Mongoose Publishing's Rep...?

[twofalls]

Ignore is another handy feat.

Ignore
Prerequisite: Base Will save +2 or higher.
Effect: This feat allows you to diregard another's posts.
Normal: You must read every post, no matter how asinine.

The Auld Grump

I won't qualify... my will save is -1. I buy soooo many game books...

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I won't qualify... my will save is -1. I buy soooo many game books...

Ah, but is that because of a low base, or because of a low Wisdom? (Or perhaps just a circumstance penalty...)

The Auld Grump

 

[Ds Da Man]

Maybe we need an ENWORLD death match arena at GenCon this year! Put some gloves on, and let some of you posters to settle it the real mans way!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That was one of my favorite projects, for what it's worth. Renaissance era Italian gnomes, with characters modeled on DaVince, Michaelangelo, Machiavelli, and other famous figures of the time.

Gnomes and the Italian Renaissance are two of my faves.

It's best if you're interested in a city where you can do lots of non-stabby stuff.

Between Freeport and Endhome (Lost City of Barakus), I have all the stabby cities I need.

 

[tarchon]

Mongoose's mew jermiah RPG was chock full of editing errors, some major, and just confirmed my previous view of their quality.

They go back on the "won't buy" list.

I saw that in the store last week - I didn't notice the editing but it seemed like a rather pointless RPG, especially for a hardback.

 

[Plane Sailing]

This thread has been reported for mean-spirited comments and snarkiness.

Thankfully it appears to have calmed down again now, but please all remember - be polite to each other. If flaming starts up, the thread is likly to be closed.

Regards

 

[JoeGKushner]

One thing I don't like about Mongoose, or many d20 companies these days, is that they tend to have a very "fire & forget" mode.

Outside of Conan, we've seen little errata or web support.

Bothered by the poor editing in Sheloth? How about a web expansion with the NPC's with the correct stats?

 

[DaveMage]

I haven't seen WotC bigwigs around these boards for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time, but I don't think it's hurt their sales in the slightest.

WotC's Charles Ryan has popped by a few times lately. And while EN World may not be WotC's top priority, I would bet they'd know about any major happenings here.

 

[Mongoose_Matt]

Naturally, nothing I have said here should be seen as implying anything in particular.

Okay, first off, I acknowledge that answering this post may well be the result for failing a Wisdom check. I have had 'debates' with Malcolm before on RPGNet using their private message system. After just a few exchanges, I found him to be abusive far beyond the point of rudeness and so simply stopped talking to him. He seems to have a real problem with Mongoose and I am still not entirely sure why - to my knowledge we have never worked with him. However, I do fear that there may be lurkers on this thread who may take an interest in what he has to say and so. . .

1. I _think_ I know what he means about people watching what they say. This came (I believe) from a 'lively' debate on the D&D Newsgroup (Usenet). The topic was on the nature of game balance in the d20 System but quickly degenerated when a freelance writer (not Malcolm) launched into a full broadside against me about, well, most things it seemed. What I could not understand was a) why anyone would want to hammer a discussion about game balance in RPGs and, more to the point, b) why any freelance writer would want to alienate a potential future employer. This was after the 'd20 boom', and the freelance writer's world is not all that rich at the moment.

2. China. Oh yes, we print a proportion (not all) of our products in China. I _have_ had someone in the past tell me that it was far more patriotic to print in America - well, fine, but I am not American However, onto the specific complaints raised, politics aside, choosing _which_ company to use in China makes _all_ the difference. We are one of the best customers to the Chinese companies we use, allowing them to expand into other areas and grow their current business. I, personally, don't view the policies of their government as having much to do with them as a company or as people. To put it another way, it would be like refusing to print (or perhaps sell) to the US if we happened to disagree with the policies of Mr Bush (we don't disagree, incidentally - frankly, I can't see that it has much to do with us. . .). That just does not make sense. There is also an argument to be made that in trading with countries such as China, you begin forcing them to play by western rules (whatever they may be).

As to why we have not disclosed the name of the companies we use in China - it is simply a commercial safeguard. It takes a _long_ time to build up a business relationship in China (especially if you want to avoid the more. . . problematic/abusive companies). Our contacts in China represent a significant investment in time and money. I am not going to hand out those details to, well, anyone, for obvious reasons.

3. Creation of the Conan RPG - I honestly have no idea what he is talking about here. I can say that two people lost their jobs over the first printing debacle and maybe Malcolm has only ever heard their side (to date, we have never told anyone exactly what happened behind the scenes and I doubt we ever will - we are just not that sort of company). I can see the point of view of both people, and I can understand why either might feel hard done by. However, Mongoose has to operate as a business and, ultimately, they brought it on themselves.

4. Freelancers and creatives. Well, it seems we live in an age where people love to knock something big, and Mongoose has recently taken third place in the market, in terms of total RPG products sold. However, I would be willing to bet all the money in my pocket that the mysterious freelancers that have congratulated Malcolm either a) have never worked with us or b) have been fired by us. Yes, it is true, while we are extremely reluctant to fire anyone who joins Mongoose, some people have, quite frankly, taken the mick - again, no names mentioned, but you have heard of them and some of them may surprise you. They have done things like, for instance, taken two full month's pay from us and done _nothing_. No work at all. This sort of thing, aside from being daylight robbery, has a tendency to really screw up release schedules. It is a pain - we would prefer they were just honest with us.

However, I am guessing it is mostly the former that Malcolm has been talking to - people do love to gossip, after all. I am quite willing to believe that there are a number of 'creative types' out there who have a problem with what we do and how we do it. No doubt they could do much better jobs if they were running things. Frankly, that is something I can live with very well

5. A penny for work. Yes, I once made a post on an industry list offering 1 cent per word on a specific project. This was a _very_ specific line of work that had little to no chance of going to print and thus we offered a low amount for it. In short, we offered what it was worth to us. I pointed out that 'veterans' of the industry would probably not be interested and that it would serve someone who has never written before or perhaps someone who has relevant text stored on their hard drive and had nowhere to sell it.

As someone pointed out on in this thread, if you don't like those terms, don't take them. However, to actually take offence is. . . odd.

Needless to say, 1 cent per word is not our standard rate of pay, which can vary a great deal depending on which title a writer is working on, their experience and expected end sales.

6. Salary offers. Now this is a good one - Malcolm raises White Wolf and Decipher here, two companies that are an order of magnitude larger than Mongoose. However, that aside, we rarely post salary amounts on our job adverts (see the current Miniatures Painter position we have open) and only do so in specific circumstances. I can safely say, for example, that the salaries of our office staff (of which we have ten) are _at_least_ comparable to what you would find in WW or WotC and, in some cases, better. What Malcolm is talking about (I think) is our job adverts for writers.

Now, in the last round of writer recruitment, we offered $18,000 as a starting salary, if memory serves me right. I acknowledge that, to some of you, that may seem a shocking wage. However, it is a _starting_ salary. In the past, we have recognised the effort editors at other companies have put in to making a writer's work legible and so we take nothing for granted when hiring new writers. In short, it does not matter who you have worked for or how many books you have had published, we want to see what you can do from the ground up. This is also a position in which you can wortk completely at home, on your own time scale - this is something that has led to abuse in the past (see note above about a writer taking 2 months pay and doing nothing). So, we are cautious. If you do well, you will get a pay rise. There are perhaps a handful of freelance RPG writers in the entire world who get paid more than our full time writers over the course of a year.

The problem here, of course, is that various people are commenting on something that seems to be an affront to them, when they have no knowledge or experience of working with Mongoose.

7. Creatives working for Mongoose. I am quite prepared to believe that there are people who have worked for us who have nothing but bad things to say. Of course there are. We have terminated contracts and fired a few people in the past - for no other reason than their work did _not_ meet with expectations. Either they were late, or sloppy, or just went off and did their own thing regardless of what our editors asked for. If someone is currently working for us and has a problem, they have multiple opportunities to raise their concerns. However, the bottom line has to be, if we pay someone for something, we want to see what we have paid for, not what they think ought to be published.

8. Large submissions on spec. Now this is a bugbear I have heard before. When looking for a full time writer, we ask them to write a complete RPG supplement as part of the selection process. After all, this is what they are going to be doing 99% of the time, and we do not believe it is asking to much that they prove themselves before we hand over money. We never ask for anything large - either a 32 or 64 page supplement is the norm (and anyone who thinks that is a large amount of writing has no place with us).

However, we do not just discard all failures. If a piece of writing is up to spec, whether or not the guy gets the job, we will send a contract along and actually publish it - with full compensation to the writer. It does _not_ go to waste. If, however, a writer is not selected for the job, nor does he receive a contract, well, it is a fairly obvious assumption that the submitted text was no good. He does not deserve anything. . .


At the end of the day, anyone can ask me anything about Mongoose they want - if it is something I can truthfully answer, I will.

I would much rather have a solid Q&A session than be subjected to rumour and gossip from people who simply cannot have a grasp on the full story. Not too much to ask, is it?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Mongoose has recently taken third place in the market, in terms of total RPG products sold.

Oooh, that reminds me, I could really go for a McDonald's double cheeseburger.