Eeyuch...what the hell?

[PrinceYyrkoon]

Ok. Ok. Just let me organise my thoughts for a second...ok...

I recently bought the (2nd edition?) of Paranoia. Along with a good few supplement books. Books which are now absent from the Paranoia catalogue page. Very little announcement. Now we are supposed to just forget about all that and jump on the new edition, plonk down 30 quid for a cosmetic rewrite, and be happy. Hey! Its a limited edition too, best get it quick! Its going to have a cool black cover and a nice GMs screen! It will be BETTER!

Ok. Recently, (fairly recently anyway), Ive bought over 200 quids worth (200 quids worth!), of MRQ stuff. Theres now talk of a new edition. It will be great! It will be all colour, forget about that other stuff you bought, this will be BETTER!

Ok. Recently, (fairly recently anyway), Ive bought around 200 quids worth (200 quids worth!) of Conan rules and supplements. I wasnt keen on the D20 thing, but, Im thinking its a good game anyway. I didnt think, even with my whinging, that Mongoose would change the system, they seemed pretty much solid in their support of the D20 version. Ok, I'll buy that Warriors Companion, theyve got a lot of stuff lined up, Thiefs Companion, Empires of the Hyborian Age, they seem pretty set on supporting the OGL rules. Ok, I'll shut up, and continue to purchase.

Ooh, look! The projected releases are gone! Wheres the Empires book gone? Oh, right, theres going to be some CHANGES, its going to be all GOOD. This new version will be BETTER! Can't say too much at the minute though, but, rest assured, its all going to be much BETTER!

Ok, right. Forget all this stuff Ive bought, theres a new a BETTER future ahead, its going to p*@"; all over the old versions, best just set a bonfire for all your OLD supplements. 600 quids worth! Phah! Its all going to be good, don't worry. Its all going to be much BETTER!

You know, I like to support rpg companies, I like supporting people working in a niche market, and, you know, Mongoose are British too.

But, hey, don't take advantage of your support, otherwise, it will all go down the tubes pretty fast.

I Am Mongoose, and You Can Too! I find that a bit funny. Your success is built upon loyal people who like to support their hobby, not upon mindblowing strategies of world domination, where unthinking punters are lured by your pretty lights.

Ive seen the future. Its not neccessarily BETTER. Be careful, and take heed of the grumbling.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Without going into details, be very, very careful about believing every rumour you hear. . .

As for one specific, you will find all your current Paranoia books will work perfectly well with the new edition, and vice versa (at least, the Troubleshooters material - the other Paranoia games will be a bit different).

The rest. . . not entirely accurate, on any of them.

 

[PrinceYyrkoon]

Without going into details, be very, very careful about believing every rumour you hear. . .

As for one specific, you will find all your current Paranoia books will work perfectly well with the new edition, and vice versa (at least, the Troubleshooters material - the other Paranoia games will be a bit different).

The rest. . . not entirely accurate, on any of them.

I shouldn't imagine I was. But the main thrust of the post was that your customers, and I consider myself one here, are getting confused about the state of play as regards to system reworks, partly fueled by posts from Mongoose. Its all pretty confusing.

(As a side note, I appreciate that these boards offer posters a goodly amount of free speech to whinge, grumble, etc., not always a situation that is common on other boards. And, actually, I get annoyed because I care about the games.)

BUT, you have to let us know whats happening, theres nothing more annoying than saying, 'something is going to happen and its going to be great, but I can't say what it is'.

 

[MongooseMatt]

BUT, you have to let us know whats happening, theres nothing more annoying than saying, 'something is going to happen and its going to be great, but I can't say what it is'.

At the moment, my hands are tied - there will be plenty of news coming a little later in the year. However, we are not going to leave the players of any of our games high and dry by replacing their books with new ones. I believe we have a very good history of this - for example, when Conan 2e came out, the vast majority of 1st edition supplements were still valid (and, indeed, are still part of the regular Conan line up today).

We haven't let you down yet, don't panic that we will in the future

 

[PrinceYyrkoon]

BUT, you have to let us know whats happening, theres nothing more annoying than saying, 'something is going to happen and its going to be great, but I can't say what it is'.

At the moment, my hands are tied - there will be plenty of news coming a little later in the year. However, we are not going to leave the players of any of our games high and dry by replacing their books with new ones. I believe we have a very good history of this - for example, when Conan 2e came out, the vast majority of 1st edition supplements were still valid (and, indeed, are still part of the regular Conan line up today).

We haven't let you down yet, don't panic that we will in the future

I may as well come clean and say the only way you are going to fully satisfy me will be to,

A) Present MRQ Conan stats as a free download,

B) Do a MRQ version of Empire of the Petal Throne in colour with nice illustrations,

C) Give free downloads of MRQ and Conan screens (like Pinnacle do),

D) Do a Middle-earth MRQ supplement,

and, er, anything else I can think of in time.

 

[lastbesthope]

As for one specific, you will find all your current Paranoia books will work perfectly well with the new edition

Don't like to bring this up really, but we heard that before with a different Mongoose licence Matt, and it turned out not to be true. Then we got told there's be conversion material to make it all compatible and we never got enough of that either.

Now maybe it all will work out well this time, but you'd have to be very trusting to ignore the precedent.

LBH

 

[PrinceYyrkoon]

Actually, Ive been thinking about this a bit.

Lord High Mongoose says, theres going to be something great happening to Conan, but I can't say what. Well, why? Whats the worst that can happen? The worst, I suppose is that anyone who knows about this won't buy Conan books until this is all resolved. Thats already the case though, so you've shot yourself in the foot. People on these boards are reticent to purchase anything Conan until this is resolved and people know whats about to happen.

I suppose traders will be aware that something is in the air and won't buy more stock until they know better too. Im absolutely not buying anything Conan until I know whats about to occur, and that includes the Catacombs of Hyboria that I hadn't bought yet, which I was about to.

Its just the details that we are all missing. Whats the big secret? If its something like all future books will be in colour, then I can go ahead and buy Catacombs. If you're not going to say what exactly this big secret is, then I wont just yet.

What could it be other than a system change? What information is so sensitive that you can't say just yet? It certainly can't be that merely the cover to Thiefs Companion is getting a better pic. Its got to be something fairly fundamental to the game. A new edition? Colour? Price drop? (Long shot, that one!).

Its got to be a new edition. A MRQ version.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Price drop? (Long shot, that one!).

Like the main rulebook is not already a very good price!

Following your reasoning, why don;t we just post our entire business plan for the next year?

The reason this cropped up was because someone asked why certain books had been removed from the schedule. We are happy to tell people as much as we can, which is what we did.

However, we simply aren't ready to go into any more detail just yet. Sorry, but that is just the way it is. If that means we lose out on sales, then so be it - we have never been shy of letting people know when something is 'up', and are not the sort of company to keep a complete revision under wraps until the month before release (and yes, you can bet that openess costs us sales!).

Please be patient, news is coming. We just want to make sure all our ducks are in line first.

 

[PrinceYyrkoon]

Price drop? (Long shot, that one!).

Like the main rulebook is not already a very good price!

Following your reasoning, why don;t we just post our entire business plan for the next year?

The reason this cropped up was because someone asked why certain books had been removed from the schedule. We are happy to tell people as much as we can, which is what we did.

However, we simply aren't ready to go into any more detail just yet. Sorry, but that is just the way it is. If that means we lose out on sales, then so be it - we have never been shy of letting people know when something is 'up', and are not the sort of company to keep a complete revision under wraps until the month before release (and yes, you can bet that openess costs us sales!).

Please be patient, news is coming. We just want to make sure all our ducks are in line first.

Im just messin' with ya Matt!

P.S. I'll get my RQ books out ready! :wink:

 

[PrinceYyrkoon]

Actually, as regards price, I picked up Winterweir for Savage Worlds at the weekend. 200 pages, B&W, typos galore, softback, poor maps, poor art, filler, 25 quid! (its not by Pinnacle, I hasten to add).

So, in fact, Im thinking Mongoose stuff isn't that expensive, you can pick up the Conan hardback rpg for less than 23 quid these days. Bargain!