Star Chamber: The Harbinger Saga

Star Chamber: The Harbinger Saga was an online collectible card game (CCG) first released in 2003 by Matrix Games and Worlds Apart Productions, and now owned by Sony Online Entertainment. The game ran on both the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X platforms. It was free to download and play, with additional cards available for purchase. There was one base set and five expansion sets released for Star Chamber.

The game could be played as single-player (in practice matches, in “skirmish” matches, or with any of four campaigns, each of which comprises seven separate scenarios) or with between two and four players live over the internet. Two-player games usually required half an hour to complete, while three- and four-player games average closer to an hour.

One of the game’s primary distinctions was that it combined traditional CCG elements (card collecting and trading, deck building, the use of cards in-game, etc.) with a board wargame-style map and unit production based on locations on that map, in some ways similar to the classic Master of Orion series. There were 43 unique maps, with random elements incorporated into some of those maps. The titular Star Chamber is a location at which voting session between players’ citizens took place every sixth turn. Players voted for the Power Play, Alien Support, and Peacekeepers (see Voting below).

There were three ways to win a game of Star Chamber: Military Victory (conquering the opponent’s homeworld), Cultural Victory (having a “destiny point” advantage of 30 or more points; destiny points are generally gained by controlling “artifact planets”), and Political Victory (winning three Power Play votes).