 | |
| Iron Crown Enterprises | |
|---|---|
| Company Information | |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Founder | Pete Fenlon, Coleman Charlton, et al. |
| Products | MECCG, MERP |
Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE or I.C.E.) is a company that has produced role playing, board, miniature, and collectible card games for over 20 years. Many of ICE's better-known products were related to J.R.R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth, publishers of the Middle-earth Collectible Card Game (MECCG) and Middle-earth Role Playing (MERP), but the Rolemaster rules system, and its science fiction equivalent, Spacemaster, have been the foundation of ICE's business.
History
Pete Fenlon's Dungeons and Dragons campaign set in Middle-earth , which he played with Coleman Charlton and Kurt Fischer, developed increasingly complex house rules. After they graduated from the University of Virginia in 1980, they founded a company with the intent to publish their house rules, naming their company after the Iron Crown. Other principal employees included Richard H. Britton, Terry Kevin Amthor, Bruce Shelley, Bruce Neidlinger, Heike Kubasch, and Olivia Fenlon. Financial troubles led to difficulties paying salaries, leading to some of the principal employees to depart and the remaining to work side jobs.
In these early years, ICE released several products. Arms Law (1980) offered as an alternative complex combat system for Dungeons & Dragons. The Iron Wind (1980) was a campaign setting to play games in, while Manassas (1981) was a Civil War wargame.
Arms Law was expanded with Spell Law (1981), Claw Law (1982), and Character Law (1982), all of which were then bundled as the complete Rolemaster system.[1]
ICE approached Tolkien Enterprises to enquire after the license for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and according to Tolkien Enterprises, ICE was actually the first to ask for it. They signed an exclusive licensing deal in 1982. After first publishing a system-agnostic sourcebook, A Campaign and Adventure Guidebook for Middle-earth, ICE began writing Rolemaster supplements with the license. In 1984, they published Middle-earth Role Playing (MERP), which utilized a somewhat simplified version of the Rolemaster system.
Beyond role-playing games, ICE also briefly published some board games with their license in this period.[2] Rolemaster still continued as its own system, even introducing some new campaign settings under the Rolemaster brand.[3]
Following Games Workshop's success with gamebooks, ICE also began publishing gamebooks, such as Tolkien Quest and gamebooks based on Sherlock Holmes and The Chronicles of Narnia.[4] These gamebooks, though successful, would lead to significant financial issues. During the publication of the fourth book of the Tolkien Quest series, Allen & Unwin claimed ICE and Tolkien Enterprises had violated their contract. All four books of the series had to be recalled and destroyed, with the loss being estimated between 2.25 and 2.5 million dollars. The Narnia gamebooks were also not correctly licensed. ICE was able to negotiate a gamebook license with Allen & Unwin in 1986, which resulted in the Middle-earth Quest series. By then, however, the gamebook market was already well beyond its peak.[5]
Having had to cancel many auxiliary products to cut costs, ICE refocussed on its core products. MERP saw significant revisions, coinciding with the publication of the Other Hands fanzine. ICE had big plans to support MERP and its auxiliary products, but the books were an increasingly smaller percentage of ICE's sales, going from 85% in 1986 to 15% in 1995.[6]
With its roleplaying products losing market share, ICE sought to enter the collectable card game market. It had in fact signed over its card game rights to Wizards of the Coast, but was able to recover them because they had neglected to utilize them. Coleman Charlton designed Middle-earth Collectible Card Game, which like Rolemaster was highly complex. Despite this, it was initially very popular. Demands from distributors led to overprinting, which became disastrous as the CCG market shrank. MERP was put on hold in 1997, while MECCG ended in 1998. Its final remaining product was a fourth edition of Rolemaster, but as debts piled up, the company was unable to hold out for the release of the upcoming film adaptations, on which it had pinned its hopes for revival. Tolkien Enterprises too sought to profit from the films, and called in its debts. ICE was forced to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, which allowed Tolkien Enterprises to reclaim its rights. The company ultimately filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001. [7]
Both licenses ended up with Decipher, and former ICE employees ended up working on their products. Matt Forbeck and Chris Seeman wrote for the roleplaying game, while MECCG line editor Mike Reynolds managed the Trading Card Game. The remaining assets of ICE were bought by John R. Seal, a fan of the company, who licensed them to other companies.[8]
- Game Series
- Lord of the Rings Adventure Game (1991-1993)
- Middle-earth Collectible Card Game (1995-1998)
- Middle-earth Role Playing (1982-1997)
- Middle-earth Quest (1986-1988)
- Tolkien Quest (1985)
- Boardgames
- (1983) The Fellowship of the Ring
- (1984) The Battle of Five Armies
- (1984) The Lonely Mountain
- (1985) Riddle of the Ring
- (1994) The Hobbit Adventure Boardgame
- Other products
- (1997) Middle-earth Puzzles
External links
References
- ↑ Shannon Appelcline (2014), Designers & Dragons: The ’80s, pp. 95-97
- ↑ Shannon Appelcline (2014), Designers & Dragons: The ’80s, pp. 98-101
- ↑ Shannon Appelcline (2014), Designers & Dragons: The ’80s, pp. 102-104
- ↑ Shannon Appelcline (2014), Designers & Dragons: The ’80s, pp. 104-106
- ↑ Shannon Appelcline (2014), Designers & Dragons: The ’80s, pp. 106-108
- ↑ Shannon Appelcline (2014), Designers & Dragons: The ’80s, pp. 109-111
- ↑ Shannon Appelcline (2014), Designers & Dragons: The ’80s, pp. 113-118
- ↑ Shannon Appelcline (2014), Designers & Dragons: The ’80s, pp. 118-125