‘Into The Motherlands’ RPG Adrift After Publisher Shuts Down Division
In a backer update, the Into The Motherlands RPG announced that their publisher, Andrews McMeel stated they are no longer publishing RPGs.
Late last week, Into the Motherlands announced first via their Kickstarter Project and then via Twitter that the upcoming Afrofuturist RPG was going to be in search of a new publishing project, as publisher Andrews McMeel Publishing was canceling their contract.
Andrews McMeel, which publishes Zweihander, Neverland, and Oz, among other RPGs, was reportedly shuttering its RPG division, according to details from the announcement. Tanya DePass and B. Dave Walters, two of the head creatives on the project outlined a heartbreaking meeting:
Note we are talking to folks, doing our best to make this right for the folks who have put their faith and their funds into our work.
“Publisher update” copied from KS backer update, dated Feb 1st, 2023 follows in the threaded replies.
— Mother Lands RPG hard at work… (@MotherlandsRPG) February 2, 2023
We come bearing some disappointing news for you all.
Despite keeping up our end of the bargain and doing all of our work in good faith to get AMU a final manuscript by their deadline; they informed us they are no longer publishing RPG’s despite having a contract with us; and terminated it during a meeting to inform us of shutting down the RPG division. We’ve been searching for a new publisher, and have another meeting this Thursday.
Pending the outcome of that meeting we will either have an announcement soon or we may have to turn to self-publishing. It’s unclear what this means for delivery of the printed books, but a PDF should be in hand before the end of the year.
Andrews McMeel has made no formal announcement at press time. Though for now, Andrews McMeel has been shifting its organization. Daniel Fox, the creator of Zweihander, announced he was leaving the company at the end of last year. And earlier in January, Andrews McMeel closed down its RPG-focused Twitter account.
Despite the setback, the Into the Motherlands team still has plans to get PDFs, at the very least, released by end of the year.
As the story develops, we’ll update this article with any comment
