The current big d20 news is that Troll Lord Games and Necromancer Games announced a joint publishing venture. Starting in June, Troll Lord will begin publishing d20 products for Necromancer, increasing Necromancer’s product flow and adding to what’s already being published by Sword and Sorcery. The first such product will be the adventure module Vampires and Liches, due in June (click the “Read more” link below for the product description), and more products will be announced at GTS next week. Will this added venue of Necromancer products increase their presence on game store shelves? Or will the two publisher approach serve to confuse customers and distributors? Either way, an interesting move.
Vampires and Liches product description
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What the…? Why is Necromancer doing this “two publishers” approach?
If one engine fails, they’ve got a backup to get them to the nearest airstrip, so to speak. I think maybe this is not a big vote of confidence in White Wolf’s viability in the long term. But then again, that’s just my opinion and I could be Dennis Miller (*shudder*).
With Mongoose taking over Wizard’s Attic, a lot of the “small publishers” are gonna have a hard time getting shelf space, since essentially Mongoose (their competitor) will simply be able to not stock their books and get them to the stores. By adopting 2 publishers and two different distributors as a result, Necro is sort of circumventing this potential bind and guarenteeing a certain amount of shelf space.
I don’t know if I’d call it “taking over” Wizard’s Attic (that’s where my office is for my RPGnet gig). Time will tell on that one.
With Impressions, Osseum, and other Wizard’s Attic-like companies in full bloom since a year or so back, I’m pretty sure the other d20 companies will still find their way to market just fine. True, they may not go through Wizard’s Attic, but they’ll still reach shelves.
Mongoose is NOT taking over Wizard’s Attic. Mongoose is a client of WA…just like Impressions was a client of WA. WA just does shipping for companies. Gameboard Distributors does shipping for Osseum and WA now does shipping for Tundra. It is not the consolidators giving the market problems, it is the number of products choking the distribution channel. Too much D20 my friends.
Best,
Aldo