State of the Mongoose Discussion and Questions

[Morden]

Finally, look out for Reign of Discordia in our Flaming Cobra range. Within the pages of this book players can fight against the R'Tillek and their crusade of extermination against the known species, fight to protect the independence of dozens of worlds, participate in the cold war between Earth and Lamog, haul cargo to the Frontier Systems, involve themselves in the various crime syndicates, work for one of the interplanetary conglomerates and engage in corporate sabotage, play a role in the advancement of one of the interplanetary organisations, salvage starships, and engage in a number of other activities that will bring danger and adventure.

More supplements on top of the main rulebook to follow along with conversions from the True20 line are coming...I hope...

Kafka, absolutely! I'm going to try to not be too long winded here, but let me share a few thoughts on this subject.

First of all, a direct conversion of the existing True20 products may not be in the works. Instead, we're going to try to work the material in with larger books that will be released for the Traveller system. I'd go into more detail, but it's bad juju to talk about products that are in the early stages of development. My schedule is actually pretty full right now, so these things are in the hands of very capable freelancers who are working with Dave and I.

Second, after some discussion, Dave and I have decided that at least for the time being, Traveller is going to be the only system that we're going to support with Reign of Discordia. The reason is simply that it takes a bit of effort to convert a product from one system to the other, and between True20 and Traveller, we see a lot more activity and support going to Traveller. Another reason is that we've obviously been very lucky for Mongoose to pick up Reign of Discordia and want to publish it. It is really an investment of considerably more funds than were going into True20 in just printing costs alone.

The fact that Mongoose is willing to invest in it is something that I am extremely grateful for. It's actually a pretty rare thing for a publisher to take a new setting and find enough value in it to want to invest in it, even with the existence of Flaming Cobra. Even though the material is being produced through Gunmetal Games, it's Mongoose that is going to be getting it out into circulation and in front of a lot of gamers. That's an audience that we probably wouldn't be able to reach on our own. So because of this support from Mongoose, we're going to continue forward with the development of the line in order to satisfy the fans, as well as to let this product line achieve its potential.

 

[Armchair_Marine]

Yeah, the only reason i ever got interested in or even know about Mongoose was their minis. Looks like it's another year of 40k for me.

Matt has mentioned one RPG/mini licence in his Planet Mongoose blog.

Yes, "mentioned", but didnt reveal what it was exactly. I thought stuff like this would be revealled during this time. Now it's more looking forward to an announcement of an announcement.

 

[memorax]

There are no current plans to do so.

Thanks for answering my question. While I am a little dissapointed who knows amybe we may see some support at a a later date. At least Earthdawn will see more support. I cannot wait for them to rerelease Blue Planet.

 

[TrippyHippy]

I was interested in how they are considering possibly using the Paranoia rules for other titles. Would the Illuminatus Trilogy work?

 

[MongooseMatt]

Will the Living Campaigns have an online element?

The web site will serve as a hub for them, certainly. as for actual online play, not in the first year (lots of other things to straighten out first).

I'm guessing the main rulebook for Deus Vult will be mainly setting specific material and will require the RuneQuest II core book to play? Is that correct?

That is correct, and will apply to all RQII settings - you will only ever need to buy the core rules once.

Any word as to the release date or estimated one for Deus Vult?

April.

I had no idea that you guys had offices in Ohio. What city in Ohio?

Kettering.

Will RQ2 have open content with an SRD?

No.

And when do the previews begin?

The 1st of December, with a full expose from (not of) Lawrence Whitaker, the principle writer behind the new line. After that, we'll be doing a series of downloadable PDFs straight from the book.

Disappointed that, once again, it appears that Slaine has been ignored.
Mostly,this is because Matt indicated in the Slaine forum(not so long ago) that something was in the pipeline.

Well, something is. . . The trouble is that it is a very special project, and we are still trying to figure out exactly how to do it - it is not an easy thing!

What we _don't_ want to do is simply reprint Slaine for a third time. He deserves better than that.

Where do Traveller Referees like myself sign up. More than happy to assist Mongoose in this venture.

You will be more than welcome, and will have all the information you need next year, before the launch of the campaign.

"Not even in Canada," eh?

Deepest apologies for that, it wasnt meant how it sounds (Canada is one of the places RPG publishers print if they don't go to China - only reason it was mentioned). The offending line has been removed.

We like Canada at Mongoose. We all want to live there. One of us does!

 

[Agis]

It is indeed part of the miniatures wave - there will be no more BF Evo books unless they also have miniatures support (which may make Agis jump for joy, I imagine!).

However, the BF Evo system/mechanics feature very heavily in our miniatures plans.

I am indeed jumping for joy to have the Evolution Logo License available for another year!
:wink: 8)
I am really curious about the future of Mongoose miniature games, hopefully the new project will result in lots of sales and an additional PR boost for this great rule system. (Even if the rules had to be adapted for the “miniatures plans”…)

 

[pedr]

Will the Living Campaigns have an online element?

The web site will serve as a hub for them, certainly. as for actual online play, not in the first year (lots of other things to straighten out first).

I'm never entirely sure I understand the problems which organised play co-ordinators see with online play. This happened with Living Greyhawk, with D&D Campaigns, and with Pathfinder Society. If the system is set up to be robust enough to allow a group of friends to play at home, it's robust enough to allow people to play in a virtual space. There are various ways of dealing with the tracking 'problem'; I prefer trusting players not to cheat, but you can encourage online GMs to post or scan and email record sheets to players if that's necessary.

 

[MongooseMatt]

I'm never entirely sure I understand the problems which organised play co-ordinators see with online play. This happened with Living Greyhawk, with D&D Campaigns, and with Pathfinder Society. If the system is set up to be robust enough to allow a group of friends to play at home, it's robust enough to allow people to play in a virtual space. There are various ways of dealing with the tracking 'problem'; I prefer trusting players not to cheat, but you can encourage online GMs to post or scan and email record sheets to players if that's necessary.[/quote]

No real issues, we just want to walk rather than run at first!

 

[Paladin]

Thanks for the info. They're always interesting to read.

Congratulations on surviving and thriving. Anything that helps maintain/strengthen/broaden/etc. the RPG industry is a good thing in my book.

I made only two significant and very personal observations while reading. FWIW.

i) My eyes nearly popped out when I read your comments on proof-reading. When you move to new premises, please provide your proof-readers with glasses, a quiet room to work in and a realistic amount of time to do it in. In my experience of your Traveller products, they must be myopic and have heavy-metal constantly in the background! :roll: Your argument that things aren't perfect but are better than what they were before doesn't hold much water with me. It just admits that the situation must have been abysmal before and now it's just poor. Much room for improvement and the single most important considerations I have when buying products from Mongoose.

ii) While reading about Codname Veil, I had to stifle a massive yawn. Oh man, another Delta Green, Ecoterrorists, X-files, etc. clone. One I'll miss.

Pardon me, but you spelled Codename incorrectly.

 

[AndrewW]

Pardon me, but you spelled Codename incorrectly.

That's part of the code.

 

[rust]

So there will be no Mongoose roleplaying game about a cod named
Veil ? :shock:

I really would have liked that as an inspiration for my Traveller water
world setting ...

 

[zaoutir]

And what about the translation and Mongoose en Francais?

a work shedule is ready next? Granbretan for Hawkmoon, Companion for Elric? When?

Thanks

 

[medievaladventures]

Will RQ2 have open content with an SRD?

No.

That's very disappointing. It was one of the best things about MRQ. It's also odd since Traveller is the other "main" system and it has one.

 

[Rurik]

Will RQ2 have open content with an SRD?

No.

That's very disappointing. It was one of the best things about MRQ. It's also odd since Traveller is the other "main" system and it has one.

Yes. Very Disapointing. What kind of options will 3rd party publishers have for MRQ2 support (if any)?

 

[SnowDog]

I copied my earlier post from RQ forum to here as this might be a more appropriate place for it.

Interesting news, indeed.

I am very interested to see the new MRQ2 when it comes out. I know that it will be too late to make any wishes but I do it still. I hope that this set of rules is even more removed from the Glorantha setting than the previous version as it is clear that MRQ2 is supposed to be a core book for multiple settings.

As for setting books Vikings, Wraith Recon and Deus Vult all sound like good fun. Otherwise I would give Vikings a pass but recently I have been reading Northerner comics and anything that might touch my home region (even if indirectly) is interesting. Deus Vult seems like Catholic version of Assassin's Creed and a lot of intrigue. Very promising.

Wraith Recon was the only reason why I bought D&D 4 PHB but I never came around to read it through and so I had to give the Wraith Recon a pass, too. Now is a new chance. How much the setting will change from D&D 4 version? I suppose Mongoose is not allowed to use all the races in D&D 4 in their own game.

While the RQ Modern would have been fun to have I very much doubt that we will see it because I think Traveller will cover that one.

I, too am sad that there were no news about Slaine. Then again I really liked the old Slaine stories instead of newer ones. Hmm... to be precise I like the new stories a great deal as comic book stories but the background is not as great for roleplaying purposes as the old one (the one represented in d20 Slaine).

Finally, to another barbarian. I really hope that Mongoose is making a bidding for the Conan license and this time using MRQ2 and that they get the license. The setting is great and it has been great fun to read the d20 Conan but what can you do when the system is just not your coup of tea. But enough of that, I don't want to stir any system wars here...

 

[Danforth]

The Paranoia section makes intriguing reading - specifically the bit about the possibility of more core books, and maybe even non-Paranoia books using the same system (parallel of what you're doing with Traveller and RuneQuest I suppose).

I wonder, was the Paranoia engine ever considered for Deus Vult? (Though might be best to give Gareth Hanrahan a break from the Paranoia rules, for the sake of his sanity)

Wonder if we'll see Toon or Teenagers from Outer Space return built on the Paranoia engine now

 

[CursedEarthPizza]

Not to derail anything into politics, but I just wanted to let Mongoose know that when I started looking to get back into rpgs, I only looked at companies that did _not_ print in China.

Thanks, Mongoose!

 

[Stainless]

Pardon me, but you spelled Codename incorrectly.

It was predictable that someone to say something trivial like this as if it somehow invalidates the argument. A forum post bears no resemblance to the "professional" production of a product that is sold. Mistakes happen, of course. Correction methods are not perfect, of course (although for a ‘captive’ entity such as a manuscript there is no real reason why it can’t be ‘perfect’). But I put it that the level of mistakes that still routinely make it through the supposed dedicated correction mechanism is not really good enough. There are some real whoppers of errors that really shouldn't have passed through the system. Maybe they are getting better, good. But my argument was that more improvement is possible and needed. I’m not dissing anyone. I’m not ranting (believe it or not!). I would just like to see Mongoose produce the best possible product and believe it can be done and so it’s a pity they don’t do it. My comment was really an expression of regret.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Maybe Mongooses should get the Call of Cthulhu license for Traveller? That would be novel.....

Actually, there is something of a balance in the titles here. Glorantha and the OTU, as living campaigns become default settings for RQ and Traveller respectively. The Eternal Champion stuff will kinda join the 2000AD titles as iconic and regular flagship titles, with others as and when the licenses or creative juices flow. The Flaming Cobra links will allow for more personalised projects, although you do have to wonder what type of product Paranoia will emerge as still. The Rebellion links with Cubicle 7 are significant in particular if they co-ordinate their product markets. Imagine getting a Traveller advert in the back of Dr. Who for example?

The old Mongoose D20/Conan/Babylon 5 days clearly look to be history now though. I suspect that Mongoose will want to re-design their web page soon enough too.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Pardon me, but you spelled Codename incorrectly.

It was predictable that someone to say something trivial like this as if it somehow invalidates the argument.

I wouldn't get too sensitive about this really - just people making light of words, not yourself or the argument.

If I can address the argument directly, I think that games/settings like Conspiracy X, Delta Green and Dark Matter have all shown that gamers have an appetite for X-Files style investigations. No matter that you may be a bit bored by it, or that it seems unoriginal (er..like classic space opera isn't?!). The truth is that Traveller really needs an alternative contemporary modern setting to develop, if it's wanting to branch out into it's aim of covering all sci-fi settings.

I'd have rather had a 'straight' modern conspiracy setting, AKA James Bond or Jason Bourne, or maybe like the Da Vinci Code, but at least we will be able to generate modern spies using Traveller rules now. I welcome it.