Mongoose reaction to OGL/SRD

[Emirikol]

>Can 4e products be produced without damaging the development of existing lines? The >easy answer is yes - we have just taken on another full-time writer and, of course, our >development of RuneQuest and Traveller is currently solid. We would merely have to decide >what proportion of time is taken out for 4e books.

Good for Mongoose. I wish them well, but they could have been better served by hiring another proof-reader or editor [ahem!]. Mongoose will be fine though. I'm interested to see what they will in fact do with their Conan line (as it's pseudo-d20 right now).

jh

 

[Darkwolf71]

Pseudo-d20?

 

[catsclaw227]

This is an interesting statement, since I always perceived Mongoose as constituting the d20 supplement glut back in the heady days of the early 2000s.

It's easy to beat up on Fast Forward becuase they aren't around anymore. They did indeed produce some terrible junk, but the number of books they put out is quintissentially dwarfed by those of Mongoose. No one made the glut worse.

Personally, I disagree. I think that even though they had a reputation for some editing problems, their supplements were really good. I know that you didn't say this specifically, but the inference in your statement about them constituting the d20 glut makes it sound like you put them up on par with the companies that flooded the market with BAD d20 supplements.

Putting out a lot of d20 supplements doesn't equate putting out bad supplements. If you didn't mean this, then consider this a preemptive apology, but it certainly sounds like you are lumping them in with the FFEs of the d20 movement.

EDIT: As it appears others have as well... Oh well. I am of the opinion that their supplements really played well. I used them and they seemed to add lots of flavor and mechanics. There wasn't much that played broken, but in all honesty, there were a lot of companies that, looking back with 20/20 hindsight provided broken mechanics. My players didn't try to exploit them, so maybe I missed a lot.

 

[bmcdaniel]

We did briefly consider Glorantha 4e, then sanity regained its place

Well, I'm sorry to hear that. Glorantha is a fantastic world, IMHO, and I think that D&D is better at simulating the truly world-shaking heroes like Arkat, King Argrath, Harrek and Jar-Eel better than BRP ever could.

 

[Azgulor]

>Can 4e products be produced without damaging the development of existing lines? The >easy answer is yes - we have just taken on another full-time writer and, of course, our >development of RuneQuest and Traveller is currently solid. We would merely have to decide >what proportion of time is taken out for 4e books.

Good for Mongoose. I wish them well, but they could have been better served by hiring another proof-reader or editor [ahem!]. Mongoose will be fine though. I'm interested to see what they will in fact do with their Conan line (as it's pseudo-d20 right now).

jh

Nothing aside from continued development based on their statements on their forums. They just released Conan 2e (OGL). They've stated there is little to no reason to convert Conan to 4e (especially now since the 4e OGL seems to preclude creating a standalone OGL game). Given that 4e seems to be pushing even further into the High Fantasy genre, being required to use the 4e PHB is probably not feasible nor desirable.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Did he come off as sounding really really pretentious to anyone else?

Nope.

Re: the OP, thanks for posting that. It was quite interesting.

I hope Mongoose does well, regardless of whether they 'go 4e' or not.

 

[Delta]

What I experienced in the original post is what I would call "critical thinking". Our schools struggle mightily these days trying to teach that. More of that would be good.

 

[Wyrmshadows]

I admit to not being a great fan of some of the Quintessential series, but of course I wasn't much of a fan of a number of WoTC spaltbooks either.

Within the last few years, Mongoose has become a great game company that produces excellent RPing game materials. Conan D20, Runquest, Elric, Slaine, Traveller, etc. are excellent. Of all the D20 stuff out there Conan is IMO the best hands down. Of the non-D20 stuff, Runequest is without a doubt my favorite, though I am not a Glorantha fan (nothing against it, just not my cup o' tea).

If you want a game that is grittier, lighter on the rules, easily house-ruled and easily supports non-D&D type fantasy (such as that found in most fantasy literature ie. not fantasy supers) Runequest is a solid choice. And no, I have no financial connection to Mongoose or Runequest.

I hope that Mongoose continues to grow and create more and better gaming materials. It was very smart for Mongoose to get out of under the shadow of WoTC with their own games in the same vein as Green Ronin.

Personally I may or may not bother with 4e, but good solid quality 3rd party support will go a long way toward prompting me to check it out. IME 3rd party publishers are often more willing to push the envelope and create interesting variants than WoTC. Sometimes these products are less than stellar, but sometimes they have a real spart of individuality that isn't something I see (or expect to see for that matter) from a company like WoTC whose job is to provide products with the widest possible interest. 3rd party publishers can effectively target certain niches (such as gritty fantasy or non-superheroic high fantasy) giving their products a distinct feel.



Wyrmshadows

 

[megamania]

Did he come off as sounding really really pretentious to anyone else?

Nope.

He stated the facts that he is aware of and gave some pros/cons involved in a very big and important decision that will forever effect him and possibly everyone that works for the company.

 

[Orius]

Well, the only Mongoose product that ever interested me was the Conan stuff; I never really payed much attention to the Quintessential series or any of the other generic stuff. In any case, it doesn't really matter; they've been around since the beginning of d20 and have weathered it fairly well, I'd say. And I'd have to say judging from this whole statment that they have some fairly solid business sense.