Faelan Niall
Banded Mongoose
As far as establishing a new product line. Yes it does not come with a guaranteed audience, yes it might sell less, but if it marketed properly, and it is a well written, edited, produced, and original item it will sell. No guarantees, but White Wolf would not have had the success it has had with Exalted, or WOTC with Eberron. A large portion of Mongoose's product line is licensed IP. This carries restrictions, and royalties/fees with it. Yes it gives a certain amount of guaranteed income in return, but its not going to give you a homerun. MGP appears to be getting to the point where they can afford to risk developing something of this nature.
As far as my problem with Glorantha being the flagship, is that marketing is perception. Perception of the average purchaser is that Runequest = Glorantha. I see that as a problem. A system you are setting up as an OGL is in the eyes of the off the shelf consumer tied to a niche product which is licensed. Also lets look at why it is OGL. That's right because we all know where WOTC is headed when 4th Edition comes out, no more SRD. So in essence you are attempting to create a similar stir with RQ as d20 did when it came out with the OGL. d20 made sure there was a clear distinction between D&D, it's individual campaign settings, and third party product. This line just seems to be a little bit hazy from what I have seen
when it comes to MRQ.
Having multiple licensed niche lines is dispersion, not focus. All I am hoping for is a focus other than Glorantha. I doubt it will happen, so I will look to third party publishers to provide that, or just make it myself, which is what I do nine times out of ten.
Part of it is also the fact that you look at these forums as an example and it is mostly about Glorantha. Assuming you have no interest in Glorantha, which I will go on the record as saying that I don't, you have to essentially wade through a pile of Glorantha related subjects, or posts. If you were coming here to check out this new/old OGL system and looked at the forums you would be very likely to walk away with the idea that RQ=Glorantha. If you had no desire to deal with Glorantha, you might even just say well I want nothing to do with MRQ. Anyway I am done with my little rant. Sorry if anyone was offended.
As far as my problem with Glorantha being the flagship, is that marketing is perception. Perception of the average purchaser is that Runequest = Glorantha. I see that as a problem. A system you are setting up as an OGL is in the eyes of the off the shelf consumer tied to a niche product which is licensed. Also lets look at why it is OGL. That's right because we all know where WOTC is headed when 4th Edition comes out, no more SRD. So in essence you are attempting to create a similar stir with RQ as d20 did when it came out with the OGL. d20 made sure there was a clear distinction between D&D, it's individual campaign settings, and third party product. This line just seems to be a little bit hazy from what I have seen
when it comes to MRQ.
Having multiple licensed niche lines is dispersion, not focus. All I am hoping for is a focus other than Glorantha. I doubt it will happen, so I will look to third party publishers to provide that, or just make it myself, which is what I do nine times out of ten.
Part of it is also the fact that you look at these forums as an example and it is mostly about Glorantha. Assuming you have no interest in Glorantha, which I will go on the record as saying that I don't, you have to essentially wade through a pile of Glorantha related subjects, or posts. If you were coming here to check out this new/old OGL system and looked at the forums you would be very likely to walk away with the idea that RQ=Glorantha. If you had no desire to deal with Glorantha, you might even just say well I want nothing to do with MRQ. Anyway I am done with my little rant. Sorry if anyone was offended.
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