HOUSE OF CARDS
NORFOLK COMPANY DEBUTS "STAR WARS" GAME THAT PITS THE REBEL ALLIANCE VS. THE EMPIRE

Diane Tennant, The Virginian-Pilot, Daily Break p. E1 (11 December 1995; TAG 9512090048).
Indexed URL: https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1995/vp951211/12090048.htm
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Query: site:scholar.lib.vt.edu "House of Cards" Tennant Decipher
Published: 2018-02-22

REMEMBER THAT famous scene from ``Star Wars'' of the dice hanging from the cockpit of the ``Millennium Falcon?''

That's when Decipher, a game manufacturer based in Norfolk, will debut what promises to be a customizable card game worth many millions of dollars, produced in six languages over two years from the plainest of storefronts on Granby Street.

Han Solo's dice will be on one of the first cards released.

Then you'll be able to see the dice, too. Well, maybe. Maybe, because the first printing of the 324-card game has already sold out, weeks before it is to be shipped.

``It's the first print run that people really want and that's what is going to be huge about our `Star Wars' game,'' said Matt Mariani, marketing director for Decipher.

``Cards have made this company grow from $3 million to easily over $10 million in a year. And we'll do better than that this year. The cards are just phenomenal.''

Decipher is familiar with phenomenal success. It holds card game licensing agreements with the two hottest science fiction properties around, ``Star Wars'' and ``Star Trek.''

One plays the light side (the Rebel Alliance) and the other plays the dark side (the Empire, Darth Vader, and all that).

The money-making part comes here: Out of 324 different cards, each player can use only 60 in the game. The cards are sold in packs of 60 (a starter set) or booster packs of 15.

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Query: site:scholar.lib.vt.edu "Matt Mariani" Decipher "Star Wars"
Published: 2018-02-22

``The suggested retail of the deck is $9 to $10,'' Mariani said. ``On the after market, they'll go anywhere between $20 and $50 a deck.

``The closest thing I can think of (for comparison) for this product is marbles,'' he continued, explaining that marbles players (remember marbles?) tried to collect the best steelies, aggies, whatever, before shooting, then traded them and claimed bragging rights when they got an especially good one.

Same holds true for the ``Star Wars'' game.

``It's more sophisticated than marbles,'' Mariani said in a classic understatement, ``but it's the same sort of concept.''

It's a complex game, but it only takes 30 to 45 minutes to play once you become familiar with the cards and rules.

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Query: site:scholar.lib.vt.edu "Translating the cards into German, French, Dutch, Spanish and Italian"
Published: 2018-02-22

Making the cards is also complex.

In an upstairs office in Decipher's building, game designer Rollie Tesh was resting his tootsies one November day by walking in his stocking feet. The other designer, Tom Braunlich, was resting his by remaining seated at the table, where he was busy pasting up prototype ``Star Wars'' cards so Parker Bros., the boxed-game company, could have a look the next day.

Translating the cards into German, French, Dutch, Spanish and Italian may be tricky, because some of the quotes were a little garbled when the movies were first translated into those languages.

To keep it consistent for foreign fans, the cards will have to bear the garbled quotes.

A bigger problem might be the German language itself, which requires a good many more words and letters to get a point across than does English, and space, while vast in the universe, is limited on a playing card.

Another trick is ensuring that each card interacts in such a way that no one can customize himself a ``killer'' deck - an absolutely unbeatable hand.

Tesh and Braunlich enjoy the challenge, knowing that elite card players are out there trying to out-think the game designers and find that killer combination.

Tesh and Braunlich are from Seattle, but they moved to Virginia Beach six months ago to be closer to Decipher.

And they're proofing such information as this, on an alien creature card:

``Myo: A regenerating, primitive, violent, desert dwelling, fearless, mercenary-loving, Lirin Car'n-befriending, cyclopian Abyssin from Byss. Calling him `monoc' will start a fight.''

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