View source for WARS Trading Card Game

{{Short description|Collectible card game}}
{{redirect|WARS|the gene|WARS (gene)|other uses|War (disambiguation)}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Primary sources|date=October 2007}}
{{Infobox_Game
|  subject_name= ''WARS Trading Card Game''
|  image_link= File:WARS trading card game back.png
|  image_caption=Cardback of WARS TCG
|  designer=
|  publisher= [[Decipher, Inc.|Decipher]]
|  players= 2
|  setup_time=
|  playing_time= Approx 1 hour
|  complexity=
|  strategy=
|  random_chance= Some
|  skills= [[Collectible card game|Card playing]]<br>[[Mathematics|Arithmetic]]<br>Basic Reading Ability
|  footnotes=
}}
The '''''WARS Trading Card Game''''' is an out-of-print [[trading card game]] released by [[Decipher, Inc.|Decipher]] in October 2004 with [[List of science fiction themes|science fiction themes]], using [[game mechanics]] from the ''[[Star Wars CCG]]''.<ref name="GR">{{cite web| url=http://www.gamingreport.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=103| title=A Weekend With Decipher – Lord of the Rings' Future and The WARS TCG Cometh| last=Sivils| first=Dan|date=June 2004| publisher=GamingReport.com| accessdate=2007-10-11}}</ref> After two releases, the game was officially "placed on hiatus" in May 2005.
In 2004-2005, a number of short stories were published in the universe. Although the game continued to be on the indefinite hiatus, starting from 2010 it had received several new publications (three books and over a dozen short stories) first from Grail Quest Books, and then Arcbeatle Press.
==Development==
It was Decipher's only card game not based on a licensed property (the phrase "proprietary science fiction property" was repeated over many news releases). It also partly aimed at a large, pre-existing target market by using game mechanics modified from the ''Star Wars CCG''{{spaced ndash}}a game itself so popular it was the #2 selling trading card game, second only to the original collectible card game ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'', for much of the time between its release in late 1995 and the release of the ''[[Pokémon Trading Card Game]]'' in 1998.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}
Its development involved people of unusual prominence: [[Michael Stackpole]] had a hand in the game's backstory and wrote the first short stories that introduced the background to the public, [[John Howe (illustrator)|John Howe]] conceived the Quay extraterrestrial race, and physicists were consulted to improve the scientific plausibility of the game's backdrop premises (but which were never fully revealed). Immediately before its release, an entire soundtrack was also composed for the game by [[Kieran Yanner]].{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}
==Setting and universe==
From Decipher's April 30, 2004, press release: "It is Earth-year 2391. Through a vast tear in the fabric of the universe, alien warriors emerge to fight an already embattled humanity. The sky is burning. The Gateless Gate has opened. The cosmic rip meanders like a burning string across the galaxy and slices through the asteroid field near the orbit of Jupiter. The great opening becomes known as, 'The Mumon Rift' ...".{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}}
Humanity has split itself into three factions: Earthers, based around a future Earth administrated by corporations; Gongens, descendants of East Asians living on Mars (renamed Gongen) following a continent-wide nuclear disaster; Mavericks, anarchists in the "Outer Rims" with penchants for cybernetic replacements. The two alien races are the Quay, a chitinous slave race with tribal tendencies and [[Mesoamerican]]- and [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]]-styled proper nouns, and the Shi, an advanced race of floating, psychic aliens with proper nouns styled after Indo-Aryan languages.
Meanwhile, among all the races, individuals with special abilities, called "Kizen", began appearing. Thus far the Kizen are mostly used as a gameplay device, but there were originally plans to introduce an anti-Kizen conflict storyline as well as somehow tie them with [[wave function collapse]] quantum mechanics to explain connections between Shi and humans.
==History==
Its existence was first hinted at in January 2002, shortly after Decipher revealed to the public that it was losing the Lucasfilm license for the ''Star Wars CCG'' (''SWCCG''). In late April 2004, the game was officially announced in a Radio Free Decipher webcast as the spiritual follow-up to ''SWCCG'', and the game immediately attracted massive attention from the hobby industry. For instance, at its public debut at [[Gen Con]] 2005, an introductory tournament using free demo decks is still Decipher's best-attended event in its existence, numbering over 200 people. There are still open-ended issues with the cash winners from that event never getting their prizes paid out to them.{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}}
Its official name was in constant flux between April and August 2004. The game was originally called ''WARS: The Mumon Rip'', then ''WARS: The Mumon Rift'' following a player suggestion on Decipher's old Calder forums. The game then went through a logo change and was referred to officially as ''The Mumon Rift WARS Trading Card Game'' before undergoing a final logo change the day before Gen Con 2004 and simplified to ''WARS Trading Card Game''. It is most commonly referred to as ''Wars TCG'' without the idiosyncratic capitalization of the entire first word; or, simply as ''Wars'' and less commonly as ''wtcg''.{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}}
The first release, ''Incursion'', came out on October 6, 2004, and had 330 cards. The second set, ''Nowhere to Hide'', was released on January 7, 2005, and had 167 cards. Many more releases{{spaced ndash}}three more total, at least{{spaced ndash}}were planned dependent on market conditions,{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}} but by April 2005 Decipher had determined that existing sales and pre-orders for set 3 did not justify continuing the game or even to justify publishing the third set.{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}}
Further planned product releases as of December 2004 were to be called ''Edge of a Sword'' (167 cards, 18-card collectible foil subset, May 2005), ''Motion of Mind'' (330+ cards, 18-card collectible foil subset, September 2005), and ''Eye of Insight'' (167 cards, 18-card collectible foil subset, January 2006).<ref>[http://nggnet.com/games/cgs/cgnews.html Collectible Game News]</ref>
''Edge of a Sword'' was actually very far into its development; most cards were already written and playtested to a degree and card art were chosen and cropped for more than 3/4 of the approximately 160 cards. The final version of the playtesting files have since been available on the Internet.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=WARS TCG (Trading Card Game) |url=http://www.thewarstore.org/Wars_TCG.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071215213437/http://www.thewarstore.org/Wars_TCG.html |archive-date=2007-12-15 |website=The War Store |quote=WARS Edge of a Sword Expansion! The third set of WARS which was nearly finished, but never released. Below find color scans (which were leaked out from Decipher) of all the cards for this expansion.}}</ref>
''Wars TCG'' cards contain striking original art from numerous professional freelance artists including [[John Howe (illustrator)|John Howe]], one of the world's best known fantasy illustrators. Another artist, Pamelina H., who is mostly known for her guitar art, also contributed artwork. The images on the cards depicted the science fiction drama unfolding as each expansion followed the planned 10 year story arc. The final version of the playtest files for the Edge of a Sword expansion has since been made publicly available at least as early as July, 2007.{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}}
==Spin-off media==
=== WARS Roleplaying Game ===
[[Mongoose Publishing]] released the ''[[WARS Roleplaying Game]]'' in 2005, based on the card game setting.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Review of WARS Roleplaying Game - RPGnet RPG Game Index |url=https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11624.phtml |access-date=2024-09-11 |website=www.rpg.net}}</ref>
=== Short stories ===
Originally, Decipher published a number of short stories (''The War Store'' listed twenty two) for free to promote the trading card game, bringing on [[Michael A. Stackpole]] and [[John Howe (illustrator)|John Howe]] to create the universe. The short stories were written by Stackpole (6), Chuck Kallenbach (6), Mark Tuttle (3), Michael O'Brien (2), Tim Ellington (2), Kyle Heuer (1), Erika Stensvaag (1) and Evan Lorentz (1).<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0"> {{cite web |last=Messick |first=Dani |date=27 October 2022 |title=Elkhart publisher breathes new life to nostalgic sci-fi universe |url=https://www.goshennews.com/news/elkhart-publisher-breaths-new-life-to-nostalgic-sci-fi-universe/article_5470864c-5565-11ed-81a1-efe3ba436480.html?fbclid=IwAR3_f6plLYuTHJE05D93wnSYgi01psVuW8VT2djFX2qHVqPd9wUVZSQbRzo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221027140748/https://www.goshennews.com/news/elkhart-publisher-breaths-new-life-to-nostalgic-sci-fi-universe/article_5470864c-5565-11ed-81a1-efe3ba436480.html |archive-date=2022-10-27 |website=[[The Goshen News]]}} </ref>
==== Warsong ====
On the 15th anniversary of the game, in 2020, Arcbeatle Press begun to publish free short stories to mark the occasion in a series they called Warsong.<ref>{{Cite web |title=WARSONG Reading List |url=https://www.arcbeatlepress.com/warsong-reading-list.html |access-date=2024-09-10 |website=ARCBEATLE PRESS |language=en}}</ref> Those include:<ref>{{Cite web |title=WARS: Under Constructrion |url=https://www.arcbeatlepress.com/wars-under-constructrion.html |access-date=2024-09-10 |website=ARCBEATLE PRESS |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Lost Legacy of Dogman Gale |url=https://www.arcbeatlepress.com/the-lost-legacy-of-dogman-gale.html |access-date=2024-09-10 |website=ARCBEATLE PRESS |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=WARS Easter Special: So Spake the Space Pope |url=https://www.arcbeatlepress.com/news-and-updates/wars-easter-special-so-spake-the-space-pope |access-date=2024-09-10 |website=ARCBEATLE PRESS |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=WARS Christmas Special: A Star In Her Eye by James Wylder |url=https://www.arcbeatlepress.com/news-and-updates/wars-christmas-special-a-star-in-her-eye-by-james-wylder |access-date=2024-09-10 |website=ARCBEATLE PRESS |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=WARSONG: Kalingkata has a Bad Night Out |url=https://www.arcbeatlepress.com/news-and-updates/warsong-kalingkata-has-a-bad-night-out-tales-from-deciphers-wars |access-date=2024-09-10 |website=ARCBEATLE PRESS |language=en}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Story !! Writer
|-
|Under Construction|| James Wylder
|-
|The Lost Legacy of Dogman Gale|| James Wylder
|-
|So Spake the Space Pope|| James Wylder
|-
|A Star in Her Eye|| James Wylder
|-
|Kalingkata Has a Bad Night Out|| James Wylder
|}
==== Academy 27 ====
In 2021 Arcbeatle Press launched their ''WARSONG: Academy 27'' series. Designed as a "slice of life" spin-off, it followed character Sang Mi on a terraformed Mars in the future. The stories were posted for free online over a weekly period.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.arcbeatlepress.com/a27.html|title= WARSONG Academy 27|publisher=Arcbeatle Press}} </ref> The first "season" would later be collected into a print anthology titled, ''Academy 27: School Days: Volume 1''. <ref> {{cite web |url=https://www.arcbeatlepress.com/news-and-updates/hit-series-academy-27-comes-to-print |title= Hit Series Academy 27 Comes to Print|last=Press |first=Arcbeatle|date= |website=Arcbeatle Press}} </ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Story !! Writer
|-
|Academy 27|| [[James Wylder]]
|-
|Junk Dog Night|| James Wylder
|-
|Vanishing Twin Syndrome|| Dillon O'Hara
|-
|Uphill Both Ways|| Leo Ions
|-
|He Came From Another World!|| James Wylder
|-
|A Mrs. Ichinose Date Night|| Andrew Davis
|-
|Im-probe-able|| Leo Ions
|-
|Hall Pass|| Callum Phillpott
|-
|Into the Light|| James Wylder
|-
|The Foods and Festivals of Old Asia|| Kimberley Chiu
|-
|Go For a Punch|| James Wylder
|-
|Selfie Stick || Matthew Sychantha
|-
|The Phantom || Aidan Mason
|-
|Mania and Snow || James Wylder
|-
|Lethargy and Pixels || James Wylder
|-
|A27: The Roleplaying Game|| Various writers
|}
A second season was officially announced in November of 2023. <ref> {{cite web |url=https://www.instagram.com/p/CzRpmoEJf8P/ |title=November 23rd, 2023|last=Press |first=Arcbeatle|date= |website=[[Instagram]]}} </ref> Aidan Mason confirmed his return in a blog post for [[Virginia Tech|Virginia Tech's]] ''Silhouette'' magazine, and that his story would be a sequel to ''The Phantom''. <ref> {{cite web |url=https://www.vtsilhouette.com/single-post/tips-and-tricks-for-writing-tie-in-media |title=Tips and tricks for writing tie-in media |last=Mason |first=Aidan |date= 4 April 2024 |website=[[Virginia Tech#Clubs_and_student_activities|Silhouette Magazine]] |publisher= |access-date= |quote=}} </ref> Serialization began in July of 2024 and new stories were released in a similar weekly format. <ref> {{cite web |url=https://www.arcbeatlepress.com/news-and-updates/academy-27-returns-for-new-stories-july-18th |title= Academy 27 Returns for New Stories July 18th|last=Press |first=Arcbeatle|date= |website=Arcbeatle Press}} </ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Story !! Writer
|-
|The Girl With the Cat's Eyes|| James Wylder
|-
|Stage Blocking || Elizabeth Tock
|-
|Coffee, Warm || James Wylder
|-
|Key Card || Callum Phillpott
|-
|Sang Mi Investigates! || James Wylder and Molly Warton
|-
|Apple Tree Yard || James Wylder
|-
|Kindness || James Hornby
|-
|A Kendo Story || James Wylder
|-
|Shadow of the Phantom || Aidan Mason
|-
|A Wasps' Nest of Ghouls||James Wylder
|}
==== Crossover ====
In 2023, the ''Academy 27'' series crossed over with the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' spin-off series ''Cwej'' starring [[Chris Cwej]], along with the independent Arcbeatle indie series ''10,000 Dawns'' in the novella ''And Today, You''. The crossover was made possible by the fact that Arcbeatle Press had the licensing rights to ''WARS'' and ''Cwej''. It acted as a 10th anniversary special for the company and a teaser for the upcoming second "season" of ''Academy 27''. <ref>{{cite web |title=Arcbeatle Press Celebrates 10 years |url=https://barebonesent.com/arcbeatle-press-celebrates-10-years/ |publisher=Barebones Entertainment}} </ref> {{Better source needed|date=February 2024}}
=== Novels ===
In 2010, company Grail Quest Books received the license to publish books based on the series under the umbrella title ''WARS: The Battle of Phobos''. Originally, three were supposed to be published, but only two would end up being put out before the series was cancelled. <ref> {{cite web |last=F |first=J |title=Grail Quest Books Release WARS Novellas |url=https://www.theforce.net/books/story/Grail_Quest_Books_Release_WARS_Novellas_129013.asp?msclkid=be968ddfa70c11ecaee149dc339e9aa1 |website=[[TheForce.net]]}} </ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Book !! Writer(s)
|-
|WARS: The Battle of Phobos - Preludes|| Nathan P. Butler, Sean E. Williams, Jim Perry
|-
|WARS: The Battle of Phobos - Stretti|| Sabrina Fried, Nathan P. Butler, Jim Perry
|}
The license was eventually reverted to Arcbeatle Press, who began to publish their own novels under the ''WARSONG'' logo. This was inspired by president and owner [[James Wylder]], who is a noted fan of the series and worked with Grail Quest when they had the license.<ref name=":0" />
Arcbeatle's first book was originally supposed to be published in 2021. However, due to the [[COVID-19]] pandemic, it was delayed. Post COVID, the company would re-release the first two novels published by Grail Quest under the ''WARSONG'' line, before publishing the final intended book of the saga in 2023. <ref name=":0" />
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Book !! Writer(s)
|-
|WARSONG: Preludes: The Battle of Phobos Book 1|| Nathan P. Butler, Sean E. Williams, Jim Perry
|-
|WARSONG: Stretti: The Battle of Phobos 2|| Sabrina Fried, Nathan P. Butler, Jim Perry
|-
|WARSONG: Codettas: The Battle of Phobos Book 3|| James Wylder, Bryan Schmidt, Sabrina Fried, Michael Robertson,
|}
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Decipher, Inc.}}
[[Category:Card games introduced in 2004]]
[[Category:Discontinued collectible card games]]
[[Category:Decipher, Inc. games]]
[[Category:Products and services discontinued in 2005]]