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Illuminated Site of the Week
March 31, 2008: The Truth About The Death Star
Another conspiracy exposed! The Empire has tried to hoodwink us with its farfetched explanation of the destruction of the magnificent Death Star, but patriotic citizens will not be fooled, and have gathered indisputable proof that it was an inside job. Why is this being hidden from us? Speak out against the cover-up!
Warehouse 23 News: Not Actually Cursed
If we'd really cursed the thing, selling the Munchkin Cthulhu Cursed Demo would be, in a word, difficult. Sure, people buy Evil Monkey Paws all the time and sure, a mogwai or two has swapped hands. In general, though, people get about as close to cursed things as the Wicked Witch of the West gets to the Great Lakes. So worry not about plagues of locusts or anything like that. It's just a silly name.
We promise.
As I reviewed the condensed version of the Report to the Stakeholders that's going into the next Where We're Going, I noticed something funny about the numbers.
Specifically, "sales were up by 20%" is a silly number. We did well, but not that well. I suspect I typoed on an editing correction after everyone here had checked the copy. I'm blaming myself.
Anyway: (1) Apologies for the error. (2) All y'all who are supposedly showing such great interest in these reports aren't paying critical attention, because if we had really had a 12% increase in gross (which was the number in the original report) on a 20% increase in sales, that would indicate that our overall efficiency had dropped markedly as our sales went up, and if that were the case, I should have been pointing that out and saying what I'd do about it. But nobody called me on this . . . I caught the error myself, a month and a half later. Come on, people - you're supposed to be keeping me honest.
So what ARE the right numbers? Well, we are now almost closed on 2007, and our gross was better than I was willing to claim when the report was first written . . . looks like it will be close to $2.88 million. This is actually about a 14.8% increase over last year. Our sales were up by about 14.1%. Our increase in gross was slightly better than our increase in sales. This is good, and can be attributed first to an increase in licensing income, and second to "hmm, we probably did get a bit more efficient."
The numbers in the posted report have been updated.
-- Steve Jackson
Zombies!!! 4: The End . . . was recently second edition-ified. That probably isn't the part you care about. It's a stand-alone expansion that can be played with or without the original Zombies!!!. That also is probably not the part you care about. It comes with 100 plastic zombie dog figures. Ahhh. Jackpot.
March 29, 2008: I Am Not Putting The Obvious Lolcat Joke Here
I am merely pointing out that the cheeseburger in a can is one more bit of proof that the future will be so weird that considering whether a given development is "good" or "evil" will just make your brain hurt.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: Do You Really Like Your Friends? Really?
Don't let us stop you from purchasing and playing Diplomacy. Indeed, far be it from us to deter you. Just keep in mind that nobody you play with is ever going to speak to you again once you've finished the game. Well, that's not strictly true. One of them might speak to you as they stand at the end of your bed one night, ax in hand, shouting, "Who's breaking the cease fire now, huh?!"
March 28, 2008: Illuminated Site of the Week: Okay, You Can Start Doomsday Now
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is up and running. It's everyone's answer to the potentially disastrous loss of food sources throughout the world (though Norway is picking up the tab). All anyone has to do is put a healthy sampling of seeds for major crops therein and they'll be safe in case some plague withers eveything on the vine (until the Nazis hiding out in the Arctic catch wind of this, anyway). Hurry, this space is going fast. It's expected to be filled within the next three generations, so reserve your space now. Sadly, this bank probably still closes after four o'clock. -- Suggested by Walter Schirmacher
Warehouse 23 News: Just . . . Don't Go To New England, Okay?
Trust us. It's just not safe. Look at Innsmouth Escape. See how the nice young man is running from the slavering horde of deep ones? Horde. Not a congregation, not a band, not even a gang. Horde. Nobody wants to deal with that. That's just too much stress for this day and age. So take our advice. Stay away from the east coast.
Apple has bundled their browser, Safari, with the latest iTunes update. This may not seem like a big deal, but Mozilla's CEO John Lilly feels it "borders on malware distribution practices."
While I'm not certain this constitutes the violation of trust with far-reaching consequences that some have called it, it does seem uncharacteristically aggressive for Apple.
-- Paul Chapman
ZombieTown 2: Road Rage is not about defensive driving. It is not about right of way, observing speed limits, or obeying "no right on red." It is about one thing and one thing alone: answering the question "what happens when a ton of steel, aluminum, and rubber slam into a shambling corpse at 70 miles per hour?"
March 26, 2008: Just Proving There Could Have Been More Merchandise
Jason Geyer was part of a group pitching merchandising ideas to Pepsi, for a Star Wars Episode One promotion. Most of their ideas were rejected, but he kept some of the concept sketches, and recently shared them on his blog here.
While I'm glad there was some degree of restraint in the merchandising department of Lucasfilm ('cause it didn't seem like it at the time!), but you know, I think I want a Han in Carbonite Mini-Fridge.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Hell: Coming To An Earth Near You
Well, maybe the situation in Shadow Nations isn't quite that bad, but finding the difference between "fire-and-brimstone Hell" and "really-icky-metaphorical Hell" is a hair-splitting affair. There's even daemons running around and everything! So at the very least we're looking at a hellburb situation.
Yes, there are Munchkin games on YouTube. No, we didn't make them, but the Munchkin Card video is pretty nifty.
But man there's a lot of cat videos!
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Yessir, He's A Real Beauty
Yep, that there Plush Mounted Cthulhu Head has gotta be at least 30 points. 'Course, it keeps changin' size, so, y'know, it's kinda hard to count. Yep. Looks real good over the fireplace. Weird thing is, it keeps whisperin' to us in the night, sayin' we should sacrifice virgins on blasphemous altars and call forth the End Times. But, heck, we don' pay it no mind. TV's been tellin' us the same thing fer years!
Ever since we began using POD technologies for short print runs of e23 projects, we've been asked, "Can I buy this from my Friendly Local Game Store?" In July 2008, the answer will be "Yes!"
GURPS Spaceships
Three, two, one . . . Blast off!
GURPS Spaceships is the long-awaited companion to GURPS Space, presenting rules for TL7-12 spacecraft, from tiny lifeboats to giant dreadnoughts. It covers spaceship design, travel, and operations, along with a (mapless) space-combat system.
The ship design and operation rules in GURPS Spaceships are more abstract than those found in GURPS Vehicle Design or GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars . . . making them much faster, with a minimum of math and a maximum of colorful options. It takes only minutes to build even the largest spaceship . . . and wrapped around the design system are basic space-travel and combat systems to get you into space right away.
GURPS Spaceships doesn't include detailed finance, trade, or hex-grid-based combat rules . . . but these are on the way! It's the core book in a series whose other volumes will present examples of ready-to-use spacecraft and comprehensive rules for commercial space flight, warfare, exploration, ports, industry, and other aspects of space travel.
GURPS Spaceships requires only the GURPS Basic Set, but GURPS Space is highly recommended for its guidelines on stardrives, characters, campaigns, and settings.
72 black-and-white pages. Softcover.
Stock #01-6199,
ISBN 978-1-55634-775-7.
$14.95.
GURPS Supers
Men Like Gods
The 20th century gave birth to a new genre of fiction: the super-powered adventure. Men and women with strange powers gave a visible expression to the reader's sense of wonder, as they protected ordinary mortals from a variety of threats, from street crime to world-shattering disasters. When roleplaying games were invented, supers quickly became one of the most popular genres - and one of the most challenging to do right.
GURPS Fourth Edition provides the game mechanics and tools for the job, and GURPS Supers is your guide to applying them: a comprehensive playbook to the supers genre and to capturing it in your campaign. Focused on drama and characterization, it provides:
- A history and analysis of the supers genre, its precursors and variations.
- A guide to character creation, including powers and other abilities, codes of conduct, dual identities, and personal relationships.
- More than 20 new wildcard skills.
- 22 templates for super characters, each customizable to higher or lower power levels.
- Rules for creating equipment, vehicles, bases, automata, and magical spells.
- A guide to creating and running supers adventures.
- Continuity-creation guidelines and tools, so your supers universe can have the same depth as published worlds.
- New game mechanics for character creation, including new interpretations of advantages, disadvantages, and skills, and newly defined perks, quirks, enhancements, limitations, and techniques.
- Guidelines for running superhuman feats and combats under existing rules or adjusting those rules to fit the genre, and new game mechanics specifically for superhuman action.
GURPS Supers is a new work, but it draws inspiration from the previous editions of GURPS Supers. Using it to run a GURPS campaign requires the GURPS Basic Set and GURPS Powers. The material on genre conventions, character concepts and relationships, scenario creation, and supers universes can be used with any game system.
152 black-and-white pages. Softcover.
Stock #01-7998,
ISBN 978-1-55634-771-9.
$24.95.
GURPS Mysteries
A Dame Walks Into Your Office . . .
A dead body, no witnesses, and a room full of suspects with perfect
alibis. Can you find the killer and bring him to justice? Learn the secrets of
mystery fiction &ndash and what will, and will not, work in RPG mysteries.
Learn how to be a better investigator. Discover the problems you are likely to
encounter in a low-tech, magic, super-tech, or horror mystery.
GURPS Mysteries covers:
- Creating mysteries as stand-alone adventures, as part of an existing
campaign, or as a campaign in their own right, with specific discussions of the
low-tech, modern-tech, future, magic, and horror settings.
- Setting the crime scene, including detailed forensic information on
causes of death, investigation methods, and a forensics timeline.
- Creating interesting villains, and matching their disadvantages to
their motives and means of carrying out a crime.
- A template-based character-generation system for iconic
investigators, including the genius detective, the hardboiled shamus, police
detectives, investigating magicians, even "that darn kid."
- Sample detective and investigative agencies to hire or bedevil
characters.
- Expanded rules for questioning and interacting with
NPCs.
GURPS Mysteries, by the author
of GURPS
Cops, is designed both for the GM who wants to
create and run mystery adventures and for players who want to play
investigators in any setting.
128 black-and-white pages. Softcover.
Stock #01-7999,
ISBN 978-1-55634-761-0.
$19.95.
Warehouse 23 News: Your Own Personal Mini Yes Man
Munchkin: Bobblehead Edition is a reimagining of everyone's favorite game about stabbing people and taking their things. "Reimagining," as in "imagine what the game would be like if it came with a little bobblehead Super Munchkin." Well, imagine no more! We got our hands on some of the previously Barnes & Noble-only release (though the packaging on these copies is dinged and torn - caveat emptor), and are eagerly waiting for you to take them away from us. Our hands don't deserve to hold such nicery. They have done . . . unspeakable things.
When even the regular media carries reports of large tentacled creatures found near Antarctica, what even more eldritch discoveries might have been suppressed lest they lead to worldwide panic? Not that we don't have worldwide panic already.
Maybe you'll learn in Munchkin Cthulhu. Or its two evil supplements. Or the new Cursed Demo, which is both a useful demo and a source of New, Amusing, and Abusive Cards for your own games. And maybe we're just cynically profiting, while we still can, off the upcoming cleansing of the Earth to make way for the Elder Gods' version of a pay toilet.
The Swearbears are not what one would call "couth." In fact, they go beyond "uncouth" and slam head first into "anti-couth." And we wouldn't want them any other way. Bedtime Teddy Swearbear is just as foul-mouthed and ill-mannered as his brethren have led us to expect, only he's more . . . bed oriented. The implications of which, frankly, are not for the likes of a simple advertisement such as this.
March 22, 2008: Book Learning For Dungeon Crawling
The Dungeon Fantasy series brought dungeon crawling into GURPS, and now Sean Punch offers a new option for adventurers -- the sage.
Not everyone who kicks down doors and slays monsters uses a boot and sword. Some prefer more indirect methods. In GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 4: Sages, artificers bring gadgeteering to the subterranean treasure troves, overcoming obstacles with whatever bits and gear are on hand. Scholars, on the other hand, bring the bright torch of knowledge to the dark tunnels, proving that being a smarty-pants can be useful.
Check out GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 4: Sages -- because reading isn't just for tavern menus.
Warehouse 23 News: No Ordinary Rabbit
Monty Python: Plush Bloody Rabbit with Big Pointy Teeth - Medium Size. Name says it all, really. Not a rabbit to be trifled with. Or reasoned with. Or bargained with. Or, really, even looked at directly. In fact, forget we even mentioned the little guy. We don't want to sell him. He's a manslaughter lawsuit just waiting to happen. Best if you just left now. Quickly. Before it notices us.
March 21, 2008: Illuminated Site of the Week: Aw, You Can Use Facts To Prove Anything
Years of movies and conspiracy theories have taught us the obvious, that if you want to protect your brainwaves you need a tinfoil beanie. But On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study would have us believe folks at MIT have done experiments proving this isn't the case. Hmm . . . then again, they have a lot of "equipment" and use "science," so maybe we'd better hear what they have to say. -- Suggested by Digo Rodriguez
Warehouse 23 News: You Know What They Say . . .
"If you can't take the heat, get outta Phoenix." They do say that, right? Somebody get Phoenix on the phone, we've got a meme to start spreading. We need that phrase to work, or we'll never be able to sell Xcrawl: PhoenixCrawl. Or, at least, we won't be able to convince you to buy it. You'll be left to your own devices on whether or not to buy the book. And that simply will not do.
March 20, 2008: Yes, I Know I'm A Late Adopter
I do try to keep up with what's going on in the video game world, but sometimes my general lack of time leads me to ignore a Darn Fine Game for much longer than I should.
Case in point is Valve's Portal. Yes, it has taken me this long to pick up the Orange Box, widely held as the best value in console gaming today. But I have, finally, and took this weekend to dive into the eerily hilarious puzzles. While I haven't finished it yet, I am kicking myself for waiting as long as I did.
And if Team Fortress is as good as Portal, I'll need to figure out Sony's online service . . . no, I haven't done that either.
I told you I'm a late adopter.
-- Paul Chapman
This year, vote green. Really green. The Cthulhu for President T-Shirt will show your support for the greatest of all evils. He might not solve the deficit problem, but he'll certainly introduce a lot of alien foreign "trade."
The author of some of the 20th century's most influential science fiction, who popularized the idea of a "space elevator" in his novel The Fountains of Paradise and wrote a paper describing geosynchronous communications satellites almost 20 years before the first one was launched, died yesterday at the age of 90.
The CNN obituary does a pretty good job of summing up his contributions. As of this writing, he's been the front-page story there for well over an hour (no less than he deserves) and his name has been spelled "Clark" in the first paragraph for that entire time (about par for CNN reporting). One trusts that history will get Sir Arthur's name right.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: A Beautiful Day For A Pillage
Grab your cardigan sweater and cutlass, because it's time once again to visit Jolly Rogers' Neighborhood. The Cap'n will teach you all about how cannonballs are made, visit some real "scurvy dogs," and explain the dangers of man's best friend and yet most dangerous enemy: rum.
I got some interesting comments on the "Cyberpunk whaling scenario" Illuminator. Several readers ran their own literature surveys and shared their findings, though nobody yet has found the specific list of 43 studies that the Australians were condemning.
Some quotes:
- "The abstract of the cited (fertilizing cow ova with frozen whale sperm) experiment is here."
- . . . less mad science than bad science . . . some of the fundamental criticism of the Japanese research is attached."
- "18 years of research and they still can't tell whales from kangaroos."
But the very best link I got was to Harpooned!. This is a little Windows game that was created, as a completely unabashed criticism of the Japanese whale kill, by a single designer/coder. Few games with a "message" are much fun, but - in an intentionally gross way - this one is. So it's worth a bit of (ahem) scientific study. I enjoyed reading the creator's comments on Gamasutra about how and why he built the game, what worked, and what didn't.
Now, will Japan respond with a game where the targets are kangaroos? Will the next shots in the Meme Wars be . . . freeware games?
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: One: Loneliest Number Since 3000 BC
Taiji is a game of two. But it's also about two becoming one. It's all very deep and probably involves mathematics, but if your bank account will just become one with our credit card server then we can send the game to you. At once.
After two days of sales, GURPS Characters had sold 91 copies via e23. After a similar time, also through e23, GURPS Campaigns had only sold 77.
Off the top of my head, that ratio of Characters to Campaigns seems higher than the print books' ratio for their first couple of months. I'll need to double check, but I don't need confirmation to begin speculation.
Does e23 have a high GM population? Has word of Campaigns' utility spread far enough and wide enough to generate a higher rate of player sales?
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Someone Should Really Do Something About Those Aliens
The current Estimated Time to Invasion doesn't leave us much time to develop the things we need to repel the alien threat. So we should work together. Except that one of us might be selling us out to the invaders. In which case, we shouldn't work together. Wait. Uh oh.
We've got a real-life cyberpunk scenario unfolding, one that could be right out of William Gibson. In fact, it inspired me to go reread Neuromancer. To set the scene . . .
The Internation Whaling Commission has banned whaling. For many years, though, Japan has sent out its whaling fleet in spite of that ban by issuing itself a "lethal research quota" of up to 1,000 whales. The "research subjects" wind up in grocery stores. This has made Japan the target of activists like Sea Shepherd, whose ship, the Steve Irwin, harassed the whaling fleet this year as it hunted in Antarctic waters claimed by Australia.
The Sea Shepherds threw foul-smelling butyric acid onto the Japanese ships, and after their ship left to refuel, it claim to have planted transmitters onboard so they could easily find the whaling fleet wherever it went. The captain of the Steve Irwin also claims to be returning home with a Japanese bullet which was stopped by his bulletproof vest. The Japanese deny shooting at the activists, though they did initially acknowledge firing "warning shots." So there's definitely a "Japan Inc. vs. Techie Activists" scenario playing out here.
Okay, so where's the mad science? Getting to that . . . Although the Japanese whale catch winds up in Japanese meat lockers, the hunt is not officially for food. After all that's forbidden by an international treaty which Japan has signed. Instead, it's for "research," which is permitted under the treaty. And there's no limit on the size of the quota a nation can issue itself for research. (Many munchkin points for finding that little loophole!)
But . . . if the hunt is "research," it has to generate some science. A thousand whales a year ought to generate some killer science. So to speak.
Last week, the head of Australia's scientific delegation to the IWC, Dr. Nick Gales, reported on an investigation of the last 18 years of Japanese whale research. Apparently the probe found only 43 papers, some of which Dr. Gales described as "bizarre," including attempts to fertilize cow ova with frozen whale sperm. The rest were characterized as useless. Unfortunately, I cannot direct the boggled Game Master to any comprehensive list of these "research papers." The reports I've found online have been at best light on details . . . and most of them were merely sarcasm and funny art. So if anyone comes up with anything further on what sounds like the maddest state-sponsored "science" since WWII, please share!
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: One Down, Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine To Go
If Thousand Suns is to be believed, we've got quite a few solar systems out there just waiting to be explored, conquered, and otherwise nabbed. So, we've got the sun. That's our freebie. For the rest, well . . . somebody better call NASA. They've got some long nights ahead if we're gonna meet quota.
March 15, 2008: Illuminated Site of the Week: Who's Going To Clean Up All This Science?
They call it the Implosion Group on Dan Winter's Fractal Science, but it's more like an explosion - there's stuff all over the site, literally. It looks like a digital monkey has been flinging virtual data poo at your screen. If you're made of stern stuff, though, you can find how to measure empathy and radiate immortality. Light, the site suggests, comes to know itself when folded backward, like some sort of time-traveling cocktail party, so you know Mr. Winter must be great fun at a college kegger. -- Suggested by syberghost
Warehouse 23 News: So, Like What . . . 3?
Call of Cthulhu: Horrors Beyond 2. "Beyond 2?" What's so scary about integers above 2? Is it that whole "seven ate nine" thing? Because we're pretty sure that's just a joke. No need to panic. Well, at the very least this should prove to be an interesting look at the horror genre. And Lovecraft did do some scary things with geometry.
Everybody likes getting together and playing games, and the last couple of our in-office Games Days have been great fun. So, we decided to do another.
Today, we're stepping away from our desks to play some boardgames, maybe some Smash Brothers, maybe some card games. Heck, there's been talk of Stikfas . . .
As a result, we will likely be slow to respond to email today. Warehouse 23 will still be shipping, and we'll still answer the phone for emergencies. But if you don't see as rapid a response as you expect, now you know why.
Warehouse 23 News: A Pirate's Life For - Aiyeee!!
The Big Green Guy lives under the water, so it makes sense that someone would publish a book called Call of Cthulhu: High Seas Cthulhu. What doesn't make sense is people who go out on boats looking for that sort of trouble. Then again, viewed from afar, Boat People vs. The Unspeakable can be quite entertaining.
As promised, we will release GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns as a PDF today, sometime before noon Central Time.
Update: It's live, right here, right now!
As of Tuesday, the digital version of Characters had sold over 130 copies, which surprises no one. We've been hearing for years that you wanted it, and we're pleased to be able to offer it to you, secure in the knowledge that it isn't hurting our retail partners.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: How Cool Are Edgerunners?
Cool enough to get 120 pages. Cool enough to grab NuCybe by the throat, wrestle it to the ground, and make it do a jig. Cool enough that Warehouse 23 thinks Cyberpunk: Beyond the Edge - Inside the Edgerunner Altcult is worth your time and money. And we, more than anyone, know what is and is not Cool. We built a little machine to measure it and everything! The "Coolometer" (which, itself, registers as Very Cool).
March 12, 2008: The Format Wars Are Over (For Now)
Mac and PC. Coke and Pepsi. Paper and plastic. Format wars have been with us for a long time, and resolution is rarely neat.
Well, except for VHS and Betamax. And it looks like the HD DVD and Blu-Ray will see a similar wrap-up. Wal-Mart, Warner Brothers, Netflix, and Microsoft have all switched over to support Blu-Ray, and last month, Toshiba -- who had been HD DVD's primary proponent -- announced that they would no longer produce HD DVD devices. Of course, canny tech observers have known the winners for months, ever since Disney made their choice to favor Blu-Ray last August.
Where the Mouse goes, so do the kids . . . and their parents.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Once More, With Shrinking
GIANTmicrobes. Right there in the name is a firm statement of what they are. "Giant." Big. Way bigger than microbes are supposed to be. But need they be . . . quite that big? Nay, they needn't! They work just as well at 1/3rd their size. The new petri dish three-packs prove it. And hey, even if you don't want the microbes, this is a great way to fulfill that life-long dream of getting your hands on some oversized novelty petri dishes.
I'm on semi-vacation. Yeah, thinking about games, but still, semi-vacation. A friend sent me Adam Rogers' op-ed piece (!!) in The New York Times (!!!), and it is indeed the best Gygax tribute yet. So I share.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: Putting The "Super" In "Supermax"
Some criminals you put in jail. Other criminals you put under the jail. And then there's those you put under the people you put under the jail. That'd be what Champions: Stronghold is about. The book, thankfully, is a fair sight easier to get to.
GURPS Infinite Worlds is a setting just begging for a string of releases, each detailing one of the many -- dare I say, "infinite" -- alternative timelines that Homeline has discovered.
Phil Masters has taken the challenge, and stepped up to deliver the first in what we hope to be a very long series: GURPS Infinite Worlds: Britannica-6. This timeline features a steampunk Britain without a Victoria in sight.
-- Paul Chapman
Over the past couple of days, the temperature here in Austin has dropped into the low 30s overnight. Combine that with some windy days, and scattered showers, and it's pretty chilly and damp.
Yes, that doesn't compare to what some others across the country are dealing with, but hey, everybody gets to complain about their weather. It's part of what makes us human, I think.
Hmm, I wonder if there's a "doesn't complain about the weather" genemod in Transhuman Space?
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Deft Touch Beats Daft Tromp
Sure. Kick the door in. See what happens. We dare ya. Hurt, didn't it? This public safety message is brought to you by the True20 Expert's Handbook. Rogues: safely disarming 2d6+4 electricity traps so that your face doesn't have to.
First the bad and personally embarrassing news. Yesterday we looked at Munchkin Quest and decided that it wasn't really in shape to go to the printers. The component layouts are absolutely beautiful, and outside testing indicated that it was acceptably good, but we didn't feel it was GREAT. And as we talked about it, Phil Reed came up with a great idea for regulating monster movement, which was the part that had the most problems. So I stayed up till 2:30 in the morning writing new cards, and rewriting the rules, to incorporate that idea. But of course it needs playtesting. So Munchkin Quest gets kicked back by at least a month.
And for this I apologize to you fans and retailers, and especially to Paul and Ross - our Marketing and Sales guys, respectively - who had been repeatedly assured that yes, this deadline could be met. And I also apologize to our foreign translation partners, because this probably makes it impossible for their translated editions to debut at Essen. MQ was our first priority for 2008 (and still is), and this delay is painful.
Now the good news, news that personally delights me. We now have to fill a hole in our schedule. When we looked at everything that might fit into that hole, a spiffy big-box version of Ogre - big board, heavy counters, and so on - had the best combination of "needs no further rules development" and "is in demand." So we get to have Ogre back. I have been really unhappy that it was out of print, but other things had to come first. Now that the other priorities have temporarily fallen down . . . Ogre gets its chance!
What will the new 6th Edition include? Basically, the same game that we have been selling as Ogre/G.E.V., but with massively upgraded components. Further details will have to wait a few days, and when we unveil them, you'll also get to see the redesigned Ogre webpage. Colored type on black backgrounds is SO last-century.
And the bottom line is that you'll see one more big boardgame out of us this year. So . . . not all bad!
Unfortunately, this also means that the month-long vacation that I was supposed to be starting RIGHT NOW (darn it) . . . won't actually happen. But for a while, my job description will not be Boss; it will be Game Designer and Developer. I'll get SOME time out of the office, and Phil will be Boss. He's been doing a great job.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: Warehouse 23 Top Ten
Warehouse 23 has posted an updated Top 10 Page for February. Check it out, and see what all the cool kids are buying . . .
March 7, 2008: Illuminated Site of the Week: With Tiny Little "Ka-Chunk Ka-Chunk" Noises
Here's your obligatory link to the dependable GURPS Steampunk. You're going to want that after touring Crabfu SteamWorks, a collection of devices that never were but really ought to be. (When's science gonna get on that, by the way?) See pictures, get dimensions, find out how they were built, and view movies with them in operation. For a site about toys, this is pretty serious business. -- Suggested by Freya
Warehouse 23 News: Trouble In Paradise
Utopia has a bit of a problem. Apparently, there are some other cities around the world starting to rival poor Utopia on the Top Ten List of Places That Are Totally Sweet. With a name like Utopia, you have a certain reputation to live up to (and a certain number of tourist dollars to acquire if you want to keep the city viable). The solution? Trick foreigners into making Utopia great instead of improving their own cities. Hey, nobody ever said being "perfect" meant being "nice."
On my short list of "movies I'm looking forward to in 2008," Iron Man can't arrive too soon. While the new trailer isn't available from the official site yet, it has been uploaded to various places around the web (including Youtube).
I knew Robert Downey Jr. could do a good job as Tony Stark, if the script was there. With the most recent clips, I'm pretty hopeful that this one will be at least as good as the first Spider-Man.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: But What Is It Expanding Into?
Like our universe, Runebound just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Unlike out universe, this is easily observed from the gaming table. Or, even more conveniently, from where you've got your butt parked this very instant in space-time. We've got the latest expansions now, so if you're wondering what direction the game is headed, seize that hyperlink and hold on until it shows you.
Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and a gaming icon for more than 30 years, died yesterday after repeated strokes and heart problems. He was 69.
Like the rest of my generation, I was introduced to roleplaying via Dungeons & Dragons because there wasn't anything else back then. My first, very lame, Dungeons & Dragons game was in college. Shortly after I became a (semi)professional and joined the Metagaming group, we started a D&D campaign, with Robert Taylor as the GM, and it was excellent. Decades later, I can still say that my biggest-ever thrill in roleplaying was when my first character got chainmail. No longer would I face certain death if I met an orc.
If not for Dungeons & Dragons, "adventure game" would still mean "cardboard chits on a hexmap." Which I love dearly, but would it ever have gotten out of the garage? And that's the least of it. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson didn't just remake a hobby. They impacted all of Western culture. Fantasy fiction would still be a backwater had not D&D built an audience and a new generation of writers. Lord of the Rings would be something taught in college English classes, not a blockbuster movie trilogy. And consider: The direct lineal descendant of D&D is Worlds of Warcraft, which is, all by itself, what? A billion-dollar business now?
For the last few years, roleplayers have celebrated March 4 as "GM's Day." And now it's the day when the best-known GM of all time put down his dice. Going forward, this should also be a particular date on which we recall Gary and his contributions.
-- Steve Jackson
Relevant links:
AP news report on the CNN site
Wired news report
Wikipedia entry
The Order of the Stick tribute
Warehouse 23 News: You And Me And Demon Makes Three
Sure, it's called One on One Adventures #9: Legacy of Darkness, but is any adventure truly just a mano-a-mano situation? Wouldn't that be a duel? So what they ought to call the line is "One On One-Plus-Some-Guys." Y'know. For accuracy's sake.
"GM's Day" was created on EN World's forums several years ago, and since then has grown into an annual excuse for PDF publishers and retailers to run special promotions and deals. This year, e23 will be joining in the fun!
First off, we have a bonus upload for you: the GURPS GM's Screen. This handy-dandy reference screen comes complete with GURPS Update, a character creation guide, and variant character sheets.
Next, we've got a sale! The GM's Screen will normally cost $4.95, but for today (Tuesday March 4) through Friday (March 7), you can grab it for just $1.95.
On top of that, Warehouse 23 has slashed prices on their clearance bin. Check out the list here.
But that's not all. We've also dropped the prices on several other classic GURPS products. For the complete list, see the e23 news page.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: 10 By 10 Room, Huh?
No, saying "but, but, there's an orc!" isn't going to cut it, mister. You're the GM! The game master. The players are counting on you to deliver unto them a fully realized venue that they will fill with their subtle roleplaying antics. Sure, you could take the easy route and just kill them when they get bored. That might, in fact, be quite viscerally satisfying in the short term. Or you could purchase GM Gems for some short-notice dungeonfluff. Fewer bodies to bury, that way.
This is the cover of GURPS Sylfiena, a new fantasy setting book. However, you won't be seeing it at your local retailer any time soon . . . unless you live in Korea.
GURPS Sylfiena is an original release from Dayspring Games, the publisher of the Korean GURPS Fourth Edition. Beautiful, isn't it? Our congratulations and thanks go to Dayspring.
They sent us a few copies, and one of these days we'll tell you how you can win one.
Warehouse 23 News: Here We Go Loop-D-Loo
Fields of Silver is 114 pages of Dying Earth shenanigans that's sure to put a smile on the face of anyone in desperate need of 114 pages of Dying Earth shenanigans. We better stop the ad there before Möbius gets involved.
March 2, 2008: Has It Really Been Over 20 Years?
I first played Car Wars in the fall of 1986. We played with the pocket box - and Truck Stop - and it was easily my favorite game for a good four or five years. I spent hundreds of hours designing cars and playing the game, time my parents and teachers thought was wasted. Well, I guess I showed them!
Some chats in the office a few weeks ago led to me dragging out some of my old ADQs again, including the Fall 2037 issue (my very first issue!). Rereading those old issues, especially the stories, was a great way to unwind after a long week of intense meetings. Unfortunately, as I was going through my collection I encountered some gaps. How can I be missing issues? This is bad! Time to hit eBay.
-- Phil Reed
Warehouse 23 News: A 100% Genuine, Guaranteed, Real Magic Pendant
Just send us some money and this mystical Dragon Pendant will magically appear on your doorstep. Inside a brown box. In a few days. Or weeks if you're very, very far away. Look, we didn't say the magic worked quickly. Just . . . magically. Sort of. Kind of.
March 1, 2008: Illuminated Site of the Week: Fruit Flies Like A Banana
The mind of the artist is an unfathomable animal, but it's not hard to see why someone would want to establish a geostationary banana over Texas. Come on, it would be a banana, after all, flying in the sky over Texas. Not in space, mind you . . . show an ounce of reason. But a high-tech blimp on automatic? Kennedy would have been proud. Of course, it could just be a magnificent hoax, but let us hope with all our hearts that it is not.
-- Suggested by Jon Glenn
Warehouse 23 News: Scary People Are Scary!
As such, they should be made . . . less scary. Permanently. That's more or less what goes down in The Esoterrorists: Albion's Ransom - Little Girl Lost. Provided a cultist doesn't scoop out your brains and play hacky sack with 'em first, of course.
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