Star Wars Trading Card Game

The Star Wars Trading Card Game was a game produced by Wizards of the Coast after the license for collectible card games was given to that company. It was created by Richard Garfield who is better known for creating the popular card game, Magic: The Gathering. Prior to this, Decipher held the license, and used it to produce the Star Wars Customizable Card Game. Wizards of the Coast, near the end of 2005, have announced that the TCG game would be put on a indefinite hold, although they would still retain the license.

WotC still produces the Star Wars Miniatures game as well as the Star Wars Roleplaying Game.

WotC no longer produces the Star wars Trading Card Game. Production was stopped in October 2005. However, a non-profit, player-elected community called the Independent Development Committee, or IDC for short, began making virtual cards that can be downloaded and printed out to continue gameplay.

Gameplay
In the Star Wars TCG, cards are placed in three different arenas: Space, Ground and Character. The object of the game is to control two of these three arenas. To control these arenas, the two sides (light and dark side or, occasionally neutral side) must fight each other in these arenas- Space cards fight in Space arena, etc.

Types of Cards
There are seven different types of cards- space (colored blue), ground (green), character (purple), battle (red), mission (yellow), location (depending on the arena they are played in) and equipment (silver). Space, Ground and Character cards all fight in their respective arenas (unless using a special ability), battle cards are cards that can be played at any time to cause an effect (eg prevent damage, add extra power), missions are like battle cards except they must be played at a certain time, location cards give the user a continuous special effect for an arena, and equipment cards give special effects to the units they are attached to.

Parts of a Card
On every Space, Ground and Character card on the left side, there are three sets of numbers. The top number (with a small "s" to the right of it is the  speed  of the card. The speed determines the order in which the cards can attack or use their special effects in. The  power  of the card (located below the speed and has a small "p" to the right of it) is the amount of dice that can be rolled in an attack. Below the power is the  health  which is the amount of damage from the attacks that the card can withstand before it is discarded.

To the right of the speed, power and health amounts is the area that contains the special effects that the card has, as well as "flavor text" (text added such as quotes from a character). For some cards (mainly characters), there is a small letter in a circle. Some units have more than one version of the same unit (eg Yoda has a version A, version B, version C, etc.). If two cards of the same unique unit are played (eg Darth Vader A and B), then these cards must be  stacked . The top left corner of the card is the unit's  build cost  (the amount of build points needed to put the unit into play). To the right is the unit's name as well as the arena it is to be played in and the type of unit they are (eg Jedi Master, Bounty Hunter). In the top right corner is the side that the card is on (light, dark or neutral).

Beginning the game
After the decks are shuffled, both players draw the top seven cards from their deck. They can then, in turn "build" a card and put it into play. In the beginning of the game, up to 30 build points can be used. When a card is put down, another must then be picked up. When the player has reached or nearly reached 30 build points (if 30 build points are not reached, a card can be partially built and not put into play until the full build point total is reached), a dice is rolled to see how many more build points are to be gained to begin the first turn. If a player has at least one unit in each arena, then they gain one more build point than is displayed on the dice. Players then spend their buid points, make sure they have 4 Force, pick up a card and enter the Battle phase.

Expansions

 * TCG: Attack of the Clones
 * TCG: Sith Rising
 * TCG: A New Hope
 * TCG: Battle of Yavin
 * TCG: Jedi Guardians
 * TCG: The Empire Strikes Back
 * TCG: Rogues and Scoundrels
 * TCG: The Phantom Menace
 * TCG: Return of the Jedi
 * TCG: Revenge of the Sith
 * TCG: Fall of the Republic (IDC set: Unofficial and non-canonical )
 * TCG: Scum and Villiany (IDC set: Unofficial and non-canonical)
 * TCG: Battle of Endor (IDC set: Unofficial and non-canonical)