Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd. is a games

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

located in

Williams Bay, Wisconsin Williams Bay is a village in Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. It is one of three municipalities on Geneva Lake. The population was 2,564 at the 2010 census. History The village was named for Captain Israel Williams of Massachuset ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and founded in 2004 after

Margaret Weis Margaret Edith Weis (; born March 16, 1948) is an American fantasy and science fiction author, of dozens of novels and short stories. At TSR, Inc., she teamed with Tracy Hickman to create the ''Dragonlance'' role-playing game (RPG) world. She is ...

and

Don Perrin Don Perrin (born 1 October 1964) is a Canadian writer and former military officer. Early life and education Born in Iserlohn, Germany, Perrin grew up in Kingston, ON, Canada, McMasterville, QC, Canada, Bromley, Kent, England, and Ottawa, ON, Ca ...

, the two founders of

Sovereign Press Sovereign Press, Incorporated is a publisher and distributor of role-playing games based in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1998 by Margaret Weis and Don Perrin and is one of two companies that Weis owns. Games produced Sovereign ...

divorced Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving th ...

Games

Margaret Weis Productions is principally a producer of

Tabletop role-playing games A tabletop role-playing game (typically abbreviated as TRPG or TTRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech. Participa ...

, although it also publishes some e-books by Margaret Weis and in 2008 published the Dragon Lairds boardgame, created by

James M. Ward James M. Ward (born May 23, 1951) is an American game designer and fantasy author who worked for TSR, Inc. for more than 20 years. Career ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and TSR Ward was one of the players in Gary Gygax's early Greyhawk games as Gygax ...

and Tom Wham. To date almost all their role-playing games have been

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

games using either the

Cortex System The Cortex System is a collection of related roleplaying games. Its most recent iteration, ''Cortex Prime,'' was designed by Cam Banks and published by Fandom Tabletop. Prior versions appeared in the licensed roleplaying games published by Margare ...

Cortex Plus The Cortex Plus System is a toolkit RPG system that evolved from Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd's Cortex System. It has been used for four published games and one published preview to date, and the design principles are in the ''Cortex Plus Ha ...

. In 2006, it took over production of Dragonlance d20 supplements from

. Both companies are run by many of the same people, and both are owned by

Cortex System games

MWP's first game was the '' Serenity'' in late 2005 to coincide with the release of

Joss Whedon Joseph Hill Whedon (; born June 23, 1964) is an American filmmaker, composer, and comic book writer. He is the founder of Mutant Enemy Productions, co-founder of Bellwether Pictures, and is best known as the creator of several television serie ...

's feature film '' Serenity''. Due to licensing issues they couldn't use any of the characters that appeared exclusively in the television series ''

Firefly The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

''. The company received a Gamer's Choice Best Roleplaying Game of the Year

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 a ...

and the Gold Medal in the Best Production Values of the 2006

ENnie Awards The ENNIE Awards (previously stylized as ENnie Awards) are awards for role-playing game (RPG) products (including game-related accessories, publications, and art) and their creators. The awards were created in 2001 by Russ Morrissey of EN World i ...

for this game. Two ''Serenity'' supplements have won Origins Awards for Best Roleplaying Game Supplement: ''Serenity Adventures'', in 2009, and ''Big Damn Heroes Handbook'', in 2010. In 2007 Margaret Weis Productions published the

Battlestar Galactica role playing game The ''Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game'' is a role-playing game published by Margaret Weis Productions in 2007, based on the ''Battlestar Galactica'' franchise. History Margaret Weis announced in 2007 that the license to ''Dragonlance'' wa ...

, following it with Demon Hunters in 2008 and Supernatural Role Playing Game in 2009.

Cortex Plus games

In 2010 Margaret Weis Productions published the Smallville Roleplaying Game using the new

system, which won the Judges Spotlight award at the 2011 Ennies. This was followed in 2011 with the Leverage: The Roleplaying Game RPG, nominated for the 2011 Origins Award for best RPG. In February 2012, Margaret Weis Productions launched Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, the fourth licensed role playing game in the Marvel. Marvel Heroic Roleplaying went on to win the 2012 ENnie Award for Best Rules, and the silver awards for Best Game and Product of the Year. In 2013 the basic set won the

for the Best Roleplaying Game and the Civil War Event Book won Best Roleplaying Supplement. In April 2012, they announced that for economic reasons they would not be renewing the license. On November 8, 2013, Margaret Weis Productions announced that a new ''Firefly'' RPG would be available for pre-order, having previously launched a playtest version at

Gen Con Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playin ...

2013. This will use a different system from the previous Serenity RPG. It also suffers a mirror of the Serenity license in that it only licenses characters that appeared in the Firefly TV series On November 1, 2016, Margaret Weis Productions released a statement announcing that

Cam Banks Cam Banks is a game designer known for his work on the Cortex System line of roleplaying games as lead designer for ''Marvel Heroic Roleplaying'', and the ''Big Damn Heroes Handbook'' supplement to the ''Serenity Role Playing Game'', among other ...

and his new design studio Magic Vacuum had licensed the original

and

system and would be "taking over the design, development, and publishing of games based on these rules... for 2017 and beyond," coinciding with "Margaret’s retirement from RPG development to focus on her current novel and film projects." After a successful Kickstarter campaign which raised $84,430 for a new edition of Cortex, to be called 'Cortex Prime,' on May 29, 2017, it was announced on September 19, 2019, that Fandom had purchased the rights to the Cortex system from Margaret Weis publications and would be fulfilling all pledges from the crowdfunding effort.

List of games

* ''

Serenity Role Playing Game The ''Serenity Role Playing Game'' is a science fiction role-playing game released in 2005 and set in the universe of the movie ''Serenity''. It was produced by Margaret Weis Productions, Ltd, and its mechanics were the first iteration of the ...

'' (2005) * ''

Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game The ''Battlestar Galactica Role Playing Game'' is a role-playing game published by Margaret Weis Productions in 2007, based on the ''Battlestar Galactica'' franchise. History Margaret Weis announced in 2007 that the license to ''Dragonlance'' wa ...

'' (2007) * '' Cortex System Role Playing Game'' (2008) * ''

Demon Hunters Role Playing Game The ''Demon Hunters Role Playing Game'' is a role-playing game published by Margaret Weis Productions in 2008. History Three new Cortex System media games were published by Margaret Weis Productions, one each year between 2007 and 2009, including ...

'' (2008, based on the films ''Demon Hunters'' and ''Demon Hunters: Dead Camper Lake'' by Dead Gentlemen Productions) * ''

Dragon Lairds A dragon is a reptile, reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages hav ...

'' (2008, a board game) * '' Supernatural Role Playing Game'' (2009) * '' Leverage: The Roleplaying Game'' (2010) * '' Smallville Roleplaying Game'' (2010) * '' Marvel Heroic Roleplaying'' (2012) * ''

Firefly Role-Playing Game The ''Firefly Role-Playing Game'' is a science fiction role-playing game released in 2014, written by Monica Valentinelli and set in the universe of the Joss Whedon television show '' Firefly''. It was produced by Margaret Weis Productions ...

'' (2014)

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Companies based in Wisconsin Publishing companies of the United States Role-playing game publishing companies