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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JustinA" data-source="post: 3701236" data-attributes="member: 51618">So I've heard. Unfortunately for Mongoose, the last product I bought from them was Conan: The unplayable and unedited first edition release. After spending half an hour realizing that I had just been royally conned, I threw the book into a box.When they announced the "great deal" of offering to sell me the same book a second time, it didn't compel me to give them more money or dig the book out of the box. The book remains there to this day.My flip-throughs of Mongoose product at the LGS have not revealed any substantial improvements in editorial standards or game design. I already own several editions of RuneQuest, and nothing I've heard about the new release convinces me that the new edition offers anything to me.Is Mongoose publishing better products than the unusable drek they were publishing a few years ago? Probably. Is it good enough to make me forget that they burned me over and over and over again? Not yet.Ding, ding, ding!The D&D Basic Set used to be a complete and open-ended game. If you wanted higher-level adventures you could go out and buy the Expert Set. If you wanted a more robust, detailed, and complex version of the game you could go out and buy AD&D. But the game you were given was a complete roleplaying system in and of itself.The more recent versions of the Basic Set haven't achieved this. Their primary design goal appears to be nothing more than a teaser trailer of what an RPG can actually be. The game is essentially not playable beyond the sample scenarios included in the set.If I bought these Basic Sets out of the blue, I would be pretty disappointed. They're essentially WotC asking people to pay for an extended advertisement of the PHB. They have neither the extendability of an actual RPG nor the replayability of a board game.Even more baffling, however, is that the game doesn't even serve as a decent introduction to D&D: The mechanics, while similar, are fundamentally altered and the entire approach of the game is distinctly different from an actual RPG.Now, I will note that I have not purchased the most recent revision of the Basic Set. I bought the version immediatley prior to it, however, and was not impressed in the least. I had been planning to give it as a present to introduce a friend to RPGs, but decided -- after looking at it -- that it wasn't going to accomplish anything. I looked at the advertising copy and read reviews for the new revision and didn't see anything that these fundamental design flaws had actually been addressed.In my ideal world, there would be three products:D&D: The BoardgameD&D: Basic SetD&D (PHB, DMG, MM)The boardgame would be similar to the old DUNGEON boardgame, but would use mechanics more directly derived from D&D. The result would be a replayable boardgame experience. This would be quite distinct from an actual RPG, but it would have the appeal of a traditional boardgame while introducing people to both (a) the D&D brand name; and (b) some fundamental concepts of RPGs. If you designed it right, the boardgame could be extended through "adventure packs" that would give new scenarios.The Basic Set would feature a stripped down version of the core rules. It would be fundamentally the same game, but without the bells and whistles and options which lead to inaccessible complexity. Most importantly, it would be a complete RPG in its own right.And D&D would continue to be D&D: A complex RPG with options and rules covering lots of diferent scenarios, continually extendable through a series of supplements.This continuum of gaming would let people find their own comfort level in terms of complexity, gameplay, and preparation -- without trying to find the magic bullet, one-size-fits-all solution for "what people want". What people want varies considerably. You don't succeed as an automobile company by making nothing except SUVs.Justin Alexander<a href="http://www.thealexandrian.net" target="_blank">http://www.thealexandrian.net</a></blockquote>

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