[citation needed] Its development involved people of unusual prominence: Michael Stackpole had a hand in the game's backstory and wrote the first short stories that introduced the background to the public, John Howe conceived the Quay extraterrestrial race, and physicists were consulted to improve the scientific plausibility of the game's backdrop premises (but which were never fully revealed).

Thus far the Kizen are mostly used as a gameplay device, but there were originally plans to introduce an anti-Kizen conflict storyline as well as somehow tie them with wave function collapse quantum mechanics to explain connections between Shi and humans.

Its existence was first hinted at in January 2002, shortly after Decipher revealed to the public that it was losing the Lucasfilm license for the Star Wars CCG (SWCCG).

For instance, at its public debut at Gen Con 2005, an introductory tournament using free demo decks is still Decipher's best-attended event in its existence, numbering over 200 people.

[3] Wars TCG cards contain striking original art from numerous professional freelance artists including John Howe, one of the world's best known fantasy illustrators.

The images on the cards depicted the science fiction drama unfolding as each expansion followed the planned 10 year story arc.

[4] Originally, Decipher published a number of short stories (The War Store listed twenty two) for free to promote the trading card game, bringing on Michael A. Stackpole and John Howe to create the universe.

The short stories were written by Stackpole (6), Chuck Kallenbach (6), Mark Tuttle (3), Michael O'Brien (2), Tim Ellington (2), Kyle Heuer (1), Erika Stensvaag (1) and Evan Lorentz (1).

[3][5] On the 15th anniversary of the game, in 2020, Arcbeatle Press begun to publish free short stories to mark the occasion in a series they called Warsong.

[14] Aidan Mason confirmed his return in a blog post for Virginia Tech's Silhouette magazine, and that his story would be a sequel to The Phantom.

This was inspired by president and owner James Wylder, who is a noted fan of the series and worked with Grail Quest when they had the license.