of 23 or -23.[1]

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