Sons of Cimmeria program

[The King]

Mongoose has shorten the page count of all their books though there were enough material for at least 160 pages.

As Signs & Portents can't catch up with the unpublished or submitted Conan material because Mongoose has so many different games, I propose to reopen the programe of goodies which Mongoose initiated at the beginning (launching) of its Conan the RPG.

So vote en masse and pray Mitra (or Set) that Mongoose hear us. 8)

 

[Valaryc]

So vote en masse and pray Mitra (or Set) that Mongoose hear us. 8)

you mean like they heard us with the map problems ?

or like they heard us with the inconsistent maps / descriptions

or like they heard us with the editing (proofreading) problems ?

:evil:

 

[Strom]

I'm all for optimism King! But this long, cold wait has me feeling like the Conan RPG is the red-headed step-child of the Mongoose product line....


No offense to any red-headed step kids. :lol:

 

[The King]

you mean like they heard us with the map problems ?

or like they heard us with the inconsistent maps / descriptions

or like they heard us with the editing (proofreading) problems ?

:evil:

Actually they are becoming better with their (city) maps, especially in the Shem and Argos & Zingara books.

 

[caldan]

I agree with opening up SOC.
Im generally happy with Mongoose conan line, but I think they could do a lot better.
For example I just cleared out my loft and got rid of old Cyberpunk and Warhammer fantasy stuff, just browsing through these books made me realise their great quality, indeed if you go to the WHFRP site the free stuff they have to download is pretty impressive.

 

[VincentDarlage]

...and I only want a new naked wrench...

I presume you meant wench and not wrench.

 

[Bjorn the Barbarian]

The more Conan stuff, the better. Let us resurrect the Sons of Cimmeria!

Maybe Mongoose will fix the map problems as well. We can hope.

 

[Dpetroc]

I'm all for optimism King! But this long, cold wait has me feeling like the Conan RPG is the red-headed step-child of the Mongoose product line....


No offense to any red-headed step kids. :lol:

I agree -- seems like Mongoose has a new family with Runequest, and the old family is getting short shrift. I fear other games have it worse though.

 

[The King]

...and I only want a new naked wrench...

I presume you meant wench and not wrench.

yes I do. Curious I was sure I had corrected it. That's the mongoose curse.

 

[The King]

I'm all for optimism King! But this long, cold wait has me feeling like the Conan RPG is the red-headed step-child of the Mongoose product line....


No offense to any red-headed step kids. :lol:

Don't you know the saying: That is not dead which can eternal lie?

 

[Axerules]

So vote en masse and pray Mitra (or Set) that Mongoose hear us. 8)

you mean like they heard us with the map problems ?

or like they heard us with the inconsistent maps / descriptions

or like they heard us with the editing (proofreading) problems ?

:evil:

I'm 100% with you on this Valaryc. It is incredible that Mongoose doesn't do a better editing work. RPG books that could be excellent because of the (good) quality of the text become only good because of the (poor) editing. I didn't talk about this in the poll about Vincent Darlage's work, because I felt it was inappropriate and not his responsability, but were it not for the writers (and the great Quilliams covers) I think I would have stop buying their products a long time ago. You forgot to mention the interior art who is often reprinted from one book to another (I saw the same smiling guy with a beard in the article about Iranistani in S&P, as a Messantian Royal Guard counter in the boxed set as well in at least one other book).

 

[The King]

Hey! Are there so few Conan fans or people who are ready to make the game live?

 

[MGBM]

It would be nice to have free material for Conan like the SoC program, but I wouldn't mind having a magazine dedicated solely to Conan, it would have more information even if we had to pay for it.

 

[Strom]

Hey! Are there so few Conan fans or people who are ready to make the game live?

This is the result of the Long, Cold Wait. People have other options when you go six months without publishing any new product for a game. I trust Mongoose to know what they are doing but this can not be surprising. I think some mistakenly believe the game is over - didn't Yogah say as much?

I'm excited for the 2nd edition and the publishing plans already discussed but I bet Mongoose does not want to relive the SOC days. I did vote for it though as I would participate.

 

[MongooseMatt]

I'm 100% with you on this Valaryc. It is incredible that Mongoose doesn't do a better editing work.

So, the poll is 'do you want free stuff or not?'

Serious question here chaps - do you really have serious problems on this front with the books released in the past year or so? Any particular points you can cite?

As for the continuation of Conan/its status as an 'old family member', you really don't need to worry. We have a slow down period between new editions (we did it with Babylon 5, and now SST) to mark the point of change over for retailers, and to ensure people are not wasting their money on books that may become obselete within just a few months.

In the background, we are busy beavering away on the new edition - and it is going to be Most Excellent. . .

 

[Axerules]

I'm 100% with you on this Valaryc. It is incredible that Mongoose doesn't do a better editing work.

So, the poll is 'do you want free stuff or not?'

Serious question here chaps - do you really have serious problems on this front with the books released in the past year or so? Any particular points you can cite ?

• Valaryc talked (and I quoted him) about the inconsistent maps/descriptions, and the other map problems: no scales for the maps in the scenarios, when there is a map. And do you want to talk about the Shadizar map ? I could talk about the floor plans in the boxed sets who are different from what's written in the adventures. The other adventures have no tactical grids. I also talked about the interior art reprints, like too much text : why should we have to pay two or three times for the same thing ? I really like the information given in the books, but only if it was previously unpublished : when I see feat lists like the one in Argos and Zingara with 60% reprinted from Pirate Isles or other books, I feel being cheated (and a lot of the products have too much reprints ). About the proofreading, Mr Sprange : do you really think everything is ok ? I always have to correct creature stats (using the SRD) or NPC stats.

• I don't want to be misunderstood : I'm a huge Conan fan and I bought most of the products, because I'm a completist (and even, last year when I had financial problems, I bought them when it was a sacrifice for me). I GM'd Conan with three different set of rules ( including my homebrew one ) and OGL is the best. But I feel that they are a lot of things that could be better done in Mongoose Conan products. And I think that all the problems here are not because of the authors but because of the editing.

 

[MGBM]

Serious question here chaps - do you really have serious problems on this front with the books released in the past year or so? Any particular points you can cite?

In my opinion editing (not the text itself which is often quite excellent) is a major point that needs adressing, although I must admit that the books released in the past year have shown an improvement concerning editing issues. However, there are still problems, like the regional sourcebooks not having a map of the country depicting where the places of the gazetteers should be located, some redundant stuff that gets repeated from sourcebook to sourcebook, etc.

Another point is the size of the sourcebooks. I think regional sourcebooks should be at least 160 pages long and contain as much as possible of Vincent's draft. I don't mind paying more if it means more pages of quality work.

Other than that, I'm quite happy with Conan products. Make Vincent the lead writer of the line and then nothing can go wrong.

 

[Axerules]

In my opinion editing (not the text itself which is often quite excellent) is a major point that needs adressing, although I must admit that the books released in the past year have shown an improvement concerning editing issues. However, there are still problems, like the regional sourcebooks not having a map of the country depicting where the places of the gazetteers should be located, some redundant stuff that gets repeated from sourcebook to sourcebook, etc.

Another point is the size of the sourcebooks. I think regional sourcebooks should be at least 160 pages long and contain as much as possible of Vincent's draft. I don't mind paying more if it means more pages of quality work.

Other than that, I'm quite happy with Conan products. Make Vincent the lead writer of the line and then nothing can go wrong.

I totally agree with you and all the points of your post. Let me add something : in a 160 pages book with good written text, 15 or 20 pages of reprints are something that I can accept. Ruins of Hyboria was very good even with some reprinted monsters (and nice maps without scales). But in a 96 pages book like Argos and Zingara ( with a huge number of pages taken directly from the Messantia boxed set or Pirate Isles, and no map of the countries) I don't.

 

[Dpetroc]

I'm 100% with you on this Valaryc. It is incredible that Mongoose doesn't do a better editing work.

As for the continuation of Conan/its status as an 'old family member', you really don't need to worry. We have a slow down period between new editions (we did it with Babylon 5, and now SST) to mark the point of change over for retailers, and to ensure people are not wasting their money on books that may become obselete within just a few months.

I'm sorry -- 'new edition SST'? The game is only two years old!!!

 

[The King]

bump 8)