Mongoose Publishing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mongoose Publishing is a prolific British manufacturer of roleplaying, miniatures, and card games, actively publishing material since 2001. Their licenses include products based on the popular science fiction properties Babylon 5, Judge Dredd, and Starship Troopers, as well as Conan the Barbarian.
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[edit] History
Mongoose Publishing grew out of the d20 boom sparked by Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition, quickly achieving popularity and notoriety in equal measure by virtue of the sheer volume of its releases. Early product lines were aimed directly at supplementing the Dungeons & Dragons game; later, as the company's fortunes solidified, Mongoose began an aggressive pursuit of licensed properties, acquiring the rights to the popular British comic series Sláine and Judge Dredd in 2002 and the landmark television series Babylon 5 in 2003.
2003 also saw the release of the magazine Signs and Portents, a house organ aimed at supplementing and supporting Mongoose's growing range of products, as well as a range of generic standalone products based on the d20 system, collectively known as the "OGL series". Further acquisitions followed in 2004, including the rights to a roleplaying game based on Conan the Barbarian, the defunct roleplaying game Paranoia, and a joint venture with popular d20 portal EN World, the EN World Gamer quarterly magazine.
As of 2005, Mongoose Publishing has released roleplaying and miniatures games based on the Starship Troopers license, as well as the rights to RuneQuest, another out-of-print roleplaying game. The company also bid - albeit unsuccessfully - on roleplaying rights to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (computer game) and Ghost Recon franchises, as well as Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion cycle.
[edit] Controversy
In its early years, Mongoose Publishing sparked some measure of controversy due to poor layout and inconsistent editing and an incomplete understanding of the Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition ruleset among its writers. Its rapid rate of output also resulted in quality suffering; with a handful of writers stretched across multiple projects and as many as a dozen releases in any given month, errors were almost unavoidable. The release of Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 in 2003 - an updated version of the Third Edition with small but important tweaks in many areas - provided additional difficulties; in early 3.5 releases such as Sheoloth: City of the Drow, Third Edition and 3.5 material freely intermingled, severely marring their usability.. As part of an effort to improve overall quality, Mongoose destroyed all remaining copies of Sheoloth and two other titles, Ultimate Monsters and Ultimate Arcane Spellbook.
[edit] Games and products
[edit] Miniature Games
- Babylon 5: A Call to Arms
- Judge Dredd: Gangs of Mega-City One
- Starship Troopers: The Miniatures Game
- Mighty Armies
- Age of Conan (not yet released - expected 2007)
- Battlefield Evolution (A forthcoming near future game based on the Starship Troopers rules set).
[edit] Role-Playing Games and Supplements
- Armageddon: 2089
- Babylon 5: The Roleplaying Game
- Cities of Fantasy series
- Classic Play series
- Conan: The Roleplaying Game
- Encyclopedia Arcane series
- Jeremiah RPG
- Judge Dredd: The Roleplaying Game
- Lone Wolf: The Roleplaying Game
- Macho Women With Guns
- OGL Ancients
- OGL CyberNet
- OGL Horror
- OGL Steampunk
- OGL Wild West
- Paranoia
- Power Classes series
- Quintessential series
- RuneQuest
- Sláine: The Roleplaying Game of Celtic Heroes
- Slayers Guide series
- Starship Troopers: The Roleplaying Game
- Travellers' Tales series
- Ultimate series
- Wars RPG
[edit] Standalone Card Games
- Paranoia Mandatory Card Game
[edit] Periodicals
- Signs & Portents
- EN World Gamer
