Research and development (R&D) is the process in Star Wars: Rebellion by which a side unlocks improved facilities, ships and troops. It has three fields: ship design, troop training and facility design.

How it progresses

Each facility that a side controls contributes slightly to its own field, so progress happens in the background without any player action. Sending a character on an R&D mission makes results come much faster. When a mission produces a new technology, the message droid reports it and the new facility, troop or ship can be used right away.

The manual describes the payoffs as faster-built facilities (it gives better construction yards as an example), stronger fleets from improved ship design, and new troop types with better skills.

R&D missions

Each area has its own mission and its own required location:

• Ship Design Research mission: a friendly system with a shipyard.
• Troop Training Research mission: a friendly system with a troop training facility.
• Facility Design Research mission: a friendly system with a construction yard.

The character must be able to research the relevant area. The Status window shows whether the character has the Ship Design, Troop Training or Facility Design ability. The in-game encyclopedia says each mission's success depends on the character's attributes. See Character skills.

Continuing a mission

After an R&D mission, the character asks whether the player wants it to continue. Characters persist until nothing more can be discovered. If the player does not answer a message in time, the character carries on automatically until the mission cannot continue.