Warlord: Saga of the Storm celebrates card game’s 20-year anniversary with limited re-release
Happy d20th birthday!
Collectible card game Warlord: Saga of the Storm plans to mark its 20th anniversary with a reprinting of old and new cards available for pre-order beginning February 1st.
Warlord was first released in April 2001 as a card game using the popular d20 system - that notably powers RPG Dungeons & Dragons - as a rules foundation, making the game easy to pick up and learn. So much so that publisher Alderac Entertainment Group often marketed it with the tagline: “The game you already know how to play."
One of the more interesting features of Warlord, the Overlord and Medusa Lord decks, came from designer John Zinser, who wrote an announcement blog post for the re-release. He said the idea for overpowered, evil-themed decks that offered increased challenges for seasoned players started with his group of friends and regular opponents.
“When we showed up to play the session I asked to see all of the character sheets and when I had them I said, ‘These characters have formed an alliance and taken over the world. Last night they implemented an Assassins Strike, killing most of the leaders and heroes of note in the world in one swift and deadly assault. Roll up first level characters, you need to save the world from your evil characters,’” he said.
The resulting tiered challenge was codified into Warlord, allowing players to seize Overlord cards from defeated decks. They could then trade that trophy for the chance to combat a player wielding a Medusan Lord, whose deck had been designed as a difficult puzzle that required skill, teamwork and no small amount of luck to best.
“There was only one copy of each Medusan Lord, each piloted by a single person in the world,” Zinser said. “To challenge a specific Medusan Lord, you had to encounter that person at an event, and offer up a Dragon Lord you had defeated in an earlier challenge. In exchange for that, you had your one shot.”
The 20th Anniversary Celebration pack will contain versions of the rare Medusan Lords before they became the epitomes of evil in the original game, giving new or returning players a bit of usable Warlord history. Those interested can pre-order a maximum of 10 copies from Alderac’s website starting on February 1st and closing on February 5th. Each will contain 19 cards, including a new Overlord for players to challenge and items themed to each included warlord.