Mongoose's Ultimate Monsters Errata

[Vraille Darkfang]

OK. So I just made the worst mistake of my Gaming Life. I just bought Mongoose's Ultimate Monsters Vol 1 (check out the review in the reviews section, the gut's WAAAAYYYYY too nice in giving it so high a score as a 2/5.)

The book's the greatest example of complete, total, absolute, uncomprimising, utter, shear, INCOMPETINCE I've seen in a d20 book. I won't bore you here, just read John Cooper's review at: (by the way I can already add 30+ errors to all those he's listed).

http://www.enworld.org/reviews/index.php?sub=yes&where=active&reviewer=John+Cooper&product=UMV1

Every (I mean every, as in 100%) of the monsters are inaccurate in some way. From minor editing errors to MAJOR d20 rule screw-ups.

Enough ranting. Suffice to say this book is a waste of paper & I will no longer be buying any Mongoose stuff. Period. OK, OK, things can change, if I hear a bunch of glowing reviews, I'll go down to my FLGS with my a notebook, read through it, make notes, then MAYBE consider buying it.

But, I'm out 35 bucks. I want to recoup some of that waste of money. Does anyone know about an errata file? Any other fools like myself have this & want to get together & begin the process of making this book begin to resemble the d20 book it claims (dubiously) to be?

Thanks,
Vraille Darkfang

PS. I know some Mongoose people are about here. Got any excuse for this absolute waste of ink? I mean, does the editor (Richard Neale) and Proof-Reader (Ben Hesketh) normally get paid to do nothing? (Actually, I don't think they even SAW this book or their error-notes were ignored. Its impossible for anyone to be that incompetent & not have noticed any of the THOUSANDS (not exagerating) of errors in this book.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Hi Vraille,

Though I did not work on that book personally, I have to confess that I was less than happy with it. As I have detailed on these forums elsewhere, Mongoose has recently undergone a _huge_ revision in procedures that mean mistakes such as those appearing in this book can never arise again. These include multi-layered editing, a vast increase in proofreaders (we now spend thousands every month on proofreading, rather than hundreds) and dedicated statistic anaylsts.

Drop me a line at msprange@mongoosepublishing.com. We'll see if there is anything that will convince you to change your mind about our current and future titles.

Regards,

 

[Knight Otu]

http://www.enworld.org/reviews/index.php?sub=yes&where=active&reviewer=John+Cooper&product=UMV1

*Blink, Blink* Wow.

Even if you drop the Level Adjustment issues (it's not that important for most creatures), and the mistake about Weapon Finesse (it applies to all attacks now, so no need to specify), that is quite a list. Maybe they should have asked someone on the Creature Catalog forums for help.

 

[trancejeremy]

Heh - Mongoose should put out a book called "Ultimate Errata", correcting all the mistakes they made and things they've left out. Could be a two parter.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

I e-mailed Matt as he suggested. He has been most helpful about the whole situation. Here, in brief, is his reply.

Me:

"Imagine my disappointment as I begin to read it & see entry after entry after entry was incorrectly done. It wasn't the editing errors I couldn't stand, either. It was the shoddy rules of the entries, Such as the Asharin's incorrectly labeled hit-die type, incorrect BAB, & lack of Level Adjustment."

Matt:

"I cannot agree more. I won't go into the whole sorry tale but several things happened at Mongoose that culminated with the errors in the Conan RPG. That was a real watershed for us and we had a real staff shuffle (read: fired the incompetents) and introduced a whole slew of new procedures that meant that even if someone was to intentionally sabotage a book, it would not go to print with those kind of errors in."

Me:

"You asked in your ENWorld post if "We'll see if there is anything that will convince you to change your mind about our current and future titles." My answer is "Show me a recent product that shows good implementation of the 3.5 D&D rules that lack the mass rules errors of Ultimate Monsters. A decrease in the editing errors abundant in Ultimate Monsters would also help."

Matt:

"As a side note, your post has prompted us to take further action. We are going to make a list this coming week of books that we are less than proud of - and then destroy every last copy we have, so they cannot find their way into the hands of other gamers. A little drastic, true, but we believe we must hold ourselves to a higher standard than other games companies, given the mistakes of the past (particularly with Conan). I believe that over the past few months Mongoose has really transformed itself, to the extent that it is effectively a new company."

End Quotes

Wow. I never expected this type of response. This type of customer service is the first step that will lead be back to buying Mongoose products.

If Matt is as good as his word, I might be a Mongoose fan yet.

Later,
Vraille Darkfang

 

[BOZ]

Maybe they should have asked someone on the Creature Catalog forums for help.

*whistles a bit and tries to look innocent*

 

[Crothian]

Mongoose has announced that this one of three books they are destroying. They are having a 50% off sale this week I think, but after that they will all be pulp.

While Mongoose has had some problems with their books, some have been very good.

 

[Pants]

Wow. I never expected this type of response. This type of customer service is the first step that will lead be back to buying Mongoose products.

If Matt is as good as his word, I might be a Mongoose fan yet.

Wow. Kudos to Mongoose for such a response.

 

[Vanuslux]

Glad to hear of Mongoose owning up to their mistakes and making effort to improve their products.

 

[frankthedm]

send the book back for a refund!