Mongoose's "The-game-that-still-cannot-be-mentioned"...what is it?

Sulimo said:


But it hasnt affected the creators. See Jeremiah for evidence of that...and the film of Rising Stars...if it ever makes it out of development hell. And JMS's comic work generally.

Of course the cast dont seem to have gotten much work lately.

I didn't say I believed in it (or any curse, for that matter). I just have heard about this before. Still, if you look at just B5 itself, it does seem to have been dogged by bad luck - or maybe "unfortunate happenstances" is a better phrase. Crusade was basically cancelled before it aired, and Legends of the Rangers wasn't picked up as the next B5 series after the initial movie. More recently, Agents of Gaming lost the B5 license, effectively scuttling 3 B5 games - B5 Wars, Fleet Action, and GROPOS. Not to mention how Chameleon Eclectic and its RPG fared so poorly...hmmm...maybe there is a curse, after all... ;)
 

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ColonelHardisson said:


I didn't say I believed in it (or any curse, for that matter). I just have heard about this before. Still, if you look at just B5 itself, it does seem to have been dogged by bad luck - or maybe "unfortunate happenstances" is a better phrase. Crusade was basically cancelled before it aired, and Legends of the Rangers wasn't picked up as the next B5 series after the initial movie. More recently, Agents of Gaming lost the B5 license, effectively scuttling 3 B5 games - B5 Wars, Fleet Action, and GROPOS. Not to mention how Chameleon Eclectic and its RPG fared so poorly...hmmm...maybe there is a curse, after all... ;)

Well, I posted this in the other thread relating to the same subject, but I'll repost it here since it addresses this issue:

My understanding is that Agents of Gaming was doing fine with Babylon 5 Wars until Warner Brothers decided to pull the license. I can't say what happened with Chameleon Eclectic since they went belly up in the middle of their release schedule for The Babylon Project.

In general I would agree that B5 is somewhat cursed. especially after the Crusade fiasco (I still refuse to watch TNT because of what they did) and sci-fi failing to pick up Legend of the Rangers (which didn't really look that great, even to me), but its really no more cursed than other sci-fi shows. The original Star Trek was cancelled 3 years into its 5 year mission and it took more than 10 years to get the first movie made (many would argue that the only reason ST:TMP was made at all was because of the success of Star Wars), Battlestar Gallactica had its budget slashed in half after 1 year and lost most its major cast members as a result (Battlestar 1980 was a joke), The Star Trek: The Next Generation movies have been underperforming in the box office, Farscape is cancelled, the X-Files lost its star 3/4 of the way through the show's thankfully lengthy run, and Firefly lasted a total of 10 episodes. By comparison, a successful 5 year show that ran more or less as planned should be considered a huge success.

Also, due to scifi's daily showing of B5 goodness, there are more people that watch and respect the show now than when it first ran. Much like Star Trek, it is becoming a success in syndication. Because of the increase in popularity, I think a new D20 based B5 RPG will do well, especially considering the relatively low numbers of sales it takes for an RPG to be considered successful. My only fear is that the price of the license might make it impossible to make a profit from the game, and it will get dropped despite decent sales.
 

Hey... Check out this thread I started quite some time ago!

Here it is.

To quote myself from my post on Oct 24/2002:
My wild guess is that Mongoose might have received the rights from JMS... B5 has a very big Brit & Euro following... Would be interesting if true...
This speculation on my part was before Mongoose Matt's announcements concerning Conan, Lone Star, and the-game-that-cannot-be-mentioned. Lucky guess?

A few posts later in that thread Matt is asked to comment... All he said at the time was "No". However, there was no qualification as to whether "no comment" or "no rights to B5"...

Well, B5's popularity was, as far as I heard, bigger in the UK and Europe than in the United States. Mongoose is based in the UK... More than convenient I'd say... :D

I hope my brief moment of "foretelling" rings true... I think Mongoose could do a really good job of it! And maybe some of Giant-in-the-Playground's material on B5 will show up in publication! Considering Giant's 1 of the 3 finalists in WotC's setting search, he has the talent Mongoose could use! :)

Oh man... somehow I can just "see" it all fall wonderfully in place. "Just as it should be"...

If I'm right, do I win anything? LOL :D

-W.
 

Curse: B1-4 were considered unlucky due to their fate. B1-3 destroyed (IIRC), B4 dissapears.

Telgian.
(Who vaguely recalls (and I mean *really* vaguely) the 'New Vegas' odds on B5 surviving a certain period of time to be something like 1 000 : 1)

P.S. I haven't seen any episodes of this in several years. No TV.
 

You're right, Telgian. B1-3 were destroyed by the Homeguard or allied groups, and B4 mysteriously disappeared in what later turned out to be a linchpin of the story arc.

There was also an episode that featured an ex-member of the Babylon Project construction crew who remained on the station because he was convince that it was cursed to blow up or disappear if he left.
 

The-game-that-still-cannot-be-mentioned and a curse.

Come on. That is too easy.

It's "Legends of Hastur, Hastur, Hastur..."
 



Skullfyre said:


Tele tubbies D20?

Wooo Hooo!!

My wife already calls me Tinkie Winkie sometimes.
shrug1.gif
 


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