Green Ronin bags another licence
But is it one too many? I was surprised to read that Green Ronin had signed an agreement with DC Comics to release a series of four books as part of their Mutants and Masterminds line. It makes me wonder how many licensed products are sustainable for a small publishing house like GR.
The launch of their last two licenses was done with a hiss, a roar and the promise of great support and interest. However as time marches on it seems that this isn’t quite happening.
A Song of Ice and Fire has had it’s core book, a GM screen and an adventure in the year an a half since it’s been released which is great. But the Campaign Guide is almost a year overdue and momentum seems to have really slowed. This is a great game and one which has given me many hours of fun, but despite winning ENnie awards and getting great feedback from the community, I worry that it isn’t going to get many more books released.
Dragon Age is the other major licence they’ve recently released and while this has only been around since late last year there has been very little in the way of news about new products. A book of adventures and adventure seeds called Blood of Feralden has been announced, but a release date hasn’t been. This game has the potential to tap into a whole group of gamers who don’t have any experience with dice, but unless GR keeps up the momentum on this licence I think it’s just going to fade away.
While I’m sure that Green Ronin is certainly very keen to support these lines and no doubt see them prosper, it is hard to stay enthused when there is next to no news of what’s coming up. I know that they are a small company and that they no doubt would rather be writing and producing games than creating hype. However part of keeping a fan base happy is news, rumor and titbits of information. It would be nice if they were a little more forthcoming with this sort of thing.
So the point of this post, if there is one, is that a great company like Green Ronin, who release interesting games with good systems needs to work a little harder to support the communities it has already established. I’m more than happy to accept that games like A Song of Ice and Fire and Dragon Age will have long approval processes. But if that is what is holding things up, tell me and while you’re at it, tease me with what’s next to come.
2 Comments to Green Ronin bags another licence
By what standards are you calling Green Ronin small? By the RPG industry they’re now a bonafide big deal.
But regardless, they do seem to have issues with follow up. If those issues are with managing the licensors then there is no reason to expect that their biggest one yet will be different. But when they had the 2e WFRP line (they did development while Black Industries did the publishing) they got stuff out regularly and it was excellent. So I’m not exactly sure it’s a size issue, or if it is I’m sure that it’s one that could be fixed by restructuring their production department.
It’s my understanding that M&M has gotten a lot of releases in its lifetime, and DC at least should be produced by the same guys.
Of course part of the issue when producing any licensed game is the fact that there’s a license to deal with and someone monitoring their handling of the IP on the other end. For all we know, the slow release schedules are due to George R.R. Martin and Bioware dragging their feet on approving future products.
May 10, 2010