# Fantasy Flight Games - House: Game company - Date: Founded 1995 - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/fantasy-flight-games/ > Christian Petersen's Minnesota publisher of lavish, component-heavy board games, from Twilight Imperium and Descent to licensed Star Wars and Lord of the Rings card games: a flagship of the hobby-game boom. **Why it matters:** Fantasy Flight defined the big-box 'Ameritrash' board game of the 2000s, revived classics such as Talisman and Arkham Horror, created the Living Card Game model, and brought dungeon-crawling heroes-versus-overlord play to a new generation with Descent. ## Quick answers **What is Fantasy Flight Games?** Christian Petersen's Minnesota publisher of lavish, component-heavy board games, from Twilight Imperium and Descent to licensed Star Wars and Lord of the Rings card games: a flagship of the hobby-game boom. **When was Fantasy Flight Games founded?** Fantasy Flight Games was founded in 1995 and is based in Roseville, Minnesota. **Who founded Fantasy Flight Games?** Christian T. Petersen. **What is Fantasy Flight Games known for?** Descent: Journeys in the Dark, Talisman, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Legend of the Five Rings. **What happened to Fantasy Flight Games?** Merged with France's Asmodée Éditions in 2014 and now a studio of Asmodee Group, which was owned by Embracer Group from 2022 until its spin-off and Stockholm listing in February 2025. ## History Christian T. Petersen founded Fantasy Flight Publishing in Minnesota in 1995. Its first game product, the sprawling space-empire board game *Twilight Imperium* (1997), set the house style: big boxes, lots of plastic and cardboard, long play times and heavy theme. The company adopted the name Fantasy Flight Games and, during the d20 boom, published *Legends & Lairs*, a line of supplements for [D&D's third edition](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-3rd-edition/) under the [The Open Game License](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/open-game-license/), from 2000 to 2008. In the 2000s it became one of the leading hobby board game publishers. It licensed *A Game of Thrones* for a strategy board game (2003), video game properties for *Doom: The Boardgame* (2004), *World of Warcraft: The Board Game* and *StarCraft*, and revived classics including *Cosmic Encounter* and *Arkham Horror*. Kevin Wilson adapted the Doom engine to fantasy for [Descent: Journeys in the Dark](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/descent-journeys-in-the-dark/) (2005), in which up to four heroes fight through a dungeon while an Overlord player springs traps and monsters: a grown-up, hobby-market answer to [HeroQuest](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/heroquest/). Its world, Terrinoth, also hosted *Runebound* and *Runewars*. In 2008 Fantasy Flight made a deal with [Games Workshop](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/games-workshop/) to publish games in the Warhammer worlds. It produced a revised fourth edition of [Talisman](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/talisman/) (December 2008) with many expansions, a boldly different third edition of [Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/warhammer-fantasy-roleplay/) (2009) with custom dice and cards, and several Warhammer 40,000 RPG lines. The partnership ended in 2016. The company invented the "Living Card Game," an expandable card game sold in fixed packs rather than random boosters, beginning with *A Game of Thrones* and *Call of Cthulhu* in 2008; *The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game* (2011) and *Arkham Horror: The Card Game* (2016) followed. In August 2011 it won the *Star Wars* license, producing the hit miniatures game *X-Wing* and roleplaying games with narrative dice. In September 2015 it bought [Legend of the Five Rings](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/legend-of-the-five-rings/) from AEG, relaunching it as a Living Card Game (2017) and a new RPG (2018). In November 2014 Fantasy Flight merged with the French publisher Asmodée Éditions. Under Asmodee it opened, then closed (2020), a digital studio, and moved its roleplaying lines to Asmodee's Edge Studio and its miniatures games to Atomic Mass. Asmodee itself was bought by Embracer Group in 2022 and spun off as an independent company listed in Stockholm in February 2025. Fantasy Flight continues in Roseville, Minnesota, focused on board, card and dice games. ## Notable work *Twilight Imperium*, *A Game of Thrones: The Board Game*, *Arkham Horror*, *Descent* and its app-driven *Legends of the Dark* (2021), *Runebound*, the revised *Talisman*, WFRP third edition, *X-Wing*, and Living Card Games including *Android: Netrunner*, *The Lord of the Rings* and *Marvel Champions*. ## Legacy Fantasy Flight made the big, thematic, component-rich board game a mainstream hobby product in the 2000s, and its campaign-driven dungeon crawls and app-assisted cooperative play helped prepare the ground for [Gloomhaven](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/gloomhaven/). Its Living Card Game model offered collectible-card depth without the lottery of random boosters, and its care with licenses, from Middle-earth to Star Wars, showed how a fan property could become a deep game. ## Facts - Founded as Fantasy Flight Publishing in 1995, it has traded as Fantasy Flight Games since its first game product, Twilight Imperium, in 1997. - From 2000 to 2008 its Legends & Lairs line published D&D 3rd edition supplements under the Open Game License. - Descent: Journeys in the Dark (2005) reworked the engine of Kevin Wilson's Doom: The Boardgame (2004) for fantasy. - Its 2008 partnership with Games Workshop produced a revised fourth-edition Talisman and a third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (2009); the deal ended in 2016. - It acquired Star Wars card, miniatures and roleplaying rights in August 2011. - 'Living Card Game' is its trademark for expandable card games sold in fixed, non-random packs. - It acquired Legend of the Five Rings in September 2015. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Flight_Games) - [Fantasy Flight Games (official site)](https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/) - [Wikipedia: Asmodee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asmodee) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.