Pete Fenlon


Pete Fenlon is an American role-playing game designer, game developer, graphics designer and publisher. His works include stories, art and games in the genres of science fiction, mystery, fantasy and historical fiction.

Personal life

He was born in Japan to an Air Force Colonel and Captain. He also lived in Germany and the US before settling in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School, where he served as Executive Officer of the Simulations Club. Fenlon began playing Dungeons & Dragons when it was introduced in 1974. After obtaining a degree in history and anthropology at the University of Virginia, he earned a law degree at the College of William & Mary and passed the Virginia State Bar exam. He is very active in the Boy Scouts of America.

Career

He began his career by creating custom fantasy role playing game rules and drawing detailed, full-color Middle-earth maps after passing the Bar exam. He has created and published games and fiction since 1980.
Fenlon began playing Dungeons & Dragons when it was introduced in 1974, and by the late seventies he, S. Coleman Charlton and Kurt Fischer were developing a set of unique house rules for their six-year campaign. They decided to turn their rules into a business, starting Iron Crown Enterprises in 1980. Fenlon's first map of Middle-earth was printed in A Campaign and Adventure Guidebook for Middle-earth in 1982, and his maps continued to be used in ICE's Middle-earth Role Playing books for about 15 years. He also worked on ICE's Rolemaster and Shadow World games. In October 2000, Fenlon announced that ICE had entered chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Shortly after, he became involved in development of alternate reality game The Beast.
In 2007, Fenlon was appointed CEO of Mayfair Games, the worldwide English-language publisher of The Settlers of Catan. In 2016, he became CEO of Catan Studio, Inc., an independent studio with the Asmodee Group.