Target Games

It is associated with Sweden. The record gives 1980 as its date of establishment or first appearance. Activity is recorded as ending in 1999. Its recorded seat is Stockholm. The recorded field of activity is tabletop role-playing game. Recorded products are Drakar och Demoner.

• Name — Target Games AB • Founded — 1980 • Defunct — 1999 • Type — Publicly traded Aktiebolag • Fate — Bankruptcy • Founder — Fredrik Malmberg, Lars-Åke Thor, Johan Arve, Klas Berndal, Roger Undhagen • Hq Location City — Stockholm • Hq Location Country — Sweden • Key People — Anders Blixt, Bryan Winter • Industry — Role-playing games, collectible card games, miniature wargaming, and other assorted media • Products — Drakar och Demoner, Mutant, Mutant Chronicles, Kult, Doom Troopers, Warzone

The fantasy role-playing Drakar och Demoner (first edition published in 1982) was Äventyrsspel's best-selling series of games. The first editions were basically a translation into Swedish of Steve Perrin's Basic Role-Playing (BRP). The various Äventyrsspel editions of the game all remained fundamentally BRP system games.The earlier editions did not include any campaign setting except for some information about generic fantasy creatures and so on. Over time, different writers created the "Ereb Altor" campaign setting piecemeal in adventures and source books. For the fifth edition, released in 1994, a new setting was created, dubbed "Chronopia", that had a darker tone. Today the Drakar och Demoner brand is owned by Swedish company Free League Publishing.

• Illustration — 1989 version box cover The name Mutant was used for a series of related science fiction themed role-playing games. The 1984 version was set in a post-apocalyptic world similar to the one in Gamma World. Mutant 2 (1986) was an expansion module with more advanced rules. The 1989 version was a cyberpunk game while the later Mutant RYMD (1992) and Mutant Chronicles (first edition 1993) were science fantasy games set in the Solar System. These versions used variants of the same Basic Role-Playing rule system used in Drakar och Demoner. Later Mutant games include Undergångens arvtagare (Heirs to the Apocalypse) by Järnringen, and År Noll by Fria Ligan (who publishes the English-language version of that game, Mutant – Year Zero, as Free League).

An offshoot of Mutant, as an RPG set in a dystopic future solar system, Mutant Chronicles evolved into a brand of its own. The Mutant Chronicles brand later became so popular that it spawned multiple spin-offs as well, most notably the Doomtrooper collectible card game as well as the Warzone miniature wargame.

Kult is a contemporary horror-themed game that Äventyrsspel first released in 1991. The setting was inspired by Gnostic philosophy and horror films such as Hellraiser. The violent horror themes of the game made it a subject of controversy in Sweden on multiple occasions. This resulted in Swedish toy stores refusing to sell the game. There were three editions based on the original ruleset published in Swedish, English and more by several companies. 2018 saw a brand-new edition Divinity Lost by Helmgast, using a version of the Apocalypse World engine.