You Heard it Here Last E18

Epic Adventure

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Welcome to You Heard it Here Last where we talk about news you’ve already heard.

https://www.enworld.org/threads/mongoose-acquires-twilight-2000-and-2300-ad.707036/

Mongoose Publishing is at it again. Recently we discussed that Marc Miller had turned over publishing of the Traveller RPG to Mongoose and now they have picked up the rights to Twilight 2000 and 2300 AD. Mongoose has been publishing 2300 AD under licensing since 2007 and currently Free League has the publishing rights for Twilight 2000. Mongoose reports nothing will change and Free League will continue with Twilight 2000 until the current licensing phase ends.

While not necessarily canonical Twilight 2000, 2300 AD, and Traveller all feel like part of the same universe and this seems to open up a huge IP space for Mongoose going forward.

Mike, what are your thoughts?

[Kick to Mike]

Christina, your take?

[Kick to Christina]

Our next item was a minor if interesting article from Rascal News

https://www.rascal.news/oh-captain-my-captain-rpg-simon-and-schuster/

The article starts with “On September 24, Simon & Schuster’s Adams Media released Oh Captain, My Captain! a Descended From The Queen RPG by James D’Amato. This marks the first time in recent memory that an imprint of the Big 5 (the largest entities in book publishing, which include S&S, Penguin Random House, Hatchette Livre, HarperCollins, and Macmillan) has produced a standalone tabletop roleplaying game.”

I guess I have a longer memory, because TSR had a publishing deal, albeit a rather strange one, with Random House in the 1980s and for a long time Dungeons and Dragons was a common sight in traditional bookstores of the day. But, to be fair the low sales of RPGs dropped them from consideration by traditional publishing houses decades ago.

This is what I find interesting. The article discusses the possibilities that TTRPGs might once again become a hot product at the traditional publishing houses and how that’s a good thing, however, the traditional publishing companies are not in a good place write now.

Indie publishing and self-publishing, especially with the creation of Kindle Unlimited have done a number on the traditional publishing companies and they no longer hold the book world in a vice grip. This almost seems like a desperate grab by the Big 5 to gain some market share.

Mike, thoughts?