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How's MGT Selling?

aramis said:
The question is, will it ever hit the 6 digits and counting of CT? Probably, simply because the market overall is at least 10 times bigger...

CT was fighting limited distribution, limited knowledge of RPG's, and often hostile public image of RPG's as satanic; most of those are diminished to almost inconsequential in most places, and it's no longer a requisite to buy from a local store. (Really, it wasn't in 87, either, but it wasn't nearly as convenient as it is now.)
Click to expand...

Circa '87? No, not really an issue, nor that hard to find, even out here on the bald frozen wasteland of the Canadian prairie :)

Circa '77? A different story entirely. Man I met some weird folks (some good weird, some bad weird) gaming when I was first turned onto RPGs et al. Some real dives had to be plumbed for gaming books. One place, at one time one of two FLGS, or the only one for a while iirc, was a ⌧ shop (chiefly). They dabbled in some other "exotic" ;) ;) material too but it was weird going into that place for gaming books. And the neighborhood didn't have the best of reputations. And the guy who ran the place invited me to play in his campaign. When he started describing it (let's say other materials in his shop featured big in his idea of dungeons) I feigned interest, mumbled I'd be back, walked out with my books and never went back again :)

Circa '87 was a boom time, game shops all over the place and regular stores even carrying some of the more popular titles. Heck, I think I recall TV ads. That was boggling. My underground hobby, in the light of day. Who'd have thunk it?
 
I bought my core MGT at the local Barnes and Noble ( bought with a gift card ). For months the core was the only book they sold. As of two weeks ago they no longer carried any copies.

As for 1977 & the early days I have to agree. I found my copies of the LBB's at a SF con in the early 80's. Most of the Airforce personnel who taught me & my wife the game had photocopies of the LBB's & some of the supplements.
 
Despite Toronto being a D&D town (almost exclusively) the local game shop cannot keep Traveller on the shelves for very long. If anything MGT has build up curiosity in Traveller once again. Now, if Tripwire and other assorted colourful supplements** can catch the eye of the consumer like The Traveller Adventure or Traveller's Digests did back in the day...we got a sure winner on our hands.

**I remember people who played other SFRPGs but not Traveller used to collect these because of the sheer breadth and ideas contained within that they would then use for their games. Also, people loved the art.
 
Just my opinion, but from what I've seen of it, Mongoose's Central Supply Catalogue could make a bid for a place on every role-player's shelf. MJD does great work.
 
I think it was Dave Nilson who said some years ago that publishing an RPG technical guide was like "printing money". Almost everyone loves those things.
 
So far, it only has a Black Cover...while cool for traditionalists...it needs to jump off the shelves with the cover. For many gaming stores, I know put their books in plastic wrap and if people cannot read what is inside...all the goodness is lost.
 
kafka47 said:
So far, it only has a Black Cover...while cool for traditionalists...it needs to jump off the shelves with the cover. For many gaming stores, I know put their books in plastic wrap and if people cannot read what is inside...all the goodness is lost.
Click to expand...

and yet, despite that black cover it seems to be selling very well.

Allen
 
far-trader said:
Based on?

Just curious :)
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well, while it isn't completely conclusive, there is the sales data from Amazon listed earlier in this thread.

Also is anecdotal data from various game retailers on RPG.net and other places who have said it selling well in their areas, and Mongoose themselves saying it has been selling very well for them.

I did say "seems to be"

Allen
 
far-trader said:
Absolutely. No worries, I just like context*, thanks :)

* and keep hoping for solid data ;)
Click to expand...

I agree with you about wishing for solid data..but funny how these game companies aren't willing to share things like trade secrets and confidential sales data with us plebes...more's the pity :)

Allen
 
I've been doing ongoing searches on "role playing game core" and "role playing game supplement" on Amazon, for what little that's worth, and sorting on "Bestselling" since my original post.

I don't really have any problems with my original assessment of Traveller's position in game sales, based on what I've seen--limited data of limited utility. Nobody from Alliance has offered to open their books to me, yet. :) The Amazon numbers can vary a lot based on very few sales--especially for the supplements. But overall trends show with time.

D&D comes out on top.
Traveller, Dark Heresy, and Star Wars come shortly thereafter, with Paizo Pathfinder coming up with them now. Shadowrun and World of Darkness appear in the number two bunching on a fairly regular basis, but not as regularly as the numbers from my first post would suggest.

I haven't see Serenity coming in this high since the original post, so I may have caught it on a spike.

What it looks like at present is:

#1 D&D 4E
#2 D&D 3.X
#3 SWRPG
#4 Paizo Pathfinder
#5 Dark Heresy
#6 Traveller

The deltas between #3 on down are less than the noise level in the data, so any of these could be anywhere within that group. Effectively, there are four rulesets in the #3 position.

Totally non-scientific data, intended for entertainment use only. :D
 
Gallowglacht said:
So the answer is, it's selling well. The 2 sci-fi ones above it are based on popular franchises.
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It seems to be selling quite well over here in Germany, too. The small publi-
sher that translates it has just announced that Söldner (= Mercenary) will
appear in July and that work on High Guard, Beltstrike and some others will
soon be completed. I have no numbers, but a publisher of this size could
not risk to continue to work on the product line if it did not sell at least as
well as expected.

What I find interesting is that the question about Traveller I am asked most
often is "Can I use it to play [insert any SF universe] ?" - it seems Tra-
veller really is seen as a generic system by many players over here, not as
the Third Imperium setting's system.
 
Just a quick update from Amazon.de (Germany, that is):

Mongoose Traveller (German version) Rank 85.997
Schattenjäger (German Dark Heresy version) Rank 127.792

I have no reliable numbers for D&D 4 (the German version was discontinued)
and Star Wars (the latest German version on Amazon's list is from 1997 ...),
and there probably is no German version of Pathfinder.

However, more than 40.000 ranks better than Warhammer 40k seems to be
a rather good indication that Mongoose Traveller is selling quite well over
here. :)
 
Or that Dark Heresy isn't...

One problem with those rankings is that the methodology of them isn't clear, and there are no real numbers proving them. It could be that there are only 4 sales difference... or 4000. How do they differentiate between two with equal sales numbers?

I can say this: Amazon is not a good indicator overall; it indicates online sales only, and doesn't include sales by traditional channels, nor does it relfect the effects of the indie games.

It is the best readily available indicator. It's still a poor one.
 
aramis said:
It is the best readily available indicator. It's still a poor one.
Click to expand...

Matt's already said how well MGT is selling, several times. I even posted a quote from Planet Mongoose earlier on this thread. Do you just not believe him or something?
 
aramis said:
It is the best readily available indicator. It's still a poor one.
Click to expand...
True, especially since Amazon - as far as I know - somehow not only inclu-
des the number of copies sold into its ranking formula, but also a certain time-
span during which the copies were sold.

For example, the German version of Heinlein's Starship Troopers currently is
on rank 390,555. It was doubtless sold more often than Mongoose Traveller,
but the peak of the sales was many years ago, so the current rank is much
lower.
 
rust said:
It seems to be selling quite well over here in Germany, too. The small publi-
sher that translates it has just announced that Söldner (= Mercenary) will
appear in July and that work on High Guard, Beltstrike and some others will
soon be completed. I have no numbers, but a publisher of this size could
not risk to continue to work on the product line if it did not sell at least as
well as expected.

What I find interesting is that the question about Traveller I am asked most
often is "Can I use it to play [insert any SF universe] ?" - it seems Tra-
veller really is seen as a generic system by many players over here, not as
the Third Imperium setting's system.
Click to expand...

Actually 13Mann isn't that small. They have the Rolemaster licence and Heredium as two other lines.
 
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