TSR's Birthright campaign setting debuted in 1995, and, in 1996, that setting made its way into the Spellfire card game via its own booster set. I was very excited about this release! To me, Birthright was an opportunity to take concepts from a rich land of bloodline powers and political ambitions and make Spellfire better!
It didn't. It just made Spellfire bigger.
Sure, I get that this booster set was just an obvious bit of cross-promotion (I read comics...I learned about cross-promotion before the age of 10), but I had hoped that the unique campaign characteristics that were used in Birthright would end up in Spellfire and would potentially eliminate the greatest fault in Spellfire's design - the domination of the "speed deck" in competitive play. As it was, speed-deck players who loaded their decks with turn-stealing and deck-drawing cards nearly always won without a single round of any substantial combat - and I liked combat!!! Could Birthright help?
Not really. Birthright gave Spellfire a new champion type - the Regent - and a new card for them to use - the Blood Ability. Unfortunately, the Blood Ability worked exactly like a spell and added nothing more to the game other than what amounted to a bunch of pseudo-spells that, at best, could not be countered or dispelled. Of course, with so many speed-deck players actively avoiding combat, Blood Abilities made no major impact on the strategic scene. So, we got a lot more cards, but almost no new strategies.
Despite the above complaints, I liked the flavor of the Birthright cards that evolved during the remaining days of Spellfire. I just never really got past the feeling that that uniqueness of that campaign world was ultimately a missed opportunity.
Here's a deck of bloodliney goodness made for lots of combat:
Friendly Champions
Opposing Champions
The Gorgon, The Magian, The Ogre, The Spider, The Harpy, The Serpent
Realms
Black Spear Tribes, The Gorgon's Crown, The Impregnable Heart of Haelyn, Roesone, Tower of the Sword Mage, Ilien, Ghoere, Thurazor, The five Peaks, Boeruine
Holdings
Kal-Saitharak, Magical Source, The Maze of Maalvar the Minotaur
Artifacts
Cannon Ball, Wintering, Kingstopper
Magical Items
Amulet of Plane Walking, Cloak of Displacement, Ring of Spell Storing, Armor of the High King, Crown of Regency
Allies
Tyrol, Green Slime, Ankheg, Wraith, Orogs
Events
Revolution!, The Torments of Sisyphus, Fast Talking!, Solid Fog, Cataclysm!
Rules
Divine Right, The Shadow World
ROUND 4 CARDS
Blood Abilities
Bloodform, Battlewise, Divine Wrath, Invulnerability
Cleric Spells
Summon Insects, Speak with Monsters
Wizard Spells
Legion of Dead, Clone
Unarmed Combat
Bear Hug, Flying Kick
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