AFAIK, Spellfire is worthless, but perhaps things have changed.

Most of the artwork is recycled from existing TSR products, TSR published books with the pics of all the cards, and the gameplay was limited and hackneyed.  $200+ for these cards is beyond me.  Perhaps a bridge in Brooklyn would interest the bidders.  

Spellfire...are you kidding me.

Recycled art + Horrendous game play (and that is conservative) + Devoid of anything related to D&D = Spellfire

Spellfire = dogsh*t

I guess everyone tossed them in the garbage a few years back and now they are hard to come by. Because it certainly can't be due to any other  reason.

All I can wonder is ...  a brand like D&D .... a plethora of available artists ... convertable game genre ... and we get Spellfire. It just boggles the mind...

Hey, I think its great that you play.

I was simply putting Spellfire in a context compared to other successful CCGs. It was a total failure. Now that failure was made even more blatant when you consider who published this game.

When I heard TSR was coming out with a CCG, I was as excited as the next guy. The possibilities were awesome. Then it came out.  

Remember, we have to compare all CCGs to MtG. Whether you like it or not, that is the bar against which all other CCGs are compared.

So what did we get? Rushed and bland rules of play, rehashed art that in many cases was old, tired and rehashed more than once before, and zero collectibility. TSR had an extremely large following and brand recoginition. A cool CCG that fired the imaginations (i.e. new art) and generated spirited debate would have been awesome. Spellfire met none of that criteria. Noboday was talking about this game (at least not in a positive sense).

Yeah, its great that people play that game.  I am not commenting on that. There are tons of games that have niche followings; that does not insult or insinuate anything about the people who play it. But a dog is a dog is a dog.

So drive on, and keep Spellfiring.

(By the way, my group plays Escape from New York at every Gen Con. We have got to be the only people who play that game in the country. Another TSR dog.)

I keep trying but that damn Duke kicks my ass every time...where's my gun!!!

Ah, back to the topic.

Like I said, I really wanted Spellfire to be great. It did not deliver.

I think the art was a big part of it. Part of opening booster packs of any CCG is seeing the new cards ... now we open Spellfire and we get the same old stuff we have seen shoved down our throats for years. Who in the hell thought that would be a good idea?

Yeah, I know the game was rushed. MtG was killing everyone. Gaming dollars were being sucked into that black hole and many game companies were suffering.

As much as I hate what MtG did the gaming scene, it really is a great game. It is simple, relatively quick and fun. Of course we always played for ante so our decks were not those super, rare-loaded monstrociites you see nowadays. We took pride in deck building - multi color, no rares, themed, etc. We tried everything. Again, you can't do that with Spellfire. Another short-sighted facet the designers missed.

Again, I lament the fact that Spellfire failed. What a cool link to the game we all love.

I have to admit, I have not played in at least four or five years. Yeah, the timing stuff got a bit crazy, indeed.

I'm actually in process of purging my collection. Since I played in the revised/4th edition era, I have some good stuff. The last stuff I remember buying was Visions; just a couple boosters for some reason. That damn game was addicting!

I'm sorry. Spellfire couldn't hold MtGs jock. Again, this is no reflection on those who play. I am talking about the product, and that is it.

I did a little check last night and ran a search for Spellfire. Got about 80 listings on ebay. MtG has about  35,000! The proof is in the pudding as they say. Spellfire never had the collector craze or the options for deck building designed into MtG. And remember, I anm no MtG slappy. Haven't played in at least five years, or with any regularity in about 8 years.

Simply, the looks on people's faces when that game was released said it all..."What the hell???!!!"

I was at Gen Con when it first came out and went to the demo. It was packed on Thursday (first day of con). By Friday it was practically deserted. News spread pretty damn quick. TSR resorted to giving starter decks away to get people top try the game. Still didn't work. Meanwhile, people were lined up 100s deep to get the newest MtG release. That said it all.

Again, my whole point is that as a product, Spellfire missed the mark - severely. The largest RPG game company on the planet blew it. They put out a rushed product, sloppily constructed, and missed most of what CCG players desire. So there are people who still play. That's great. At least you can probably get any card you want for pennies. I think that is cool; MtG players certainly can't say that.

What really surprises me, though, is the lack of a follow up game. So Spellfire flopped. Why not try again. It has been years and D&D is still very popular. A CCG based on D&D (one that followed the precepts of most popular CCGs) would surely be successful. Of course, it also never a good idea to compete against yourself.

I play Magic all the time. The last 2 sets include Equipment, which are baically artifacts you attach to creatures. Names like Banshee's Blade, Sword of Kaldra, etc. I had dropped off for quite a while until this mechanic came back into the game. I am convinced that WoTC had just that in mind, a semi-crossing between Magic and D&D.

Name one. Nobody competes against themselves and survives. Overhead alone would be a killer. TSR did just that when they produced more than a dozen campaign worlds.

Fair point about Spellfire being discontinued vs. MtG that is ongoing. But I suspect that four or five years after MtG dies, there will be more than 80 items on ebay.

Hell I did a search for soap dishes and came up with about 140! Anyway, this thread is probably about flushed out.

Again, more power to you for playing a game you love. Keep it going. That was never my topic anyway. My singular point is the fact that Spellfire was a catastrophic failure in more than one way. And that has no bearing on who plays or who doesn't.

Maybe I'll catch you a Gen Con. You and your buds can pull up table next to me mine. You play Spellfire, we'll pull out the Escape from New York, and we will gather a crowd of confused onlookers.    

done