So ... Book 18?

[T.Y.A.]

For about a fortnight I'd been itching to ask, but I thought I'd give it until 1st Feb before I stuck the boot in. I can usually rely on someone cracking before me. We should start a sweep stake on first to crack.

The irony would be the book coming back from the printers just as February turns into the worst blizzard on record and brings the whole of Royal Mail to a crashing halt.

Now if someone *did* the Sommerswerd version I'd buy that. Though CLEARLY wouldn't pre-order... I'm not entirely daft. 0;-)

 

[elizzar]

well T.Y.A. i have a 42" LARP bastard sword right here i'd be willing to come give you a (safe) smacking with if you really fancy ... it's kind of foamy and kind of latexy ...
as an aside, a lone wolf LARP could be fun, i don't know if anyone has ever run one at all? my first fantasy LARP character was a stout-hearted ranger of the wilds, full of idealism and goodness. that lasted about half an adventure after being left in a field full of zombies, threatened with being sold as a slave, infected with numerous plagues and hit around the head numerous times. subsequently became one of the biggest evil b*st*rds in the game system ... good times :twisted:

oh and book 18? hahahahaha oooo my aching sides

 

[T.Y.A.]

It's Ok Elizzar, I'm confident my frustration will be at an end any day now as a huge backlog of LW solo books pour through my letter box. :roll:

Until then, I've got my foam baseball bat to hand. :mrgreen:

 

[fil5117]

hmmm, looks like I'm about to repeat what others have said.

I was really excited to get the Lone Wolf books. I've been buying them as they come out. Then I'm informed there will be limited runs of the books, so I'll need to preorder them to guarantee I'll get a copy (I can't afford / justify the up front expense of the Mega deal).

After purchasing book 18, I've now waited five months, with no firm word on when it will be released ... I'm not impressed.

 

[WritingWolf]

It is a long time to have pre-ordered a book. I hadn't realised it was 5 months!! Was this the book that was delayed by a change in the illustrator, or was that another one?

 

[Clegane]

After purchasing book 18, I've now waited five months, with no firm word on when it will be released ... I'm not impressed.

At least you weren't conned by the lure of half a dozen false/broken promises into shelling out hundreds of dollars over half a decade ago. Not to devalue your own frustration in any way...but five months? Some of us paid in full for these books more than five YEARS ago. And we are now literally years behind the projected schedule we were promised when we paid for the Megadeal.

'Get used to it' is what I am basically trying to say. If you want the books, your hands are tied. Nothing whatsoever you can do. Make all the forum posts you want, send all the emails, rant, rave, beg, plead...deaf ears, my friend. Deaf ears.

 

[WritingWolf]

It's true, I was quite shocked at how long ago it was when the first book came out. At the time I was really annoyed I could not afford the MegaDeal. Whilst it is still a lot cheaper than buying each individually (as I am doing) 5 years is a hell of a long time to wait.

As you say Clegane, resignation has pretty much given way now. I remain hopeful, and the books etc. are very nice when they do come out with a good quality now, but as to when they come out, who knows? Think they will all be done by 2020?

A thought - the original run of LW was released over 14 years (1984 to 1998) - the reprints have already taken 6 years (2007 to 2013) - will they be released faster than the original series? Currently they are ahead - it took 8 years to release Book 18 originally. Assuming Book 18 is reprinted this year, the reprints will be 2 years ahead of the original schedule.

 

[elizzar]

like Clegane i paid the £300+ for the complete mega-deal when it was first advertised all those years ago. i'm going to be moving to a third (delivery) address in the space of receiving 18 books alone. even more peeving for me is that i sold my original collection of books 1-28 to pay for this!
now, i do appreciate the high quality hard-back version (typos etc notwithstanding) and the bonus adventures. i also have a lot of time for joe dever and the effect his books had on my childhood etc. i also have a lot of time for mongoose for lone wolf generally, and their babylon 5 games - 2 of my favourite series.
it's less hot fiery anger with me than a slow wailing sort of despair, punctuated with an almost weekly soul-crushing sigh 'oooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrr bugger' as i once again check back at the web-site and forums.

come on mongoose - do it for valentines day - show us you do love us ....

 

[MongooseMatt]

come on mongoose - do it for valentines day - show us you do love us ....

We do love you - and we are working on this. As soon as we have some news (and it won't be long now), we'll let you all know.

 

[T.Y.A.]

May? Seriously? :roll:

Well, I suppose it's "news", there was never any mention of it being "good news".

 

[jolt]

And May really means June or July. I'd say I was disappointed but I already said that one book a year (two if we're lucky) is all we're ever going to get. It's clear Mongoose doesn't give a rat's ass about the LW fans and customers.

They blame things that never occured like "the bottom falling out of the rpg market" to justify their own failings. More money went to rpg's in 2012 than in any year prior. The difference is that all that money is being spread out over a vastly increased number of companies. But I understand that Mongoose is too myopic of vision to "get it". Slow rpg sales on their part certainly has nothing to do with their erratic releases and incompatible rule subsystems (and those are their strong games).

Any company that thinks poor communication and silence ("We don't want to get your hopes up!") is a good idea(or worse, they think it's being responsible) is a company that is failing. Mr. Dever may be committed to this it's just a shame that the same can't be said for Mongoose. Hell, msprange rarely even comes here to lie to us anymore; that's a good indicator of where we stand in the chain of things.

The only hope I have left is that I'm not dead by the time this is done or that Mongoose doesn't epic fail itself out of existence before they finish fulfilling their, uh, "commitment".

 

[WritingWolf]

Well to be fair, this is a 2nd (or is it 3rd?) recession in the UK - whilst some areas of RPG etc. are doing well, others are not. I would imagine the cost of printing etc. has gone up and up, so we can't blame Mongoose for that.

It does look like it will be 1, ideally 2, per year. Not great but better than zero books. As long as there aren't any errors ...

 

[Lefty72]

1st post just wondering why I can't find lone wolf game books on the mongoose site anymore have they dropped it completely

 

[BlackCat]

True! I can't find any LW stuff on the website! :shock:

But since this forum is still open and that there was no new announcement, I guess it will reappear shortly... Well, I hope so! :?

 

[Sommerswerd]

Wow.... nothing there. Now I am really worried...

Not even the announced (but not-available-to-buy) titles are there anymore...

 

[T.Y.A.]

I sometimes wonder if the whole Megadeal thing was a "Truman Show" style experiment conducted by Mongoose just to see whether they can get my head to explo....***KABOOM!!!***

 

[August1]

Trust me, I wish I had something to tell everyone but I'm as out of the loop as anyone else. I usually look to Project Aon for Lone Wolf-related announcements. If there's anything to be learned, it'll come here and it'll get posted there. They even have a news feed that will send announcements to your email:

http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/WhatsNew

The Project Aon folks have a solid forum as well.

With hope, this is all just another delay and the website will be back up quickly. If there's anything to know, I suspect Project Aon will have the scoop in a a day or two. They tend to be pretty timely. Take care all!

Peace,
-August

 

[Clegane]

Well to be fair, this is a 2nd (or is it 3rd?) recession in the UK - whilst some areas of RPG etc. are doing well, others are not. I would imagine the cost of printing etc. has gone up and up, so we can't blame Mongoose for that.

But many of us already PAID FOR ALL THESE BOOKS years in advance. Recession is no excuse. Most companies still manage to publish their stuff with zero money up front. We gave Mongoose tens of thousands of dollars to fund this project and we gave it to them in good faith that they would remain capable of honoring their commitment.

Believe me, most of us on the consumer end would really have enjoyed all of that money being in OUR pockets during the various financial roller coasters of the past seven years. But instead we entrusted it to Mongoose on the promise of a product that they have been woefully remiss in delivering. And now the production schedule is literally YEARS behind and Mongoose has the temerity to blame economy and financial woes?!

What in the hell did they do with all of the money we gave them? Take it to the dog tracks? Because it very obviously wasn't earmarked for the Lone Wolf products it was intended for.

Frankly, I am aghast that anyone on this forum continues to make excuses for Mongoose's reprehensible treatment of its customers at this point.

 

[Morloki]

Hello, first post here

I'm not sure it is related to the English edition but the German editor got the direct license for LW starting after the number 13 (lucky 13?). The original is here http://www.mantikore-verlag.de/.

"25. 02. 2013 17:03 MANTIKORE ERHÄLT DIREKTLIZENZ FÜR EINSAMER WOLF

Aufgrund von Umstrukturierungen erhält der Mantikore-Verlag ab dem dreizehnten Band die Direktlizenz für die "Einsamer Wolf"-Reihe.
Dies hat Joe Dever kürzlich verlauten lassen.
Dever zeigte sich sehr zufrieden mit der Qualität der deutschen "Einsamer Wolf"-Produkte und räumt dem Mantikore-Verlag nun mehr Freiheiten ein. Somit wird unser Autorenteam zukünftig eigene Bonusabenteuer erschaffen und deutlich mehr redaktionelle Entscheidungen treffen.
Auch optisch werden sich diese Änderungen bemerkbar machen. Mantikore konnte für die zukünftigen Bände das Original-Artwork von Brian Williams erstehen, das vor allem den treuen Fans der Serie vertraut sein dürfte und welches sie lieb gewonnen haben. Wir freuen uns, das Flair der Reihe auf diese Weise erhalten zu können.
Joe Devers Vertrauen und sein Lob sind uns großer Ansporn, die Reihe auch weiterhin mit unseren hohen Qualitätsstandards zu veröffentlichen. Eine Fortsetzung bis Band 32 ist geplant."


I didn't buy the Megadeal but I am waiting for this as we all are and share the concerns about what comes next. I don't know if Mantikore taking the license means Mongoose is selling/losing them or if they just don't want to be tied up to the US/UK version constantly delayed editions. I am just concern to never see it in English. And even more concern to see false announcements every once in a while. I have my bookshelves ready for the 32 volumes and besides dust I am not collecting anything here.

Could you get a kickstarter going or something if you really are short with money?

 

[Clegane]

Could you get a kickstarter going or something if you really are short with money?

Who aside from the mentally ill would possibly fund a Kickstarter for a company that has clearly proven incapable of honoring their commitments? Mongoose already had a 'Kickstarter' for these books. It was called the Mega Deal.

Why would anyone provide them more funds on spec when they have apparently misappropriated the last funds they were given to such a degree that the entire project, now years behind schedule, seems to have stalled out altogether in spite of being generously pre-funded by loyal (if woefully naive) customers?