[4] Spellfire used characters, locations, magic items, artifacts, monsters, events, and spells from the intellectual properties of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons gaming worlds.

The Artifacts, Powers, Underdark, Runes & Ruins,[5] and Birthright booster series added many new dimensions to the game.

[6] By the time the fourth edition starter pack made its debut, the future of TSR was uncertain, leading to production problems.

Before it was discontinued, Spellfire was released in six languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, and French) and four editions, as well as having eleven expansions or "booster sets".

Several years after Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR, they announced that they would be re-releasing Spellfire, but the project was canceled.

The types of champions in the original game were heroes, monsters, clerics, and wizards; later, psionicists, regents, and thieves were added.

If the player at any time had no realms, razed or unrazed, in his formation, all of the cards in his pool would be discarded at the end of his turn.

[13] Chris Baylis reviewed some of the game's expansion sets for Arcane magazine, beginning with the Underdark booster pack, rating it a 7 out of 10 overall.

He felt that these cards "go a long way towards redressing the balance upset by Powers (set six), which made Psionicists almost insurmountable".

[15] Baylis comments that "The most interesting cards of the set are the unarmed combat holds, kicks and punches, presented in a very unusual oil painting form and carrying a clenched fist symbol not yet in the rulebook.

[17] He noted that this expansion was mostly researched from the Draconomicon handbook from TSR: "As you would expect with spellcasting Wyrms, it is accented towards magic, though the set is also bolstered by events and allies that are associated with Dragons and dragonkind.

[6] He found the pack "striking", considering the fourth edition to have "the instant eye appeal that none of its predecessors could muster.

"[6] He concluded by saying: Spellfire will never seriously rival Magic, but it does provide light, sometimes intense entertainment at a reasonable price, and when you come down to it, that is surely the essence of games playing.