New Millennium Enterprises In 1992,
George Vasilakos founded Imagination Games & Comics, a hobby shop in
Albany, NY, where he met
M. Alexander Jurkat, a lawyer with an interest in roleplaying games. While visiting GenCon with friends, Vasilakos was inspired by the success of
collectible card games (CCGs) such as
Magic: The Gathering, and proposed they create a similar game. Jurkat suggested they adapt the 1990 indie roleplaying game
Battlelords of the 23rd Century, written by Larry Sims, which he had worked on previously as an editor. In 1995, a team of Vasilakos, Jurkat and three others launched
Battlelords under the imprint New Millennium Entertainment (NME). By the time
Battlelords was released, the CCG market had already become oversaturated due to the
CCG craze, leaving NME with substantial debts. Despite initial success with the game, the company had printed too many cards, and could not recoup its costs.
Myrmidon Press Formed as a small independent games studio in 1993, Myrmidon Press had published only two roleplaying games by the start of 1996:
Manhunter (1993) and
Cosmic Enforcers (1995). It had also produced
Rifts: Manhunter (1994), a crossover of its first game with the
Rifts universe and rules, which were owned
Palladium Books. In May 1996, Palladium withdrew its license for
Rifts from Myrmidon Press, prematurely ending the
Rifts: Manhunter line. Influenced by the
World of Darkness games and the supernatural creatures of the horror genre,
WitchCraft was based on the premise that all the iconic monsters from books and film co-existed in the same world, hidden from humans. Its 1997 sequel,
Armageddon, was set in a possible future of that world, against the backdrop of an apocalyptic war between
Lovecraftian horrors, pagan gods, angels, and mythic creatures. Both games used the same rules engine, the
Unisystem, which Carella had intended to disappear into the background during play. It was able to produce a third printing of
Conspiracy X and began publishing new supplements. In July 1998, Eden Studios also announced it had bought the exclusive rights to Carella's games. In 1999, the first of these was republished as ''
CJ Carella's WitchCraft. Armageddon
would be published on 2003 as Armageddon: The End Times''. While he remained Eden Studios' president in a part-time capacity, Vasilakos was offered a job at
Last Unicorn Games (LUG) in 1999 and moved to California. On January 29 2000, Eden Studios announced that Bernie Trombley had stood down as
Conspiracy X line developer, to be replaced by Susanne Johnson-Haggett. On January 25, 2001, John Goff took over as lead developer of the game.
All Flesh Must Be Eaten In 2000, Vasilakos and artist
Christopher Shy created the zombie toolkit roleplaying game
All Flesh Must Be Eaten (
AFMBE) using the
Unisystem, which had become the studio's official house system.
AFMBE was designed to provide support for a range of different zombie settings or "deadworlds".
AFMBE used a new, smaller format (7" x 9"), which the press hoped would help it stand out in stores. In support of the game, Eden also published a series of zombie anthologies under the
AFMBE brand. These were edited by James Lower and featured authors such as
Scott Edelman,
Robin D. Laws,
Scott Nicholson, and
Thomas Piccirilli. Many of the stories received honorable mentions in the ''
Year's Best Fantasy and Horror'' anthologies, and the books sold well through the book trade. The game quickly became Eden Studios' flagship game, even outselling
Conspiracy X, and was buoyed by the later zombie renaissance started by
28 Days Later and
The Walking Dead. That year, they also published their first and only video game,
Rail Empires: Iron Dragon, based on the popular fantasy game
Empire Builder from
Mayfair Games.
d20 and GURPS During the height of the
d20 System license, Eden Studios published a small number of
Dungeons & Dragons-compatible roleplaying adventures and supplements with Matthew M. Colville as lead developer. Starting with
David Chart's
Akrasia: Thief of Time (2001), Eden Studios published a trilogy of short adventures (or "vignette books") under the
Open Gaming License, under the press' new Odyssey imprint. This Eden Odyssey trilogy was set in the Studios' own proprietary setting, called Eden. The second book,
Wonders Out of Time by
Kevin Wilson, was published later the same year, although the conclusion would be delayed. In 2002, Eden Studios published the d20 supplement
Liber Bestarius: The Book of Beasts and
M. Alexander Jurkat produced
GURPS Conspiracy X in conjunction with
Steve Jackson Games. In 2003, another d20 supplement followed:
Fields of Blood: The Book of War. That same year, the Eden Odyssey trilogy was completed with the publication of
Secret of the Ancients by
C. J. Carella. This was followed by another d20 supplement,
Waysides: The Book of Taverns (2004). Through writer Christina Stiles, Eden Studios also collaborated with Bizarro Games on the
print-on-demand d20 System game
Odyssey Prime. This game, also delayed, eventually came out in 2006. In 2010, it was translated from d20 into the Unisystem for its re-release with Bizarro's successor,
Misfit Studios. Unlike their other books, the d20 books were intended to have single print runs, since it was easier for distributors to order new d20 titles than order from a publisher's backlist. The one exception was
Fields of Blood: Book of War, which sold well and was reprinted based on the continuing demand.
Buffy was followed by the
Angel Roleplaying Game in 2003 and the
Army of Darkness Roleplaying Game in 2005.
Angel initially outsold
Buffy and
Army of Darkness initially outsold both. Due to the cost of the licences, Eden Studios decided not to continue with the
Buffy and
Angel games in 2006. Instead, Eden Studios published the second edition of its first game,
Conspiracy X 2.0.
Odyssey Prime is a science fiction setting in which players attempt to save the planet from a projected
asteroid impact, using
interdimensional travel developed in secret by the American and British governments.
Odyssey Prime was followed by an adventure,
Southern Discomfort, on June 24, 2006.
2007–present As freelancers, David Chapman line-edited
Conspiracy X and Thom Marrion line-edited
''CJ Carella's WitchCraft and
All Flesh Must Be Eaten. In 2008, Eden published Ghosts of Albion (with a second edition in 2011): a Cinematic Unisystem game of Victorian era fantasy co-created and co-written by Tim Brennan and former Buffy
star Amber Benson. From 2011 to 2013, Eden Studios also crowdfunded several Conspiracy X
titles through Kickstarter: The Extraterrestrials Sourcebook
(2011), The Conspiracies Sourcebook
(2012) and Band of Zombies'' (2012). As Vasilakos' store, Zombie Planet, became more profitable than Eden Studios, the latter eventually became inactive. ==Games==