Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, along with Dungeon .
113-752: Star Wars: Customizable Card Game ( SW:CCG ) is an out-of-print customizable card game based on the Star Wars fictional universe . It was created by Decipher, Inc. , which also produced the Star Trek Customizable Card Game and The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game . The game was produced from December 1995 until December 2001. Since 2002, the game has been maintained by the Star Wars CCG Players Committee, with new virtual cards being released every few months and
226-479: A baseball diamond according to cards representing baseball plays drawn from a randomized deck. Like modern CCGs, Topps' Baseball Card Game was sold in randomized packs and were collectible; however, it lacked the necessary strategic play that defines a CCG. Interaction between the two players was limited to who scored the most points and was otherwise a solitaire -like function since players could not play simultaneously. Other notable entries that resemble and predate
339-399: A player will begin playing a CCG with a pre-made starter deck , then later customize their deck with cards they acquire from semi-random booster packs or trade with other players. As a player obtains more cards, they may create new decks from scratch using the cards in their collection. Players choose what cards to add to their decks based on a particular strategy while also staying within
452-778: A CCG was not enough to keep it alive. They also had to support organized players through tournaments. Combined with a new dichotomy between collectors and players especially among Magic players, more emphasis was placed on the game rather than the collectibility of the cards. Plenty more CCGs were introduced in 1996, chief among them were BattleTech , The X-Files , Mythos , and Wizards' very own Netrunner . Many established CCGs were in full swing releasing expansions every few months, but even by this time, many CCGs released only two years earlier had already been terminated. TSR had ceased production of Spellfire and attempted another collectible game called Dragon Dice which failed shortly after being released. On 3 June 1997, Wizards of
565-593: A CCGs run or which have been banned from play can become of high value to collectors, such as Magic: The Gathering ' s Power Nine . There are similar games, usually inspired by CCGs, that should not be mistaken for CCGs: Many CCGs have also been remade into digital collectible card games (DCCGs), taking advantage of the ubiquity of the Internet for online play as well as for the potential of computerized opponents. DCCGs can exist as online counterparts of existing CCGs, such as Magic: The Gathering Online for Magic:
678-556: A CD-ROM compilation of the first 250 issues, called Dragon Magazine Archive , was released in PDF format with a special viewer. It includes the seven issues of The Strategic Review . The Dragon Magazine Archive is out of print because of issues raised with the 2001 ruling in Greenberg v. National Geographic regarding the reprint rights of various comic strips that had been printed in Dragon over
791-571: A deck's content is limited and pre-determined, players select which cards will compose their deck from any available cards printed for the game. This allows a player to strategically customize their deck to take advantage of favorable card interactions, combinations, and statistics. While a player's deck can theoretically be of any size, a deck of forty-five or sixty cards is considered the optimal size, for reasons of playability, and has been adopted by most collectible card games as an arbitrary 'standard' deck size. Deck construction may also be controlled by
904-474: A devoted, albeit small, following. Players organize tournaments, trade, and talk about deck design, which is quite a commendation for a game that's been out of print for several years. [...] Decipher's Star Wars game plays very differently than its namesake published by Wizards of the Coast". Collectible card game A collectible card game ( CCG ), also called a trading card game ( TCG ) among other names,
1017-605: A few months. Magic continued a steady pace releasing successful expansion blocks with Odyssey and Onslaught . Decipher released The Motion Pictures expansion for the Star Trek CCG, and also announced that it would be the last expansion for the game. Decipher then released the Second Edition for the Star Trek CCG which refined the rules, rebooted the game, and introduced new card frames. Collectible miniature games continued their effort to take market share away from
1130-536: A layoff of over 30 jobs. The excess product and lag in sales also coincided with an eight-month-long gap between Magic: The Gathering' s expansions, the longest in its history. In Hungary, Power Cards Card Game , or HKK, was released in 1995 and was inspired by Magic: The Gathering. HKK was later released in the Czech Republic. HKK is still being made. Garfield applied for a patent for "a novel method of gameplay and game components that in one embodiment are in
1243-586: A location with their Force Icons on it), battling opposing characters, and resolving certain climatic situations (for instance, freezing a character in carbonite, winning a pod race, dueling a Jedi). The game system also features "Destiny draws", which represent the elements of chance, uncertainty, luck, random chance and the Force. Each card has a destiny number, from 0 to 7, at the top-right corner (except locations, which count as destiny 0), and rather than using dice for generating random numbers, players "draw destiny" from
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#17328547256591356-483: A maximum hand size. Many games have rules enabling opposing players to react to the current player's turn; for example, a player may cast a counter-spell to cancel an opponent's spell. Games with such reaction systems typically define rules to determine the priority of reactions to avoid potential conflicts between card interpretations. Other games do not have such direct reaction systems but allow players to cast face-down cards or "traps" that automatically trigger based on
1469-537: A moot point as the CCG Market had hit its first obstacle: too much product. The overprinted expansion of Magic's Fallen Empires threatened to upset the relationship that Wizards had with its distributors as many complained of getting too much product, despite their original over-ordering practices. In early 1995, the GAMA Trade Show previewed upcoming games for the year. One out of every three games announced at
1582-570: A player's deck are considered a resource, and the frequency of cards moving from the deck to the play area or the player's hand is tightly controlled. Relative card strength is often balanced by the number or type of resources needed in order to play the card, and pacing after that may be determined by the flow of cards moving in and out of play. Resources may be specific cards themselves or represented by other means (for example, tokens in various resource pools, symbols on cards, etc.). Unlike traditional card games such as poker or crazy eights in which
1695-402: A prototype for a game called Mana Clash , and by 1993 he established Garfield Games to attract publishers and to get a larger share of the company should it become successful. When designing Magic: The Gathering , Garfield borrowed elements from the board game Cosmic Encounter which also used cards for gameplay, and from Strat-o-Matic baseball, in which players build a team of players before
1808-617: A rebooted Star Wars TCG, by Decipher and Wizards of the Coast. They followed the demise of the original Star Wars CCG by Decipher in December 2001, but they would see very little interest and eventually the two games were canceled. Other niche CCGs were also made, including Warlord: Saga of the Storm and Warhammer 40,000 . Upper Deck had its first hit with Yu-Gi-Oh! The game was known to be popular in Japan but until 2002 had not been released in
1921-501: A second print run called Beta (7.3 million card print run) and then a second core set called Unlimited (35 million card print run) in an attempt to satisfy orders as well as to fix small errors in the game. December also saw the release of the first expansion called Arabian Nights . With Magic: The Gathering still the only CCG on the market, it released another expansion called Antiquities which experienced collation problems. Another core set iteration named Revised
2034-420: A subset of the available cards, much like trading cards. The most common distribution methods are: Because of the rarity distribution of cards, many popular CCGs have a secondary marketplace , with players buying and selling cards based on perceived value. Many purchases are made to acquire rarer cards to help build competitive decks, while others are just for collection purposes. In some cases, early cards in
2147-545: A success or so long a lifespan." Dragon is the launching point for a number of rules, spells, monsters, magic items, and other ideas that were incorporated into later official products of the Dungeons & Dragons game. A prime example is the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, which first became known through a series of Dragon articles in the 1980s by its creator Ed Greenwood . It subsequently went on to become one of
2260-458: Is a type of card game that mixes strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards . It was introduced with Magic: The Gathering in 1993. Cards in CCGs are specially designed sets of playing cards . Each card represents an element of the theme and rules of the game, and each can fall in categories such as creatures, enhancements, events, resources, and locations. All cards within
2373-583: Is considered a failure, along with its follow-up Portal Second Age released in 1998. By February 1998, one out of every two CCGs sold was Magic: the Gathering . Only 7 new CCGs were introduced that year, all but two being Wizards of the Coast product. C-23 , Doomtown , Hercules: The Legendary Journeys , Legend of the Burning Sands and Xena: Warrior Princess were those five, and only Doomtown met with better than average reviews before its run
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#17328547256592486-606: Is further refined as being a card game in which the player uses their own deck with cards primarily sold in random assortments. If every card in the game can be obtained by making a small number of purchases, or if the manufacturer does not market it as a CCG, then it is not a CCG. CCGs can further be designated as living or dead games. Dead games are those CCGs that are no longer supported by their manufacturers and have ceased releasing expansions. Living games are those CCGs that continue to be published by their manufacturers. Usually, this means that new expansions are being created for
2599-533: Is generally defined as a game where players acquire cards into a personal collection from which they create customized decks of cards and challenge other players in matches. Players usually start by purchasing a starter deck that is ready to play, but additional cards are obtained from randomized booster packs or by trading with other players. The goal of most CCGs is to beat one's opponent by crafting customized decks that play to synergies of card combinations. Refined decks will try to account for randomness created by
2712-554: Is merely okay." He found the rules "a bit clunky". The game "loses steam toward the end, when the outcome becomes all but inevitable." And he felt that the starter packs of only 60 cards made for a limited game, stating "You'll need a much larger pool – I'd guess at least 100 Dark Side cards and 100 Light Siders – to make Star Wars come alive." He concluded by giving it an average rating of 3 out of 6, saying, "In today's deck-drenched market... it's just another card game, eminently playable but nothing to squander
2825-418: Is not good. Players then take turns. While the turn format is different depending on the game, typically it is broken into distinct phases, and all of their resources are reset so they may be used that turn. Players draw a card, play any number of cards by drawing from available resources, and make one or more attacks on their opponent. If necessary, there may be a cleanup step, including discarding cards to reach
2938-547: Is not known if the game was intended to be a standalone product or something altogether different like Top Trumps . The game consisted of a limited 112 cards and never saw manufacture past the marketing stage. The first pre-CCG to make it to market was the Baseball Card Game , released by Topps in 1951 as an apparent followup to a game from 1947 called Batter Up Baseball by Ed-u-Cards Corp. Players created teams of hitters , represented by cards, and moved them around
3051-488: Is rare in customizable card games ( Star Wars: The Card Game and Netrunner being the other notable examples). The action of the game occurs at various "Location" cards (both interstellar and planet-bound) familiar from the Star Wars Universe. Locations can be deployed as the game progresses; furthermore, most locations come in both Dark and Light-side versions, and an on-the-table location can be "converted" (changed to
3164-570: The Digimon Collectible Card Game . An interesting CCG released by Upper Deck was called the Vs. System . It incorporated the Marvel and DC Comics universes and pitted the heroes and villains from those universes against one another. Similarly, the game UFS: The Universal Fighting System used characters from Street Fighter , Soul Calibur , Tekken , Mega Man , Darkstalkers , etc. This CCG
3277-617: The Pokémon TCG to the mass market (the original Japanese version of the game having been released by Media Factory in 1996). The game benefited from the Pokémon fad also of that year. At first, there was not enough product to meet demand. Some retailers perceived the shortage to be, in part, related to Wizards' recent purchase of the Game Keeper stores where it was assumed they received Pokémon shipments more often than non-affiliated stores. By
3390-512: The Dragon Magazine Archive in 1999. It was released as a CD-ROM with a Windows application and PDF files. The Dragon Magazine Archive was directed by Rob Voce, and published by TSR / Wizards of the Coast . Pyramid reviewed it, saying that the archive was "worth the price", but that its application's Windows-only format limits other platforms from being able to read the PDFs manually. It
3503-454: The TV movie of Mazes and Monsters ). From the magazine's beginning until issue 274, from August 2000, Dragon published articles for various versions of Dungeons & Dragons and, at various times, other gaming systems. With issue 274, Dragon published exclusively 3rd Edition D&D content, or content for other games published by Wizards Of The Coast's d20 System games. With the release of
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3616-479: The "Used Pile", which then cycles back to the bottom of the deck. Unused Force remains in the Force Pile, and can be conserved for the next turn or drawn into the player's hand. The objective of the game is to force the opponent to discard all of their Life Force (consisting of Reserve Deck, Force pile and Used pile). This is accomplished via "Force Drains" (forcing the opponent to discard cards by controlling, unopposed,
3729-468: The 1980s, after TSR had purchased Simulations Publications Inc. , the magazine had a subsection called Ares Magazine , based on SPI's magazine of that name, specializing in science fiction and superhero role playing games, with pages marked by a gray border. The content included write-ups for various characters of the Marvel Universe for TSR's Marvel Super-Heroes . As noted above The Dragon
3842-801: The 3.5 Edition update in July 2003, issue 309 onward published only Edition 3.5 content and carried a "100% Official Dungeons & Dragons " masthead. The magazine switched to exclusively 4th Edition D&D content from issue 364 on the release of 4th Edition in June 2008. Most of the magazine's articles provide supplementary material for D&D including new prestige classes , races, and monsters . A long-running column Sage Advice offers official answers to Dungeons & Dragons questions submitted by players. Other articles provide tips and suggestions for players and Dungeon Masters (DMs). It sometimes discusses meta-gaming issues, such as getting along with fellow players. At
3955-485: The April 1996 edition of Arcane (Issue 5), Andy Butcher gave the game a top rating of 10 out of 10 despite stating that " Star Wars is let down by two things: its rulebook and the distribution of the cards.". In the June 1996 edition of Dragon (Issue 230), Rick Swan liked the "first-rate presentation" of the cards. But he was disappointed with gameplay, saying "if only Star Wars played as good as it looked. But alas, it
4068-499: The CCG are Strat-O-Matic , Nuclear War , BattleCards , and Illuminati . Allen Varney of Dragon Magazine claimed the designer of Cosmic Encounter , published in 1979, Peter Olotka , spoke of the idea of designing a collectible card game as early as 1979. Prior to the advent of the CCG, the market for alternative games was dominated by role-playing games (RPG), in particular Dungeons & Dragons by TSR . Wizards of
4181-512: The CCG market being less likely to take risks on new and original intellectual properties, but instead, it would invest in CCGs that were based on existing franchises. Cartoons, movies, television, and books influenced the creation of such CCGs as Harry Potter , The Lord of the Rings , A Game of Thrones , Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Yu-Gi-Oh! and two Star Wars CCGs: Jedi Knights and
4294-520: The CCG market with the releases of HeroClix and MechWarrior in 2002 but saw limited success. The next few years saw an increase in the number of companies willing to start a new CCG, partly owing to the success of Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! . New CCGs entered the market, many of which tried to continue the trend of franchise tie-ins. Notable entries include The Simpsons , SpongeBob SquarePants , Neopets , G.I. Joe , Hecatomb , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and many others. Duel Masters
4407-406: The CCG typically share the same common backside art , while the front has a combination of proprietary artwork or images to embellish the card along with instructions for the game and flavor text . CCGs are typically themed around fantasy or science fiction genres, and have also included horror themes, cartoons , and sports , and may include licensed intellectual properties . Generally,
4520-635: The Coast (Wizards), a new company formed in Peter Adkison 's basement in 1990, was looking to enter the RPG market with its series called The Primal Order which converted characters to other RPG series. After a lawsuit from Palladium Books which could have financially ruined the company, Wizards acquired another RPG called Talislanta . This was after Lisa Stevens joined the company in 1991 as vice president after having left White Wolf . Through their mutual friend Mike Davis, Adkison met Richard Garfield who at
4633-489: The Coast announced that it had acquired TSR and its Dungeons & Dragons property which also gave them control of Gen Con. Wizards now had its long-sought role-playing game, and it quickly discontinued all plans to continue producing Dragon Dice or resuming production of the Spellfire CCG. Decipher was now sanctioning tournaments for their Star Trek and Star Wars games, with the latter also enjoying strong success from
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4746-697: The Coast announced that it would not be renewing Paizo's licenses for Dragon and Dungeon, instead opting for online publishing. Paizo published the last print editions of Dragon and Dungeon magazines for September 2007. In August 2007, Wizards of the Coast announced the fourth edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game and that D&D Insider subscriber content would include the new, online versions of both Dungeon and Dragon magazines along with tools for building campaigns, managing character sheets, and other features. In its online form, Dragon continues to publish articles aimed at Dungeons & Dragons players, with rules data from these articles feeding
4859-423: The Coast was itself purchased by Hasbro, Inc. Dragon Magazine suffered a five-month gap between #236 and #237 but remained published by TSR as a subsidiary of WotC starting September 1997, and until January 2000 when WotC became the listed de facto publisher. They removed the word "magazine" from the cover title starting with the June 2000 issue, changing the publication's name back to simply Dragon . In 1999
4972-589: The D&;D Character Builder and other online tools. In the September 2013 issue of Dragon (#427) an article by Wizards of the Coast game designer and editor Chris Perkins announced that both Dragon and its sibling publication Dungeon would be going on hiatus starting January 2014 pending the release of Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition . The final online version released is Issue #430 in December 2013. A new and fully digital bi-monthly publication called Dragon+ ,
5085-655: The Five Rings , Star Wars , Lord of the Rings , Vampire: The Eternal Struggle , and World of Warcraft . Many other CCGs were produced but had little or no commercial success. Recently, digital collectible card games (DCCGs) have gained popularity, spurred by the success of online versions of CCGs like Magic: The Gathering Online , and wholly digital CCGs like Hearthstone . CCGs have further influenced other card game genres, including deck-building games like Dominion , and " Living card games " developed by Fantasy Flight Games . A collectible card game (CCG)
5198-468: The Five Rings , and SimCity . Jyhad saw a makeover and was renamed as Vampire: The Eternal Struggle to distance itself from the Islamic term jihad as well as to get closer to the source material. The Star Trek CCG from Decipher was almost terminated after disputes with Paramount announced that the series would end in 1997. But by the end of the year, the situation was resolved and Decipher regained
5311-399: The Gathering , as wholly original card games that take advantage of the digital space, such as Hearthstone , or in many other forms. Regular card games have been around since at least the 1300s. The Base Ball Card Game , a prototype from 1904, is a notable precursor to CCGs because it had a few similar qualities but it never saw production to qualify it as a collectible card game. It
5424-534: The Jedi ). During several years of the game's run, between 1995 and 1998, it was a top-selling CCG, second only to Magic: The Gathering and occasionally surpassing Magic , according to both InQuest and Scrye magazines . Lucasfilm renewed Decipher's license in 1998 to include intellectual property from The Phantom Menace , the first film in the Star Wars prequel trilogy . In addition to expansion sets based on
5537-575: The Origins Convention. By September, Wizards was awarded a patent for its "Trading Card Game". Later in October, Wizards announced that it would seek royalty payments from other CCG companies. Allegedly, only Harper Prism announced its intention to pay these royalties for its game Imajica . Other CCGs acknowledged the patent on their packaging. 1997 saw a slow down in the release of new CCG games. Only 7 new games came out, among them: Dune: Eye of
5650-446: The Storm , Babylon 5 , Shadowrun , Imajica and Aliens/Predator . Babylon 5 saw moderate success for a few years before its publisher Precedence succumbed to a nonrenewal of its license later on in 2001. Also in 1997, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle ceased production. However, Wizards of the Coast attempted to enter a more mainstream market with the release of a simplified version of Magic , called Portal . Its creation
5763-519: The United States. The game was mostly distributed to national retailers, with hobby stores added to their distribution afterward. By the end of 2002, the game was the top CCG even though it was nowhere near the phenomenon that Pokémon was. The card publisher Precedence produced a new CCG in 2001 based on the Rifts RPG by Palladium . Rifts had top-of-the-line artwork but the size of the starter deck
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#17328547256595876-574: The actions of the opposing player. Specific game cards are most often produced in various degrees of scarcity, generally denoted as fixed (F), common (C), uncommon (U), and rare (R). Some games use alternate or additional designations for the relative rarity levels, such as super- , ultra- , mythic- or exclusive rares . Special cards may also only be available through promotions, events, purchase of related material, or redemption programs. The idea of rarity borrows somewhat from other types of collectible cards, such as baseball cards , but in CCGs,
5989-565: The author. In the early 1980s, almost every issue contains a role playing adventure, a simple board game, or some kind of special game supplement (such as a cardboard cut-out castle). For instance, Tom Wham 's Snit's Revenge , The Awful Green Things from Outer Space and File 13 all started as supplements within The Dragon . These bonus features are infrequent after the 1986 launch of Dungeon magazine, which published several new Dungeons & Dragons adventures in each issue. During
6102-409: The baseball game itself is played. In 1993 a "new kind of card game" appeared. It was different because the player could not buy all the cards at once. Players would first buy starter decks and then later be encouraged to buy booster packs to expand their selection of cards. What emerged was a card game that players collected and treasured but also played with. The first collectible card game created
6215-457: The capability to play both in person and online. Star Wars CCG was first released in December 1995. Over the years, Decipher added 11 full expansions to the original card base, as well as numerous smaller expansions, special purpose sets, and promotional releases. The last set, Theed Palace, was offered in the fall of 2001. The original game spanned all of the classic Star Wars trilogy ( A New Hope , The Empire Strikes Back , and Return of
6328-527: The creators and developers of your favorite D&D products". Articles included cover content such as: game strategies and insights; details of the current D&D storyline; interviews; ongoing comic series; lore; Forgotten Realms world information; community updates and fan submissions; and videos. Additional content in the magazine is also accessible through links to the magazine's content in Facebook and Twitter feeds. Dragon+ ran for 41 issues in total with
6441-450: The creature can only be blocked by other creatures with flying. Each card also generally represents some specific element derived from the game's genre, setting, or source material. The cards are illustrated and named for these source elements, and the card's game function may relate to the subject. For example, Magic: The Gathering is based on the fantasy genre, so many of the cards represent creatures and magical spells from that setting. In
6554-420: The development of theme decks. Successful CCGs typically have thousands of unique cards through multiple expansions. Magic: The Gathering initially launched with 300 unique cards and currently has more than 22,000 as of March 2020 . The first CCG, Magic: The Gathering , was developed by Richard Garfield and published by Wizards of the Coast in 1993 and its initial runs rapidly sold out that year. By
6667-568: The end of 1994, Magic: The Gathering had sold over 1 billion cards, and during its most popular period, between 2008 and 2016, it sold over 20 billion cards. Magic: The Gathering ' s early success led other game publishers to follow suit with their own CCGs in the following years. Other successful CCGs include Yu-Gi-Oh! which is estimated to have sold about 35 billion cards as of January 2021 , and Pokémon which has sold over 64 billion cards as of March 2024 . Other notable CCGs have come and gone, including Legend of
6780-526: The end of its print run, the magazine also features four comics; Nodwick , Dork Tower , Zogonia , and a specialized version of the webcomic The Order of the Stick . Previous gamer-oriented comic strips include Knights of the Dinner Table , Finieous Fingers , What's New with Phil & Dixie , Wormy , Yamara , and SnarfQuest . Dragon' s "Ecology of ..." articles were initially written in
6893-504: The expansion of Fallen Empires released in November 1994. Combined with the releases of 9 other CCGs, among them Galactic Empires , Decipher 's Star Trek , On the Edge , and Super Deck! . Steve Jackson Games , which was heavily involved in the alternative game market, looked to tap into the new CCG market and figured the best way was to adapt their existing Illuminati game. The result
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#17328547256597006-611: The films, Decipher planned to release sets based on the novels and computer games , and a new trading card game base on the prequel trilogy films. At the end of 2001, after much negotiation, Lucasfilm chose not to renew Decipher's license to use the Star Wars intellectual property. The license was granted to Wizards of the Coast , which used it to create their own game, the Star Wars Trading Card Game . Decipher could no longer legally create new expansions to SWCCG ; many cards that were in development were never released to
7119-408: The first new expansion in three years called Sabbat War . Wizards of the Coast introduced a new sports CCG called MLB Showdown as well. Decipher released its final chronological expansion of the original Star Wars trilogy called Death Star II and would continue to see a loss in sales as interest waned in succeeding expansions, and their Star Wars license was not being renewed. Mage Knight
7232-483: The form of trading cards" that includes claims covering games whose rules include many of Magic ' s elements in combination, including concepts such as changing the orientation of a game component to indicate use (referred to in the Magic and Vampire: The Eternal Struggle rules as " tapping ") and constructing a deck by selecting cards from a larger pool. Garfield was granted the patent in 1997, which he then transferred
7345-541: The game and official game tournaments are occurring in some fashion. Each game has a fundamental set of rules that describes the players' objectives, the categories of cards used in the game, and the basic rules by which the cards interact. Each card will have additional text explaining that specific card's effect on the game. Many games utilize a set of keywords to simplify the card text, with keywords referring to common gameplay rules. For example, Magic: The Gathering has about 25 common keywords such as "flying", meaning
7458-401: The game's rules. Some games, such as Magic: the Gathering , limit how many copies of a particular card can be included in a deck; such limits force players to think creatively when choosing cards and deciding on a playing strategy. Cards come in several broad categories. Common categories, in addition to the aforementioned resource cards, include creatures that are summoned into battle who attack
7571-407: The game, a dragon is illustrated as a reptilian beast, has higher stats than smaller creatures, and has the aforementioned "flying" keyword. Flavor text on cards is frequently used to provide a narrative for story-driven games or sometimes as humorous asides. The bulk of games are designed around a resource system by which the pace of each game is controlled. Frequently, the cards which constitute
7684-580: The genre. Pokémon ' s mainstream success in the CCG world also highlighted an increasing trend of CCGs being marketed with existing intellectual properties, especially those with an existing television show, such as a cartoon . New CCGs introduced in 2000 included notable entries in Sailor Moon , The Terminator , Digi-Battle , Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game , Magi-Nation and X-Men . Vampires: The Eternal Struggle resumed production in 2000 after White Wolf regained full rights and released
7797-438: The goal of a match is to play cards that reduce the opponent's life total to zero before the opponent can do the same. Some games provide for a match to end if a player has no more cards to draw in their deck. After determining which player goes first by coin flip or other means, players start by shuffling their decks and drawing an initial hand. Many games allow for a player to take a mulligan if they believe their starting hand
7910-527: The high-destiny cards are in the deck. Stronger (or rarer) cards generally have lower Destiny values (with some exceptions); as a result, less-experienced (or economically challenged) players are more likely to find that "The Force is with [them]". The following full sets were created by Decipher: Unlimited white-border editions of the sets A New Hope , Hoth , and Dagobah were released in August 1998 after their original limited edition print run had sold out. In
8023-420: The industry that originated from the "success of Magic". In early 1996, the CCG market was still reeling from its recent failures and glut of products, including the release of Wizards' expansion Homelands which was rated as the worst Magic expansion to date. The next two years would mark a "cool off" period for the over-saturated CCG market. Additionally, manufacturers slowly came to understand that having
8136-454: The initial shuffling of the deck, as well as the opponent's actions, by using complementary and preferably efficient cards. The exact definition of what makes a CCG is varied, as many games are marketed under the "collectible card game" moniker. The basic definition requires the game to resemble trading cards in shape and function, be mass-produced for trading and/or collectibility, and have rules for strategic gameplay. The definition of CCGs
8249-455: The last issue published in April 2022; Wizards of the Coast published an update in July 2022 announcing the cancellation of the publication. On November 15, 2022, Wizards of the Coast announced that " Dragon+ will be removed from app stores on or around November 15th, and dragonmag.com will be redirected and its content will no longer be available". Many of the gaming world's most famous writers, game designers and artists have published work in
8362-479: The level of rarity also denotes the significance of a card's effect in the game, i.e., the more powerful a card is in terms of the game, the greater its rarity. A powerful card whose effects were underestimated by the game's designers may increase in rarity in later reprints. Such a card might even be removed entirely from the next edition, to further limit its availability and its effect on gameplay. Most collectible card games are distributed as sealed packs containing
8475-516: The license to the Star Trek franchise along with Deep Space Nine , Voyager and the movie First Contact . The enthusiasm from manufacturers was very high, but by the summer of 1995 at Gen Con , retailers had noticed CCG sales were lagging. The Magic expansion Chronicles was released in November and was essentially a compilation of older sets. It was maligned by collectors and they claimed it devalued their collections. Besides this aspect,
8588-676: The limits of the rule set. Games are commonly played between two players, though multiplayer formats are also common. Gameplay in CCG is typically turn-based, with each player starting with a shuffled deck, then drawing and playing cards in turn to achieve a win condition before their opponent, often by scoring points or reducing their opponent's hit points . Dice , counters , card sleeves , or play mats may be used to complement gameplay. Players compete for prizes at tournaments . Expansion sets are used to extend CCGs, introducing new gameplay strategies and narrative lore through new cards in starter decks and booster packs, that may also lead to
8701-465: The magazine. Through most of its run the magazine frequently published fantasy fiction, either short stories or novel excerpts. After the 1990s, the appearance of fiction stories became relatively rare. One late example was issue #305's featured excerpt from George R.R. Martin 's later Hugo-nominated novel A Feast for Crows . It also featured book reviews of fantasy and science fiction novels, and occasionally of films of particular interest (such as
8814-401: The market was still reeling from too much product as Fallen Empires still sat on shelves alongside newer Magic expansions like Ice Age . The one new CCG that retailers were hoping to save their sales, Star Wars , was not released until very late in December. By then, Wizards of the Coast, the lead seller in the CCG market had announced a downsizing in their company and it was followed by
8927-424: The opposing player and block their creatures' attacks; enchantments that buff or debuff these creatures' attributes and abilities; events, such as magic spells, that may have an immediate or ongoing resolution to one or more cards in play; and locations or story cards that present specific conditions impacting all actions. Each match is generally one-on-one, but many games have variants for more players. Typically,
9040-408: The other side) at any time. Most locations affect game play in some way; all also provide "Force icons", which represent the amount of "Force" a player can activate per turn. Force is the game's resource and its defining trait. Each unit of "Force" is simply a card from the top of a player's deck, placed off to one side in the "Force Pile". When used to deploy something, each unit of Force is placed on
9153-556: The patent to Wizards of the Coast . The patent has aroused criticism from some observers, who believe it may have stifled growth of other CCGs, and looked to have some of its claims to be invalid. Peter Adkison, CEO of Wizards at the time, remarked that his company was interested in striking a balance between the "free flow of ideas and the continued growth of the game business" with "the ability to be compensated by others who incorporate our patented method of play into their games". Adkison continued to say they "had no intention of stifling"
9266-498: The popularity and growth of Dungeons & Dragons made it clear that the game had not only separated itself from its wargaming origins, but had launched an entirely new industry unto itself. TSR canceled The Strategic Review the following year after only seven issues, and replaced it with two magazines, Little Wars , which covered miniature wargaming , and The Dragon , which covered role playing games. After twelve issues, Little Wars ceased independent publication and issue 13
9379-433: The primary campaign "worlds" for official Dungeons and Dragons products, starting in 1987. The magazine appeared on the cover as simply Dragon from July 1980, later changing its name to Dragon Magazine starting November 1987. Wizards of the Coast purchased TSR and its intellectual properties, including Dragon Magazine , in 1997. Production was then transferred from Wisconsin to Washington state. In 1999, Wizards of
9492-493: The public. In January 2002, Decipher CEO Warren Holland announced the formation of a "Players' Committee". Decipher would turn over stewardship of the game to this group, originally composed of six player advocates, who would continue to organize sanctioned tournaments, as well as designing and releasing new "virtual cards" to keep the game fresh. Over two decades later, the Players' Committee still supports an active player base around
9605-621: The re-released Star Wars Special Edition films. The Star Wars CCG would remain the second best-selling CCG until the introduction of Pokémon to the United States in 1999. Wizards continued acquiring properties and bought Five Rings Publishing Group , Inc., creators of the Legend of the Five Rings CCG, Star Trek: The Next Generation collectible dice game, and the soon to be released Dune CCG, on 26 June. Wizards also acquired Andon Unlimited which by association gave them control over
9718-399: The rent money on." In 2006, Trading Card Games For Dummies highlighted that the "Decipher Star Wars: Customizable Card Game enjoyed a huge following, spawning world tournaments, gorgeous trophies, dedicated fans and a great card game. Then Decipher's Star Wars license expires and this game, too, faded into near-obscurity. Although cards are no longer available, Star Wars still enjoys
9831-486: The rest of the CCG market, Magic had recovered and Wizards learned from its lessons of 1995 and early 1996. Players still enjoyed the game and were acquiring its latest expansions of Tempest , Stronghold , Exodus and by year's end, Urza's Saga which added new enthusiasm to Magic's fanbase in light of some of the cards being "too powerful". In early 1999, Wizards released the English-language version of
9944-555: The rights to publish both Dragon and Dungeon under license from Wizards of the Coast. Dragon was published by Paizo starting September 2002. It ties Dragon more closely to Dungeon by including articles supporting and promoting its major multi-issue adventures such as the Age of Worms and Savage Tide . Class Acts , a monthly publication with one- or two-page articles offering ideas for developing specific character classes, were also introduced by Paizo. On April 18, 2007, Wizards of
10057-467: The show was a CCG. Publishers other than game makers were now entering the CCG market such as Donruss , Upper Deck , Fleer , Topps , Comic Images , and others. The CCG bubble appeared to be on everyone's mind. Too many CCGs were being released and not enough players existed to meet the demand. In 1995 alone, 38 CCGs entered the market, the most notable among them being Doomtrooper , Middle-earth , OverPower , Rage , Shadowfist , Legend of
10170-741: The summer of 1999, the Pokémon TCG became the first CCG to outsell Magic: The Gathering . The success of Pokémon brought renewed interest to the CCG market and many new companies began pursuing this established customer base. Large retail stores such as Walmart and Target began carrying CCGs and by the end of September, Hasbro was convinced on its profitability and bought Wizards of the Coast for $ 325 million (equivalent to $ 594.4 million in 2023). A small selection of new CCGs also arrived in 1999, among them Young Jedi , Tomb Raider , Austin Powers , 7th Sea and The Wheel of Time . By 2000,
10283-419: The time was a doctoral student. Garfield and Davis had an idea for a game called RoboRally and pitched the idea to Wizards of the Coast in 1991, but Wizards did not have the resources to manufacture it and instead challenged Garfield to make a game that would pay for the creation of RoboRally. This game would require minimal resources to make and only about 15–20 minutes to play. In December 1991, Garfield had
10396-466: The top of their deck, revealing the top card and using its destiny number as the result. This is used for a variety of purposes, from determining weapon hits to mandatory losses incurred by the opponent to resolving whether a character passes a Jedi Test. The drawn Destiny card goes to the Used Pile and is recycled into the deck. Through this system, a skillful player can legally count cards, remembering where
10509-715: The torch from their Star Wars CCG to WARS . WARS kept most of the gameplay mechanics from their Star Wars game, but transferred them to a new and original setting. The game did not do particularly well, and after two expansions, the game was canceled in 2005. The other new CCG was .hack //Enemy which won an Origins award. The game was also canceled in 2005. Plenty of other CCGs were attempted by various publishers, many that were based on Japanese manga such as Beyblade , Gundam War , One Piece , Inuyasha , Zatch Bell! , Case Closed , and YuYu Hakusho . Existing CCGs were reformatted or rebooted including Dragon Ball Z as Dragon Ball GT and Digimon D-Tector as
10622-458: The voice of the fictional sage Elminster , who reviewed a D&D monster in-depth. Under Paizo's tenure such ecology articles became heavier in game mechanics than narrative and description. The Dragon submissions guidelines explicitly state that Ecology articles "should have a hunter’s guidebook approach, although it should not be written 'in voice'" and further specify the exact format of Ecology articles, leaving less room for artistic license by
10735-446: The volatility of the CCG market was familiar to its retailers. They foresaw Pokémon's inevitable fall from grace as the fad reached its peak in April of that year. The panic associated with the overflooding of the CCGs from 1995 and 1996 was absent and the retailers withstood the crash of Pokémon . Yet CCGs benefited from the popularity of Pokémon and they saw an uptick in the number of CCGs released and an overall increased interest in
10848-412: The world, organizing several major tournaments each year, providing a platform for online play, and releasing new sets of virtual cards every few months. Each game requires one player to play the light side of the Force while the other plays the dark side. In friendly play, a player can specialize in one side or the other, but for tournaments, players need both Dark and Light decks. This two-sided aspect
10961-494: The years and Paizo Publishing's policy that creators of comics retain their copyright. These comic strips include Wormy , What's New with Phil & Dixie , Snarf Quest , and Knights of the Dinner Table which is covered in TSR's own statement in the first issue that "All material published herein becomes the exclusive property of the publisher unless special arrangements to the contrary are made." In 2002, Paizo Publishing acquired
11074-465: Was Illuminati: New World Order which followed with two expansions in 1995 and 1998. Another entry by Wizards of the Coast was Jyhad . The game sold well, but not nearly as well as Magic ; however, it was considered a great competitive move by Wizard as Jyhad was based on one of the most popular intellectual properties in the alternative game market which kept White Wolf from aggressively competing with Magic . By this time, however, it may have been
11187-400: Was Magic: The Gathering , invented by Richard Garfield , and patented by Wizards of the Coast in 1993. The game has remained popular, with Wizards of the Coast claiming it to be the most widely played CCG as of 2009. It was based on Garfield's game Five Magics from 1982. Originally, Mana Clash was designed with Wizards in mind, but the suit between Palladium Books and Wizards
11300-409: Was #359 in September 2007. Shortly after the last print issue shipped in mid-August 2007, Wizards of the Coast (part of Hasbro, Inc. ), the publication's current copyright holder, relaunched Dragon as an online magazine , continuing on the numbering of the print edition. The last published issue was No. 430 in December 2013. A digital publication called Dragon+ , which replaced Dragon magazine,
11413-498: Was Peter Adkisson's decision to resign and Lisa Stevens whose job ended when The Duelist magazine (published by Wizards of the Coast) was canceled by the parent company. With Adkisson went Wizards' acquisition of Gen Con and the Origins Convention went to GAMA. Hasbro also ceased production of Legends of the Five Rings in 2000, but its production resumed when after it was sold to Alderac in 2001. The years 2001 and 2002 progressed with
11526-399: Was TSR who rushed their own game Spellfire into production, releasing it in June 1994. Through this period of time, Magic was hard to obtain because production never kept pace with demand. Store owners placed large inflated orders in an attempt to circumvent allocations placed by distributors. This practice would eventually catch up to them when printing capacity met demand coinciding with
11639-454: Was also released this year and would seek to challenge the CCG market by introducing miniatures into the mix. Though not technically a CCG, it would target the same player base for sales. The real shake-up in the industry, however, came when Hasbro laid off more than 100 workers at Wizards of the Coast and ended its attempts at an online version of the game when it sold off the subsidiary's interactive division. Coinciding with this turn of events
11752-417: Was introduced to the United States after strong popularity in Japan the preceding two years. Wizards of the Coast published it for a couple of years before weak sales resulted in its cancellation. Two Warhammer CCGs were released with Horus Heresy and WarCry . Horus Heresy lasted two years and was succeeded by Dark Millennium in 2005. Also, two entries from Decipher were released, one that passed
11865-489: Was launched in 2015. It was created by the advertising agency Dialect in collaboration with Wizards of the Coast, and its numbering system for issues started at No. 1. In 1975, TSR, Inc. began publishing The Strategic Review . At the time, roleplaying games were still seen as a subgenre of the wargaming industry, and the magazine was designed not only to support Dungeons & Dragons and TSR's other games, but also to cover wargaming in general. In short order, however,
11978-552: Was launched on April 30, 2015, succeeding the existing versions of Dragon and Dungeon magazines. Created by Dialect in collaboration with Wizards of the Coast, the online edition ceased continuity with the printed and digital versions of both magazines, and restarted its numbering system for issues at No. 1. The magazine branded itself as an app with content "showcasing what’s new in Dungeons & Dragons – from backstory and world information to discussions about what's coming next from
12091-450: Was obtained by Jasco Games in 2010 and is currently still being made. Another CCG titled Call of Cthulhu was the spiritual successor to Mythos by the publisher Chaosium . Chaosium licensed the game to Fantasy Flight Games who produced the CCG. Dragon (magazine) TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review . The final printed issue
12204-414: Was preceded by seven issues of The Strategic Review . In the magazine's early years it also published five "Best of" issues, reprinting highly regarded articles from The Strategic Review and The Dragon . From 1996 to 2001, Dragon Magazine published the "Dragon Annual", a thirteenth issue of all new content. Print versions: Digital (online/PDF) versions: A collection of Dragon was released as
12317-484: Was published as part of Dragon issue 22. The magazine debuted as The Dragon in June 1976. TSR co-founder Gary Gygax commented years later: "When I decided that The Strategic Review was not the right vehicle, hired Tim Kask as a magazine editor for Tactical Studies Rules, and named the new publication he was to produce The Dragon , I thought we would eventually have a great periodical to serve gaming enthusiasts worldwide... At no time did I ever contemplate so great
12430-466: Was released shortly after that. Demand was still not satiated as the game grew by leaps and bounds. Legends was released in mid-1994 and no end was in sight for the excitement over the new CCG. What followed was the CCG craze. Magic was so popular that game stores could not satisfy the market demand. More and more orders came for the product, and as other game makers looked on they realized that they had to capitalize on this new fad. The first to do so
12543-599: Was similar in size to the RPG books. Precedence's other main CCG Babylon 5 ended its decent run in 2001 after the company lost its license. The game was terminated and the publisher later folded in 2002. The release of The Lord of the Rings TCG marked the release of the 100th new CCG since 1993, and 2002 also marked the release of the 500th CCG expansion for all CCGs. The Lord of the Rings TCG briefly beat out sales of Magic for
12656-704: Was still not settled. Investment money was eventually secured from Wizards and the name Mana Clash was changed to Magic: The Gathering . The ads for it first appeared in Cryptych , a magazine that focused on RPGs. On 4 July weekend of 1993, the game premiered at the Origins Game Fair in Fort Worth , Texas . In the following month of August, the game's Limited core set was released (also known as Alpha ) and sold out its initial print run of 2.6 million cards immediately creating more demand. Wizards quickly released
12769-498: Was terminated and the rights returned to Alderac . C-23 , Hercules , and Xena were all a part of a new simplified CCG system Wizards had created for beginners. Called the ARC System, it had four distinct types of cards: Resource, Character, Combat, and Action. The system also utilized the popular "tapping" mechanic of Magic: The Gathering . This system was abandoned shortly afterward. Despite limited success or no success at all in
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