And John saves me another $35

[Pants]

But all of the criticisms mentioned in this thread, you could argue the same for, say WotC.

Or any other d20 publisher for that matter.

Sorry, but Mongoose and WotC get a lot of flack for bad editing, but people seem to blithely ignore it when their 'favorites' have a 'page XX' reference or something equally bad.

I was flipping through the Monsternomicon 3.5 a couple of days ago and noticed some pretty blatant editing snaffus and I wasn't even LOOKING that hard. Yeah, it's a fantastic book, but no one seems to care, however WotC gets jumped whenever a monster is missing a skill point or two (hyperbole, but still...).

C'mon people...

 

[Ranger REG]

Actually, no.

There are some companies, Green Ronin, Malhavoc, and others, that I TRUST. I don't trust Mongoose.

Ah, so this IS an anti-Mongoose thread.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I, too, got burned by Mongoose early on, by their "Quintessential" series.

After 3 of those, I didn't buy another thing until Paranoia...which is quite good. And I have heard good things about Bab5.

However, most of what I have seen them produce is on my "don't touch with a 10' quarterstaff" list.

With Mongoose, as with FFE, I adopt the attitude of "caveat emptor," while generally trusting Malhavoc and Green Ronin. (FYI, I like much of AEG's work, too.)

 

[JoeGKushner]

Ah, so this IS an anti-Mongoose thread.

I'm not 100% anti-Mongoose. I've got a first run Conan that I've been able to use in my games, as well as some of their various Ultimate Lines and the arcane Compendium that they came out with but they've still got a LONG way to go.

And yes, other companies do make mistakes. Looking at the Monsternomicon though, I'd say that the art value in that book probably gives it DR 20 as opposed to say the Mongoose book which has fair art, but isn't up there with the Monsternomicon.

 

[Razuur]

Mongoose can put out both good and lackluster stuff. It really depends.

Their Babylon 5 and Conan books are simply top form. I loved OGL Cybernet, OGL Horror, & OGL Ancients. I loved Quintissential Rogue

Bot they have a lot of other stuff that doesn't appeal to me.

I won't go so far as to call it crap, but rather it just doesn't hit my tastes, which is fine.

It must be selling because they are producing a lot of product.

When they really grind their heels in and do something they believe it - it really shows and their products are stellar.

When they do D20 generica - it just looks bad compared to their good stuff.

Razuur

 

[kigmatzomat]

I'm ambivalent about Mongoose. To be honest, I'm ambivalent about most companies. Individual authors I'll follow through rivers of blood.

An acquaintance of mine writes for Mongoose and I've heard that they are either setting unrealistic deadlines for some projects or are having writers flake out on them. The number of "could you please finish this, you work fast" projects have apparently ramped up. Were I the Mongoose editing/production staff I'd seriously start fearing for author burn out. This person is quite prolific and if they are feeling the stress, well, bad things.

I only hope this is a pre-GenCon crunch or they may hit that critical juncture of having no active authors worth having despite a viable market.

 

[Soel]

Doesn't bode well for the mentioned $100 superbook...