Andrews McMeel Reportedly Shuts Down RPG Division

By Christian Hoffer

Andrews McMeel Publishing has reportedly shuttered its RPG division, canceling the contract of at least one upcoming project. Yesterday, Tanya DePass and B. Dave Walters announced that Andrews McMeel Publishing had cancelled its contract to publish Into the Mother Lands, an Afrofuturist RPG, and was closing its RPG division. "Despite keeping up our end of the bargain and doing all of our work in good faith to get [Andrews McMeel] 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," DePass and Walters wrote. The pair added that they are meeting with another publisher this week in the hopes of moving their project, but were prepared for the possibility of self-publishing as well. 

Andrews McMeel most notably publishes Zweihander, a "Grim and Perilous" fantasy RPG designed by Daniel Fox, who then joined Andrews McMeel as Executive Creator of Games in 2019. Several other RPG books that used the Zweihander game system were also published by Andrews McMeel, but the RPG division had branched out with campaign setting books based on OZ and Neverland and had publishing contacts for Into the Mother Lands and Swordsfall, although progress on that project went silent in 2021 after its creator became embroiled in controversy. 

There were signs that a change in Andrews McMeel was coming - Fox announced that he would be leaving the company at the end of last year and Andrews McMeel subsequently shuttered a RPG-focused Twitter account for the company on January 3rd. However, Fox noted in his announcement that Andrews McMeel would continue to publish Zweihander and the publisher was still promoting various RPG projects as recently as this week, having retweeted a post from Blackbirds, another game published by Andrews McMeel. ComicBook.com confirmed that Andrews McMeel would continue to publish Zweihander for now, but creator Daniel Fox was looking for other publishing options moving forward. 

ComicBook.com has reached out to Andrews McMeel for comment about the closure of their RPG division and will update with their comment should they provide one.  

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