Bye Monte!

[Kishin]

I hope that Monte is successful in his future endeavors, although he will be sorely missed. He is one of the few third party publishers that wrote material that I would use and I always enjoyed his books.

As a side note, this leave Goodman Games and Necromancer Games as the only real d20 publishers left, which I find sad.

Fantasy Flight Games is still publishing Midnight, albeit at a greatly reduced rate.

In any event, Monte never fails to disappoint and I'm sure I'll be jumping on the bandwagon of whatever new project he fires up straight from day one.

 

[Arnwyn]

or does this essentially mean Malhavoc will stop publishing, assuming Monte's game-writing will be on the 'back burner'.

That was my assumption.

 

[Shadowslayer]

I say good luck to you Monte Cook. Your even voice, passion and lack of pretentiousness is a credit to the hobby. Congrats on everything you've done, and good luck in the future.

 

[Mazlo]

I wouldn't assume that Malhavoc is going to stop publishing just because Monte is taking a break from writing RPG material. Many Malhavoc Press titles have actually been written by other authors (not Monte.)

For example, the "Book of Roguish Luck" was written by Wolfgang Baur.

Mike Mearls authored some things for AE ("Transcendence", "Ruins of Intrigue") all the Iron Heroes books and the "Book of Iron Might." Mearls co-authored the "Book of Hallowed Might II" with Monte.

Bruce Cordell wrote the adventure "If Thoughts Could Kill" and the psionics resource "Hyperconscious", as well as the meteor event book "When the Sky Falls."

Skip Williams wrote the war / mass combat event book "Cry Havoc."

Sean K. Reynolds authored the npc book "The Bonds of Magic" and the sourcebook on the eternal angelic/fiendish struggle "Anger of Angels."

-----

The majority of items that come out of Malhavoc Press are authored by Monte but there have been many books written by others under the Malhavoc Press label. Its my hope that someone continues to support Ptolus with adventure material under the Malhavoc Press label, even if that someone isn't Monte.

--Mazlo

 

[Beckett]

I'm a bit sad that he won't have new RPG stuff coming out; since the release of 3E, after WotC, more of my gaming dollar has gone to Malhavoc than any other company (and that's with $100 to GoO for AGoT). I like his style and really liked how AU/AE presented something similar, but very different than the standard D&D world.

Still, I wish him the best of luck, and look forward to what it is he's doing now. Like many people in this thread, a little cynical voice inside me said he's doing 4E, but, considering his feelings that 3.5 was too soon, I don't think 4E would be at the top of his Drop Everything list.

 

[Mistwell]

I think it's helpful to post the entire thing Monte wrote, as it answers many questions posed in this thread:

The Next Chapter
The Next Chapter

Ptolus is very soon out, and I couldn't be more excited. It's the culmination of a great many different goals, both for me personally and for Malhavoc as well. Gen Con is going to be a blast.

But afterward, for me, things are going to change a bit. Truth to tell, they've actually been changed for quite some time. I haven't worked on a new Malhavoc book for almost six months.

When I left Wizards of the Coast in 2001, I did so primarily to write fiction. I had some ideas for novels and other work, but I wanted to keep my foot in the gaming door as well. (Lots of you have read this story before, so I'll try to be succinct.) I lined up some freelance work to tide me over and started doing some of my own stuff as well. "My own stuff" quickly turned into Malhavoc Press, which blossomed suddenly and dramatically with a life all its own. Very quickly, it became clear that Malhavoc was something that I should focus all my efforts on, and that Sue should as well. Although not without a few bumps, it went wonderfully and it's still going wonderfully. Malhavoc has afforded me the freedom to do every game book I've wanted to do. Ptolus, in my mind, rivals 3rd Edition itself as the coolest thing I've ever produced.

But over the last five years, there's been a little nagging voice in my head. "Hey. Hey? This is great and all, but it's not why you went out on your own. What about all that other stuff you were going to do?" And that voice has only gotten louder as the years have passed. You see, I've worked on game material professionally since 1988 (in fact, it's all I've ever done). And it's been a great 18 years. But there are other areas I'd like to explore creatively. And in the last year or so, various doors have begun to open that have made some of my other goals suddenly a lot more attainable.

So I have focused on those other goals for most of 2006, and I am going to continue to focus on them. Malhavoc Press and virtually all game-related work is going on the back burner for me.

I know for many readers, this may all seems very sudden and out of the blue, and I understand that. Please know, though, that for me it isn't at all sudden. It's been "in the works" for a long time. I have long intended Ptolus to be something of an end point. I want to go out at the top of my game (so to speak), and I feel that I have done so. In spades.

Ptolus is complete and needs no further support from me. Arcana Evolved has a nice range of products, and the Spell Treasury was the last book I'd really promised myself I'd do someday. The Iron Heroes "trilogy" is all out now, making the system fully playable. I don't feel like I've left anything undone, which is important to me.

But is Malhavoc done and gone? No. We're going to continue to make sure that our products remain in print. For example, the Complete Book of Eldritch Might is getting reprinted right now and a new printing of Arcana Evolved, with all listed errata, will be coming out later this year. But even more importantly (to me), I'm keeping the door open to use Malhavoc the way I'd originally intended five years ago -- if I get a cool idea for a short game product, I'll just do it. It's not going to be my main creative focus, but it will be there. It's a nice luxury to know that I'll still be able to write up a cool adventure or whatnot now and again.

And the website is going to continue. Perhaps even more like the site was a few years back -- a nice outlet for me to write the occasional article about whatever, or a place to post some new spells, and so on. And obviously the wonderful community we've created in our forums will continue, but it long ago took on a life of its own anyway, so there's really no question there.

So what does the future hold for me? Well, at least one more game project. Earlier this year I got an offer to work on something so cool that I couldn't say no. But it's not a Malhavoc product, and so I'm not at liberty to announce it here. That comes out next year. Other than that, though, the irons I have in the fire, so to speak, are unrelated to traditional RPGs. My comic book series will continue to come out throughout the rest of the year. I have a novel in the works, a non-fiction book, and even more cool things that I plan on telling you about right here on the website as they develop.

You know, as I re-read the previous few paragraphs, I can't help but wonder what the reaction to all of this will be. People look at things so differently than I do sometimes. I'm sure some will see this as some kind of failure on my part, as though the only path to success is to do the same thing, better and better, until you die. Others might see this as some kind of personal affront or an indictment on gaming or the game industry. (I'm sure still others will say, "So what?") I still love gaming, to be sure. At the moment, I think, I am facing a bit of burnout, just because I've done the same thing for so long. But I'm not turning my back on the hobby or anyone in it, pro or fan.

In any event, I'll see many of you at Gen Con, where you can harangue me for all this. I hope that those of you who've enjoyed some of my work on RPGs will check out some of my other work as it becomes available. No matter what though, you can always look for me browsing the shelves at the local game store, checking out what's new.

So, as we can see, he says what will happen with Malhavoc, and he says what some of the projects are "comic book series for a year", "novel", and "non-fiction book".

 

[DaveMage]

I can't say I'm that surprised.

I had been wondering what Monte would do - especially after writing his Magnum Opus. How do you go back to writing "regular" products after such a thing? I guess the answer is "you don't."

Going out on top indeed!

Best of luck in all of your endeavors, Monte!

 

[Darrin Drader]

It sounds like Monte has been wrestling with the same issues everyone else in this industry has, and has simply outgrown it. Good for you and good luck!

 

[Cthulhudrew]

So, is that post 10 or 13 for someone to post the 4e conspiracy theory?

Either way, pretty slow day.

That's for sure. My sly little nudge was just because I hadn't seen one yet today.

(FWIW, I'm not actually one of the 4E conspiracy theorists, just poking fun at the notion here. )

 

[Einan]

It's too late for the 4e conspiracy theorists... EricNoah beat them all to it.

Einan