Decipher

Decipher, Inc. (often just Decipher) was the Norfolk, Virginia–area game company that published the printed Star Wars Customizable Card Game (SWCCG) from December 1995 through 2001.

This wiki page is a fan encyclopedia hub for Decipher-as-SWCCG-publisher. It is not the company and does not republish Decipher corporate materials in full. Sister encyclopedias with broader company coverage include the LOTR-TCG Players Council Decipher page and Wikipedia.

1999 corporate lockup with brushstroke mark and tagline The Art of Great Games (preserved on the LOTR-TCG wiki).

Founder / leadership

Warren Holland founded Decipher in 1983 and appears on Decipher's own About pages (c. 2000) as Chairman & CEO / Founder and CEO, with headquarters in downtown Norfolk, Virginia. See the Holland page for Vision statement, press path, license-loss / Players' Committee statements, and interview links.

Early years (puzzles and party games)

Decipher began in 1983 with contest jigsaw puzzles marketed under the Decipher name, then built a long-running party-game line around How to Host a Murder, and later marketed Pente after acquiring that license from Parker Brothers. The company's own slogan of the CCG era was Decipher: The Art of Great Games.

CCG era (overview)

After Magic: The Gathering popularized collectible card games, designers Tom Braunlich and Rollie Tesh pitched a media-licensed CCG approach; Decipher's first major CCG was Star Trek: The Next Generation (1994), followed by SWCCG (1995) and later titles including Austin Powers, Young Jedi, Jedi Knights, The Lord of the Rings TCG, several youth-market licenses (.hack, Beyblade, Mega Man), the original-IP WARS TCG, and finally Fight Klub. At peak, Star Wars CCG sales were among the top non-Magic CCGs.

This hub keeps SWCCG detail local (see sections below and the expansion tiles on the Main Page). Sister wikis carry deeper LOTR / Star Trek product narratives.

SWCCG

Decipher released SWCCG after acquiring a Lucasfilm license, following earlier success with Star Trek: The Next Generation CCG. Designers commonly credited for SWCCG are summarized on Creators of SWCCG (Tom Braunlich, Rollie Tesh, Jerry Darcy, Warren Holland).

Printed Decipher sets on this wiki begin with Premiere Limited (December 1995) and continue through the Decipher expansion list on the Main Page.

After the license

When Decipher lost the Star Wars license (contract non-renewal; Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro relationship with Lucasfilm is the usual sister-wiki framing), company leadership publicly supported a Players' Committee / advocate structure so organized play and later virtual cards could continue. For the license fight, July 2000 Lucasfilm presentation excerpts, December 2001 end, and handoff context see Decipher and the Star Wars CCG Lucasfilm license. Stewardship after 2001 is community/Players Committee history, not Decipher product.

Decline (high level)

Sister encyclopedias describe a multi-year contraction after license losses and underperforming launches: FanHQ / fan-club magazine efforts faded as social media grew; WARS and several youth CCGs struggled; RPG lines were cut; staff reductions compounded late-set delays on remaining licensed games; physical product effectively ended after Fight Klub (c. 2008), while decipher.com continued intermittent "coming back" messaging for years afterward. Deep SW license chronology stays on Decipher and the Star Wars CCG Lucasfilm license; deep LOTR endgame narrative stays on the LOTR-TCG wiki.

Embezzlement (cited)

Press and sister-wiki summaries report that former Decipher finance executive Rick Eddleman (Holland's brother-in-law) was prosecuted for embezzling company funds; a civil judgment and a 2009 criminal sentence (about six years) are documented in contemporary Virginia press. Wikipedia summarizes a guilty plea involving more than US$1.5 million and a civil settlement figure near US$8.9 million; the LOTR-TCG wiki recounts Holland-hosted document dumps (now archived) estimating losses on the order of US$9 million over the 1990s–2001 tenure. Treat dollar totals and timelines as press / sister-wiki reported unless a primary court PDF is attached later; do not invent dates beyond the cited captures.

Logos

Sister encyclopedias and primary site archives preserve several distinct Decipher corporate logo / wordmark treatments. This wiki hosts encyclopedia copies with source URLs (fair use of company logos for identification).

• 
  1999 lockup — brushstroke circular mark + DECIPHER + tagline The Art of Great Games (© line reads 1999). Source: LOTR-TCG wiki (caption there: "It's an older logo, sir, but it checks out.")
• 
  Condensed wordmark — tall spaced DECIPHER (white on black). Source: Memory Alpha
• 
  Web header wordmark — luminous DECIPHER on dark gradient (Wookieepedia File:Decipher.jpg, uploaded 2008). Source: Wookieepedia
• 
  Site nav mark — compact DECIPHER GIF from decipher.com chrome (c. 2000). Primary: IA id_ capture
• 
  About header — about DECIPHER + The Art of Great Games from About Decipher pages (c. 2000). Primary: IA id_ capture
• 
  Related: Radio Free Decipher podcast / archive mark (not the corporate seal). Source: LOTR-TCG wiki

Product-line logos (SWCCG set marks, Fight Klub fist lockups, individual game wordmarks) are out of scope for this corporate gallery unless needed on product articles.

See also

• Warren Holland · Creators of SWCCG
• Star Wars CCG
• Decipher and the Star Wars CCG Lucasfilm license
• History of the Players Committee · Players Committee · Players Committee-Lucasfilm agreement
• Main Page (Decipher expansion tiles)
• Sister encyclopedias: Decipher (LOTR-TCG wiki) · Decipher, Inc. (Wikipedia) · Decipher (Memory Alpha) · Decipher (Wookieepedia)

Gaps

• Full corporate org charts, complete product calendars, and non-SWCCG deep dives remain better served by Wikipedia / LOTR / Trek sister pages; expand here only when a claim needs an SWCCG-hub cite.
• Additional logo eras (pre-1999 packaging marks; late FanHQ chrome; post-2008 decipher.com relaunch art) may exist in IA captures not yet mirrored here.
• Embezzlement dollar figures vary across secondary summaries; prefer Pilot archives + Holland's archived document site over paraphrases alone.

Sources

• Decipher, Inc. (Wikipedia)
• Star Wars Customizable Card Game (Wikipedia)
• Decipher (LOTR-TCG Wiki) — company narrative adapted here with paraphrase + dual cites
• About Decipher and Vision / Find Us (Internet Archive, Aug 2000)
• Decipher (Memory Alpha) · Decipher (Wookieepedia)
• History of the Players Committee (local Wayback-backed summary)