''Blood Wars'' is an out-of-print collectible card game produced by TSR, based on the

Planescape ''Planescape'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game, designed by Zeb Cook, and published in 1994. It crosses numerous planes of existence, encompassing an entire cosmology called the Great Wheel, as de ...

campaign setting from ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

''.

Publication history

The game was released in March 1995 as part of TSR's 20th anniversary. The original release contained 334 cards in the set, sold in 15-card booster packs and two 50-card dual decks. Card art was designed by various artists, including

Tony DiTerlizzi Tony M. DiTerlizzi (born September 6, 1969) is an American fantasy artist, children's book creator, and motion picture producer. In the gaming industry, he is best known for his work in the collectible card game '' Magic: The Gathering'' and on ...

, Newt Ewell,

Henry Higgenbotham Henry Higginbotham is a working artist who specializes in non-primitive art, steampunk, sculpture and more. Education Higginbotham has a master's degree in fine arts from the University of Iowa. Works Henry G. Higginbotham has produced interior a ...

Jennell Jaquays Jennell Jaquays (born Paul Jaquays, October 14, 1956) is an American game designer, video game artist, and illustrator of tabletop role-playing games (RPGs). Her notable works include the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' modules '' Dark Tower'' and '' Ca ...

Dana Knutson Dana Knutson is an artist best known for his work on role-playing game products. Career Dana Knutson has had a long career as an artist on role-playing games. He worked at FASA for 10 years, producing art on numerous works for their '' Star Tre ...

Rob Lazzaretti Rob Lazzaretti is an artist whose work has appeared largely as a cartographer for roleplaying games, particularly the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game from TSR. Biography Rob Lazzaretti was born and raised in central Illinois. H ...

, Robin Raab,

Robh Ruppel Robh Ruppel is an American artist best known for his work on role-playing game products. Critic Joseph Szadkowski of ''The Washington Times'' has referred to him as a "horror genius". Early life Robh Ruppel grew up in Bellaire, Texas, and att ...

, and Dave Sutherland. A series of expansion sets called ''escalation packs'' were scheduled for publication. ''Insurgents of the Inner Planes'' never materialized and was halted at the printer in February 1996. The player guide '' Warlord's Tactical Manual'' was published in January 1996.

Gameplay

Players use cards representing Warlords and Legions for combat to claim Battlefield cards.

Reception

The game was said to play "pretty well as a multi-player game, and it's much better than TSR's Spellfire" according to

Allen Varney Allen Varney (born 1958) is an American writer and game designer. Varney has produced numerous books, role-playing game supplements, technical manuals, articles, reviews, columns, and stories, as well as the fantasy novel ''Cast of Fate'' ( TSR, ...

of '' The Duelist.''

Reviews

*'' The Duelist'' #5

Legacy

Blood Wars was notable for the aggressive stance TSR took against fan websites displaying artwork from the game. The result was to suppress popularity of the game while it was still being published. This was in contrast to

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidia ...

, which allowed fair use reproduction of ''

Magic: The Gathering ''Magic: The Gathering'' (colloquially known as ''Magic'' or ''MTG'') is a Tabletop game, tabletop and Digital collectible card game, digital Collectible card game, collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards ...

'' copyrighted images online. The collectability of its chase cards was also notable across CCGs, especially "The Lady of Pain." The card game is not associated with the '' Blood Wars'' Polish online MMORPG, which is not based on Planescape.

Publication history

Gameplay

Reception

Reviews

Legacy

Notes

References

Further reading