Hoping For New Legend Books In 2017

[alex_greene]

I hope there'll be new Legend books for us in 2017. I know, I've a vested interest, but all the same ...

Anyway, Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings to everybody here!

[Hopeless]

And to you and everyone else!

[auyl]

New Legend books would be a fantastic Christmas gift!!! Right Matt?

[yojimbo]

I wouldn't hold your breath. The "State of the Mongoose" is all about Traveller and Paranoia, no mention of Legend.

[Carew]

I wouldn't hold your breath. The "State of the Mongoose" is all about Traveller and Paranoia, no mention of Legend.

Yes, no mention of anything but Traveler and Paranoia. I think unless this changes and Mongoose publishes new books soon, then Legend is going to be moribund like Runequest was in the 1990s until, well, Mongoose took it over. Back then there was little that was really new and people just forgot about the game and went to other games. The same will happen to Legend. Mongoose has says it will do something when it has time but that time is running out. There needs to be new books that Mongoose publish to show support for the system, and not just conversions of other things or rehashes of other books. Its really strange that while the game was called Runequest it got loads of support but as soon as the name changed to Legend, Mongoose started to lose interest.

Oh well I've said all this before and I sound like a broken record so I won't say anymore now. I did care about Legend, but if the publisher doesn't really care for it then it gets hard for me to continue caring. I am moving on.

[Prime_Evil]

If I were considering how to revive Legend, I'd suggest releasing some shorter PDF-only supplements in the way that Mongoose have started doing with the new edition of Traveller. Limit them to no more than 32 pages, but try to get one of these out every month or two. Keep the price point as low as possible to encourage impulse buys. The aim here is to build up a back catalogue that will help to make the Legend system more profitable over time. Instead of producing one new 120 - 150 page book in six months, give us a 15 - 20 page PDF every month or two. Consider releasing generic versions of existing material from your back catalogue. Here are a few examples of material that could be quickly be repackaged and updated to produce a 15-20 page PDF with minimal work:

• the Automata rules from Elric
• the Earth Power Rules from Slaine,
• the Corruption rules from Lankhmar / Xoth

Mongoose could even reach back further into their back catalogue and release things like updated versions of the spells from MRQ II Necromantic Arts or the mass combat rules from MRQI Legendary Heroes. Many Pathfinder third-party publishers use this strategy, releasing regular short PDF supplements to build an audience before committing to a major tentpole release. LPJ Designs and Rogue Genius Games are the masters of this approach. In the current environment, I'd recommend holding off on the big releases for a while until you've built up a solid audience for them as the financial risks associated with major releases is greater. Given that people are starting to think of Legend as a "dead system", at this point Mongoose needs to establish a regular release schedule just to keep the system alive.

Many people like Legend - the core rulebook has the advantages of being cheap, slightly less crunchy than RQ 6 / Mythras, and published under a permissive license. So build on those advantages with a steady stream of short, cheap PDFs that offer new OGC and expand the rule system in new directions. I'd recommend scheduling at least 3-4 of these short releases to convince people to invest time and effort in the system again. Keeping these short and PDF-only - with minimal artwork - reduces the amount of production resources that need to be diverted to service this system, enabling Mongoose to focus most of its effort on Traveller while not abandoning Legend entirely.

What do people think?

[warlock1971]

Couldn't agree more.

Has there been any feedback regarding whether or not the new Xoth/Spider Gods Bride adventure will be converted?

[legozhodani]

Seems like a plan that has a chance, down to Mongoose and the writers. I still feel they are neck deep in Traveller and Paranoia at the moment.

[Prime_Evil]

Seems like a plan that has a chance, down to Mongoose and the writers. I still feel they are neck deep in Traveller and Paranoia at the moment.

I don't think it's the writers that are the problem - it's the bottlenecks that exist at key points of the production process (such as layout). Matt did indicate that they were bringing another resource onboard to clear the backlog, but it may be a month or two before the pipeline clears. Still...we can hope for some good news as we move into 2017 and the first wave of Traveller releases are out there. I just think that some short releases might be a smart move at this point, partly because they don't soak up as much effort and partly because they make great impulse buys.

[BlackMagick]

I can understand the need for Mongoose to focus on their Traveller and Paranoia re-releases, however Legend needs to have a little bit of activity. Even the aforementioned short PDF releases would be nice. I don't think that Mongoose has lost interest, it's just swamped under a heavy workload. What we have to do as Legend players/GM's is keep the system alive for a bit ourselves, and then see what happens. I know a lot of people are viewing Legend as a "Dead System". My feeling is that it is anything but dead.

For the time being, just try and cannibalise some of the content of Mongoose's work from RuneQuest. You never know, one of us may come up with a conversion for Legend, and then get that into the pipeline. We just have to be faithful and patient, and then Mongoose can come up with the goods when their not quite so inundated. If we keep trying to rush them, then all we will end up with is sub-standard material that is no use to anyone.

As long as we keep the system alive, it isn't dead. So keep playing and making new content yourselves. Once some of the backlog has cleared, then we can start nagging them again. I don't want Legend to die, and I don't think any of you do either. We just need to have a little faith...

[Prime_Evil]

Agreed. But it would be nice if Matt could pop in every now and tell us where we stand now in the production queue. I can understand that Mongoose don't want to lock in specific release dates yet, but knowing that we haven't been forgotten about would be nice!

It would be interesting to know whether Mongoose would consider proposals for shorter PDF-only releases at the moment as a stopgap measure of whether they want to hold off for a big relaunch of the game when the backlog clears. Either way, at least we'd have a better idea of where we stand.

In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away with new spells for my own project!

[Prime_Evil]

Now that the new edition of Paranoia is out of the way and a couple of the big Traveller releases are over the line, is there any news for new Legend material?

We know that there are a number of works caught in development hell, but we haven't heard anything for a while. Does Matt or anyone else have an update?

[soltakss]

I haven't heard anything about the supplements I submitted.

Presumably nothing is happening with them.

[BlackMagick]

Well, hopefully there is now some production room for Legend, but can we please have an update on at least what is in the pipeline, so we can look forward to something. Is there any chance of this happening?

[medievaladventures]

can we please have an update on at least what is in the pipeline

Agreed.

[soltakss]

I will ask about the legend supplements that I have submitted.

Unless the answer is confidential, I will let you know, if confidential then I will let you know that.

Hopefully there will still be an appetite to publish Legend material.

[Prime_Evil]

Hopefully there will still be an appetite to publish Legend material.

There's still a market for new Legend material - it's just a question of whether it is large enough to sustain the resources needed to keep the system going.

[soltakss]

I have heard back from Matthew.

Mongoose won't have any capacity to look at Legend for at least another 6 months, due to Traveller and Paranoia commitments.

After that, it's a question of wait and see, I think, as they still might not have the capacity.

However, they are still keen on publishing Legend material, but understand if I wish to go elsewhere.

[Prime_Evil]

I have heard back from Matthew.

Mongoose won't have any capacity to look at Legend for at least another 6 months, due to Traveller and Paranoia commitments.

After that, it's a question of wait and see, I think, as they still might not have the capacity.

However, they are still keen on publishing Legend material, but understand if I wish to go elsewhere.

This is disappointing but not entirely unexpected. But at least they aren't abandoning the system entirely!

Mongoose deserve some credit for continuing to believe in MRQII / Legend despite all of the problems they have encountered along the way.

So there's still a decent chance some of the backlog caught in Production hell may eventually see the light of day - it's just a question of when...

[Carew]

Is there news on any of this? We are now in June, so its 6 months. Alex Green and Solatask had Legend books with Mongoose so is there news on what is happening with them?