What's this about a plagiarized map in Conan: City of Shadizar?

[Garnfellow]

Ya, its really good to see that when a company gets ripped off by talent they hire, that the consumers are willing to understand the reality of the sitation and not hold it over their head.

Well, I really wouldn't assume that Mongoose got ripped off by anyone just yet. If this was an intentional act of plagarism, I agree that there was little that Mongoose could have been done to prevent it, and shame on the artist.

But unfortunately, given Mongoose's rotten track record at editing, right now I think it's probably just as likely that this was a simple but sad quality control issue within Mongoose production than out-and-out fraud by the artist.

 

[Krieg]

But unfortunately, given Mongoose's rotten track record at editing, right now I think it's probably just as likely that this was a simple but sad quality control issue within Mongoose production than out-and-out fraud by the artist.

Given the circumstances I find that to be extremely unlikely.

 

[trancejeremy]

I am a gigantic critic of Mongoose's editing (Conan's lack of editing, leaving out the massive damage rules in OGL Horror, them not crediting Holistic for the Open Content they borrowed from Fading Suns d20 for Conan, using AD&D 2E spells for the Quintessential Witch, etc, etc, etc), to the point where I don't buy Mongoose's stuff anymore (at least not new), but this seems hard to check up on - it's a pretty obscure (sort of) source, a downloadable map from the WOTC site (though apparently originally from a boxed set on Thay).

Though then again, now that I read in the thread that the map doesn't seem to be of a city like Shadizar, so maybe it should have been caught, for not fitting the author's description.

That's actually weird. I always thought city maps were sort of sketched out by the author of the city (who does the keyed locations and such) and then given to the artist to create a nice looking version of it.

 

[johnsemlak]

Hard to say, but if Mongoose has anything close to a standard contract (and it is very likely they do) they should be covered. The "artist" on the other hand has probably ended his career in the industry.

A post on the Mongoose forums indicated the artist might have been someone pretending to be someone they weren't. If that were true, I wonder how easy it will be to identify the actual perpetrater.

 

[Garnfellow]

A post on the Mongoose forums indicated the artist might have been someone pretending to be someone they weren't. If that were true, I wonder how easy it will be to identify the actual perpetrater.

Assuming that the artist expected to be paid, it should be very easy. I doubt anyone in the RPG industry does anything on a cash basis -- meaning that, in the US at least, the artist would have had to supply basic tax info, including SS #, address, etc.

But really, I still think people are looking way too hard for some sort of elaborate scheme or criminal mastermind to explain this gaffe, when a simple mistake is as likely as any other explanation. Although it's incredibly embarrassing, accidentally confusing a placeholder or draft graphic for the final graphic is neither hard to do nor is it unprecedented. When you hear hooves, think horses, not zebras.

After all, I'm pretty sure that this is the same boxed set that had typos on the back cover. Which to me suggests that the most likely "culprit" could be Mongoose's own production process: trying to do too much with too few resources in too short a timeframe. This theory, at least, is backed up by a long, serial history of QC failures.

 

[Turanil]

Hum, Mongoose Publishing seems to have a tradition of botched work... Myself I would not be surprised if they printed by error a wrong map. After all, the city map I looked at on WotC website doesn't seem to be very appropriate for Shadizar. I suspect that eventually somebody will have to be fired from Mongoose's staff...

 

[GMSkarka]

I wonder if there was an artist at all.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

I wonder if there was an artist at all.

That's a pretty cynical stance to take... :\

 

[GMSkarka]

That's a pretty cynical stance to take... :\

I prefer to call it "jaded by personal experience."

 

[philreed]

I wonder if there was an artist at all.

Maybe someone with the box will post the "cartographer's" name.