Rage Collectible Card Game

Rage is a collectible card game, or CCG, created by White Wolf Studios in 1995 and based around Werewolf: The Apocalypse. Thanks to the explosion of Magic: the Gathering in late 1993, and 1994, dozens of games were produced during this time, and has been called the "CCG Glut". Including Rage, White Wolf also was working on Jyhad, what would later become Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. Other companies, such as powerhouse TSR (later bought by Wizards of the Coast) had Spellfire, Steve Jackson Games produced a CCG version of Illuminati, and many others came out at the time. Many games, such as Spellfire, were poorly designed, others like Galactic Empires had rushed, shoddy artwork.

Rage, however, was not one of these games. A streamlined, yet robust rules system allowed for many different paths to victory. However, the most gratifying was the ability to claw, disembowel, and generally crush your opponents to death! The art design is really good for the era. White Wolf was known for good art in their books, and it really shows up with Rage.

Rage did have problems. There were power issues with the early cards, some which could win on turn one, this was shared with Magic as well. Also, the first three sets Rage Limited, The Umbra and The Wyrm were overproduced to the point where it was easy to find cards for super cheap prices. Even today, its not unheard of to find boxes for $10-20 on Ebay and other online sellers. The problems were reversed with the following sets, War of the Amazon, and Legacy of the Tribes. These sets were limited to a single print run, based on pre-orders only. Once these boxes were gone, none were ever printed again, making these sets very hard to find.

Later, the license was sold to Five Rings Publishing Group (FRPG). FRPG created a brand new game, using the same card backs. The fans were furious, as they were told that they would be able to use the same cards for the new game. This was not true at all, and Rage lost a huge fan base. FRPG crated seven sets for the new version of Rage, known as Phase 1-6 and Equinox. FRPG was later bought out by Wizards of the Coast, and later again by Hasbro. Hasbro discontinued dozens of games during this time, including Rage, and the license went back to White Wolf.

Rage still lives on in both real world, and online formats. Rules revisions have taken place a few times over the last few years, and a number of fan sets have been created, and played through LackeyCCG and CCG Workshop.

If you play Rage in the real world, perhaps you would like some cards? You can check out my current auction for Rage CCG on Ebay!