Mongoose Publishing Doing Grand

Mongoose Publishing has posted their 2009 “State of the Mongoose Address” and it’s great to see a RPG company doing so well!

In general, they say “you have to work hard but you can still do well in RPGs.”  They’ve grown to 14 full timers and have a huge roster of games going on.

Highlights:

1. A bunch of new Traveller settings and supplements.  The coolest one is Reavers – Piracy in the Sea of Stars, which in title sounds a lot like my “Reavers on the Seas of Fate” pirate campaign I’m running.  Synchronicity!  And there’s Codename Veil, which sounds a lot like Delta Green.  Plus, a new 2000AD license in the vein of Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog called “ABC Warriors,” where you play warbots!
2. A new Runequest 2, redesigned and taken back to its roots – but without a SRD.  With a  huge campaign, Glorantha book, and more.  And variant settings, including Deus Vult, where you are a Catholic demon fighter in the 12th century, and the Eternal Champion stuff.  And they’re moving Wraith Recon over to it, they say they have no plans to do any more D&D 4e stuff.
3. The Conan license is in limbo but they’re dropping prices on the old stuff!
4. They are trying to expand Paranoia as a line, I get the impression they feel like they’ve tapped out the life of a Troubleshooter and have tried some “out of the mold” splatbooks and are seeing how those go to determine direction.
5. And more Earthdawn!  And Dragon Warriors!  And Cthonian Stars, a Cthulhu setting for Traveller!  And a bunch more other stuff!

Man, hats off to these guys, they are shipping some product.  And for those who remember the “old Mongoose” and the bad editorial, they’ve tried very hard to hire up and improve quality in editorial, and claim that in 2009 “in the past few months, the number of editorial issues in the many, many books we have released can be counted on one hand.”

I’m not sure why they are stepping away from openness with RQ2 though, it seems to have paid off for them enough with Traveller.  One demerit for that.  But otherwise, they are expanding heavily despite the global economy, doing so many things that the “common wisdom” says are bad – licensed games, having a bunch of different game lines…

I have some Mongoose games (Conan, Paranoia, Traveller) but don’t play any faithfully.  The lure of large game lines and rich ecosystems, especially like the Traveller one, may just bring me over however.