Warlord 4th Edition CCG - the epic fantasy card game

What would a d20 RPG be without dungeons? Good question.

In order to find out whether Warlord 4E should include Dungeons or not, I introduce the poll to the right.

This is how it works: Everybody has a voice in this (pretty obvious, isn’t it?). In parallel to this poll, there is an identical one in the Ordo Phoenicis Ascendentis forum where every member can vote according to their aegis. On March 9th I will aggregate the numbers and we’ll find out.

The first round membership sign-up for the Ordo Phoenicis Ascendentis will be closed after April 30th, 2008. Applications that are not paid until by June 15th, 2008 will be deleted thereafter.

In effect this means: Sign up until April 30th, pay until June 15th. I need to keep it streamlined like that in order to plan numbers (for the Ordo Phoenicis Ascendentis exclusive Promo Cards for example) and to keep the bookkeeping to a bearable level.

If and when new options for the Ordo Phoenicis Ascendentis members are announced (that for example are only valid for members owning 2, 3 or more æris), there’ll also be a chance to raise the level of membership.

One of the promises we make is to have all Warlord 4E regular cards and regular promos properly tested.

The playtest process will be guided by Design Team member Tommy Pistole (melon-neko) and Playtesting Lead Aidan Boyle (TheCardinalofPain).

Those of you who would like to contribute to Warlord as a Playtester, please send a quick mail to playtest@warlordccg.de. In this mail please state briefly what QA experience you have and why you think you should be considered for playtesting.

The playtesting of Warlord 4E is going to commence March 22nd.

It’s over!

From http://www.paizo.com/rpgsuperstar:

In early November Paizo challenged amateur game designers from around the world to show off their skills in a revolutionary online contest called RPG Superstar. From more than 850 submitted wondrous items, celebrity judges Erik Mona (Paizo’s Publisher), Wolfgang Baur (Editor-in-Chief, Kobold Quarterly), and Clark Peterson (President, Necromancer Games) narrowed the field to 32 would-be RPG Superstars, aand further rounds have narrowed that field in the intervening weeks.

The final round asked the four competing finalists to propose a 32-page GameMastery Module for ultimate publication by Paizo as the Grand Prize of RPG Superstar. Contestants Clinton Boomer (Macomb, IL), Rob McCreary (Prague, Czech Republic), Jason Nelson (Seattle, WA), and Christine Schneider (Neu-Isenburg, Germany) responded with four excellent proposals, each worthy of publication in its own way.

But there can be only one RPG Superstar, and in the end after the celebrity judges had a chance to offer comments and criticism and the general public had their final vote, one proposal stood out as the clear winner.

Congratulations to Christine Schneider for her victorious proposal, “Clash of the Kingslayers.”

Congratulations to Christine - and I really look forward to how her great ideas will shape Warlord 4E into the game “lots of D&D® players will really want to play (in addition to the great players we already have)” ;-).

Her work will be to expand the Accordlands setting in order to deliver fresh new vistas that the story team will then be able to explore through their stories, flavor texts and so on. In addition we will work on a “Quest system” that will expand the challenge system into something that more closely resembles the excitement of Dungeons & Dragons® adventuring.

Warlord is pure entertainment. That’s what it should be and that’s what I will strive to make it. And I would like the community – you – to be involved in it. Therefore I ask you to join the Order of the Ascending Phoenix!

In order to become a member, you will have to purchase one or more æris, valued at 50 EUR or $75, depending on where you live.

What do you get for that? For once you share the burden of getting the best customizable game off the ground again. You commit in much the same way I did when I acquired the license from AEG to publish the fourth edition of Warlord. There are artists and printers to pay and events to organize and support. The level of membership in the Order will help me gauge just how large the community is and how much they are willing to be involved. And keep my wife from considering me to be completely crazy. Just a little bit more crazy than the average member of the Order.

Beyond that you will reap a multitude of benefits, based on the number of æris you hold:

• At 1 æs, you will get a playset of exclusive promo cards at least once each half year for two years starting July 31st. Exclusive means for at least six months there will be absolutely no other way to get these cards.
  You gain the title Member.
  At 5, 9, 13 æris and so on you will receive an additional full playset of the same promo cards to trade or sell.
• You gain access to the secret hall of the Order – this is were competitions are run that allow the winners to name a card, request a side story, write an art description, design a card (in cooperation with the Design Team) or even possibly get your own Medusan Lord-level card. And more.
• You will gain member access to the visual card spoiler where you can search the database, build and save decks as well as print out decklists and proxies for testing decks..
• You are entitled to exclusive entry into special side events at GenCon and KoHIT, the two main events each year.
• At 4 æris you will receive a complete set (6) of the new starters free of shipping to your house. You gain the title Knight.
• At 10 æris you will receive a complete set (6) of the new starters as well as one fixed set of each of the following four expansions scheduled for two years starting July 31st. You gain the title Commander.
• At 20 æris you will receive 12 starters and two of each expansion sets mentioned above. You gain the title Knight Commander.
• At 30 æris you will receive a full playset: 18 starters and three boxes of each subsequent set mentioned above. You gain the title Knight Marshal.
• At 50 æris, which is the maximum allowed, you gain the title Knight Grand Marshal. In addition to a full playset of the base set and the first four expansions as outlined above, you will get one copy of every expansion set published between July 31st 2010 and July 31st 2013.
• Every member will carry a number of votes equal to his æris in order to vote three members of the Order into the Warlord Advisory Council to help steer the game and make sure the promises made are kept. These will get the additional title Envoy.
• There is more cool stuff, but I can’t tell you yet.

In order to apply, please first fill out this form and then use the payment options indicated on the confirmation page.

Let’s talk about Vision.

It’s funny. When I decided I wanted to write about my vision for the game, I noticed that the avatar I had been using on the forums all this time, was called Vision:

Was that some form of premonition? Who knows.

In the past two weeks I have been setting a lot of things in motion - and tried to get as much information out to you as possible. One thing that has been criticized the most in Warlord in those recent months and years is lack of guidance and vision. This is what I strive to provide.

The mission
Where Legends of the Five Rings is the story line game, the dauntingly complex strategy game set in a fantasy asian environment that rewards long-term clan loyalty, there Warlord is the high fantasy RPG card game, that combines familiar (for D&D® players that is) entry level mechanics with surprisingly deep strategy options and rewards long-term loyalty to the game itself.

The story
Up until the very much delayed Warlords of the Accordlands RPG came out the potentially rich lore of Warlord never was allowed to play much of a role. This was done partially in the knowledge that it was the unique mechanics and the challenge system that made Warlord fans want to play the game, and partially the understanding that you needed to draw a distinct line between the two most successful Alderac properties.
I would never be able to copy the great work John and Todd are doing with L5R - the intricacies of the story of Rokugan and the logistical nightmare of doing story prizes are beyond our resources even if I wanted to. What I want instead is that the story behind the game mirrors what is happening on the cards and in the game world and cries “This is the D&D® game and your Warlords and named characters are the player characters and important NPCs in this world”.
Even with the great guys who have been writing those stories (and who have been coming up with cool names and flavor texts all the time) on their own time we can’t cover it all. Therefore we won’t try to tell all the story. No RPG ever does, either. We’ll pick iconic characters and tell their stories. So you can follow what is happening in “real time”. Once that is done we’ll give you some of the side stories if time permits or leave them to your imagination. We’ll see.

The game
Richard already wrote his first blog about this and I can only be happy to have all these experienced players and designers who make up the Design Team.
Roleplaying for me is hanging on to the dragon’s scales by your finger nails with you driving your flaming sword through its eyeballs while dangling in front of its maw filled with a sea of armor-piercing teeth. That’s the spirit Warlord captures so well - giving you a comeback chance, pitching Warlords against each other where every strike counts.
That’s what I want the Design Team and playtesters to aim for - a game environment that offers multiple strategies where you can have one nailbiter after the other.

The events
Despite its reincarnation as a Customizable Card Game I feel that Warlord’s appeal is strengthened by the innovative challenge system and our gaming events. With GenCon and KoHIT at the top of the food chain we have lots of established TOs and the Dragon Lord runners that deeply care about the game and want to provide fellow Warlord players with the same great experience that they would like to have when going to somebody else’s events. These are the guys I want to provide a framework and support for.
The prizes will be set accordingly - even though you’d have to trust me and us to come up with something appropriately cool.

The community
This is what everything boils down to: Without a great network of players who do not only love the game or hunt the prizes (as players of other games often are wont to do), but enjoy just being with each other, Warlord would have succumbed to the economic realities of product life cycle theory. I have faith in you as the community - on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Otherwise I wouldn’t have had the courage to pitch my proposal to John (and more importantly to my wife ;-)). Face it: Taking a dead collectible card game and looking at republishing it usually is a losing proposition. It’s a high risk venture on a level that is far beyond trivial.
With this in mind I am about to launch the new and improved Warlord fan club - the Ordo Phoenicis Ascendentis - to help publish the game and give those of you caring deeply about the game a chance to be closer to the creation of it (and be recognized as such a supporter).

I will put my energy into strengthening the global Warlord community and make it a worthwhile alternative in a world of electronic entertainment. I will do my best in being accessible, in listening to you and making the best game of Warlord we can. I probably will aggravate somebody in the long-run, but if I need to do that and in exchange ninety-nine others can continue to share their favorite pasttime, then that’s what I am willing to do.

I realize not everybody will be able to come to either GenCon or KoHIT - but to those who make it: I am looking forward to meeting you - and share the fun with you.

Münster, Germany February 15th

PHOENIX Interactive (PI) is excited to announce that the continuous development of the Warlord Universe will be in the hands of Christine Schneider, finalist in Paizo.com’s RPG Superstar competition.

„I have been following the competition from the start and Christine was a stand-out by round 2 already“, claims Arne Reuter, president of PI. „Apart from the obvious fact that she also is from Germany I liked the brilliant over-the-top yet playable ideas and her consistent writing“.

The Warlord CCG bears close ties with the world’s most successful roleplaying game, Dungeons & Dragons® , published by Wizards of the Coast. Its own fantastic background has successfully seen print in the Warlords of the Accordlands RPG books.

„Christine is the perfect author to write the next chapter about the dark, gritty, and war-torn Accordlands.“ adds Reuter „I am convinced she’ll add the right twist to keep our great fanbase on their toes and interest new players in our 7-year-running d20 card game. She is our link to the D&D® fanbase to bring Warlord home as the game you already know how to play.“

The 4th Edition of the Warlord: Saga of the Storm Customizable Card Game will be published on July 31st. The Voting for Paizo Publishing’s RPG Superstar competition will be concluded by February 19th, 2008.

In as open a game as Warlord, it is natural for any fan to have cool ideas for characters, items or actions. Yes, we would like to hear them, but in order for us to even consider looking at them, you need to include the boilerplate listed below before the text you want to submit.

Then, instead of posting them on a forum, please send them to submissions@warlordccg.de.

Put your own name in place of the blank.

To : I, __________, understand and agree to the following terms:

Unsolicited artwork, story lines, character developments and other intellectual property (collectively “work”) received by PHOENIX Interactive GmbH (PI) is considered a gift of all the donor’s rights, title and interest in and to the Work (including copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights), which Work is given to PI for no consideration, and becomes the property of PI. PI are in no way responsible to pay any transfer fees, licensing fees, royalties or any other consideration to the donor. The donor is giving the donor’s permission to use such Work, and PI thereafter shall have the exclusive right to use, alter, register or otherwise treat the Work in any way PI see fit.

Based on the above understanding, I hereby submit the enclosed Work.

So, here it is, my first entry as the official “blogger” of the new Warlord design team working under Phoenix Interactive.

Warlord has seen two different environmental resets in the past, Campaign Edition and Epic Edition. When Campaign Edition came along I was on the sidelines, an active AEG Bounty Hunter and a tournament player of budding renown. When the reset for Epic Edition came along I was recently installed as the Technical Editor, so I had a preview of what was to come, but no part in the decisions made that would define the Epic Edition world. Now we are poised to reset the environment once again, and this time I am in a spot to say something about what is to come.

This will be a reset unlike any that have come before though. It is a fundamental flaw of “double bugging” cards prior to a reset – the power level just isn’t quite right. Prior to a reset, a game’s environment is robust, developed, and … crowded. In order for cards to get noticed they need to really stand out, and thus cards designed right before a reset make you stand up and take notice, either for what they do (No Prisoners! or Halo of Fire) or for what problems they help you answer (Rough Road or Infinity’s End). Then these cards became ‘must haves’ in the reset that followed, and the whole subsequent design plan is ramped up to compensate for the set that didn’t entirely have a reset in mind. Fast forward a few years to the Epic reset – this time the reset was being done with two full sets “double bugged”, as well as a set of Warlords (and supporting cast) from the Champions Boxed set.

Mind you, I know that going into the eve of a reset without “double bugged” cards is either a way to dramatically tank sales of a set or enrage your purchasing fan base, but speaking strictly in terms of Design, it is a bad move unless you have the entirety of your reset already mapped out and playtesters dedicated to testing such a “double bugged” set in its new environs.

It is our design intent to bring no such baggage into the reset to come. As such we as designers are being given the freedom to bring you a version of Warlord that will be everything that the property can be – easy to learn, full of strategic depth, and, beyond all else, fun. If you happen to know Oliver, Florian, Jeremiah, Tommy, or myself, then you know that we have a pretty good grasp on fun while supporting a certainly respectable showing in the competitive arena. While it may be hubris to think that we can come up with the most balanced Warlord environment ever, it is certainly a target worthy of aiming for.

Obviously I didn’t include the third version of MatI in my last post. Thanks to Pavel Korbel (Nargul) I didn’t have to dig my own up (yes, that would have been digging!).

Here’s the Bounty Hunter promo version of Meet at the Inn: