Legal notice - ©+® - 06.21.02

Spellfire is a registrated trademark of TSR Inc.. TSR is owned by WotC Inc. WotC is now owned by Hasbro.Inc. Use of this trademark and all ®-marked names is not intended to challenge the rights of their respective owners. This site is a tribute to Spellfire CCG!

History of Spellfire - 07.07.03

written by Chris Wilder aka Neevalovesme

Spellfire is a collectible card game (CCG) originally released by TSR in June, 1994. It was the second CCG ever made, following only Wizards of the Coast's Magic: The Gathering. It was, in fact, made in response to the phenomenal success of Magic. TSR had some experience with cards, having printed Dungeons and Dragons trading cards earlier in the decade. Well received when initially released, the D & D cards popularity quickly faded, leaving some within the company to question the wisdom of making any more card sets. Nevertheless, a design team was given the task of creating a new game. Their first design was deemed to be too similar to Magic, and was scrapped. With deadlines looming, Spellfire was created virtually overnight and rushed to the printers.

Spellfire, First Edition (designed by James M. Ward, Steve Winter, Timothy Brown, and David "Zeb" Cook), was released in June, 1994. Starter sets consisted of two 55 card decks, allowing for immediate game play upon puchase. Although specially collated to insure enough Realm cards were in each deck, the other cards were randomly inserted according to rarity. First Edition contained a total of 400 cards. In addition, booster packs came out at the same time. Each pack contained 14 random 1st Edition cards, plus one card from a special subset of 25 cards available only in the booster packs, consisting mostly of powerful champions.

Based in large part on Dungeons & Dragons, Spellfire sold well. It would never challenge Magic in sales, but it found its own spot in the marketplace. This was in spite of lackluster reviews. Many cards were very weak in power, and the random decks sometimes made it difficult to get a playable deck together early. Another point of contention was the art. TSR decided to use art from their vast library of D & D products, and with artists such as Larry Elmore, Jeff Easley and Brom, who could blame them? It would have seemed a little silly creating all new art for characters that they already had fantastic pieces for. However, the recycled art was a definite turn off for some players and collectors. Over the years TSR would work more and more original art into the game, but they mostly stayed with reused pieces.

Forging ahead, TSR released 2nd Edition (designed by James M. Ward, Steve Winter, Timothy Brown, and David "Zeb" Cook) starters and Ravenloft (designed by Bruce Nesmith) boosters in August of that year. Second Edition was also in the two deck format, and was almost the exact same as 1st edition. The only true difference was that 20 rare cards were pulled from the set and replaced with 20 new cards, leaving the set still at 400. These new cards, numbered 401-420, featured pictures instead of art, and for the most part were powerful and sought after cards. Ravenloft was the first expansion for the game, introducing the Ravenloft world and a new card type, Rule cards. Each pack had 15 random cards, and the set totalled 100 cards. Although fitting well with 1st edition cards, Ravenloft brought little to the game overall, and lacked the "chase" cards of the 1st edition boosters (and all later sets). It should be noted that there was another release in August. Finding themselves short on cards on the eve of the TSR-hosted GenCon, they printed a small run of starters for the convention. Identical to 1st edition, these cards lacked the First Edition markings on the back, qualifying, for some collectors, as a seperate set called "No Edition".

October of 1994 saw the release of the next expansion, Dragonlance (designed by Jean Rabe). It brought the popular Dragonlance world to Spellfire, introduced new game mechanics (such as cards whose power varied according to what time of day they were played), and included chase cards. The chase cards were a subset of 25 picture cards, randomly inserted in one out of every four packs. Packs again consisted of 15 cards, and the set was 100 plus the 25 chase cards. Despite all it had going for it, Dragonlance was far from a hit with players who had eagerly awaited its arrival. Cards were lacking in power and the art direction was questionable. Many gave up on the game at this point, and Dragonlance cards remain some of the easiest to acquire even now.

November 1994 saw changes for the game. TSR, perhaps realizing it could not compete full scale in the card market with Wizards of the Coast, eased up on its marketing of the game and lowered the print run for the next set. Forgotten Realms (designed by Dave Gross) followed the format of Dragonlance with 100 cards plus 25 chase cards. It introduced no new card types, only one game mechanic (using cards numbers for random number determination), and featured a world already well represented in 1st Edition. So of course the set was a resounding hit. For the first time, all cards had powers on them. The overall power of the cards was increased, and the chase cards featured some truly awesome and potent cards.

Spellfire rolled on through 1995, a year that saw the market filling, and eventually overfilling, with card games. Three booster sets were released: Artifacts (designed by Tim Beach) in May, Powers (designed by Lester Smith & Doug Stewart) in September and Underdark (designed by Dori Hein) in December. Third Edition (edited by Jim Butler, Dori Hein, John Danovich and Kevin Melka) starter decks came out in October, and a Reference Guide, covering all cards released in 1994 was produced. All three boosters consisted of 100 card sets, though the Artifacts and Powers sets had chase card sets of only 20, while Underdark reverted to the 25 of previous releases. Also, starting with Underdark TSR reduced the number of cards in each to 12 as a cost cutting move. Artifacts was a powerful release, featuring, of course, artifacts. The versatility of the cards made it a very popular set. Powers remains an enigmatic release, some claiming it to be overpowered and others saying it is weak. It introduced two new card types, Psionicist champions and the Psionic Power cards they could use, and brought the Avatar to the game. Avatars were high level, high powerered Clerics, brought into play by discarding another Cleric. They stretched the boundaries of the game. Powers featured some very strong cards, but lacked variety and had a weak chase set (Artifacts chase cards were much better). Underdark was a very different set. All the cards had black, cave-like borders, which combined with dark or black and white art on many cards led to a blah look. The set did have many innovative cards, a subworld, and a good chase set.

Third Edition came about due to a need to clean up the rules structure of the game, taking into account a years worth of playtesting and new cards. Loathing the cost of an all new set, TSR overhauled its existing base set. Again 20 rares were replaced with new cards, including three of 2nd Edition's picture cards. Over half of the remaining cards were updated and revised, many powerless cards gaining new and sometimes potent powers. The card count was again 400: 363 3rd Edition cards, 17 2nd Edition photo cards numbered 401-420, and 20 new picture cards numbered 421-440. With the rules fully revised, this was a great starting point for new players.

Another big year followed, with 1996 seeing the release of four boosters, a brand new starter set, and a second reference guide. The boosters featured the same format: 12 card packs, 100 card sets, and 25 card chase sets. It started with Runes & Ruins (designed by Kevin Melka) in February. It reached back to the roots of D & D, showcasing many classic adventures and characters. It introduced a new card type, Unarmed Combat cards, and avatars that were not Clerics. Again the art was an issue, with some very dated pieces, but the chase set was very good. Problems did surface with typos. Several card icons were the wrong color, and the box itself read "Sellfire!" Birthright (designed by Bill Olmesdahl) came in May. It brought in the Birthright world, along with Regent champions and their Blood Ability cards. A cohesive set, it did not find a lot of favor with gamers at the time. As Regents gained more cards through succesive sets, many players found themselves coming back to this set for cards. Draconomicon (designed by Kevin Melka) was a dual release in July, partnered with Fourth Edition (designed by Jim Butler). With many powerful dragons, this set found success. Night Stalkers (designed by Bill Olmesahl) was the last booster of the year, finding shelves in October. Besides introducing the Thief champion and Thief Skill cards, it had a very noticable facet. The entire release was made up of picture cards, with many TSR employees doing the posing. A strong chase set included six of the powerful and popular "Gib" champions.

TSR was faced with a dilemna during the year. They needed new starter decks, but would only produce them if it could be done cheaper than before. The answer was Fourth Edition. Released as a single 55 card deck, it came with revised rules and a pack of Draconomicon cards. The old base set was scrapped, and a new 500 card set created. About half the cards were reprints from 1st-3rd edition, and cards were included from the first four expansions, especially the in-demand Forgotten Realms and Artifacts sets. Some of the reprints had new or re-cropped art, giving them a new look. The other cards were new to the game. Improved collating increased playability from the box, and one card from a 20 card chase set was included in each deck.

Before the release of Fourth Edition, Spellfire was lagging. Sales for the year were down for all games, and Spellfire was no exception. It was decided after Birthright that it was time to wrap up the game, with Night Stalkers being the final release. TSR's plans were foiled when Fourth Edition proved to be a hit and breathed new life to the game. It sold out, as did Draconomicon and Night Stalkers, and four more releases were put on the schedule.

All was not coming up roses for TSR, however. The slowdown of the CCG market in 1996 included similar games, notably TSR's collectible dice game Dragon Dice. This compounded other financial woes the company was having, and in December products stopped coming. Rampant rumors flew, and one came to pass. Wizards of the Coast had long been seeking a role playing game to market, and they finally found one when they bought out TSR in 1997. WOTC did release Dungeons! (designed by Dori Hein & Bill Olmesdahl), the next Spellfire booster, in August 1997, 10 months since the last release. The Dungeon card made its debut here, and the set had many powerful cards. The chase cards were largely based on fan cards created at the 1996 GenCon, a nice thank you to the fans. Alas, the set was late and under-marketed, resulting in slow sales. Many in the company were not keen on Spellfire, and it showed. Wizards finally announced it was going to release a line of Classic games, small expansions for various CCG's they owned, including Spellfire. The first release was Netrunner, a game designed by Magic's creator, Richard Garfield. Poorly designed and marketed, many gamers mistook it for a reprinting instead of a new set and it flopped, giving WOTC the excuse they needed to cancel Spellfire permanently. The other sets planned by TSR, including Fiends and Incantations, were never released.

In CCG terms, Spellfire is a "dead" game. It is no longer being produced or supported by its owning company. Indeed, the Wizards of the Coast website does not mention Speelfire, even in the Game Vault dedicated to out-of-print games. Spellfire is far from dead, however. Wizards did give permission for players to create their own "fan cards", and thanks to the hard work of Spellfire enthusiats, three on-line sets have been made. These sets, Inquisition, Millenium and Chaos, can be printed and stuck on real cards to be used in games. They are tournament legal, and completely free, except for printing costs! They can be found at Spellfire.net, a place that serves many Spellfire needs, such as Links, card info and a forum.