Well, I'm sure you've at least heard of card game tournaments, even if you haven't been part of one. It basically involves you collecting cards (which are in the same shape as playing cards) which have the picture of a person, fictional or non - fictional, a short description of the person (or animal) depicted in the picture, along with some statistics and trivia about the person.

There are many card game tournaments out there, mostly based on fictional characters (who are usually derived from video games, books, and various other sources). A description of the more popular ones are given below:

1. Pokémon Trading Card Game

Based on the popular Pokémon video game, Pokémon TCG was introduced in N. America in December 1998, and had cards which depicted the various characters present in the video game series. All the characters will have a certain number of 'Hit Points', and if the opponent attacks the card with equal or more Hit Points, that card will have to be sent to the discard pile. Energy Cards are used to attack the opponent, while Trainer Cards perform various functions. These include removing damage counters from your cards, remove energy from your opponent's characters, or bring a card, which was knocked out, back to life.

2. Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game

This TCG is based on the 'Duel Monsters' in the popular Japanese cartoon of the same name and started in 2002. In this TCG, each player started with 5 cards in hand and a particular number of Life Points (official rules states for 8,000). The goal of the game is to bring down the opponent's life to 0, or to use the cards in the deck to satisfy a particular condition for an auto victory (like getting all 5 Exodia cards in hand). Monster Cards are used to attack opponents, and Spell & Trap Cards add special abilities to your hand.

3. World of Warcraft Trading Card Game

The WoW TCG is based on the hit online game, World of Warcraft. Released in October 2006, the player starts with a single hero card, and plays additional cards to increase the powers of the hero or to add more members to help him out. The goal, like all TCGs, is to reduce the health of your opponent to zero. Combat attacks are aimed at individual hero or allies, rather than at the whole hand.

Hero cards are the initial card, and only one is given per player. This card determines which allies you can have. Ability cards can have some impact on the game. Armor cards protect the character from damage. Weapon cards add functionality to a character, Quest Cards are like resource cards, but have additional abilities. Ally cards are characters who fight with or on behalf of the hero.