I have just got back from a very interesting meeting in London. We have been discussing two very cool licences for games recently, and both have moved that much closer to fruition, I think.

Now, neither of these licences is what has been dubbed the 'Holy Grail', though I think many people will believe that one of them most certainly is, for all the wrong reasons!

This licence (the one I went down to London for) has been a very, very big favourite for many of the guys here at Mongoose for a very long time. In fact, it is difficult to say just why we did not approach XXX about the licence before now. Anyway, using the RuneQuest system at its core, this will be a very wide ranging licence, covering numerous games/settings and, I think it is fair to say, there will be something for everyone among these books.

The second is something we started negotiating a short while ago, and things have gone extremely well - we are just putting the finishing touches to the contracts, and should be in a position to make an announcement at our Open Day on August 4th, if not sooner. In many ways, we have approached it in a similar way to RuneQuest, as it will form a core system with an awesome 'default' background (as Glorantha does to RuneQuest) upon which we can stack a series of games and settings (as we have done with Elric, Hawkmoon, Lankhmar, and so on). A lot of people, I think, are going to be glad to see this one appear and, just as inevitably, there will be an 'Old Guard' of whom we must appease with our humble offerings!

However, it is looking like it will shape up very well, as we have already begun plotting a release schedule for it (starting February 2008), and the 'strategic' benefits of having two core, yet very different, games systems are clear. We will never be in a position of having to do a RuneQuest based game of any given setting, simply because that is 'our' rules system. Instead, there are solid choices of this new game, RuneQuest and even our old friend OGL/D20.

Then, of course, is the (very large) computer games developer who approached us a couple of weeks ago to say 'we like your stuff, we are bringing a new game out soon, we think it is right up your street.' We had a look and yes, we have to agree, it is!

Anyway, just a quick note to let you know what is going on behind the scenes - stay tuned for the latest Mongoose information, as it happens!