Mongoose Publishing co-founder Mathew Sprange revealed the outlines of the company’s plans for 2010 in the annual “State of the Mongoose” post on its Website, along with a brief overview of 2009. The company had four months this year in which sales exceeded those of the last three years, even though it no longer makes miniature games, the post said in a generally upbeat assessment of 2009. On the other hand, “It remains a tough market,” Sprange said. “The right titles can still get into decent five figure numbers in terms of sales but not every release is going to achieve that, no matter how innovative they are or how hard you work.”
One area of difficulty noted in the post is Mongoose’s Conan RPG license. The company has had a disagreement with the license holder that prevents it from producing new material and will be reducing the retail price of all Conan books. The new price for the main rulebook will be $29.99.
The bulk of the post, however, does not look back but rather forward to Mongoose’s plans for the coming year. The company will continue to expand the Traveller RPG line of core rulebooks and support various sub-lines including Judge Dredd and the base setting of the Third Imperium.
Two new settings using the Traveller system are scheduled for release late in the year: Reaver – Piracy in the Sea of Stars invites players to assume the role of space privateers operating in a universe of interstellar empires, mysterious aliens, and clandestine wars; and Codename Veil, set in Earth’s own near future pits members of various global intelligence agencies against an unknown alien force seeking to infiltrate the world.
RuneQuest is getting a complete overhaul under the guiding hand of Lawrence Whitaker. Called Runequest II, it will feature a series of core books with leather covers at the same cost as traditional roleplaying books. The first book is scheduled to release in January, with additional books following throughout the year. Hand in hand with this new edition will be source materials for the traditional RuneQuest setting of Glorantha, a 256 page “epic” campaign entitled Pavis Risis, and two new fantasy settings: Deus Vult, set in 12th century
Other lines with new releases planned include Paranoia, Magnum Opus, Wildfire, Lone Wolf, and more.
