Mongoose Year in Preview

On the heels of Mongoose‘s Starship Troopers announcement, the company has outlined this year’s planned releases. Bruce Graw, formerly of Agents of Gaming, has joined the Mongoose staff, and will bring his Babylon 5 Wars experience to the company’s plans for miniatures games. Planned product highlights include: a new boardgames division; Schism, a “mature” RPG about a war in Heaven; Judge Dredd: Turf Wars, a miniatures combat game; Mighty Armies, a 15mm fantasy miniatures wargame that will package an entire army for $19.95; and hints toward another unannounced license, based on “an old and very popular RPG”. Click “Read more” for the full release, and start your drooling.

Mongoose Publishing press release follows:

Hi guys,

Now the big announcement has come, I can tell you what else we have planned for 2004! We have a _lot_ of cool things going on this year. I’ll summarise them below, and then go into greater detail.

1. Miniatures and wargames
2. Starship Troopers
3. New Licence
4. Conan
5. Lone Wolf
6. Judge Dredd: Turf Wars
7. Mighty Armies
8. Quintessential II
9. Boardgames
10. Schism
11. Nemesis the Warlock
12. Babylon 5
13. OGL Rulebooks
14. The Ultimate Campaign Trilogy

MINIATURES AND WARGAMES
Mongoose Publishing is proud to announce the arrival of Bruce Graw to our ranks. Bruce’s skill and expertise in the miniatures production business will bring new strengths to Mongoose, as he leads the way with several new ranges of miniatures and related wargames. More news below. . .

STARSHIP TROOPERS
This is the big one! As you have read elsewhere, Mongoose Publishing is proud to announce the acquisition of the Starship Troopers licence, to produce miniatures, wargames, roleplaying games and graphic novels. More news on this soon, but we are intending to explore every nook and cranny of the Starship Troopers licence, as well as adding a touch of our own flair. The Starship Troopers wargame will allow players to create their own Mobile Infantry and Arachnid armies (and many more aliens are on their way to threaten Mankind!). The RPG, which will follow an all new Open rules system, will permit players to take the part of small MI strike teams or investigate the ‘perfect’ society humanity has constructed, while the graphic novels will introduce new elements to the background, as well as bring back some familiar faces. At the centre of this range will be a series of highly detailed 30mm miniatures, in both metal and plastic, that will allow players to collect armies of Mobile Infantry, vehicles, Arachnid Warriors, Brain Bugs, Skinnies and many more! So, the question will be, are we following the novel, the film or the animated series? The answer will be yes to all – stay tuned. Expect to see graphic novels for Starship Troopers coming out in the middle of the year, the release of the wargame in late Q4, with the RPG hot on its heels.

NEW LICENCE
Yes, there is another one 🙂 I won’t dwell on this, except to say it is based on an old but _very_ popular RPG licence and any guessing games will be resolved very soon. Moving on. . .

CONAN
Already achieving massive sales, the Conan RPG is one of the best looking and most comprehensive RPGs on the market. Look for supplements throughout this year written by Vincent Darlarge and Shannon Kalvar as we explore Hyborea and its peoples. On the way are the Scrolls of Skelos magic supplement, The Road of Kings hardback gazetteer (which will be _the_definitive Conan source material), The Pirate Isles, Across Thunder River and Shadizar.

LONE WOLF
Straight from the gamebooks of Joe Dever, the Lone Wolf RPG will be a trip into nostalgia for many, including those of us in Mongoose Hall who started our roleplaying in Magnamund. The first supplement, The Darklands, is already underway – look for the main rulebook to appear in April.

JUDGE DREDD: TURF WARS
Coming to a tabletop near you in September 2004 – the first Judge Dredd miniatures game, Turf Wars! Players each take the role of gang leaders, commanding their punks and juves to become the top dogs of the block. Care must be taken, however, as the judges are always present and one slip could send you to the iso-cubes for life. Turf Wars begins with a box set containing the main rules, card terrain and a complete gang of multi-pose plastic 30mm miniatures. Blister pack releases will feature gang specialists (such as blitzers, assassins and fatties!), as well as the dreaded Judges.

MIGHTY ARMIES
A complete army in a box! Retailing for $19.95, each Mighty Armies box set contains a complete ‘super-size’ 15mm army of around 50-60 miniatures and the rulebook, allowing players to quickly get to grips with fantasy wargaming for very little cost. Orcs and Barbarians are the first releases in May, but they will be quickly supported by blister packs (look out for the Barbarian War Mammoth!) and other armies, such as Wild Elves, Undead and the Evil Sorcerer’s Legion.

QUINTESSENTIAL II
As the advert said, the most popular 3rd party d20 series is not being replaced! The Quintessential II – Advanced Tactics line is neither an update nor a replacement. Instead, it covers the ground left bare by other class books, and allows players to plot their character advancement right up to Epic Level and beyond.

BOARDGAMES
2004 sees the launch of Mongoose’s board game division, and if you are in Germany, I imagine this will be of special interest. We have brought in some talent from the board games world and will be releasing several original titles over the next few years, along with a few licence tie-ins. Stay tuned for more news as it comes.

SCHISM
The War in Heaven descends to your gaming group. Lucifer, most beloved of angels leads a revolt in heaven with aims of nothing less than to claim the Throne of God himself. Players, as angels themselves, must determine who is actually right and choose sides, allying themselves with the Word of God or the rebellious host who threaten to overturn the heavens themselves but promise a better life for all. Written by Adrian Bott, Schism promises to be one of the hardest hitting RPGs this year. Mature readers only need apply.

NEMESIS THE WARLOCK
If you know 2000AD, you know Nemesis. If you don’t, this will seem to be one of the weirdest sci-fi settings of all time, as an alien resistance led by the mysterious warlock does battle in Termight against the evil machinations of Torquemada and his determined Terminators. Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave!

BABYLON 5
The hit selling Babylon 5 RPG continues to go from strength to strength in 2004. Expect to see advanced space combat rules, a galactic guide, Rangers, the Psi Corps and the completion of the season books. Speaking of advanced space combat, this will be a hefty box set, packed full of rules, counters and maps, making it _the_ definitive source for B5 spacecraft. The counters will be to scale with the old B5 Wars range, so you will be able to use your old miniatures. . .

OGL RULEBOOKS
OGL Cybernet and OGL Horror have proved very popular, and we have a few more on the way for you, including OGL Ancients, OGL Steampunk, OGL Wild West and, maybe, OGL Fairy Tale.

ULTIMATE CAMPAIGN TRILOGY
Okay, so that is just a working title 🙂 However, we are planning to release the campaign to end all campaigns towards the end of the year – three 256 page hardbacks will combine into one massive trilogy, charting the progress of a party of adventurers and their fight against an insidious evil beneath their feet. Combined, this campaign will take characters from 1st to 30th Epic level, on a rollercoaster ride of adventure, excitement and tragedy. Story telling in roleplaying will reach a new high point with these books.

Matthew Sprange
Mongoose Publishing

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com