Mongoose acquires Twilight 2000 and 2300 AD

Mongoose Publishing has announced that it has acquired the Twilight: 2000 and 2300AD roleplaying games. This closely follows August's announcement that the company had acquired the rights to Traveller from creator Marc Miller.

Twilight: 2000, originally published in 1984, is a post-apocalyptic game set after World War III. 2300 AD, which was originally called Traveller: 2300, is set three centuries later after humankind has recovered from the war and is now exploring space. Mongoose has been publishing 2300 AD material under license since 2007.

Free League currently produces Twilight: 2000 under license, and Mongoose has indicated that that arrangement is expected to continue.

We are both very happy and proud to announce that Twilight: 2000 and 2300AD have been acquired in their entirety by Mongoose Publishing, joining our library of games alongside Traveller.

All three are games I read and played as a teenager, and so it is both awesome and humbling to become their stewards.

So, what does this mean?

Twilight: 2000
Twilight: 2000 is currently published by the frankly stellar people at Free League. We have had conversations with them and not only will Twilight: 2000 continue to be published by Free League for the current licence period, as things stand we have every expectation it will stay in their capable hands beyond that.

2300AD
You will be seeing more 2300AD material coming in the near future, and we have manuscripts due for both Invasion and a brand new book of adventures. In addition, we will be bringing 2300AD to the TAS programme on Drivethru, likely within the next few months - so get writing! Classic Traveller will be appearing on TAS within the next month or so, and once that is up and running we will get cracking on 2300AD.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I’m trying to imagine a world with two different Call of Cthulhu games produced by two different companies at the same time, etc.

There are so many Cthulhu games being produced nowadays, I'm not sure anyone would notice.

 

[darjr]

I remember playing Twilight 2000 back in the day!

I had a medic PC that rode around in a converted humvee / medical vehicle. Good times!

I am confused about this announcement though … there will be two different Twilight 2000 games going forward produced by two different companies? That feels odd. I’m trying to imagine a world with two different Call of Cthulhu games produced by two different companies at the same time, etc.

This kinda exists.
The Gumshoe game and COC.

 

[Parmandur]

I remember playing Twilight 2000 back in the day!

I had a medic PC that rode around in a converted humvee / medical vehicle. Good times!

I am confused about this announcement though … there will be two different Twilight 2000 games going forward produced by two different companies? That feels odd. I’m trying to imagine a world with two different Call of Cthulhu games produced by two different companies at the same time, etc.

Marc Miller owned these properties, and had licensed them to Free League.

Mongoose has acquired the ownership from Miller, and plans to continue the license with Free League.

So, a change in who owns these, but no changes in product plans annoinced.

 

[Theory of Games]

This is a great strategy: if you can't make a good rpg, just buy one.

 

[Staffan]

This is a great strategy: if you can't make a good rpg, just buy one.

This is likely related to Mongoose acquiring the rights to Traveller from Marc Miller recently (which has been discussed in other threads, but basically because they were already doing a good job with the license and Marc Miller wanted to make sure the thing was settled while he was still alive – there's no indication I know of that he is in poor health, but the dude is 77 years old). Traveller, 2300 AD (which I believe started out as Traveller 2300 and was intended as a prequel to Traveller, though the settings don't fit with one another), and Twilight 2000 were always soft-linked with one another, and now they're back under the same roof.

And even though Free League is handling Twilight 2000 right now, they have cut off product lines that have run their course before rather than keeping them going in perpetuity. This would, I believe, apply even more to licensed products where presumably the license has an expiry date. So when Free League is done with their version of Twilight 2000, Mongoose will likely be ready with a new version.

 

[Mongoose_Matt]

Marc Miller owned these properties, and had licensed them to Free League.

Slight correction, barely worth mentioning. Mr Miller did not own 2300AD and Twilight: 2000, but he was managing them.

 

[Parmandur]

Slight correction, barely worth mentioning. Mr Miller did not own 2300AD and Twilight: 2000, but he was managing them.

Oh, my mistake. Still point is this is about a change of ownership, not of new game announcements?

 

[TrippyHippy]

This is likely related to Mongoose acquiring the rights to Traveller from Marc Miller recently (which has been discussed in other threads, but basically because they were already doing a good job with the license and Marc Miller wanted to make sure the thing was settled while he was still alive – there's no indication I know of that he is in poor health, but the dude is 77 years old). Traveller, 2300 AD (which I believe started out as Traveller 2300 and was intended as a prequel to Traveller, though the settings don't fit with one another), and Twilight 2000 were always soft-linked with one another, and now they're back under the same roof.

And even though Free League is handling Twilight 2000 right now, they have cut off product lines that have run their course before rather than keeping them going in perpetuity. This would, I believe, apply even more to licensed products where presumably the license has an expiry date. So when Free League is done with their version of Twilight 2000, Mongoose will likely be ready with a new version.

Traveller: 2300AD was not associated, setting-wise with Traveller’s Charted Space/3rd Imperium setting. The technology and timelines of both settings don’t mesh at all. Nor did the rule-set - until Traveller: The New Era was published with the then GDW house-system. I think it was basically an attempt to market 2300AD as a new harder sci-fi setting for Traveller players to get into. This led to confusion so the next edition cut the Traveller pre-title. The irony is that, when Mongoose republished it, it became a direct alternative setting for use with the core Traveller rules.

And 2300AD was a direct sequel to Twilight: 2000, highlighting the same timeline of events and sharing the same rules in its 1st edition. Free League disassociated the Twilight: 2000/2300AD link when they got their licence and Mongoose downplayed it in their newer edition of 2300AD (the Twilight era is now presented as a vague history of lost knowledge). You could still link the two although you’d have to do it yourself. Still having an aggressive beetle-like alien species unexpectedly invade Poland at some point in the early post-armageddon 21st century would make an interesting plot twist!

 

[Cergorach]

Congrats Mongoose on acquiring these IPs!

I wonder when they'll acquire the Paranoia IP? Or am I paranoid?

It's a good move that MGP is no longer reliant on mostly licensed IPs!

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

Personally, I love TW2000. I love Mongoose Traveller. Could I handle a Twilight 2000 using Traveller's engine? Absolutely. I'm sure the newer version is fine but it didn't grab me system wise.

Useless fact: The original Twilight 2000 was insanely simulationist. I mean, you even roll your amount of rads you've soaked up while making your character. But the thing I learned that made the most sense is that for survival purposes in that type of setting, you NEED to be in a group of at least three: someone to sleep, someone to guard, and someone to 'work'/produce. I apply that logic to my zombie or survival games now. At least if you want to be relatively efficient.