playing ccgs tcgs card games and board games publisher founded 1983 founder warren holland headquarters norfolk va us key people warren holland cindy thornburg products star trek lord of the rings role playing games how to host a murder board game slogan the art of great games website decipher.com decipher inc. is an american gaming company based in norfolk virginia us . they began with three puzzles called decipher then moved on to party games and pente sets but since 1994 produced collectible card and role playing games . their longest running offering is the how to host a murder mystery series . 1 other popular works have included many different card games . since 2002 decipher has released two licensed role playing games star trek rpg and the lord of the rings roleplaying game . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 embezzlement and financial difficulties 2 wars fiction 3 player spin off organizations 4 games 4.1 card games 4.2 role playing games 5 references 6 external links history edit decipher was originally founded by warren holland in 1983 as a games producing company . their first project was to launch the successful how to host a murder line of party games . shortly after that they purchased the license for pente from parker brothers and started to produce that game as well maintaining a position in the games market . ten years later a new market of gaming was beginning with the introduction of collectible card games ccgs . seeing the opportunity in this market game designers tom braunlich and rollie tesh both former pente world champions conceptualized a media license based ccg and in november 1993 approached decipher with the idea . 3 the following month decipher acquired the license from paramount to create a ccg based on star trek the next generation . in august 1994 the new game was previewed for the first time at gen con and in november 1994 it was officially released . following an early success by the star trek tng ccg decipher looked for another popular media license to base another game on . and so the following year in december 1995 after acquiring the rights from lucasfilm decipher released the star wars customizable card game . both games became extremely popular and were ranked among the top five ccgs for the majority of their production runs star wars often placing second behind only magic the gathering . despite an initial planned three year run for the star trek tng game in november 1996 decipher announced that based on the game s success they d negotiated a new agreement with paramount to continue producing the game for longer and to expand the license agreement to include not only star trek tng but also all of the other live action star trek licenses including star trek the original series star trek deep space nine and all of the star trek films . in 1999 with the release of the star wars movie the phantom menace decipher made the decision to expand its market towards a younger generation . other games like pok mon were successfully drawing younger kids into card gaming but decipher s existing two games were seen as requiring too much thinking and planning for a younger child to properly understand and enjoy . so in response decipher created the young jedi collectible card game to target this audience . this game used images exclusively from the new movies while the original star wars ccg continued to use images only from the original trilogy until 2001 . in 1999 decipher made an attempt to merge their previous successes by creating a licensed card game designed to target the party game audience . they acquired the license for austin powers the spy who shagged me and created the austin powers collectible card game . however because the company was better known as a card gaming company than a party game company by that point the game was seen as a poor attempt at a card game and ultimately failed with production being put indefinitely on hold after the initial release . in 2001 decipher attempted to capitalize further on their successful star wars games by creating a third game called jedi knights trading card game . this game was distinct from the others because all of the card images were entirely computer generated . this enabled them to create scenes not seen in the movies or from new angles . they also increased the breadth of licenses by acquiring the card game license for the new lord of the rings series of films being produced by new line cinemas beginning that year . this acquisition became even more important at the end of the year when it was announced that decipher lost the star wars license which ended production on all three star wars games . decipher made more changes to its target markets in 2002 this time by expanding into role playing games . decipher acquired most of the gaming studio from last unicorn games and extended the licenses that they already held in order to create the star trek and lord of the rings role playing games using a new coda system which they developed . they also relaunched the star trek ccg with a new 2nd edition drawing on many of the same game mechanics that had made the first edition so popular but streamlining them to be easier to learn for new players . the following year in 2003 decipher made another attempt to enter the younger player ccg market which was now dominated by yu gi oh . they acquired the licenses for and released new games based on the popular . hack and beyblade series . although the beyblade trading card game was short lived the . hack enemy trading card game was well received and lasted several years . in 2004 they produced another license based children s game this time based on the mega man nt warrior series . they also created their first non franchised card game entitled wars which utilized the same basic game mechanics that had made their original star wars ccg so popular . 2005 was a hard year on the company . with the wavering success of the . hack and mega man cartoons they were forced to cancel both lines . the wars game had failed to gain the audience they d hoped for because it lacked the brand recognition associated with most of their other games and so it was put indefinitely on hold . after a brief attempt at a resurgence in the form of digital media they shut down their rpg lines as well . with the overall decline of the gaming industry in addition to embezzlement which cost the company millions 4 the company suffered significant financial losses and was forced to lay off as many as 40 employees . for the next two years decipher focused on their two remaining properties star trek and lord of the rings . however in 2007 with the expiration of decipher s license the company released their final expansion set for the lord of the rings tcg age s end . 5 on december 12 2007 decipher also issued a press release announcing the end of the star trek ccg line of product with the next expansion what you leave behind . 6 during the holiday season of 2007 decipher replaced their traditional home page with a teaser promising a that a player revolution is coming in 2008 . 7 on march 30 2008 decipher began looking for founding members for their new game series fight klub . 8 fight klub was designed to be a new style of ccg using a unique new marketing model . it was released in february 2009 and is themed on combat between typically macho characters from several film licences such as rambo mr. blonde and chuck norris . in january 2012 it was announced that their website would shortly also be hosting material related to the how to host a murder series suggesting that the series which had not seen a new release for nine years may be returning . 9 embezzlement and financial difficulties edit in march 2009 it was reported 10 that holland s brother in law rick eddleman had pleaded guilty to embezzling over 1.5 million usd from decipher inc. since the year 2000 . eddleman had been vp finances for decipher since 1993 and used his position to write checks to himself and to use company credit cards for personal purposes . the losses contributed to the company s decision to lay off more than 90 employees . eddleman faced a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison for 12 counts of embezzlement and a settlement of a civil lawsuit against him by decipher for 8.9 million . on july 27 2009 he was sentenced to six years and five months in prison . 11 12 wars fiction edit in collaboration with science fiction author michael a. stackpole decipher and stackpole created numerous ebook pdfs of fiction work for the wars fictional universe . these pdfs can still be found on the decipher website under wars . writers for wars include michael a. stackpole chuck kallenbach player spin off organizations edit following decipher s loss of the star wars franchise rights in 2001 decipher employees and volunteers of the card game created a new entity entitled the star wars customizable card game players committee or swccgpc . 13 14 decipher donated over one million dollars in product promotional materials and financial backing to the players committee to continue support and tournament organization of the game indefinitely . 15 since 2002 the players committee has created several new virtual card sets for the game . 16 a continuing committee exists also for star trek ccg since 2008 . 17 games edit card games edit star trek customizable card game 1 1994 2007 star trek online customizable card game 18 tribbles customizable card game 19 star wars customizable card game 1995 2001 young jedi collectible card game 20 1999 2001 austin powers collectible card game 1999 jedi knights trading card game 21 2001 the lord of the rings trading card game 1 22 2001 2007 winner of the 2001 origins award for best trading card game 23 . hack enemy trading card game 2003 2005 winner of the 2003 origins award for best tradeable card game 24 beyblade trading card game 2003 megaman nt warrior trading card game 2004 2005 wars trading card game 2004 2005 fight klub 2008 boy crazy role playing games edit star trek roleplaying game 2002 2003 2005 the lord of the rings roleplaying game 2002 2003 2005 winner of the 2002 origins award for best role playing game 25 references edit a b c lardas mark 2003 . decipher cracks the code to lasting success . tdmonthly . 2 9 . retrieved 2007 10 02 . review of the lord of the rings roleplaying game . rpgnet . 2003 . retrieved 2007 10 03 . kathy mccracken july 19 2004 . the history of star trek ccg the timeline . decipher inc. retrieved 2008 09 19 . waterside bets on cards . waterside capital corporation . retrieved 2008 02 02 . lord of the rings tcg ending long run . decipher inc. archived from the original on august 25 2007 . retrieved 2007 10 02 . star trek ccg ending long run . decipher inc. archived from the original on december 11 2007 . retrieved 2007 12 05 . happy holidays . decipher inc. retrieved 2007 12 30 . fight klub . decipher inc. retrieved 2008 03 31 . 1 norfolk man pleads guilty to embezzling more than 1.5 m . the virginian pilot . retrieved 2009 03 10 . wtkr rick eddleman to spend over 6 years in prison for fraud game company embezzlement was betrayal to family . the virginian pilot