Mongoose Publishing - History

History

Mongoose Publishing grew out of the d20 System boom sparked by Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition, quickly achieving popularity and notoriety in equal measure by virtue of the sheer volume of its releases, and the early successes of its initial lines. Early product lines were aimed directly at supplementing the Dungeons & Dragons game. The first releases, the Slayer's Guides, concentrated on different monster types for the d20 system, while the subsequent Quintessential books, detailing specific character classes, went on to become one of the best selling D20 lines outside of Wizards of the Coast. The latter were to span three years and thirty-six different titles.

Mongoose was to gain a reputation for being 'predatory' and targeting other publisher's release schedules by producing similar books at the same time. However, Mongoose later denied any malicious intent, and said that with nearly 100 D20 publishers all producing books at the same time, such clashes were inevitable.

Later, as the company's fortunes solidified, Mongoose began an aggressive pursuit of licensed properties, acquiring the rights to the popular British comic series Sláine and Judge Dredd in 2002 and the landmark television series Babylon 5 in 2003.

2003 also saw the release of the magazine Signs and Portents, a house organ aimed at supplementing and supporting Mongoose's growing range of products, as well as a range of generic standalone products based on the d20 System, collectively known as the "OGL series". Further acquisitions followed in 2004, including the rights to a roleplaying game based on Conan the Barbarian, the defunct roleplaying game Paranoia, and a joint venture with popular d20 System portal EN World, the EN World Gamer quarterly magazine. Signs & Portents was turned into an online magazine after two years, which saw its popularity increase to over 50,000 downloads a month.

As of 2007, Mongoose Publishing has released role-playing and miniatures games based on the Starship Troopers license, as well as the rights to RuneQuest and Traveller.

In 2008 Mongoose announced that it was ceasing production and marketing of its miniatures ranges and would, for the time being, concentrate solely on the production of RPGs and miniatures rules.

In September 2008, Matthew Sprange announced that Mongoose Publishing had "joined the Rebellion Group, becoming a sister company to Rebellion itself."

In October 2008, Matthew Sprange announced that Mongoose Publishing would be publishing the new Lejendary Adventure line for Gygax Games.

In May 2011, Matthew Sprange announced that Mongoose Publishing and Issaries Inc had parted ways, meaning that Mongoose will cease to produce RuneQuest and Glorantha, though they retain the RuneQuest II core rule system which will become Wayfarer later in 2011.