Iron Crown Enterprises
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Iron Crown Enterprises is a publisher of role playing, board, miniature battle, and collectible card games.
ICE was incorporated in 1980 shortly after the principal founders graduated from the University of Virginia. ICE began by publishing a series of rules supplements, beginning with "Arms Law", which were intended to serve as modular add-ons to other RPG systems offering greater detail. In time these supplements were tied together to form a RPG system of their own, Rolemaster. The company enjoyed a sudden jump in status when it acquired the license to produce an official fantasy RPG based upon J. R. R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth, which would come to be known as MERP ("Middle-earth Role Playing"). According to some interpretations, at the time of its publication ICE's Middle-earth Role Playing was the second best selling fantasy RPG after TSR's Dungeons & Dragons. ICE then added the science fiction RPGs Spacemaster and Cyberspace to its line, and, with the rise of collectible card games, the Middle-earth Collectible Card Game.
Despite ICE's many successes, in 1997 ICE suffered financial difficulties from a rapid decline in its distribution net; nearly 70% of ICE's distributors either went bankrupt or became moribund. The company entered bankruptcy and filed for Chapter 7 in October of 2000. This bankruptcy cost ICE the Middle-earth license, ending both the MERP and CCG lines.
In December of 2001, ICE was purchased by Aurigas Aldebaron LLC, an intellectual property ownership company backed by several wealthy individuals. Rather than dismantling the company, the new owners revived operations, and ICE began publishing again, focusing on Rolemaster. In 2003, ICE released a new RPG, HARP ("High Adventure Role Playing"), a simplified version of Rolemaster, which has met with general acclaim.
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