A question for Mongoose Publishing...

Quark

Mongoose
I have a question regarding SST evo and the background material of the different armies. A long time ago when the FORTH army book was being disscussed, we were told by Matt (it was someone from MGP anyway-I could have the specific person wrong though) that it would have something like 40 pages of fluff/background material. Will this still be the case, or will fluff simply be eliminated from the game as some on the boards have suggested?
 
Quark said:
Will this still be the case, or will fluff simply be eliminated from the game as some on the boards have suggested?

Now I'm not Mongoose staff but I give my thoughts anyway.

Basicly: Why WOULDN'T there be fluff? Note a few things:

a) Mongoose just recently looked out for dedicated fluff writer(always good sign!)
b) It's easy to publish it(if nothing else on their website)
c) There's demand for it.
d) If c is big enough it will even give profit for them. Which company doesn't like the idea of more profits?-) And who can blame them :lol:

As long as there's demand for fluff I can't see them stopping them from producing it. Afterall it is concidered by many key part of hobby and as such stopping the production of it would alienate those customers and as Mongoose has already made effort to ensure everyone's taste gets served(old models are still kept on sale and there's talk of special orders of unpainted new models) I can't see them not doing it on fluff side as well.
 
I've said before, Warmachine/Hordes & Rezolution both use the Army/Unit Card format - and they are two (three?) of the Fluffiest games at the moment.

By doing things this way you can have MORE fluff in the core books.
 
Quark said:
or will fluff simply be eliminated from the game as some on the boards have suggested?

You can't eliminate "fluff" from the game - at that point it becomes "Generic Space Combat Wargame #532" and not "Starship Troopers". All sense of product identity gets lost and you end up pushing playing pieces with stats around instead of moving representations of Forth, M.I., Arachnids, and Skinny units.

So while unit boxes will include cut-down rules, there's always the main rulebook, the Mongoose website, and S&P as places to provide all the necessary background material. I don't think they'll just simply eliminate it :)
 
I personally think the forth were a strange idea. They arent very 'SST' in my view at all. Maybe the book race that was unmentioned, as they have a very Japanese look to them. But still, I want to see all the others done and dusted, I still see them as 'in production'. £12 for a unproffessional looking book, not so good. The fluff in them is okay though. But not enough pictures of models.
 
Rob_alderman said:
I personally think the forth were a strange idea. They arent very 'SST' in my view at all. Maybe the book race that was unmentioned, as they have a very Japanese look to them. But still, I want to see all the others done and dusted, I still see them as 'in production'. £12 for a unproffessional looking book, not so good. The fluff in them is okay though. But not enough pictures of models.

Without trying to seem too sarcastic - I wasn't aware you had travelled the length and breadth of the SST universe to see all the life forms and civilizations to come to such an educated opinion . . . . . .

Also, they would have had too seek permission from someone along the way to include them alongside other SST imagery - so someone 'in the know' must think them suitable.

 
I feel you on the "unprofessional" book thing Rob. That's partly why I asked this-I'm hoping that the books get a really nice revamp (so that they will help rekindle interest in my area) along with the rest of the SST range.
 
I'll be honest I hope they do a real bang up job on the SST Rulebook for Evo.

I hope Mongoose takes notice of well organized rulebooks such as Flames of War or even the most over-organized rulebook I have:

"Advanced Squad Leader" with all the expansions through last year.
Perhaps too organized but you can definitely tell which rule modifies which.

Always want better proofreading and even perhaps a more cohesive look to the art presented in the book, including more and better pictures of actual miniatures.

Fingers crossed, Breath held, here's hoping. :D :D :D :D :D :D
 
Just to stick my oar in, a common complaint I've heard is MGP's "RPG" marketing. By this they mean the way lots of little books came out (hell, theres a book JUST for the Roughnecks). Instead I'd rather see one of two things;
1. Major army books, so for example the MI book would have;
Pathfinders
Exos
Marauders
Power
LAMI
Roughnecks etc and come in at 100 or so pages.
2. Or you could do what Andy Chambers originally suggested- namely campaign books with new campaigns bringing new units. So Tango Urilla might bring Exos, Klendathu brings LAMI etc.
 
xeoran said:
Just to stick my oar in, a common complaint I've heard is MGP's "RPG" marketing. By this they mean the way lots of little books came out (hell, theres a book JUST for the Roughnecks).

HI guys,

First off, we are not killing the fluff - there will be more than every before!

Second, we are not planning on releasing any army books. Indeed, we are not planning on releasing any essential rule books, ever, after the main rulebook - that is part of the point of the unit card system.

What we will do is publish continual fluff pieces in S&P and, if you chaps want it, 'fluff' books that may have rules within, or complete campaigns, etc, but will not be essential to the game. The point will be getting fluff to you chaps. The Taros Campaign by GW is a good model of this. . .
 
msprange said:
First off, we are not killing the fluff - there will be more than every before!

Second, we are not planning on releasing any army books. Indeed, we are not planning on releasing any essential rule books, ever, after the main rulebook - that is part of the point of the unit card system.

What we will do is publish continual fluff pieces in S&P and, if you chaps want it, 'fluff' books that may have rules within, or complete campaigns, etc, but will not be essential to the game. The point will be getting fluff to you chaps. The Taros Campaign by GW is a good model of this. . .

So to all the doubting Thomas's - there you have it!

:D
 
msprange said:
Second, we are not planning on releasing any army books. Indeed, we are not planning on releasing any essential rule books, ever, after the main rulebook - that is part of the point of the unit card system.

While I like the idea of there not being any essential rule books, I would really like a summary of the info on the unit cards. Especially if it were in the form of a pdf or the like. I like to know what army choices I have available, and what choices my opponent has available and what all the choices are capable of doing. Otherwise I'd have to get one of every unit just to find out what it does...
 
darklord4 said:
While I like the idea of there not being any essential rule books, I would really like a summary of the info on the unit cards. Especially if it were in the form of a pdf or the like. I like to know what army choices I have available, and what choices my opponent has available and what all the choices are capable of doing. Otherwise I'd have to get one of every unit just to find out what it does...

I would be amazed if that wasn't covered in S&P. . .
 
darklord4 said:
While I like the idea of there not being any essential rule books, I would really like a summary of the info on the unit cards. Especially if it were in the form of a pdf or the like. I like to know what army choices I have available, and what choices my opponent has available and what all the choices are capable of doing. Otherwise I'd have to get one of every unit just to find out what it does...

Well. They are going to put rules for new units in old ruleset to signs&portents so could easily slip in rules for new version of SST as well :D

It's not like rules are major sellers so they don't have to worry about that either :lol: Indeed that would just help the sales which is good enough reason for company to do that 8)
 
Wow! Thanks for the response Matt. I like the idea of not having to buy a ton of books, so as long as you do post all of the potential unit options somewhere (like in S&P as you suggested) this sounds like a pretty good way to go!

I have two Warlord armies, and the card system works well with that game so, as I said, this really seems solid.
 
Matt has already said (IIRC) that an advantage of buying mini's now instead of when the pre paints are released is that you'll be able to play with models before new players, so there should be something released with rules for most units early on.
 
msprange said:
xeoran said:
Just to stick my oar in, a common complaint I've heard is MGP's "RPG" marketing. By this they mean the way lots of little books came out (hell, theres a book JUST for the Roughnecks).

HI guys,

First off, we are not killing the fluff - there will be more than every before!

Second, we are not planning on releasing any army books. Indeed, we are not planning on releasing any essential rule books, ever, after the main rulebook - that is part of the point of the unit card system.

What we will do is publish continual fluff pieces in S&P and, if you chaps want it, 'fluff' books that may have rules within, or complete campaigns, etc, but will not be essential to the game. The point will be getting fluff to you chaps. The Taros Campaign by GW is a good model of this. . .

Campaign books sound ace. That would be great fun and very fluffy.

Might I suggest that MGP host the unit cards on the website so people can download them. One of the things I always loved about Confrontation was that you could go to SDEN or Rackscan and plan armies with all the cards for free.
 
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