MongooseMatt
First Post
Hi guys,
I can’t even remember when I started doing this now but over the past couple of years at least, I have posted a little something (or a long something) towards the end of the year about what Mongoose is up to and our views on the industry in general. This year people have actually been asking for to see it, so I am guessing someone is reading. . .
As always, what lies here is my opinion only, from Mongoose’s point of view.
I guess the big news this year is how the industry is about to disappear in flames, with companies going out of business left, right and centre. Big doom, planes crashing from the sky and no more RPGs.
Uh, no. The odd Decipher aside, the companies that were going out of business did so last year. Put another way, if a D20 company still seems current but has not produced anything in 2006, you can pretty much assume they are no longer with us. AEG was the last company that seemed to be having trouble, but I would not read too much into that – I have no special insider information, but I can say that every company goes through that process at some point in time. It is the nature of business. You find new ways of doing things that are more efficient and require less staff, you change the focus of your company, and so on. Happens to every business.
So, where does all that leave the industry right now? I believe, overall, it is pretty healthy (from the point of view of an RPG company, remember – not necessarily for, say, a distributor). Even disregarding our miniatures lines, this year will mark the biggest turnover Mongoose has had in the RPG market since we started. What is more interesting is that our back catalogue, which has always proved remarkably stable, has gone ballistic over the past six months – these are books that are anything between six months and four and a half years old, ages that (traditionally) should mean they are well past their sell by date if you presume on the ‘three month’ sales model (I never believed in that anyway). The Conan RPG has increased its sales for five months running. The Starship Troopers RPG blew through its first print run in four months. Paranoia is already at its third print run (and we don’t print small numbers for these books). And so on. On a side note, this year I finally managed to buy the car of my dreams (or maybe one down from that – no way I can afford a DB9 yet
), so things cannot be going that badly. . .
So, why does the industry appear to be shrinking? Well, it is possible (and I just raise this as a possibility) that the likes of WotC, WW and Mongoose (there are other companies that belong in this list, I am sure you can work out who) are grabbing larger market shares, to the detriment of other companies. However, I think that is only part of the story.
I sincerely believe that all the roleplayers are still out there – you just need to release the right product. Put out a good book, and it will do well. Release something second rate or uninspired and it will fall flat on its face. Kind of obvious when you think about it. At the end of the day, this means you need to grab people’s attention. We all know another Dwarf book is not going to cut it (we knew that last year, and the year before) but it goes beyond this – a new campaign setting is not going to be the ticket, nor is a new set of mechanics.
Release a book called the Starship Troopers RPG, and you’ll do just fine. . .
There are other problems, of course. There are retailers out there who need help promoting and selling games. There are distributors in the same boat. Mongoose now finds itself in the ‘interesting’ position of needing to give its games the kind of support you see from the likes of WotC and WW, though we do not have their resources. This is one area we will be focussing on very carefully over the next 12 months. An entire essay could be written just on this subject, but it is fairly boring compared to talking about games. . .
Last year I made a prediction that scenarios would start a return in 2005. What I didn’t say was that they would take the form of ‘mega-campaigns’ because, well, that was exactly what we were planning! I would like to think I got that one right with books such as Shackled City and our own Drow War campaign (which will be completed, right up to level 30, this year). There would have been more released but we did not get our house completely in order with a few projects. For example, there should be a complete D20 Modern campaign out now, based on players being members of a New York SWAT team (for example). Never happened.
Predications for 2006: Aside from 32 page scenarios, the vast majority of RPG books you buy next year will be hardback. And the D20 badge will become more important next year, rather than less (so long as WotC do nothing to spanner it like, oh I don’t know, yank it. . .).
This is already a bit long, so I’ll move on to some of the things that Mongoose has got lined up for 2006.
NEW FORMATS
The biggest change you will see is in our presentation and the utility of our books. Watch out for the Arachnid Empire and MI Field Manual (both for the Starship Troopers RPG), as they are the first books to get the new treatment. The layout and art will blow you away (I’ll get some previews going for this soon) and you will find them the most user-friendly books we have ever done. I’ve been saying for a while that we would happily stack the books Mongoose produces now against anything else in the market. Next year, we are going to raise the bar sky high.
So, will you be paying more for all this? Not at all. With the exception of two RPG products (one of them a box set), nothing we produce will be more than $29.95 – even full blown RPGs. Our mission for 2006 is to produce some of the best books in the market without you having to pay through the nose for them.
D20 EXPERT PLAYERS GUIDES
Case in point – you’ll be used to paying $19.95 for 128 page softbacks. We’ll be doing this set of 256 page hardbacks for the same price. Because, well, we can! There will be a couple of spell books coming first (to give an alternative to WotC’s spell compendium – after all, who wants to be a ‘standard’ wizard?), but we also have a monster book for Epic level beasties, a complete market place/bazaar and oodles of other things. No fluff, no frilly bits, just useable information and mechanics for your games.
RUNEQUEST
This will, I believe, be a biggie. The main rulebook (and RQ Companion, for that matter) will be a complete rulebook for $19.95, it will be Open, allowing others to get on board and there will be a ton of support for it throughout the year. We are looking at an Ancient Briton/realistic King Arthur setting towards the end of the year, Glorantha-philes will be well catered for and it has been written assuming you will use it for a ‘standard’ fantasy setting (whatever that may be). We have also brought in some top writing talent for it, so stay tuned. . .
BABYLON 5
This is going to explode next year. First up will be the 2nd edition that will not, I repeat not, invalidate any of your current sourcebooks. Buy Darkness & Light next month (finally giving you the inner scoop on the Vorlons and Shadows) and you will find it fully compatible with the new rules set. New supplements include the Babylon 5 station box set – super-detailing the entire station from top to bottom, with enough maps to sink an Omega destroyer. You’ll also see some deck plans, doing the same thing for various ships in the B5 universe. The Hyperion is due out next month and, if I may so myself, it looks very spiffy indeed – the guys really went to town on this. Oh, and expect a bucket load of new scenarios for B5, including The Ragged Edge, a complete campaign penned by Gareth Hanrahan.
I mentioned explosions for B5. Our licence is going to be extending way beyond RPGs, and even beyond the new line of novels you may have heard about (including one written by Miss Claudia Christian – you’ll see these appearing in the middle of next year). I’ll make an announcement early 2006 about the rest. But I think you’ll like it. . .
CONAN
I have to chip this one in because if I miss it out, people will start saying it is cancelled. Not a bit of it! We have locked Vincent Darlage in a tiny room without light or air for the past 12 months, forcing him to write the most detailed sourcebooks yet for Hyboria. You’ll see the fruits of this throughout 2006.
LICENCES
Yes, of course, we have some of these floating around. As always. The one I really want to tell you about is one I cannot say a word about because nothing has been signed yet. However, we are ‘this’ close to getting one of the ‘Holy Grails’ of RPGs. Think of the coolest thing possible that is not currently being done and you might be somewhere on the right track
Unfortunately, it looks like our plans for a Rainbow Six/Ghost Recon game is not going to come to fruition, due to the licensors wanting to treat both as separate licences – which we are not convinced is worthwhile for RPGs. YMMV as to the pros and cons of this idea.
There have been other hurdles on the licence front of late. Lankhmar was going to be a possibility, for example (I can’t think of a better setting for an alternative RQ game) but they have dropped off the planet it seems. Actually, we did hear of another company interested, so you might see it after all – though I would be surprised if the company in question went for it. Still, you never know. We would be the last ones to be told! An Eternal Champion RPG is also unlikely, as we can get every champion except Elric –someone ain’t releasing that guy for public use in RPGs. And Eternal Champion without Elric just seems. . . wrong.
It seems odd talking about licences that won’t be coming out but I figure someone will be interested at what goes on behind the scenes!
MINIATURES GAMES
Lots. But you’ll have to wait for news on these if you are interested. However, I think there is a seismic shift coming in the miniatures market and Mongoose plans to be there. . .
I think I have waffled enough now – as I said, all opinions are my own and from the point of view of Mongoose only. Someone from across the street is likely to have a very different opinion. Which is cool, and as it should be.
If you have any questions, fire away – I’ll answer what I can. . .
I can’t even remember when I started doing this now but over the past couple of years at least, I have posted a little something (or a long something) towards the end of the year about what Mongoose is up to and our views on the industry in general. This year people have actually been asking for to see it, so I am guessing someone is reading. . .
As always, what lies here is my opinion only, from Mongoose’s point of view.
I guess the big news this year is how the industry is about to disappear in flames, with companies going out of business left, right and centre. Big doom, planes crashing from the sky and no more RPGs.
Uh, no. The odd Decipher aside, the companies that were going out of business did so last year. Put another way, if a D20 company still seems current but has not produced anything in 2006, you can pretty much assume they are no longer with us. AEG was the last company that seemed to be having trouble, but I would not read too much into that – I have no special insider information, but I can say that every company goes through that process at some point in time. It is the nature of business. You find new ways of doing things that are more efficient and require less staff, you change the focus of your company, and so on. Happens to every business.
So, where does all that leave the industry right now? I believe, overall, it is pretty healthy (from the point of view of an RPG company, remember – not necessarily for, say, a distributor). Even disregarding our miniatures lines, this year will mark the biggest turnover Mongoose has had in the RPG market since we started. What is more interesting is that our back catalogue, which has always proved remarkably stable, has gone ballistic over the past six months – these are books that are anything between six months and four and a half years old, ages that (traditionally) should mean they are well past their sell by date if you presume on the ‘three month’ sales model (I never believed in that anyway). The Conan RPG has increased its sales for five months running. The Starship Troopers RPG blew through its first print run in four months. Paranoia is already at its third print run (and we don’t print small numbers for these books). And so on. On a side note, this year I finally managed to buy the car of my dreams (or maybe one down from that – no way I can afford a DB9 yet
), so things cannot be going that badly. . .So, why does the industry appear to be shrinking? Well, it is possible (and I just raise this as a possibility) that the likes of WotC, WW and Mongoose (there are other companies that belong in this list, I am sure you can work out who) are grabbing larger market shares, to the detriment of other companies. However, I think that is only part of the story.
I sincerely believe that all the roleplayers are still out there – you just need to release the right product. Put out a good book, and it will do well. Release something second rate or uninspired and it will fall flat on its face. Kind of obvious when you think about it. At the end of the day, this means you need to grab people’s attention. We all know another Dwarf book is not going to cut it (we knew that last year, and the year before) but it goes beyond this – a new campaign setting is not going to be the ticket, nor is a new set of mechanics.
Release a book called the Starship Troopers RPG, and you’ll do just fine. . .
There are other problems, of course. There are retailers out there who need help promoting and selling games. There are distributors in the same boat. Mongoose now finds itself in the ‘interesting’ position of needing to give its games the kind of support you see from the likes of WotC and WW, though we do not have their resources. This is one area we will be focussing on very carefully over the next 12 months. An entire essay could be written just on this subject, but it is fairly boring compared to talking about games. . .
Last year I made a prediction that scenarios would start a return in 2005. What I didn’t say was that they would take the form of ‘mega-campaigns’ because, well, that was exactly what we were planning! I would like to think I got that one right with books such as Shackled City and our own Drow War campaign (which will be completed, right up to level 30, this year). There would have been more released but we did not get our house completely in order with a few projects. For example, there should be a complete D20 Modern campaign out now, based on players being members of a New York SWAT team (for example). Never happened.
Predications for 2006: Aside from 32 page scenarios, the vast majority of RPG books you buy next year will be hardback. And the D20 badge will become more important next year, rather than less (so long as WotC do nothing to spanner it like, oh I don’t know, yank it. . .).
This is already a bit long, so I’ll move on to some of the things that Mongoose has got lined up for 2006.
NEW FORMATS
The biggest change you will see is in our presentation and the utility of our books. Watch out for the Arachnid Empire and MI Field Manual (both for the Starship Troopers RPG), as they are the first books to get the new treatment. The layout and art will blow you away (I’ll get some previews going for this soon) and you will find them the most user-friendly books we have ever done. I’ve been saying for a while that we would happily stack the books Mongoose produces now against anything else in the market. Next year, we are going to raise the bar sky high.
So, will you be paying more for all this? Not at all. With the exception of two RPG products (one of them a box set), nothing we produce will be more than $29.95 – even full blown RPGs. Our mission for 2006 is to produce some of the best books in the market without you having to pay through the nose for them.
D20 EXPERT PLAYERS GUIDES
Case in point – you’ll be used to paying $19.95 for 128 page softbacks. We’ll be doing this set of 256 page hardbacks for the same price. Because, well, we can! There will be a couple of spell books coming first (to give an alternative to WotC’s spell compendium – after all, who wants to be a ‘standard’ wizard?), but we also have a monster book for Epic level beasties, a complete market place/bazaar and oodles of other things. No fluff, no frilly bits, just useable information and mechanics for your games.
RUNEQUEST
This will, I believe, be a biggie. The main rulebook (and RQ Companion, for that matter) will be a complete rulebook for $19.95, it will be Open, allowing others to get on board and there will be a ton of support for it throughout the year. We are looking at an Ancient Briton/realistic King Arthur setting towards the end of the year, Glorantha-philes will be well catered for and it has been written assuming you will use it for a ‘standard’ fantasy setting (whatever that may be). We have also brought in some top writing talent for it, so stay tuned. . .
BABYLON 5
This is going to explode next year. First up will be the 2nd edition that will not, I repeat not, invalidate any of your current sourcebooks. Buy Darkness & Light next month (finally giving you the inner scoop on the Vorlons and Shadows) and you will find it fully compatible with the new rules set. New supplements include the Babylon 5 station box set – super-detailing the entire station from top to bottom, with enough maps to sink an Omega destroyer. You’ll also see some deck plans, doing the same thing for various ships in the B5 universe. The Hyperion is due out next month and, if I may so myself, it looks very spiffy indeed – the guys really went to town on this. Oh, and expect a bucket load of new scenarios for B5, including The Ragged Edge, a complete campaign penned by Gareth Hanrahan.
I mentioned explosions for B5. Our licence is going to be extending way beyond RPGs, and even beyond the new line of novels you may have heard about (including one written by Miss Claudia Christian – you’ll see these appearing in the middle of next year). I’ll make an announcement early 2006 about the rest. But I think you’ll like it. . .
CONAN
I have to chip this one in because if I miss it out, people will start saying it is cancelled. Not a bit of it! We have locked Vincent Darlage in a tiny room without light or air for the past 12 months, forcing him to write the most detailed sourcebooks yet for Hyboria. You’ll see the fruits of this throughout 2006.
LICENCES
Yes, of course, we have some of these floating around. As always. The one I really want to tell you about is one I cannot say a word about because nothing has been signed yet. However, we are ‘this’ close to getting one of the ‘Holy Grails’ of RPGs. Think of the coolest thing possible that is not currently being done and you might be somewhere on the right track
Unfortunately, it looks like our plans for a Rainbow Six/Ghost Recon game is not going to come to fruition, due to the licensors wanting to treat both as separate licences – which we are not convinced is worthwhile for RPGs. YMMV as to the pros and cons of this idea.
There have been other hurdles on the licence front of late. Lankhmar was going to be a possibility, for example (I can’t think of a better setting for an alternative RQ game) but they have dropped off the planet it seems. Actually, we did hear of another company interested, so you might see it after all – though I would be surprised if the company in question went for it. Still, you never know. We would be the last ones to be told! An Eternal Champion RPG is also unlikely, as we can get every champion except Elric –someone ain’t releasing that guy for public use in RPGs. And Eternal Champion without Elric just seems. . . wrong.
It seems odd talking about licences that won’t be coming out but I figure someone will be interested at what goes on behind the scenes!
MINIATURES GAMES
Lots. But you’ll have to wait for news on these if you are interested. However, I think there is a seismic shift coming in the miniatures market and Mongoose plans to be there. . .
I think I have waffled enough now – as I said, all opinions are my own and from the point of view of Mongoose only. Someone from across the street is likely to have a very different opinion. Which is cool, and as it should be.
If you have any questions, fire away – I’ll answer what I can. . .
