Decipher

MerricB · Jun 18, 2007

Back in the day, I used to buy a lot of Decipher products - primarily their Star Trek and Star Wars CCGs, but later their LotR CCG.

Then they "expanded" into RPGs - Star Trek and Lord of the Rings in particular.

I then drifted away, and saw occasional reports of them doing various things I didn't have any interest in, and that their RPG lines were... dying... to put it mildly.

I just saw a report on Gaming Report that the LotR CCG license was about to end.

Hmm - Decipher used to be one of the big players in the gaming (especially CCG) industry. Does anyone know what their status is now? Does anyone care?

Cheers!

Primitive Screwhead · Jun 18, 2007

My first knowledge of Decipher was when they bought out Last Unicorn Games Star Trek RPG... which bummed me out since LUG had a fabulous online support presence.. I was able to join in the creation process and work some playtesting for them.

Unfortunately the same time the license switched over my then-wife-now-ex had a tissy about how much time I spent gaming {one session each month..maybe 8 hours all told} with people who were freinds of us both... so my game died and I never picked up the new books.

I think they are a decent company, just lack the marketing brilliance of WoTC...which really puts them ahead of most RPG and CCG game companies

They may be relying too much on the licenses, but they did drop a chunk of change on em...

theredrobedwizard · Jun 18, 2007

Since the Trek reboot and the Star Wars license issue with WotC (as well as the terrible system that is CODA for Trek and LotR RPGs), I stopped paying any attention to Decipher. I gave them a considerable amount of my High School CCG budget each month, and all I got was the horrid CODA system.

-TRRW

ColonelHardisson · Jun 18, 2007

theredrobedwizard said:
Since the Trek reboot and the Star Wars license issue with WotC (as well as the terrible system that is CODA for Trek and LotR RPGs), I stopped paying any attention to Decipher. I gave them a considerable amount of my High School CCG budget each month, and all I got was the horrid CODA system.

-TRRW

I ran the LotR RPG that used the CODA system, and thought it was pretty nifty. A very enjoyable campaign.

Ranger REG · Jun 18, 2007

Primitive Screwhead said:
My first knowledge of Decipher was when they bought out Last Unicorn Games Star Trek RPG... which bummed me out since LUG had a fabulous online support presence.. I was able to join in the creation process and work some playtesting for them.

Correction: They "stole" license out from under WotC, who bought LUG.

Primitive Screwhead said:
I think they are a decent company, just lack the marketing brilliance of WoTC...which really puts them ahead of most RPG and CCG game companies

When Decipher hired former LUG staff (who were let go from WotC when Hasbro ordered a downsizing of its company and all their subdiaries), things were looking up for those who don't believe WotC could do a d20 version of Trek.

But then they haven't been able to ride the coattail of the successful LOTR films. Their marketing capabilities when it comes to RPG sucks. One by one, many of the former LUG staff left Decipher for better jobs. Last I checked, their RPG Studio is run by only two people.

They were supposed to come out with a WARS TCG -- and contracted Mongoose to write a RPG based on the game's universe -- but that never did took off.

jdrakeh · Jun 18, 2007

ColonelHardisson said:
I ran the LotR RPG that used the CODA system, and thought it was pretty nifty. A very enjoyable campaign.

Most people whom I know (online and offline) who read or played the LotR and Trek RPGs really liked the CODA system itself -- what they didn't like was the poor editing of the books. I think that this poor editing really hurt Decipher's reputation over time, possibly resulting in diminished sales of later books in both the Trek and LotR lines. I know that this reputation for poor editing kept me from buying the LotR books, despite my having an interest in them.

Acid_crash · Jun 18, 2007

Ranger REG said:
They were supposed to come out with a WARS TCG -- and contracted Mongoose to write a RPG based on the game's universe -- but that never did took off.

Oh Wars did come out and I think it was a great card game, and Mongoose did print the rpg book based on the games universe, but it was d20 so I didn't purchase it. But they didn't take off, and Wars was cancelled after one expansion and I think the rpg died a horrible fateful death.

ColonelHardisson · Jun 18, 2007

jdrakeh said:
Most people whom I know (online and offline) who read or played the LotR and Trek RPGs really liked the CODA system itself -- what they didn't like was the poor editing of the books. I think that this poor editing really hurt Decipher's reputation over time, possibly resulting in diminished sales of later books in both the Trek and LotR lines. I know that this reputation for poor editing kept me from buying the LotR books, despite my having an interest in them.

It wasn't the editing, really, that was the problem. The real problem was the organization of the core book for LotR. For example, there were aspects of character creation scattered throughout the book, making it a bit of a pain to find everything.

CapnZapp · Jul 5, 2024

I wrote up my contemporary experiences (it's not 2007 anymore!) before I found this thread. Rather than repeat myself, here's a link:

Decipher Star Trek RPG news wanted

I read several reviews that had the same complaints about the layout of the character generation material in the core book, so that apparently is a problem. I went to my FLGS yesterday with the intention of cancelling an order 3 months old and buying the Star Trek book instead. But, the old...

www.enworld.org

Decipher

MerricB

Eternal Optimist

Primitive Screwhead

First Post

theredrobedwizard

Explorer

ColonelHardisson

What? Me Worry?

Ranger REG

Explorer

jdrakeh

Front Range Warlock

Acid_crash

First Post

ColonelHardisson

What? Me Worry?

CapnZapp

Legend

Decipher Star Trek RPG news wanted

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