Jedi Knights Trading Card Game

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Darth Vader • Sith Warrior, Premiere 41 R.[1]

Jedi Knights Trading Card Game (Jedi Knights TCG) is a Star Wars collectible card game published by Decipher in 2001. It was Decipher's third Star Wars card game, after the Star Wars CCG and Young Jedi, and is set in the original trilogy.[2] The game was designed by Tom Lischke and others, and all its card art is computer generated.[3] Three sets came out in 2001. Decipher stopped making the game when its Star Wars license ended at the close of 2001.[4][5]

Development

Jedi Knights began in late 1999 as "Classic Young Jedi", a classic-trilogy version of Young Jedi. Chuck Kallenbach built a spreadsheet converting Young Jedi characters (Ric Olié became Han Solo). The team kept adding depth to appeal to core gamers, aiming for close to Star Wars CCG depth while keeping the game quick and clear for newcomers. In early August 2000 the game left the Young Jedi engine. It cut Young Jedi's randomness, let players choose who attacks whom, and moved to rounds in which both players go through each phase together.[6] According to Kallenbach, Warren Holland told him and Tom Lischke: "We want to do something different. Come up with a design. Do something you would like." It was their first game designed from the ground up.[7]

Computer-generated art was "one of the main driving forces" behind the game, to show Star Wars "as you had never seen it before". Decipher had made CGI mockups for Young Jedi, and Jedi Knights grew out of that project. Lucasfilm was very particular about the renderings of the main characters.[7] The Art Department started in March 2000. Art lead Joe Boulden bought models from 3D fan artists in eleven countries, which covered about a third of the need, and commissioned the rest.[6] The game also borrowed collecting features from sports cards, such as foil stamping and First Day of Printing.[7]

Decipher announced the game at Gen Con in August 2000.[8] It came out on 25 April 2001.[9]

A third Star Wars card game

Asked about the challenges of a third Star Wars card game, Kallenbach recalled that marketing was difficult and "product differentiation was much harder than with YJ".[7] Reporting from Gen Con 2000, Patrick Dolan asked: "Are we going to have to suffer through a new Star Wars CCG every year? ... Don't they have any faith in their existing Star Wars games?"[8] When Decipher lost the license, Holland said a Wizards of the Coast game would be a fourth Star Wars trading card game, "totally incompatible with any of our existing games". He said it would arrive "at a very weak time for the Star Wars license".[5]

Credits

Tom Lischke was lead game designer. Tim Ellington, Chuck Kallenbach, Bill Martinson, Justin Pakes and Sandy Wible did additional design. Joe Boulden was 3D project manager, Rob Burns key 3D artist and Dan Burns art director.[10] Francis Lalumiere wrote the Design Diary on decipher.com from October 2000 to April 2001.[11]

The rulebook also credits Mike Schley, Ed Gartin, Leslie Burns, Monica Jones, Dean Irwin, Evan Lorentz, Rich Loftus, Kendrick Summers, Kyle Heuer, Kevin Reitzel, Bruce Umene, Sean Smallman, Jennifer Ketterman, Warren Holland, Cindy Thornburg, Anthony Vittone, Ross Campbell, Rick Eddleman, Walt Eley, Ryan Honeyman, Calvin Sanders, Becky Higgerson, Angie Higgerson, Jennifer Gilbert, Matt Holland, Kathy Eddleman, Kurt Luchtman, Lisa Brinn, Faye Holt, Liz Duffey, Roland Williams, Ronnie Thornburg, Dominiek Vermandere and Marcus Sheppard. About 40 CGI artists worked on the cards, including the staff of A. S. Imagined Inc. and freelancers from the US and ten other countries.[10]

Playtesters were Joe Alread, Greg Anderson, Brian Bosch, I-Ming Chen, Jonathan Dunn, Doug Faust, Joseph Gaus, Michael Girard, Clint Hays, Joe Helfrich, Preston Hunt, Larry Hutson, Christopher Janiak, Cheryl Kallenbach, Tim Leask, Steven Lewis, Kathy Lischke, Maarten Logghe, Matt Lush, Kevin Martilla, Eric Olson, Mike Patterson, Erik Petersen, Jason Robinette, William Schmidt, Geoff Snider, Patrick Sullivan, Doug Taylor, Tim Wezner, Jason Winter and Nick Zube. The credits thank Jerry Darcy, John Kaufeld, Dan Bojanowski, Brian Kallenbach, Jonathan Quesenberry, Tom Braunlich and Rollie Tesh, among others.[10]

Star Wars CCG crossover

The design team came from Decipher's other card games. In early 2001 Lischke was spearheading the design of both the Star Wars CCG and Jedi Knights. Kallenbach had worked on the Star Wars CCG and was the main Young Jedi designer.[11] Playtesters included Star Wars CCG World Championship qualifiers Clint Hays and Steven Lewis.[10][12][13] Product Champion Doug Taylor, also a playtester, reported about 40 players at a Seattle pre-release event.[14]

Sets

Release Set Notes
25 April 2001 Premiere 154 cards, 50 of them rare.[3] Alliance and Empire starter decks; theme heroes Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin.[2][9]
11 July 2001[15][9] Scum and Villainy 140 cards in 11-card boosters. New themes Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett, Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi; an Independent theme could replace the Imperial one.[15]
10 October 2001 Masters of the Force New themes Yoda and Emperor Palpatine, new Force cards, and new themes for characters from earlier sets.[15][16]

A starter deck held 60 cards and a rulebook and cost $11.95; an 11-card booster cost $3.29.[3] Scum and Villainy had gold and silver foil-stamped cards at random. Its First Day of Printing boosters swapped a common or uncommon for a foil, so a pack could hold two rares.[15]

Gameplay

Players build a deck around a theme hero and add characters, starships and events. Each game is fought over four planets, shown on two-sided location cards. Control of a planet is decided every two turns. A player who takes three planets wins. At two planets to one, both sides meet on the last planet in a Final Conflict, which goes on until only one side remains.[2]

Force cards fuel the game. The Force card a player picks each turn decides the order of play, the resources available and the player's hand size.[2] Turns are simultaneous within a looping structure.[3] The destiny draw returns from the Star Wars CCG.[2] In multiplayer games, two teams of two face each other.[2] Decipher later announced 2–6 player games for Scum and Villainy.[15]

Most rares (and the starter-deck Blaster Rifles) come in "L" and "R" versions. The two have the same game text, but their art is shot from slightly different angles, so a pair seen side by side forms a 3-D image.[9]

Rules changes

Decipher replaced the Rulebook's response-timing rule (page 23), which let the player with the higher Force number respond first. Under the new rule the opponent always gets the first chance to answer with an Event, and responses then alternate. For example, if your weapon shot has +2 to hit and your opponent passes, you can play I Have You Now for +4. Your opponent can still answer with Camouflage to cancel the bonuses.[9] Admiral Motti • Fleet Admiral (Premiere 70 U) received errata for balance.[9]

Organized play

In May 2001 Decipher announced a Jedi Knights World Championship for November with a $10,000 prize for the winner.[15] The November convention was cancelled in October 2001; see 2001 Decipher World Championship.

Reception

Lee Bates of Science Fiction Weekly called the game "a solid, refreshingly fast-paced system that looks great". He praised the computer-generated art and found the stereoscopic cards "a bit gimmicky" but "undeniably cool".[2] Pyramid said the looping turn structure "will force many players to keep one hand on the rule book for their first few games". It added that fans of complex card games would find it "an enjoyable challenge". It found many human characters looked "like the famous actors, but more like their weird uncles".[3]

End of the game

Lucasfilm moved the Star Wars trading card game license to Wizards of the Coast. Decipher announced the change on 28 December 2001.[4][5] In early March 2002 Cards Inc. bought Decipher's final stock of most Jedi Knights items, and by late April Decipher had sold out of all its Star Wars products.[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Jedi Knights Premiere card list, decipher.com (2001); card image 41RRdarthvadersithwarrior.jpg. Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Lee Bates, Jedi Knights Trading Card Game (review), Science Fiction Weekly, SciFi.com (2001). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Pyramid Review: Jedi Knights CCG, Pyramid, Steve Jackson Games (17 August 2001). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Star Wars Announcement, decipher.com (28 December 2001). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Wizards of the Coast Gets Star Wars CCG, ICv2 (1 January 2002). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Design Diary, 25 October 2000, decipher.com. Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Josh Radke, Flashback: Chuck Kallenbach interview, TheForce.Net. Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Patrick Dolan, GenCon report, Usenet post (16 August 2000), copy on grognard.com. Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Jedi Knights, Star Wars Players Committee. Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Jedi Knights Trading Card Game rulebook (credits), Decipher (2001). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Design Diary: Dramatis personae, decipher.com (2000–2001). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  12. ↑ Clint Hays interview, Trandosite (8 September 2000). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  13. ↑ Steven Lewis interview, Trandosite (29 September 2000). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  14. ↑ Pre-Release Parties Launch Jedi Knights!, decipher.com (April 2001). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 Kyle Heuer, Expansions Announced for Jedi Knights, decipher.com (21 May 2001). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  16. ↑ Jedi Knights Trading Card Game: What's New, decipher.com. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 11 December 2001
  17. ↑ Decipher Star Wars Wind-up, ICv2 (29 April 2002). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
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