Not content to simply muse on the condition and function of Azeroth, gaming luminary James Wallis, through his company Magnum Opus Press, has announced an arrangement with Mongoose Publishing to rerelease The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Dragon Warriors under Mongoose’s Flaming Cobra imprint. According to the press release (below), the new edition of Munchausen is “roughly double the length of the 1998 release and contains 55% more insults about the French.” After Wallis decided to sell Hogshead Publishing and leave the industry back in early 2003, some gamers were dismayed that his innovative talents in RPG development would no longer show up on game store shelves. Here’s hoping that trend is at an end.
Magnum Opus Press announcement text follows:
MAGNUM OPUS PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING THE RE-RELEASE OF THE DRAGON WARRIORS™ RPG
30th June 2008
The short version: it’s Mongoose.
The longer version:
Magnum Opus Press is proud to announce that it has signed contracts with Mongoose Publishing Ltd to release new editions of the renowned classic RPGs Dragon Warriors and The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, as well as other properties to be announced in the future. The games will be released under Mongoose’s Flaming Cobra imprint, which is already home to hits such as Cthulhutech and Spycraft 2.0.
Under the terms of this deal Magnum Opus Press will retain full creative control over the games, and will do all the design, writing, illustration and layout for the products. Mongoose will handle all printing, publicity, sales and distribution.
The first Magnum Opus products are due to hit shelves in games stores around the world in September this year, with a new edition of the 1998 Origins Award-nominated RPG The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, described by cartoonist John Kovalic as “Utter brilliance in RPG form”. This “new” version, a facsimile of the suppressed 1808 printing, is roughly double the length of the 1998 release and contains 55% more insults about the French.
The revised Dragon Warriors rulebook and the first supplement for the system will follow a month later. These will present a re-edit of the original British fantasy RPG by Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson, a best-seller in the UK in the 1980s and a cult classic today, with all-new covers and artwork.
“Flaming Cobra is a natural home for these great British RPGs,” said James Wallis, director of Magnum Opus Press. “The imprint allows Magnum Opus to play to its strengths as a creative powerhouse and ideas factory, while tapping into the UK’s most developed and successful sales and distribution systems for RPGs.”
Magnum Opus Press is the new publishing company from James Wallis, who ran Hogshead Publishing (Warhammer FRP, Nobilis) from 1994 to 2003. It will continue to publish non-gaming titles outside the Flaming Cobra deal. Magnum Opus Press is a subsidiary of the games-consultancy Spaaace.
(All rights in Dragon Warriors remain the property of Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson, and are used with permission by Magnum Opus Press.)
I deem it necessary to re-mention that Munchausen‘s previous edition has been back in print for a bit now, in the form of an appendix to the excellent MIT Press tome Second Person. Exciting to see new stuff, though!