Star Wars Fans Have Been Keeping The Best Game In The Franchise Alive For Decades
Star Wars fans have plenty of different games they can play set in the galaxy far, far away, from the dogfights of the X-Wing miniatures game to the Star Wars Jedi video games, but nothing has been able to match the variety and sheer scale of the franchise like the original Star Wars Customizable Card Game (Star Wars CCG) from Decipher. Released in 1995, the two-player game (Light Side vs. Dark Side), was a huge hit, adapting every major sequence of the original trilogy into an expansion. It was so good, in fact, that ever since Decipher lost the license in 2001, it’s been able to keep going thanks to a dedicated Players Committee, creating new cards and running events to this very day.
Star Wars CCG
In the mid-90s, the success of Magic the Gathering created a wave of every franchise imaginable coming out with a CCG, including Star Trek, Babylon 5, Doctor Who, Battletech, SimCity, and even the WWE. Star Wars CCG was a hit from the beginning, with television ads accompanying the launch of the two-player box set. The first set was relatively small, focused on Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, but expansions over the next six years brought some of the most obscure characters of the original trilogy to tabletops.
Conquer The Galaxy
Gameplay in Star Wars CCG involves playing location cards that can be converted to either the Light Side or Dark Side, in order to “Force Drain” the opponent. Force, represented by the decks, is the resource spent to play everything, but when drained, cards used to channel Force are removed from the game. When the opponent is decked out, you win.
Winning lightsaber duels, fighting the opponent’s characters, or achieving special in-game conditions can accelerate the rate of Force Drain, and that’s what made the Star Wars CCG so successful.
Relive Major Events
The first major expansion to Star Wars CCG, A New Hope, introduced the Death Star location and the ability to make a dedicated Trench Run Light Side deck. Hoth, the second expansion, allowed a Dark Side deck around marching across the frozen planet to blow up the main power generators. The card game was able to capture the feel of these major moments in a way that no video game, or tabletop game, has done since.
Ended With The Phantom Menace
Star Wars CCG was canceled after The Phantom Menace expansions were able to hit the printer, but that’s where the Players Committee came in. Officially sanctioned and given the blessing of Decipher, the player-run organization has gone on to create entire expansions around the prequels, the sequel trilogy, Rogue One, and every single other part of the franchise that you can think of. It’s like the game never died because, in truth, it never did and is still going strong nearly 30 years after its debut.
Kept Alive For Decades By Fans
The most recent Star Wars CCG World Championship took place in September in Germany, with over 50 players taking part, which is truly impressive for a fan-driven game that ceased publication two decades ago. That only proves the dedication of Star Wars fans and the quality of the game Decipher made, which, at one point, was even more popular than Magic: The Gathering. For those interested, the Players Committee website includes all of the cards created since 2001, and if you want to experience the very best of the franchise, you can still get your hands on cards and show your kitchen table the power of the Dark Side.
