Andrews McMeel Publishing has reportedly shut down its RPG division and canceled at least one upcoming project. Yesterday, Tanya DePass and B. Dave Walters announced that Andrews McMeel Publishing has terminated its publishing contract To the motherlands, an Afrofuturistic RPG, and closed its RPG division. “Despite sticking to the agreement and doing all our work in good faith to get [Andrews McMeel] a final manuscript before their deadline; they let us know that they are no longer releasing RPGs despite having a contract with us; and ended it at a meeting to inform us of closing 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 also prepared for the possibility of self-publishing.

Andrews McMeel publishes in particular Zweihander, a “Grim and Perilous” fantasy RPG designed by Daniel Fox, who then joined Andrews McMeel in 2019 as Executive Creator of Games. Several other RPG books that use 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 publication contacts for it To the mother countries and swordfall, though progress on that project stalled in 2021 after its creator became embroiled in controversy.

There were signs that a change in Andrews McMeel was on the way… Fox announced he was leaving the company late last year and Andrews McMeel subsequently closed an RPG-focused Twitter account for the company on Jan. 3. However, Fox noted in its announcement that Andrews would continue to publish McMeel Zweihander and the publisher was still promoting several RPG projects this week, after retweeting 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 at other publishing options in the future.

ComicBook.com has reached out to Andrews McMeel for comment regarding the closure of their RPG division and will update their comments if they provide one.