Question for everyone regarding MonkeyGod

Okay, let me preface this. I have done, and am doing, a substantial amount of freelance work for MonkeyGod Enterprises, so I do have some personal stake in this. At the same time, I am not an employee, and I am not asking this question at their behest or on their behalf. It's purely my own curiosity.

Several people have mentioned that MonkeyGod is one of the companies they think has real potential, and they'd like to see them do "just a bit better." MonkeyGod has a better review average than some other, more popular companies, and most discussions about their modules lean toward the positive.

So my question is, what is it that prevents MonkeyGod from landing firmly in anyone's "favorite D20 companies" lists, at least when it comes to the ENWorld community? It very rarely shows up in such lists, despite the fact that very few people have anything bad to say about them.

Is it because they've only published modules to date, as opposed to other sorts of sourcebooks? Were people turned off by some early stuff and haven't checked them out recently? Or is it something else entirely?

Again, this is just me being curious, not any sort of "official" poll. I ask only because I honestly believe that MonkeyGod could be the next truly substantial, break-out D20 company--and I'm referring to all their stuff, not trying to hype my work in particular. I'd love to be able to offer them any suggestions to take them down that road, so I thought I'd ask you what you all think.

(For the record, MonkeyGod has quite a few non-module sourcebooks planned in the near future, from an arms and armor guide that covers almost every culture and historical period imaginable, to environmental guides, to a new campaign setting. Check out www.monkeygodenterprises.com if you're at all interested. But don't feel obligated. )

Hello Mouse,

I bought 1 module early on and read another at a buddies. They were good and sound - they were also uninspiring. Hard to explain. I would not knock them and have really thought about picking up the one nominated for the ENnie. The art is weak but passable. I do not remember any of the mapping, usually a bad sign for this map freak. The stories were almost historical and almost fantasy but failed to get a style of their own. They were well written. I liked them, but.....

It would be nice to see if they have come along. I hope you are right.

I know very little about this company. I think that only doing modules does hurt. Early on there was a lot of modules coming out and I think many people like myself were turned away becasue ity was impossible to tell what was good and what wasn't. So, I do think only modules has hurt them, at least when it comes to me specifically.

Fraid I know nothing about them, at least consciensly. Most likely because they just do modules as you say. Personally it is the companies that do sourcebooks or rulesbooks that get my attention. Which is why I LOVE Mongoose Publishing.

Monkeygod has some very good adventures (All the King's Men, Song of Storms come to mind) and their quality has improved significantly over the past year. The main problem with Monkeygod's current offerings as I see it is that too many of their adventures assume a specific setting and/or make significant changes to the rules, making them too difficult to fit into an ongoing campaign.

In addition to Psion's comments I would add one thing. Distribution. Monkey God products are more widely available now (I have actually seen 1 or 2 in my local game store) but for whatever reason I just haven't seen them in stores. The majority of the d20 companies making people's "top 5" or "10" lists have much larger, wider distribution. Even ending their SSS/WW deal I would guess Fiery Dragon has 10 times the distribution of MonkeyGod (Okay, might be an exaggeration).

Part of distribution and marketing is "selling" the product to the stores so it actually gets out and gets seen.

Again, this may be getting much better, but my initial impression is that people just aren't seeing their products.

All companies are going to have variable products. I would guess that all of the d20 companies with more than 5 products out have at least one that they wince about everytime they think about it. It can take several top notch products to overcome a bad product, especially if the poor product comes out first.

Okay, I admit it, I am tired and don't know what my other point is. I better stop rambling and get something done ...

haven't seen hide nor hair of them in any of the 4 shops that i frequent and they have allot of D20 products. First time I heard of them was at GenCon so I can't really comment on them.

If you want to know what would make them memorable or interesting or on my "must buy" list I would say "High Level adventure or campaign". I need more stuff for high level play than anything else, large dwarven cities, elven tree fortress', kuo toan underwater monoliths. City Books & high level play and you would have a seller for me. I plan on buying SHARK's 18+ level module when it comes out as it is on 'epic' proportion. Not much out there targeting that arena...

I usually buy source- and rulebooks. Modules are rarely on my shopping list. I ohly buy those modules that promise to come up with a unique concept without deviating too much from my own campaign (think of Atlas' "Ebon Mirror"). As far as MonkeyGod are concerned, I think I'll pick up "At the Edge of Dreams" which sounded very interesting to me . This would be my first MonkeyGod product, though .

Turjan

Psion said:

Monkeygod has some very good adventures (All the King's Men, Song of Storms come to mind) and their quality has improved significantly over the past year. The main problem with Monkeygod's current offerings as I see it is that too many of their adventures assume a specific setting and/or make significant changes to the rules, making them too difficult to fit into an ongoing campaign.

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Agree with pretty much everything Psion states here.

In addition, sometimes it seems that the grasp of d20 rule mechanics are a little unsound or at least deviate from the standard.

The art and layout need just a touch of work too. Newer products may have fixed that problem but I think the last one I got was Song of Storms so I'm a little out of the loop.

I've only read two MGE products, but they're expensive relative to the page count. "Caravan of Hope" was yet another standard adventure, with poor art. "Last Initiate" was **very** well designed, but for a buck more, you could buy the even better designed **and** longer Tomb of Abysthor.

And someone tell them to use smaller borders. Heck, get rid of the ugly things entirely!


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^