What's Up With Atlas
Hey, folks. I heard there were rumors flying, and thought I should step in to provide some clarification and official word.
We recently published another Penumbra book -- Seven Serpents, a collection of dragon lairs (in the same "sevens" sub-series with Seven Strongholds, Seven Cities, and Sacred Ground).
http://www.atlas-games.com/product_tables/AG3229.html is the product description. It was released around the same time as Origins (not in time to make it to the show, unfortunately), and should be in stores all over by now. We printed the book to order, so it's already sold out from our warehouse -- if you see a copy, grab it while you can!
The next Penumbra title will be Seven Civilizations, due for release in September. Again, part of the same sub-series -- this one gives you a bunch of cultures that you can easily drop into a campaign world. You can find its description at:
http://www.atlas-games.com/product_tables/AG3230.html
We do not have anything more in the pipeline for Penumbra at the present time. Penumbra's niche was always meant to be modular pieces that you can use to assemble or add to a campaign. Early on (when everyone needed generic bits to add to their brand new games), that was a good strategy, but it's very vulnerable to competition. We've thought about whether we wanted to do what was necessary to keep fighting for a piece of that niche (paying writers less than the 4 cents per word that Penumbra has paid since early on, for example), and decided not to. We have better areas to invest our resources at the present time, and let's be honest -- there is so much really good d20 material available to the consumer already (much of it almost unknown, simply due to the incredible quantity of creative output that has come forth in the four years since "Three Days to Kill" debuted as the very first d20-license product on sale), it's hard to feel compelled to add a lot more at this point. It's especially hard when you realize that there is such a supply overhang behind the market. (Why buy a new book on a topic when there's one that's new to you available on eBay or in the clearance section of your local game store for 1/5 the price? Why print a new generic book when you have an idea of how many tens or hundreds of thousands are sitting in publisher and distributor warehouses, just waiting for a liquidation opportunity?)
And, like I said...we have a lot of other places to invest. It's been observed that a number of the surviving d20 companies have been working hard to diversify, for obvious reasons. Atlas is fortunate that we already have a stable of proprietary RPGs (Ars Magica, Feng Shui, Over the Edge and Unknown Armies), and an even more successful roster of evergreen non-collectible card games, such as
Lunch Money and
Once Upon A Time. Our blockbusters so far this year have been the card game expansions and sequels --
Sticks & Stones,
Beer Money,
Dark Tales, and
Create-Your-Own Storytelling Cards. At Gen Con we'll debut Cthulhu 500, a new card game (mythos horrors on an eldritch racetrack!), and in October we'll be in the Halloween spirit with Gloom (a card game by Eberron creator Keith Baker).
We do plan to release other d20 System projects (such as Northern Crown: New World Adventures -- the setting that originally appeared on the web as "Septentrionalis"), but the Penumbra line will go on hiatus after Seven Civilizations in September. Of course, we'll continue to sell the existing titles. As books go out of print, if not sooner, we will make them available for sale as PDFs through
RPGNow (as we've already done with several books in the line).
We'll continue to keep a finger on the pulse of the d20. If the market conditions are right, we'd love to do some more Penumbra books.
