A now-defunct tabletop miniatures game from WizKids, later acquired by trading card company Topps. Innovations included pre-painted models, and a model base that contained all of a model's statistics, making 'bookkeeping' or 'tracking' unneccessary.
In addition to the rules, the company's Web site also featured a library of 'fluff': a detailed backstory for the game's setting, descriptions of each model's role in the Mage Knight world and an evolving current storyline that could be influenced by the players themselves. When cards were added to the second edition of the game, they usually also had some sort of flavor text.
After about a dozen sets, the company changed the rules drastically and came out with Mage Knight 2.0, which was generally not well received (As it turns out, when your rules and statistics are built right into the model bases, drastic changes to said rules tend to make entire armies literally unplayable). After five sets under the new rules, with increasingly complex game mechanics and an ever-dwindling player base, the game was finally cancelled in 2005.
There was a spin-off game called Dungeons, which more closely resembled a D&D-style dungeon crawl, and a mass-battle ruleset called Conquest. There was also a five-issue comic book series (Stolen Destiny), a two-book novel series (Rebel Thunder and Dark Destiny), and a PC game (Mage Knight: Apocalypse).
In 2011, WizKids rereleased the game in a prepackaged board game format (see Mage Knight) to fairly positive reviews.
For magic users also skilled in armed combat, see the similarly named Magic Knight. For the fantasy novel by Daniel Fife, see Light And Dark The Awakening Of The Mageknight.
This tabletop-game provides examples of:
- All Trolls Are Different: Forest Trolls and Half-Trolls.
- An Adventurer Is You: The characters in the tabletop game roughly correspond to the main archetypes. Notably:
- Tovak is the Tank: his cards and abilities provide lots of block (notably, he starts out with a decent card that gives him *ice* block, a pretty rare defence otherwise), allow him to get something useful out of wounds, or simply turn him into The Determinator, allowing him to make his way through the world (moving, drawing extra cards and mana, etc.) through sheer force of will. He tends to be pretty bad with spells, though.
- Norowas is the Petmaster: he focuses on recruiting units, upgrading them, making them ready, etc. Notably, this can end up screwing the player over if they cannot get decent units early on, as Norowas is basically powerless without them.
- Goldyx is the Resource Master: he can get tons of mana crystals, allowing him to get the best from his cards and to play lots of spells (which, in turn, allow him to dip into other roles, depending on what he can get). This makes him more market-dependent than most characters, though.
- Arythea is the Jack-Of-All-Trades: she's an extremely versatile character who can do everything reasonably well, but doesn't really specialize in anything.
- The Empire: Atlantis is ruled by generally evil overlords and engages in slavery.
- The Necrocracy: The Necropolis Sect.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Our Dragons are bipedal dragon-men, although there are true dragons as well.
- Our Orcs Are Different: They're green-skinned, war-like, prefer close combat, and when given guns by the Black Powder Rebellion, have terrible aim. Okay, maybe not that different.
- Solo Tabletop Game: The 2011 version of the game is listed for 1-4 players. In the solo version, the human player plays against a simulated opponent.
- Steampunk: The Black Powder Rebellion and their enemies, the Technomancers of Atlantis.
- Tie-In Novel: Rebel Thunder, Dark Debts, Stolen Prophecy, The Black Thorn Gambit, and the unpublished Khamsin's Heir.
- Whatevermancy: Technomancy.
