A New Project - Interested?

[frobisher]

Sounds very cool, I like it. On the note of Canon, sure all you need to do is put a little icon up near the entry, stating whether its Canon etc.

I'd second that. Whilst there are elements of Mongoose's canon I'd disagree with, I'd like to see the various "levels of canon" presented and suitably annotated.

The "neat ideas" that just dovetail in, but with no TV evidence are the kind of thing that interests me.

So hell yes, I'd buy this

 

[mthomason]

The "neat ideas" that just dovetail in, but with no TV evidence are the kind of thing that interests me.

So hell yes, I'd buy this

Ditto here.

I'd prefer to see something that went beyond canon, while still indicating what is and what isn't - the absolute perfect way would be to use the icon system mentioned previously to mark the source of each entry (dividing each entry up into individual text boxes if necessary). I'd want to see things that the Guide to the Station may touch upon, and extended maps+plans (just because we didn't see something onscreen doesn't mean the map stops there, in fact I'd find that *more* interesting)

Suggested icons:

- a TV set (original show)
- a filmreel (one of the spinoff movies)
- a book (one of the novels/comics)
- a Mongoose (something from the RPG or ACTA)
- a question mark (anything not mentioned above, such as AoG material and comments by JMS or cast members)

 

[Jal]

1 - 3 good hardbacks at £30 - £60 each, full of info with notation regarding ALL canon and source plus GOOD pictures, cgi and screen captures from the show etc. and with the REAL 10,000% approval of JMS.

that i would REALLY go for. 8)

a series of monthly magazines (with gimmicky free item) something like the pap that DelPrado churns out, that you MIGHT eventually turn into a collection would not interest me at all.

 

[Shadow Queen]

Would be nice to get something back like the 3 "Lost tails" of crusade

 

[frobisher]

Suggested icons:

- a TV set (original show)
- a filmreel (one of the spinoff movies)
- a book (one of the novels/comics)
- a Mongoose (something from the RPG or ACTA)
- a question mark (anything not mentioned above, such as AoG material and comments by JMS or cast members)

I'd actually promote the previous licensed sources above a question mark to each have their own icon too. Not just Agents of Gaming, but Chameleon Eclectic and Sierra too.

Defining the various licensed sources would be quite interesting.

For instance, the Ch'lonas come from the Babylon Project RPG from CE pretty much with a little input from AOG and Mongoose (mainly by including references to them) but are seen very much as part of the background now.

Certainly, you can't mention the Vorchan and Demos division/evolution without going into the context a little, and similar the whole Hyperion/Lexington thing as well

Also some commentrary (from a Mongoose perspective) on diverengences from previous licensed sources would be interesting.

 

[frobisher]

Would be nice to get something back like the 3 "Lost tails" of crusade

They're in the Crusade Fact Book, at least in as much as Mongoose can publish them.

For the actual transcriptions, you'll probably have to wait a while for the joe store on Cafe Press to get around to them and/or convince the none jms authors to publish the scripts.

 

[JayRaider]

I'd would be definitely interested but the suggested pricing is to much for me.

 

[Shadow Queen]

Would like for it to be on film

 

[Karlopopoli]

I'm in favour of the whole Bab 5 compedium thing but please don't release it in monthly segments with your free gift with each part, Part one only costing £3.99 all subsequent parts costing £39.99 like all of those Delprado magazines.

 

[Reaverman]

What? like the Shadowrun source books? :lol:

Yeah

 

[mthomason]

I'd actually promote the previous licensed sources above a question mark to each have their own icon too. Not just Agents of Gaming, but Chameleon Eclectic and Sierra too.

Only reason I didn't want to go into detail there was I wasn't sure exactly how much of that MGP would actually be allowed to use (I don't know if those companies "own" the material or whether WB do - if the latter it would be great)

 

[Vortex]

I've been dreaming about a B5 encyclopedia for years and more intensely since I began reading the RPG. But I would never even concider buying a monthly encyclopedia, especially in that price range.

The Star Trek Encyclopedia probably had the best format and it covered 20 seasons and 9 films for under 50$ while including references to sources.

I would definitely buy the same thing about B5 even if it costs a little more but I would not pay 100$ for it.

 

[frobisher]

Only reason I didn't want to go into detail there was I wasn't sure exactly how much of that MGP would actually be allowed to use (I don't know if those companies "own" the material or whether WB do - if the latter it would be great)

If it's background fluff, it's WB's (though not the text of the fluff IYSWIM). Certainly the licensing arrangement that AOG and CE had was a "share and share alike" type of thing though CE were apparently not so good with the sharing as they should have been...

 

[MustEatBrains]

Yes, I think I would like that!

I remeber a canon-discussion quite some time ago, with, IIRC; WB saying that Mongoose´s stuff IS canon, while JMS said it´s not...

So, the whole project were to be "JMS-canon", I´d definitely go for it.

Id it were "WB-canon", I´m not sure whether I´d find the ressources to finance it...

Anyway, sounds good to me!

 

[Aramanthus]

Yes, but I'd recommend that multiple people double check things or else you're going to end up with some huge screw-ups! And then you have a product that Warner Brothers would approve with HUGE flaws that ignores the series! That would be unacceptable!!!!
So please consider my answer a yes, I would be interested in it. But I'll really look intently at it comparing it to the series. Sorry, but that's the way I want my B5, canon and I mean JMS canon.

 

[Mouth of Sauron]

If we went ahead, all items would, of course, have the blessings of the Great Maker himself, JMS.

If we couldn't make it 100% canon, we wouldn't bother.

I think you can forgive me if I'm skeptical that JMS would bless any Mongoose project. The last time you said a non-rpg b5 book was 100% "canon" things got a little complicated . . . .

Back to the idea itself, I am NOT going to pay $300 a year for monthly installments of an encyclopedia. If it was a single book like the star trek encyclopedia, then maybe, just maybe. Even then I would buy a B5 rpg book over a B5 encyclopedia any day. If you want to delve into the minute aspects of B5 like minor alien governments, why can't you just do an rpg book instead.

Well I guess it could be a good thing. If the rpg does take a back seat to this idea, I won't have to spend any more money on Mongoose products.

 

[Chernobyl]

I agree that I'd like fewer, probably larger books.
An Annual, or quarterly, something. a couple years of monthly payments would be a lot of info and $$, and I'm sure you can probably edit that down, some of the trivial stuff doesn't need to be there really!

Chern

 

[E Nicely]

A B5 Encylopedia is a great idea.

 

[TenaciousB]

I'm not a nay-sayer or anything, but I think someone already mentioned the possibility that Mongoose seems to be spreading itself a little bit thinly, what with all the new stuff coming out and the delays/mishaps on additions to existing products. I'm just concerned that ACTA may suffer as a result of people going full steam ahead with an encyclopedia, that's all.

Anyways, good luck with it, if it does become a reality.

BTW, Lowly Uhlan, love the IronMan avatar!

 

[mthomason]

I'm not a nay-sayer or anything, but I think someone already mentioned the possibility that Mongoose seems to be spreading itself a little bit thinly, what with all the new stuff coming out and the delays/mishaps on additions to existing products. I'm just concerned that ACTA may suffer as a result of people going full steam ahead with an encyclopedia, that's all.

I wouldn't worry about it too much on that side. The book delays appear to down to the printers, not Mongoose themselves - in fact if they had ten times as many books to print this month they would probably have all gotten out sooner because the printers would have seen them as a more important customer and bumped back all the smaller customers jobs to accomodate them (as is quite likely happened to Mongoose on this occasion). It couldn't affect the miniatures side of the business, as they are dealt with by different people at Mongoose. I would think at worst they would just have to divert some of the writing staff off some of the RPG production, and as the RPG releases are dwindling from where they were with the "d20 boom" a couple of years ago thats probably more likely to keep their staff writers in work than dilute their efforts elsewhere

The worst thing that could happen in terms of delays (IMHO) is if Mongoose started another major set of metal miniature releases, as that appears to be the biggest bottleneck they have (although the new SST plastics should ease the load there somewhat)