Decipher, Inc.

Decipher, Inc. is an American gaming company based in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. 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. Other popular works have included many different card games. Since 2002 Decipher has released two licensed role-playing games; Star Trek RPG and Lord of the Rings RPG.

History
From the start Decipher has been largely focused on creating games based on big, popular franchises. In 2001 they lost the rights to the Star Wars game to Wizards of the Coast, ending the long run of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game which was possibly one of their biggest games at the time. The first The Lord of the Rings movie was released that same year, giving Decipher a quick replacement franchise to take over the spot. In 2003 they attempted to market to a younger crowd, to attempt to compete with Yu-Gi-Oh and all the similar games flooding that market. They created three different anime-based games, to varying degrees of success. In 2005 with the wavering success of the .hack and Mega Man cartoons, they were forced to cancel both lines. They also attempted in 2004 to re-release the extremely popular game mechanics of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game in the form of their first non-franchised card game, Wars. Unfortunately it didn't prove to be commercially successful, and was put on hold in 2005.

During 2005, with the overall decline of the gaming industry, the company suffered financial losses and was forced to layoff as many as 40 employees. With the game industry in a decline, Decipher's future had remained in doubt up until early 2006. However, with a smaller group of employees, Decipher has been able to get back on track. Despite serious delays in products, expansions for both its Star Trek and Lord of the Rings lines have been released.

With the expiration of Decipher's license with Tolkien Enterprises in 2007, the company has released their final expansion set for the Lord of the Rings TCG, Age's End. . On 2007-12-05 Decipher also issued a press release announcing the end of the Star Treck CCG line of product with the next expansion, What You Leave Behind.

During the Holiday Season of 2007, Decipher replaced their traditional FanHQ home page with a teaser promising a that "a player revolution is coming in 2008."

WARS Fiction
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

SWCCGPC
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: "Star Wars Collectible Card Game Players Committee" (or SWCCGPC) as a means to keep the game alive. Currently the Players Committee has created 13 virtual card sets, as well as a new advanced rulebook and tournament guide to ease players and tournament directors. The SW:CCG game continues to thrive and grow as it nears its thirteenth year.

Card games

 * Star Trek Customizable Card Game (1994 - 2007)
 * Star Trek Online Customizable Card Game
 * Tribbles Customizable Card Game
 * Star Wars Customizable Card Game (1995 - 2001)
 * Young Jedi Collectible Card Game (1997 - 2001)
 * Austin Powers Collectible Card Game (1999)
 * Jedi Knights Trading Card Game (2001)
 * The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game (2001 - 2007) (Winner of the 2001 Origins Award for Best Trading Card Game )
 * .hack//ENEMY Trading Card Game (2003 - 2005) (Winner of the 2003 Origins Award for Best Tradeable Card Game )
 * Beyblade Trading Card Game (2003)
 * MegaMan NT Warrior Trading Card Game (2004 - 2005)
 * WARS Trading Card Game (2004 - 2005)

Role-playing games

 * Star Trek RPG (2002 - 2003, 2005)
 * Lord of the Rings RPG (2002 - 2003, 2005) (Winner of the 2002 Origins Award for Best Role-playing Game )