Tanya DePass’ Into the Mother Lands, one of the more successful indie RPG crowdfunding campaigns of 2021, is no longer coming from Andrews McMeel Universal. Why?
Why AMU left RPGs in late 2022/early 2023 is a mystery. At a time of continued RPG growth, when many publishers are reporting tremendous sales prompted by the 2023 OGL crisis including Daniel D. Fox’s own numbers for ZWEIHANDER, AMU left the party. With a catalog of 31 items available via their DriveThruRPG page, many based on Daniel D. Fox’s ZWEIHANDER RPG and system, AMU was in a good position to receive the good will of disgruntled Dungeons & Dragons fans. Unfortunately, they made their decision to shutter their RPG division before the OGL crisis was on anyone’s radar.
Andrews McMeel Universal was a notable, if new, publisher in the tabletop gaming industry. They published a popular fantasy line thanks to Daniel D. Fox’s aforementioned RPG, they also held the license to publish a few indie crowdfunding darlings such as Into the Mother Lands and Swordfall, though the latter has experienced a troubled production history (here and the rebuttal). While we will not know why AMU left RPGs until a historian such as Shannon Appelcline dissects the subject, we can see the fallout.
In 2019, AMU got into RPGs with two legs up on other new entrants. First, they licensed Daniel D. Fox’s ZWEIHANDER RPG. Second, they hired Daniel onto their team as Executive Director of Games. This positioned AMU to hit to ground running with an Ennie Award winning system and someone with a background in marketing that system and RPGs in general.
However, by the end of 2022, Daniel had been released from AMU, though ZWEIHANDER was not released with him. Within two months of that news, it was leaked that AMU was ending the publication of new RPGs and, most notably, Into the Mother Lands.
AMU was in RPGs for less than three years, joining at a high water mark in the industry’s financial history and exiting during an even higher water mark. The idea that they entered the RPG business during the salad days and left during those same salad days implies that while many publishers are seeing tremendous growth, AMU did not meet their projections. At least, that’s one possible interpretation of their short RPG venture.
Another possibility is that the economic factors of late 2022 and early 2023 are impacting AMU as a whole. Their business may be suffering due to the general malaise of the world economy and rising interest rates. Without free cash, they may have eliminate some peripheral elements to their business in order to better weather whatever economic horizon their seeing.
Just as plausible as either of those lines of thinking is that AMU, like all companies, has limited resources and they determined that, while RPGs might be profitable, other lines of publishing could be more profitable. This line of reasoning is plausible when you consider the wider industry. While these are great days for RPG publishers, the incomes from slinging dice do not compare with other geek publishing such as board games, comic books, and some elements of traditional prose publishing. While RPGs are doing well, other aspects of geekdom are doing even better and always have been. As such, AMU could have exited RPGs to focus on more advantageous segments of nerd culture.
That begs the question, what’s the fallout of shutting down their RPG division?
They do not have any new RPGs on their schedule. [UPDATED per Daniel D. Fox's comment below. To Be or Not To Be The Villain and Fever Knights RPG are still coming from AMU.] The publisher still has contracts with many creators. They produced some winning books during their run and likely have a backlog of those books in their warehouses. Having books in their warehouses means that, as they continue to sell them, the creators can expect continued royalty payments (assuming that’s in their contracts). Their could be challenges within their contracts, it’s unclear if the rights and files to those RPGs will revert back to the creators or not. That’s the critical question, will the creators be able to reclaim their intellectual properties? This is important for many reasons, but lets look at the financials. Without an active gaming division advocating for reprints of existing books, once AMU sells out of their current print run, they’re unlikely to reprint the titles they contracted for. Ending that revenue stream hurts the creator’s long term finances. In addition, the creator’s options to expand on the existing intellectual properties may be limited. Both of these factors are determined by contracts, so it’s hard to be sure what their final outcome is since those contracts are not public.
Moving beyond AMU, let’s talk about Tanya DePass’ Into the Mother Lands. Kickstarted on June 2021, this project reached 5,158 backers who pledged $360,606. The team, including B. Dave Walters, searched for a publishing partner and announced AMU as that publisher on November 1, 2022. Fast forward to February 1, 2023, when Tanya shared an update with the Kickstarter’s backers that AMU will no fulfill their contractual obligations towards Into the Mother Lands. Over a span of three months, Tanya was told to share the news that AMU was going to publish her book to 90 days later when the publisher abandoned them and refused to fulfill their obligations. That amount of directional realignment from AMU is worrisome. On the surface, it implies that AMU was either being duplicitous in their dealings or they did not have a long term publishing gameplan. Either conclusion is undesirable for AMU as a whole.
As for Tanya DePass and Into The Mother Lands, they’re exploring their post-AMU options. They have artwork, a completed manuscript, and an eager fanbase. They deciding on either a new publisher or going the self-publishing route. I have a high degree of confidence that another publisher is going to want that project under their logo because Into The Mother Lands looks awesome.
While there are other creators impacted by this move, let’s talk about the impact to Daniel D. Fox and his ZWEIHANDER RPG. Before and during his time at AMU, Daniel and team ran several successful RPG Kickstarters:
Daniel still has Grim & Perilous Studios, his RPG company to fall back on until he determines his next step. [UPDATED per Daniel D. Fox's comment below: "Grim & Perilous Studios was sold to Adam Rose before I joined AMU."]
He shared more details about his situation on Facebook’s ZWEIHANDER RPG page:
AMU made the best decision for AMU. Yet, their decision isn’t the end of this story, there are many creators impacted by AMU’s actions, creators that have to deal with the repercussions. I mentioned Tanya DePass and Daniel D. Fox, but I did not touch on Richard Iorio of Flames of Freedom, Ryan Verniere of Blackbirds RPG, or the sea of other creators. Their work and livelihoods have been altered by AMU’s direction. Only time will tell when their projects will reappear from a new publisher.
There’s a small postscript to this article. Despite the turmoil with the core game’s publisher, the games themselves still have fans. As Daniel shared on Twitter, “the Zweihander RPG Starter Kit has sold an astonishing 884 copies [in January via Amazon].” One of those fans is Mark Meredith, He’s creating an RPG zine via Kickstarter’s Zine Quest. It’s an adventure set on a frozen mountaintop available for several systems, including Zweihander. Publishers change, but the dice roll on.
The Doom of Blackwinter from Dice Monkey
Egg Embry participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, Noble Knight Games’ Affiliate Program, and is an Amazon Associate. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG, Noble Knight Games, and Amazon.
What Happened?
As Darryl Mott shared in his [RPG] “News Digest for the Week of February 3” and Morrus detailed at EN World, as well as BoardGameGeek, ComicBook.com, Bell of Lost Souls, Tanya DePass, Daniel D. Fox, and B. Dave Walters, and more have shared: Andrews McMeel Publishing, a subsidary of Andrews McMeel Universal (AMU), quietly exited RPG publishing at the close of 2022. The shutdown of AMU’s RPG division is an unexpected event with ramifications for a number of RPGs and their creators.Why AMU left RPGs in late 2022/early 2023 is a mystery. At a time of continued RPG growth, when many publishers are reporting tremendous sales prompted by the 2023 OGL crisis including Daniel D. Fox’s own numbers for ZWEIHANDER, AMU left the party. With a catalog of 31 items available via their DriveThruRPG page, many based on Daniel D. Fox’s ZWEIHANDER RPG and system, AMU was in a good position to receive the good will of disgruntled Dungeons & Dragons fans. Unfortunately, they made their decision to shutter their RPG division before the OGL crisis was on anyone’s radar.
Andrews McMeel Universal was a notable, if new, publisher in the tabletop gaming industry. They published a popular fantasy line thanks to Daniel D. Fox’s aforementioned RPG, they also held the license to publish a few indie crowdfunding darlings such as Into the Mother Lands and Swordfall, though the latter has experienced a troubled production history (here and the rebuttal). While we will not know why AMU left RPGs until a historian such as Shannon Appelcline dissects the subject, we can see the fallout.
Andrews McMeel Universal
AMU entered the field as a publisher with a catalog of books, just not RPGs. They were known for their collections of funny newspaper strips and their network integrated them into traditional booksellers, a field that RPGs have struggled to gain a permanent section in. I’ve seen their RPGs in multiple Barnes & Nobles, a national chain that rarely carries any RPG beyond Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. Yet, ZWEIHANDER RPG was on their shelves as was Flames of Freedom and more.In 2019, AMU got into RPGs with two legs up on other new entrants. First, they licensed Daniel D. Fox’s ZWEIHANDER RPG. Second, they hired Daniel onto their team as Executive Director of Games. This positioned AMU to hit to ground running with an Ennie Award winning system and someone with a background in marketing that system and RPGs in general.
However, by the end of 2022, Daniel had been released from AMU, though ZWEIHANDER was not released with him. Within two months of that news, it was leaked that AMU was ending the publication of new RPGs and, most notably, Into the Mother Lands.
AMU was in RPGs for less than three years, joining at a high water mark in the industry’s financial history and exiting during an even higher water mark. The idea that they entered the RPG business during the salad days and left during those same salad days implies that while many publishers are seeing tremendous growth, AMU did not meet their projections. At least, that’s one possible interpretation of their short RPG venture.
Another possibility is that the economic factors of late 2022 and early 2023 are impacting AMU as a whole. Their business may be suffering due to the general malaise of the world economy and rising interest rates. Without free cash, they may have eliminate some peripheral elements to their business in order to better weather whatever economic horizon their seeing.
Just as plausible as either of those lines of thinking is that AMU, like all companies, has limited resources and they determined that, while RPGs might be profitable, other lines of publishing could be more profitable. This line of reasoning is plausible when you consider the wider industry. While these are great days for RPG publishers, the incomes from slinging dice do not compare with other geek publishing such as board games, comic books, and some elements of traditional prose publishing. While RPGs are doing well, other aspects of geekdom are doing even better and always have been. As such, AMU could have exited RPGs to focus on more advantageous segments of nerd culture.
That begs the question, what’s the fallout of shutting down their RPG division?
Where Does That Leave the Publishers and Creators?
Let’s start with Andrews McMeel Universal.Moving beyond AMU, let’s talk about Tanya DePass’ Into the Mother Lands. Kickstarted on June 2021, this project reached 5,158 backers who pledged $360,606. The team, including B. Dave Walters, searched for a publishing partner and announced AMU as that publisher on November 1, 2022. Fast forward to February 1, 2023, when Tanya shared an update with the Kickstarter’s backers that AMU will no fulfill their contractual obligations towards Into the Mother Lands. Over a span of three months, Tanya was told to share the news that AMU was going to publish her book to 90 days later when the publisher abandoned them and refused to fulfill their obligations. That amount of directional realignment from AMU is worrisome. On the surface, it implies that AMU was either being duplicitous in their dealings or they did not have a long term publishing gameplan. Either conclusion is undesirable for AMU as a whole.
As for Tanya DePass and Into The Mother Lands, they’re exploring their post-AMU options. They have artwork, a completed manuscript, and an eager fanbase. They deciding on either a new publisher or going the self-publishing route. I have a high degree of confidence that another publisher is going to want that project under their logo because Into The Mother Lands looks awesome.
While there are other creators impacted by this move, let’s talk about the impact to Daniel D. Fox and his ZWEIHANDER RPG. Before and during his time at AMU, Daniel and team ran several successful RPG Kickstarters:
- ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG kickstarted on August 2016 reaching 1,265 backers who pledged $61,743.
- MAIN GAUCHE chaos supplement for ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous kickstarted on September 2018 reaching 1,054 backers who pledged $75,171.
- Flames of Freedom RPG: Powered by Zweihander kickstarted on November 2020 reaching 1,090 backers who pledged $68,769.
- Blackbirds RPG kickstarted on October 2021 reaching 1,458 backers who pledged $154,026. Rob Wieland reviewed the RPG here.
- Zweihander Fantasy Horror RPG Starter Kit kickstarted on February 2022 reaching 1,460 backers who pledged $82,119.
He shared more details about his situation on Facebook’s ZWEIHANDER RPG page:
When asked a question by a fan about the future of ZWEIHANDER RPG, he shared this:
In Conclusion
Daniel D. Fox's comment below offers first-hand insight into where the AMU catalogue stands.AMU made the best decision for AMU. Yet, their decision isn’t the end of this story, there are many creators impacted by AMU’s actions, creators that have to deal with the repercussions. I mentioned Tanya DePass and Daniel D. Fox, but I did not touch on Richard Iorio of Flames of Freedom, Ryan Verniere of Blackbirds RPG, or the sea of other creators. Their work and livelihoods have been altered by AMU’s direction. Only time will tell when their projects will reappear from a new publisher.
There’s a small postscript to this article. Despite the turmoil with the core game’s publisher, the games themselves still have fans. As Daniel shared on Twitter, “the Zweihander RPG Starter Kit has sold an astonishing 884 copies [in January via Amazon].” One of those fans is Mark Meredith, He’s creating an RPG zine via Kickstarter’s Zine Quest. It’s an adventure set on a frozen mountaintop available for several systems, including Zweihander. Publishers change, but the dice roll on.
The Doom of Blackwinter from Dice Monkey
- End Date: Wed, March 1 2023 1:00 PM EST.
Egg Embry participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, Noble Knight Games’ Affiliate Program, and is an Amazon Associate. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG, Noble Knight Games, and Amazon.
