What the Heck was I Thinking?!? (Conan Rpg)

[Krieg]

One example is that a poleaxe is a pollaxe throughout the book.

Actually pollaxe is a term that is not only true to Howard's work, but is also historically accurate.

The Pollaxe.

The weapon described in the Conan D20 game is also true to the name.

Next Mongoose will get blamed for mispelling "armour".

 

[Ranger REG]

They mispelled "armor"??? What nerve!



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Again, aside from grammatical error -- including correct Queen's English vocabulary and terms used in Robert E. Howard's Conan novels -- are there any mechanical error or perceived rules ambiguity?

 

[Creamsteak]

Some weapons have different damage listings in different areas, and something about half-orcs worked it's way into the book.

Theres enough small bits to warrent them running a second print, afterall.

 

[Vigilance]

They mispelled "armor"??? What nerve!



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Again, aside from grammatical error -- including correct Queen's English vocabulary and terms used in Robert E. Howard's Conan novels -- are there any mechanical error or perceived rules ambiguity?

Not in my (not so) humble opinion. I already sent them an open content request for a couple of rules innovations I found particularly interesting, which I think is a first for me (aside from the SRDs obviously).

Chuck

 

[johnsemlak]

The most glaring is a mass replacement of "lb" with "lb." throughout the book.

Thus "bulbous" would become "boulb.ous".

These kind of errors appear in a few Mongoose products apparently.

Here's an interesting quote from a review of the Book of Encounters and Lairs:

Proofreading and editing were both rather poor in this book; one especially irritating quirk was that apparently somebody did a "global find and replace" changing "ft" to "-ft." Why would that be so irritating, you ask? Normally, it wouldn't be, if all it affected were measurements in feet - but check out the stats for the "Male Human Ftr4" on page 13: yep, that's right, he's a "Male Human-ft.r4." How could no one have caught that? (For that matter, how could no one have caught the numerous misspelled words, incorrect punctuation, missing words/letters, and so on that often plague Mongoose books?) I'm afraid I have to apply my "asleep at the wheel" supposition to proofreader Ted Chang and editor Richard Neale for their "work" on this book.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I'm in two minds whether to pick up the conan book. The content interests me greatly...

I picked up a copy of their Cybernet OGL system recently - a well presented hardback - it's got some great ideas in it and a lot of it is well done. The setting is some nicely worked out D20 cyberpunk material - something I'd been after for a while. Great stuff!

However, there are a number of deeply annoying errors in it: References to feats that don't exist (or got renamed only in parts of the book?), mentions of D20 modern classes in a few places, use of rules that don't get defined. All in all, it would need me to sit down and edit the rule system heavily before I could actually use it, not what I expect after paying $$$ for it. This does not make me a happy Al.

Is Conan that bad, or is it just typos - I can live with them?

 

[S'mon]

The most glaring is a mass replacement of "lb" with "lb." throughout the book.

Thus "bulbous" would become "boulb.ous".

Yeah, that's pretty hideous - it affects a lot of the names, too. Most of the errors are due to copy/pasting from the SRDs and don't really cause a problem if you're familiar with d20/D&D already, but I'd wouldn't like to come to this game without already knowing d20 rules, they leave bits out and include references to lots of stuff not in the book.

 

[Morpheus]

A list of compiled errors in the book is here:http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1108&sid=89b46f758a4f32674c695666c47aebc5

 

[Jonny Nexus]

The most glaring is a mass replacement of "lb" with "lb." throughout the book.

Thus "bulbous" would become "boulb.ous".

I once read a (supposedly true) story about a cockup an author made on a novel. He'd finished his final draft, and was just about to it in, when - at the last moment - he got worried that the name of his lead character wasn't "macho" enough.

But in the world of word processors this wasn't a problem - a few moments with search and replace and his hero was renamed.

The book came out, and everything was fine, until one particular review came out. The review was generally good, except for one part of the novel that came in for pretty stinging criticism:

The part where the hero and heroine go to Florence, to see Michelangelo's famous statue... of Geoff.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Not yet. Matt Sprange, owner of Mongoose, has said it will be coming soon. They know they made some huge mistakes in this book, and a second printing will be happening at some point. Matt is doing a lot of things in house to make sure this never happens again.

Not to sound like a pessimist, but this isn't the first time we've heard this from Mongoose. I believe when Sheloth and a few other of their first $35 hardbacks hit the streets that we were told something similiar. If someone wants to do a search for Mongoose threads with Matt, you'll probably find that info. I love some of their books but sometimes...