Over at the Mongoose Publishing forums, Matthew Sprange made the following announcement about two other roleplaying games originally published by the late, great Game Designers' Workshop:
We are both very happy and proud to announce that Twilight: 2000 and 2300AD have been acquired in their entirety by Mongoose Publishing, joining our library of games alongside Traveller.
All three are games I read and played as a teenager, and so it is both awesome and humbling to become their stewards.
So, what does this mean?
Twilight: 2000
Twilight: 2000 is currently published by the frankly stellar people at Free League. We have had conversations with them and not only will Twilight: 2000 continue to be published by Free League for the current licence period, as things stand we have every expectation it will stay in their capable hands beyond that.
2300AD
You will be seeing more 2300AD material coming in the near future, and we have manuscripts due for both Invasion and a brand new book of adventures. In addition, we will be bringing 2300AD to the TAS programme on Drivethru, likely within the next few months – so get writing! Classic Traveller will be appearing on TAS within the next month or so, and once that is up and running we will get cracking on 2300AD.
At the moment, past editions of both Twilight: 2000 and 2300AD are available on Drivethru (https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/45/) and will soon be appearing on our website. Of course, Free League have the current edition of Twilight: 2000 (seriously, check them out, they have done excellent work)!
In addition, both 2300AD and Twilight: 2000 have been added to the Fair Use Policy.
That covers our immediate plans for both games, but both properties clearly have immense potential and we hope to be able to bring you more news in the near future.
Very interesting stuff! I suspect this is connected to the other recent news regarding the future of Traveller. Seeing as I've been refereeing a Twilight: 2000 campaign for just shy of three years now, I'll definitely be keeping an eye for further news on that front, since there's potential, albeit small, that this might impact the subsequent development of that game. As for 2300 AD, I haven't played any version of that game in close to thirty years(!) now, let alone the Mongoose version, that this doesn't much impact me. In any case, it's fascinating to see the way that Mongoose Publishing has become the inheritor of a significant portion of GDW's gaming legacy, something I'd never have expected.
Now if only they could inherit Dark Conspiracy. A German outfit ran a crowdfunding campaign for it several years back, and then promptly declared bankruptcy once the crowdfunding ended. I wouldn't mind seeing a new edition.
ReplyDeleteI have a fondness for Dark Conspiracy, too, though it's largely based on the game I'd hoped it would be rather than what it was.
DeleteDark Conspiracy was cursed by bad timing. A game of paranormal investigation and conspiracies . . . that came out two years BEFORE the X-files made all that popular.
DeleteGlad to see Free Leauge is keeping the T2000 license. I love there stuff. They would probably knock Dark Conspiracy out of the park.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I'm wondering who actually has the rights to Dangerous Journeys these days. TSR killed it, but I've never seen anything that indicated they wound up with the rights, so...some vestige of GDW? Gygax's estate? Someone else entirely? I can't see anyone bringing it back but it's an amusing pipe dream.
ReplyDeleteI am not 100% certain of this, but I believe that, as a consequence of the lawsuit TSR broughts against GDW, TSR gained ownership of Dangerous Journeys. If so, I'd imagine WotC now has it.
DeleteI'd wondered about 'Dangerous Journeys' from time-to-time as well. That said, almost as soon as I ever do, I recall being underwhelmed when I bought the first 2 or 3 books when they were originally published decades ago.
ReplyDeleteMy friends and I played first edition 'Twilight 2000' when it was initially published 40 years ago. We were freshmen in high school. None of us had any military experience or had ever been to Poland at the time. Regardless, I had such fond memories of the game that I bought the Free League version a couple/few years ago, despite knowing I would never get an opportunity tom play it, and was very impressed with the boxed set - both the substance and the production quality.
Forgive my ignorance here...
ReplyDeleteIn all the NuTSR, retro-clones and other news, I find myself not understanding the IP ownership and revenue streams.
Fair to say Mongoose now has the legal right to produce and ship TW2K materials; Free League has the legal right to create ongoing IP (until the end of their current contract).
Assuming the nitty gritty details are contract specific, does that capture the division of labor between a Game Company and a Production Company?
If there's a primer on this, hit me with a link.
TW2K was a great game; from what I have read Free League crushed it (positive) with the reboot. Glad to hear it sounds like this will continue beyond a short burst of nostalgia.
Would like to see Hasbro release some of the old TSR games that way.
ReplyDeleteThe admiration of Free League from Mongoose is nice to see, and I hope it's genuine and not just PR fluff.
ReplyDelete