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etings: Noticed this bit in the latest newsletter from David Drake (see
link): "I am (by which I mean my agent Kay is) in the process of
licensing a Hammer's Slammers board game to Mongoose Publishing (a large UK
gaming company). They'd like to do a miniatures game also, but I told them
they would have to deal with Pireme (which has the rights) themselves. Back in
the '80s Mayfair brought out a board game; I have no idea how what Mongoose
does will differ.
"Kay tried to get creative control for me, by the way, which Mongoose refused
to grant. They were right. I haven't done serious board gaming in more than 40
years. My proper role is to pick competent experts and let them get on with
their business. (This is true in most aspects of life, in my opinion. And I
wish more people felt the way I do.)"
http://david-drake.com/newsarchive/news45.html
How many properties does Mongoose have at this point? I can't believe
that the amount of money they must lay out in license fees equals their
sales...are they just keeping the company moving by these constant licenses?
Scarily sounds a bit like Leading Edge Games...
Hope they have a better business model...
The_Beast
F.P. Kiesche III wrote on 06/06/2008 11:07:41 AM:
***Snippage***
> How many properties does Mongoose have at this point? I can't believe
> On Fri, Jun 06, 2008 at 09:07:41AM -0700, Fred Kiesche wrote:
> How many properties does Mongoose have at this point?
They've bought up a lot of licences that were going very cheaply; they
have a reputation in the role-playing community for churning out lots of
books that are very badly put together but bought because of the licence
tie-in. (And for paying their writers even less than is usual for
role-playing books, which isn't generous in the first place.)
Paranoia XP isn't too bad, mind.
R
Wow that time at GW really payed off, where's the love I ask you! I was
wandering if they have a marketing plan, cause lately Mongoose have been all
over the shop.
Also I see that the new 40k is released next month, but in the back of the
latest White Dwarf I see there is a rule lawyers best friend, eg GW have
released a Laser pointer for the new rules, wow nothing say's fun new rule
system and streamed lined game play like a laser pointer, wonder how many
munchins will have their cataracts burnt off next 40k comp.
P.S jon how many sleeps till FT3 is released.
james mitchell
[quoted original message omitted]
> Allan Goodall wrote:
It's mainly the grognards: the old school Traveller players who resent anyone
touching their precious strings of hexadecimal notation and 1977 notions of
computers.
I bought Mongoose Traveller. I love it. Those I'm tried it with like it.
My only complaint is the extremely poor artwork.
On Sat, Jun 7, 2008 at 9:02 PM, james mitchell
> <tagalong@sa.chariot.net.au> wrote:
It could be due to the change in D20. With D&D 4e just released, and a
new not-so-open gaming license on its way (not to mention the fact
that Mongoose was involved in the D20 implosion), Mongoose seems to be
positioning itself to capture a larger share of the non-D20 market,
particularly the "old school" non-D20 market (the portion of the
market not dominated by White Wolf).
They released the new RuneQuest a couple of years ago. With the exception of a
stupid rule that was roundly criticized even before the game came out of
playtesting, it looks like a solid game. There's now an OGL for what's
essentially Chaosium's BRP rules. They own the rights to Michael Moorcock's
Eternal Champion series, due to his unhappiness with Chaosium (I hear he's not
the easiest person to work
with, so I suspect it's not _all_ Chaosium's fault). It's nice to see
BRP seeing some love, especially since it seems to have shaken up Chaosium
enough to release their rules as a generic engine.
I hear pretty good things about Mongoose's version of Traveller, which is
very, very similar to the old black book edition, with a few things cleaned
up. Marc Miller is confusing things with the release of his "5th edition"
Traveller (which looks like it's crunchier than Mongoose's game). I also
haven't seen a whole lot of buzz about the game online. Those who bought it
liked it, but there's not a ton of love for whatever reason.
> [snip]
Just one - hop into this cryo chamber, we'll defrost you when it's
done.... ;-)
Jon (GZG)
> james mitchell
they
> have a reputation in the role-playing community for churning out
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> _______________________________________________
On a similar note, I realize that there's a team playtesting it already, but
what is your plan for rolling out FT3?
1) Will there be One Big Book or several "magazine" style prints for each
game?
2) If you do several small books, will you do the special rules for great
powers, minor powers and aliens as separate books or rolled into the core
system book?
3) Will your 15mm strategy be reflected in the printed materials?
4) Will there be an "open beta" of the new rules to follow the close
alpha/beta versions?
5) Will you use any kind of "OpenGZG" license for third party
supplements? (if so, will it have a commercial/non-commercial
requirement?)
6) My most recent understanding was that you'll be including the FB2 races,
including support for them in DS and SG. Is that still the plan?
I know the cake isn't baked yet, so obviously any/all of this is
tentative, but I was interested learning whatever you feel comfortable sharing
about the direction you're going in.
> On Sun, Jun 8, 2008 at 2:10 PM, Ground Zero Games <jon@gzg.com> wrote:
> On Sunday 08 June 2008 18:37:37 Allan Goodall wrote:
Conan is quite good as well, both in that they're using quite a nice variant
of d20 for the rules, and in the background material they've released.
LOL, wait is this a D20 cryo chamber, and why does my space teddy look like a
squid and want to choke me.I rolled a 1.
P.S still laughing. All's I can think of is the line from RedDwarf, Holly"
their dead dave, their dead" bloody cryo chamber's.
james
[quoted original message omitted]
Sorry guys didn't explain myself properly, I was talking about mongoose's
stoping and starting of their various miniatures gaming lines, not their D20
systems, have a couple of their books and there very good. But haven't quite
got my head around what they are trying to do with Starship troopers and Judge
Dredd and bab 5 lines, While I don't play any of them, I get miffed about the
way they have gone about stopping and starting these system's, just think it
portrays the sci fi miniature gaming scene in general in a bad light through
bad marketing. Alls I need now is some who makes miniatures too release some
more various non descript space station folk and more ships crew figure's, but
who make figures on this list I wonder, oh who am I kidding bet he does them
in 15mm, stop praising him.
james mitchell
[quoted original message omitted]
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> On Jun08 08, at 10:37, Allan Goodall wrote:
> I hear pretty good things about Mongoose's version of Traveller, which
You just don't hang out in the right locations... Traveller has always been
kinda niche market, and with the birth of the web and a couple of edition
changes fandom for it is kinda fragmented. People are talking, it is just a
whole buncha little clots.
> Those who bought it liked it, but there's not a ton of
It's new mostly, T4 soundly reamed both the fans and the writers without ever
presenting a whole unified game. The base book was fine, a lot of the support
was utter crap. With that there is the wait to see if the initial release was
a fluke, or not.
I for one am mining it for what I like, and not worrying about the rest, but
I'm not right, ifn y'all understand.
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> On Jun08 08, at 04:22, Mark A. Siefert wrote:
> Allan Goodall wrote:
Something like that.....
> I bought Mongoose Traveller. I love it. Those I'm tried it with
Check, that is my experience also.
> My only complaint is the extremely poor artwork.
Art work? oh the pictures, I really don't ponder those too much. With the
advent of the Highly illuminated RPG books, I quit looking at the
illustrations unless they either demonstrate a function of a rule or get in
the way of actually reading the words.
Or to put it another way I a big fan of minimally illustrated digest sized
books. Smaller, easier to carry, not as apt to be dropped in the water when I
am reading in the tub. But I am the odd duck, Love to read, but I'm not a
bibliophil.