ICE gave Tolkien fans their first official Middle-earth roleplaying game and made MERP, by some estimates, the second-best-selling fantasy RPG of its day; its Rolemaster critical-hit tables defined a whole school of detailed design.
History
Iron Crown Enterprises began as a Middle-earth campaign. At the University of Virginia in the late 1970s, Pete Fenlon ran a six-year Dungeons & Dragons game set in Tolkien's world, and with S. Coleman Charlton and Kurt Fischer he developed elaborate house rules. After graduating in 1980 they and a circle of friends, among them Richard Britton, Terry Amthor, Bruce Neidlinger and the future computer-game designer Bruce Shelley, turned the rules into a business, naming it after the Iron Crown of Morgoth. Most of the founders worked as volunteers until sales could pay them.
The first products appeared in 1980–81: Arms Law, a combat system with detailed critical-hit tables sold as an upgrade for AD&D; The Iron Wind, a campaign for any fantasy game; and Manassas, a Civil War board game set in the company's home state. Spell Law, Character Law and Campaign Law followed, and together the "Laws" became Rolemaster, a complete system prized, and mocked, for its thoroughness: percentile open-ended rolls, skill ranks, hundreds of spells and gory, specific criticals.
Because the whole project had grown out of Middle-earth, ICE asked Tolkien Enterprises for a license to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. According to ICE, it was granted partly because nobody had asked before. The exclusive worldwide license of 1982 produced a Campaign and Adventure Guidebook for Middle-earth usable with any game, then Middle-earth Role Playing (1984), a simplified Rolemaster. MERP's regional modules, dense with maps, history and invented detail, were read as eagerly by Tolkien fans as by players, and some estimates made it the second-best-selling fantasy RPG after D&D. Games Workshop printed it in Britain. ICE added the science fiction Spacemaster (1985) and Cyberspace (1989), the miniatures game Silent Death (1990), its own Shadow World setting, and in 1986 took over production and then creative control of Hero Games' Champions line.
The company's troubles were legal and commercial. Its Middle-earth Quest solo gamebooks were found to fall under the book-publishing rights held by George Allen & Unwin rather than ICE's game license, and had to be recalled and destroyed; other gamebook lines failed, and ICE came close to bankruptcy. The Middle-earth Collectible Card Game (1995) was well regarded, but in 1997 nearly 70 percent of ICE's distributors went out of business or stopped paying. In October 2000 ICE filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, losing the Middle-earth license and leaving many freelancers unpaid.
Notable work
Rolemaster and its Shadow World; Middle-earth Role Playing and its modules; Spacemaster; the Middle-earth CCG; and board games including The Fellowship of the Ring (1983) and The Battle of Five Armies (1984).
Legacy
ICE's assets were bought in 2001 by Aurigas Aldebaron and licensed to Mjolnir LLC and then Guild Companion Publications, which merged with the rights holder in 2016 and renamed itself Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd in 2017. It still publishes Rolemaster and the lighter High Adventure Role Playing, and began releasing Rolemaster Unified in December 2022. MERP's modules remain collector's items, and Rolemaster's critical tables survive as shorthand for detailed, deadly design. Tolkien roleplaying passed to Decipher, then to Cubicle 7 and Free League's The One Ring Roleplaying Game, but ICE was first through the door.
Marginalia
- The company took its name from the Iron Crown of Morgoth in Tolkien's legendarium.
- Its founders' house rules grew out of Pete Fenlon's six-year D&D campaign set in Middle-earth, run while he was a University of Virginia student.
- Arms Law (1980), its first product, was sold as an add-on combat system for AD&D before it became part of Rolemaster.
- Tolkien Enterprises granted ICE an exclusive worldwide license in 1982, reportedly because no one had asked for one before.
- At its height, some estimates ranked Middle-earth Role Playing as the second-best-selling fantasy RPG after D&D.
- Its Middle-earth Quest solo gamebooks had to be recalled and destroyed after they were found to conflict with the book publisher's rights.
- Rolemaster Unified, a rebuilt edition, began appearing in December 2022.
Quick answers
- What is Iron Crown Enterprises?
- A Charlottesville company named after Morgoth's crown that built the crunchy Rolemaster system from college house rules and held the Middle-earth roleplaying license from 1982 until its 2000 bankruptcy.
- When was Iron Crown Enterprises founded?
- Iron Crown Enterprises was founded in 1980 and is based in Charlottesville, Virginia.
- Who founded Iron Crown Enterprises?
- Pete Fenlon and S. Coleman Charlton with University of Virginia gaming friends including Kurt Fischer, Richard H. Britton, Terry K. Amthor, Bruce Shelley and Bruce Neidlinger.
- What is Iron Crown Enterprises known for?
- Rolemaster and Middle-earth Role Playing.
- What happened to Iron Crown Enterprises?
- Filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2000, losing the Middle-earth license; its assets were bought in 2001 and the brand now belongs to Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd (formerly Guild Companion Publications).
