DM: Do you allow Mongoose Publishing Books into your game?

[Mouseferatu]

If Mongoose Publishing doesn't advertise who actually wrote the book on the front cover, then they don't get any credit for who wrote the book.

Instead, they get lumped into "It's Mongoose, and the books I've seen of theirs are horrible."

If the Slayer's Guide to Dragons had "by Gary Gygax and J Creffield" on the front cover, that would have a draw all of its own - but it doesn't.

Cheers!

Unfortunately, many RPG companies don't put authors on the front cover. I guess it's because they want to establish some sort of over-arching identity, but frankly, I'd really prefer that authors get the credit they deserve.

And yes, I'm an author, but I've felt that way since before I worked in the industry.

 

[Crothian]

If Mongoose Publishing doesn't advertise who actually wrote the book on the front cover, then they don't get any credit for who wrote the book.

Instead, they get lumped into "It's Mongoose, and the books I've seen of theirs are horrible."

If the Slayer's Guide to Dragons had "by Gary Gygax and J Creffield" on the front cover, that would have a draw all of its own - but it doesn't.

Cheers!

The name doesn't need to be on the cover. At the store open the page to the list of credits. Heck, I do this all the time to check out the artists, the layout, the editors. There are more people that go into a book then the primary author.

 

[MerricB]

Unfortunately, many RPG companies don't put authors on the front cover. I guess it's because they want to establish some sort of over-arching identity, but frankly, I'd really prefer that authors get the credit they deserve.

And yes, I'm an author, but I've felt that way since before I worked in the industry.

One really nice thing about Wizards is that they do put their authors on the covers.

So does Necromancer Games (with the sole exception of the Tome of Horrors, for obvious reasons...)

Cheers!

 

[Ron]

I brought the very first two Slayer's books from Mongoose (Hobgoblins and Gnolls) and, despite I loved the concept, I found them pretty bad. Months latter, I was convinced by a shop owner to give them another chance with Gladiator: Sands of Death, which I found to be rather weak -- despite the improvement from the Slayer's ones. Considering this, I am not willing to give them another shot. I may give the upcoming Conan book a chance, but it will depend of how reviews come.

Although I haven't seen Mongoose classes books, I would be more receptive to buy Green Ronin's ones, based in both companies track.

 

[Olive]

I own the Slayers guide to centaurs, EA: necromancy and EA: Demonology, and a player owns the Quint. Monk.

Of those the centaurs book is fine, but dull. EA: necro is ok but very dull. EA: Demonology is exciting but only if you are prepared to go really random in your power levels and I'm not super keen on the way that it uses a new PrC, which is really a core class and requires a wizard only feat for it. Quint. Monk was kinda cool, and I've heard that Quint. Wizard is fantastic...

Ultimately Mongoose is too hit and miss for me to really bother with. I've used stuff from almost every d20 book i have but I can't recall ever using any of the mongoose stuff (although the player who bought the book then had his character die, so that's probably the reason there.)

 

[Neo]

If Mongoose Publishing doesn't advertise who actually wrote the book on the front cover, then they don't get any credit for who wrote the book.

Instead, they get lumped into "It's Mongoose, and the books I've seen of theirs are horrible."

If the Slayer's Guide to Dragons had "by Gary Gygax and J Creffield" on the front cover, that would have a draw all of its own - but it doesn't.

Cheers!

Why does the authors name need to be on the cover? its not likes it's hidden they are all on the first page inside along with every other contributor to each book.

If people want to know who wrote them they open the cover, or if online got to the site and look every author is listed right next to his book in the details. You can also visit the Mongoose Forums over at mortality.net and ask all the authors hang out there and are more than willing to talk about thier books, help resolve issue and more...

There is no big secret about who wrote them, and the reason they're lumped in with the "mongoose" connection is because the books are Mongoose publications If they didn't make "that" connection then that would be a problem LOL and not to mention very bad business.

Also the only books really that don't have the authors names on the cover from ongoose are the quintessential guides... and that is likely more to do with the nature of the kind of covers they have, text isn't overly easy to see on them so instead the author is placed inside where all can see it clearly.

It really isn't like they're going actively out of thier way to hide who wrote thier books

 

[CarlZog]

OK, I'm not running a game right now, nor I have I read any Mongoose stuff. (Been out gaming for a while. Just getting into 3e/d20.)

However, I'm totally open to Mongoose, and would consider their stuff, IF ONLY because the woman at the Mongoose booth at GenCon was the happiest, nicest person I met all week.

CZ

 

[Wombat]

I've run across three companies that have consistently put out better material than the core stuff coming out of WotC:

Malhavoc Press
Green Ronin
Mongoose

There may be others who don't like them, but I have had very good luck.

Quintessential Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, Rogue, Bard, and Sorcerer all blew the doors off the WotC splatbooks.

 

[Neo]

Is that necessarily a good thing, though?

Not necessarily speaking of Mongoose in specific, but just in general terms... I don't consider the title of "Most Prolific Publisher of D20 Material" to be something worth striving for. I would rather both support and work for a company that produced a reasonable number of useful and good-quality supplements than a company that produced huge numbers of stuff that was hit-or-miss.

(And yes, quality is subjective, and no company's going to get universal accolades from everyone, but I think most of you know what I mean.)

To answer the question at hand, I don't forbid any specific company in my games, but I insist that my players give me a convincing argument for any non-core material they want to bring into the game. If I think it fits the setting, fits the character, and is balanced, I'll allow it. If not, I won't. Doesn't matter if it's Mongoose, SSS, Green Ronin or WotC itself.

Just because they are prolific doesn't mean they are spread thin on the ground for each book. The reason they can be so prolific is because they have a lot of separate people working on projects simultaneously, eveyr book has equal attention from the people relevant to it. every book is playtested, every book has the exact same treatment every other company gives thiers. the difference however is that Mongoose just happens to have more projects in the works at any time than any other company.

I do think a company being somewhat prolific is a good thing though, I personally hate waiting for releases, and hate it even more when they are delayed or are released abroad first and I then have to spend months hearing about how good they are first before I can get them for myself. I like to have a steady stream of options to keep me happy and Mongoose provides that.

and finally Mongoose are a point of British pride, they are a brit company and one of very few that makes RPG material, so they get solidarity in that regard from me also LOL

I totally agree with you however, I don't allow/disallow material simply based on who made it, but on wether is is appropriate or makes sense, and more importantly if it is balanced. I have found very few companies that put things out that don't need a tweak here or there too, but that isn't necessarily because things are broken or unbalanced to begin with, but because they don't necessarily fit what I'm after.

 

[Mach2.5]

Rather new to the Mongoose genre. I run a Dark Sun campaign and thought that the EA: Elementalism book may add something to the game. Its now being fully incorporated into my DS expansion setting. The second book fared not nearly as well, EA: Star Magic. It was not really that bad, just not quite what I was expecting. I've yet to pick up any of the Mongoose (or Green Ronin) class splats, but I paged through several. They seem fair. Nothing top notch, but not a waste of money either.