The End of (20) Things

All good things must come to an end, and the 20 Things line is a good thing.

But, Why?

I thought I’d explain why the line is ending. I’ve immensely enjoyed publishing the 20 Things books. Many entries in the line have saved my GMing bacon when my players have wandered “off piste” or shown unwarranted interest in a locale or random NPC. I love the feeling that it helps other GMs run better games for their friends! In theory, the line could go on forever. I love 20 Things!

But, I have a hankering to both try something new and release a giant Book of Doom. A giant Book of Doom is the kind of book you can have on your shelf for years and which will see you through all manner of GM challenges, games and editions. It will be so vast and impressive that you could use it for self-defence.

Thus, I announce the Dread Thingonomicon. This absolute monster of a book—our biggest ever—will come in at around 500 pages and will include all 73 20 Things instalments. It will be available in hardback, softcover and PDF, and is slated for an August or September release. It’s going to be an amazing book and the pinnacle of what we’ve published in the last 12 years. I can’t wait to unleash it into the world.

What’s Replacing 20 Things?

It’s time to shuffle our release schedule around. I get a steady stream of requests to both publish new stuff (particularly adventures) and re-release older lines for the new editions and games that have emerged since they were first published. That’s a hard balancing act.

With that in mind, you’ll start to see some changes in the release schedule over the next few months. Some changes won’t be immediately apparent, but rest assured I have a plan!

The first obvious change is that the monthly Monstrous Lair releases will shortly move into the 20 Things slot. I thought the Monstrous Lair line was finished years ago, but new instalments keep appearing in my brain and on the schedule. (If you have suggestions for new instalments, drop me a line).

The Wilderness Dressing line also continues, and we’ll be adding to the re-released material with completely new instalments. Somehow, when we first published the line, for example, we didn’t feature moors, jungles or caves. We’ll be correcting that this time around.

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What do you think? What should we feature in the schedule moving forward? More Campaign Codexes? The original Urban Dressing line? More Dungeon Backdrops? More Eventures? More adventures? Let me know, by leaving a comment below.