 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(April 2021) |
The Five Rings Publishing Group (FRPG) was formed as a spin-out of Alderac Entertainment Group and ISOMEDIA.
| | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(April 2021) |
The Five Rings Publishing Group (FRPG) was formed as a spin-out of Alderac Entertainment Group and ISOMEDIA.
In 1996, Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) and ISOMEDIA divested themselves of their joint operating venture, and created Five Rings Publishing Group. Using the joint venture the two companies had co-created the Legend of the Five Rings Collectible Card Game in 1995, and realized that in order to continue to successfully publish the game that a stand-alone company focused on the game-publishing business was the best solution.
FRPG was incorporated in the spring of 1996, and was funded by a pool of investors recruited in the Seattle area by Robert (Bob) Abramowitz, who became the CEO of the new company. John Zinser, CEO of AEG took the additional role of VP of Sales, and Ryan S. Dancey of ISOMEDIA left the company to become the full-time VP of Product Development for FRPG. Other initial staff at FRPG included Mindy Sherwood-Lewis, Philip Lewis, Arnold Koppel, Heather Beiderman, Al Skaar, Blake Beasley and Daniel Landers.
FRPG signed a development deal with AEG to allow the AEG team to continue to work on Legend of the Five Rings , and licensed the L5R property to AEG for its role-playing game line.
It also began development work on the Legend of the Burning Sands , a "sequel" of sorts to the Legend of the Five Rings world, set in a mythical "dark arabia" setting featuring pseudo-Egyptians, pseudo-Mongols, and a melange of 1001 Arabian Nights and The Adventures of Sinbad . This work was also contracted to AEG.
FRPG partnered with Last Unicorn Games to develop and publish the Dune Collectible Card Game . Last Unicorn negotiated the license with the Herbert Estate and oversaw the design and art direction of the game.
The company also entered into a complex three-way deal with AEG and Pinnacle Entertainment Group to create Doomtown: The Deadlands Collectible Card Game. AEG would do the design and art direction based on Pinnacle Entertainment Group's intellectual property, Deadlands .
In addition to its work on collectible card games, the company also entered into a licensing deal with Paramount Pictures for the Star Trek license, and began work on the Star Trek Collectible Dice Game.
Finally, as a part of the deal that created FRPG, ISOMEDIA transferred its ownership of RPG International, its mail order hobby gaming business to FRPG. RPG International sold all manner of hobby gaming products (such as RPGs, collectible card games, wargames, etc.) to customers all around the globe.
FRPG had a short, but exciting life. In the spring of 1997, FRPG helped to broker the deal that allowed Wizards of the Coast to acquire TSR, Inc., the creator of Dungeons & Dragons . As a part of that deal, Wizards of the Coast also acquired FRPG, [1] which was rolled into Wizards' New Brand Development & Licensing (NBD&L) group, under the auspices of Vice President Richard Fukutaki. FRPG continued to exist as an organization within Wizards of the Coast through the end of 1998, when it was finally dissolved. During this period, it saw the launch of Legend of the Burning Sands, Doomtown, Dune, the Star Trek Collectible Dice Game, and it completed several more projects that were in transition during its acquisition, including re-launching the Rage Collectible Card Game under license from White Wolf, Inc. and redesigned and art-directed by Luke Peterschmidt, as well as overseeing the Commander's Edition of the BattleTech Collectible Card Game licensed from FASA Corporation and developed and art directed by Wizards of the Coast.
By the end of 1998, Ryan had been reassigned to head up the company's role-playing game business, Luke Peterschmidt was brought on staff full-time and took over management of many of the games FRPG had produced, and most of the rest of the team had moved on to other opportunities both within and outside of Wizards of the Coast.
Deadlands is a genre-mixing alternate history role-playing game which combines the Western and horror genres, with some steampunk elements. The original game was written by Shane Lacy Hensley and published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group in 1996.
Alderac Entertainment Group, or AEG, is a publisher of role-playing game, board game, and collectible card game products. AEG was formed by Jolly Blackburn in 1993 and is based in the city of Ontario, California. Prior to getting into their current markets, AEG was involved in hobby gaming magazines, with their first product the magazine Shadis.
Legend of the Five Rings is a fictional setting created by John Zinser, Dave Seay, Dave Williams, and John Wick and first published by Alderac Entertainment Group in 1995. The setting primarily involves the fictional empire of Rokugan, though some additional areas and cultures have been discussed. Rokugan is based roughly on feudal Japan with influences from other East Asian cultures such as China, Mongolia and Korea. This setting is the basis for the Legend of the Five Rings Collectible Card Game as well as the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game. Legend of the Five Rings was also the "featured campaign setting" of the Oriental Adventures expansion to the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons, though this book is now out of print.
Doomtown: Reloaded is an expandable card game based on the Deadlands role-playing game. It was originally a collectible card game that ran from 1998 through 2001 and was revived as the Reloaded version in 2014.
John Wick is an American role-playing game designer best known for his creative contributions to the tabletop role playing games Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea. He self-published Orkworld under the Wicked Press banner, and later co-founded the Wicked Dead Brewing Company with Jared Sorensen. His games under that company include Cat, Schauermärchen, Enemy Gods, and Thirty. He has won the Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Game and Best Collectible Card Game twice.
This page lists board and card games, wargames, miniatures games, and tabletop role-playing games published in 1996. For video games, see 1996 in video gaming.
Legend of the Burning Sands (LBS) is an out-of-print collectible card game (CCG) published by Five Rings Publishing Group in July 1998. It was a spin-off from the earlier CCG Legend of the Five Rings. Legend of the Burning Sands was set in the same fictional world as Legend of the Five Rings, but with an Arabian setting rather than an Oriental one, with a few characters appearing in both games. Both games had similar mechanics and emphasized a continuing storyline.
The Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game is a role-playing game originally written by John Wick and published by Alderac Entertainment Group, under license from Five Rings Publishing Group, in 1997. The game uses the Legend of the Five Rings setting, primarily the nation of Rokugan, which is based on feudal Japan with influences from other East Asian cultures.
Susan Van Camp is a fantasy artist, best known for her work on various role playing games.
Elizabeth T. Danforth is an illustrator, editor, writer, and scenario designer for role-playing games and video games. She has worked in the game industry continuously since the mid 1970s.
Crafty Games is an American publisher of tabletop games based on espionage and fantasy themes, particularly Mistborn and Spycraft. The company was founded by the creative team behind the Classic Spycraft and Spycraft 2.0 RPGs, shortly after both lines were shut down by then-publisher Alderac Entertainment Group. Since its inception, Crafty Games has published over 50 products in print and PDF format. Crafty Games' work on Spycraft 2.0 has won nominations for the Diana Jones Award and 4 ENnie Awards in 2006.
Dune: Chronicles of the Imperium is a role-playing game published by Last Unicorn Games in 2000.
A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards, introduced with Magic: The Gathering in 1993.
Sam Wood is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games.
Franz Vohwinkel is a German artist and illustrator whose work has appeared in role-playing games.
Ree Soesbee is an American game designer of collectible card games, role-playing games, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), as well as a writer of primarily fantasy novels.
Matt Forbeck is an American author and game designer from Beloit, Wisconsin.
Eric Polak is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games.
Ryan S. Dancey is a businessman who has worked primarily in the collectible card game and role-playing game industries. He was vice president in charge of Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the Coast.
John Zinser is an American game designer who has worked primarily on collectible card games and role-playing games.