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FASA
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The FASA Corporation (often referred to simply as FASA), was a company which produced role-playing games, other text and board adventures, as well as video games in later incarnations.
An acronym standing for "Freedonian Air and Space Administration," FASA was founded around 1980 by Jordan Weisman and L. Ross Babcock III. Two of FASA's most popular and far reaching game lines are Shadowrun and MechWarrior/BattleTech.
In the early 1980s, FASA was licensed by Paramount Pictures to make a role-playing game (RPG) based on Paramount's Star Trek movies and the preceding series known as Star Trek: The Role Playing Game. Influences of the animated Star Trek were allowed in the license, and the game somewhat followed other non-canon Star Trek novels and comics. Conversely, information from the FASA version RPG has influenced and been included in later novels and comics, and games. Despite the non-canon nature of the game, information created by FASA designers has even influenced canon Next Generation-era filmed productions produced by Paramount themselves. FASA also produced four Star Trek "Micro-Adventure" games that incorporated some of the RPG's elements into smaller, easy-to-play games.
FASA's game evolved to a TNG Season 1 sourcebook published in 1988, but the contract with Paramount ended shortly thereafter, because of licensing difficulties.
FASA closed its doors around 2001 after twenty years, but the creators continue to license new games based on the creations released under this company's names. Meanwhile, Star Trek gaming has evolved and been licensed to and released by other companies such as Last Unicorn Games, Decipher, as well as Task Force Games' ongoing Star Fleet Battles game.
