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Illuminated Site of the Week
Looks like somebody leaked some photos from a Spanish-language 2009 Lego catalog. They're on Brickshelf . . . specifically, in images 880 to 884 of this series. I see redcoats, too, and the nice "plaster over red brick" walls . . . My thanks to Wes Davis for the pointer! Looks like the pirate fleet may be in for some reinforcements.
Update: That link was dead a couple of days after I put this item in the queue. But I saw them! Really! Did the Forces of the International Lego Conspiracy get to them?
All of which only reminds me how terribly out of date the Pirate Game pages are. Is Munchkin Booty an excuse to take the time to revisit them? Arrrr.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: The Chummer's Chum
Shadowrun: Runner's Companion is your Runner's Little Helper. All the optional rules you could ever want, all the optional rules you probably don't want, and all the optional rules that exist in some kind of quantum state between Want and Don't Want. "Options" is what we're sayin', and options is what the book's got.
At GenCon, we had only 154 copies of Munchkin Booty available for sale, and they were gone by 10am Saturday. One of the lucky buccaneers who snatched up a copy has already written a review!
The main shipment of this newest Munchkin game is headed our way now, and will be released October-ish.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: The Surprisingly Well-Known Realms
They're not forgotten at all. The Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide is right here! Pretty complete, too. Though we suppose it's more mythical sounding than the "Thoroughly Documented Realms That You've Probably Heard About By Now."
August 29, 2008: Illuminated Site of the Week: Kind Of Redundant, Isn't It?
Unexplained Mysteries are the best kind. This site offers snippets of all that is enigmatic in the world, and lets visitors talk about it at the forums. Einstein's theories, ape "planning," and lawsuits between the Knights Templar and the pope . . . okay, so maybe some of this can be explained, but it should be an entertaining story regardless.
-- Andy
This rampant disregard for the proper use of umlauts is brought to you by Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries.
If you've got one of those elusive Munchkin Silver Pieces, you know that the rule governing its use in Munchkin changes every month. This month, for the long Labor Day weekend, there's a special bonus rule. This extra rule supersedes the normal August rule, but is only in effect from August 29 through September 1.
Make Someone Else Do The Work For You
Give the Munchkin Silver Piece to another player. That player must fight the monster you are currently fighting. If that player wins, he gets the level, but you get any and all treasure.
Also: We'll be closed on Monday, September 1 in observance of Labor Day.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Hey. We Like Pyramids.
So as you might imagine, we like Dungeons & Dragons: H3 - Pyramid of Shadows. See? It says "pyramid" right on it. What's inside? Who knows? See, it says "pyramid" right there - did we mention that? Yeah. Pyramids are neat.
August 27, 2008: Heavy Gear To Return To Roleplaying
Dream Pod 9 and Steve Jackson Games announced an agreement today for a new line of roleplaying products based on DP9's best-selling Heavy Gear.
"The world of Heavy Gear was always intended to support multiple gaming formats," said Robert Dubois, Licensing Manager for Dream Pod 9. "We've focused our efforts on the miniatures line, with Heavy Gear Blitz! We are overjoyed that a publisher with the experience of Steve Jackson Games is interested in continuing the RPG material."
The line will launch with a new edition of Heavy Gear, bringing the Silhouette mechanics to their fourth edition. This core game will contain everything needed to create characters and roleplay in the world of Heavy Gear. Further releases will update Heavy Gear's best-known places and personalities, bringing the story up to date with the miniatures line. New releases will explore military hardware, locations, factions, and the whole universe in greater detail than ever before. The line will primarily be released in PDF via e23.
Heavy Gear is set on the world of Terra Nova, over 4,000 years in the future. On this war-torn world, the elite armor units are giant humanoid battlesuits known as Gears. City-states battle for position within their leagues, the leagues battle for control of Terra Nova, and everyone battles against the malevolent Earth forces who are trying to retake their lost colony.
"Heavy Gear has the deep background and rich setting that brings excellent roleplaying," said Paul Chapman of SJ Games. "We're excited to be able to bring the world of Terra Nova to a new generation of gamers, and to support the fans that have been following it for the past decade."
The fourth edition of the Heavy Gear RPG will be released in 2009. Watch for updates at www.heavygearrpg.com.
For more information, contact Paul Chapman (paul@sjgames.com) at (512) 447-7866 x207.
From Dagon to Mi-go to Shub-Niggurath and all points in-between, The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia will drive you mad - mad - with its detailing of Lovecraft's crazy little universe. But it's a good kind of mad. Like "ignorance is bliss," only . . . you know stuff. Just trust us, 'kay?
This weekend, you'll have not one but two opportunities to spot the rare Steve Jackson Games Staffer outside his native habitat.
I'll be at DragonCon with the Adventure Retail crew. We won't have Munchkin Booty, as we sold out at GenCon. We will have a couple of copies of GURPS Thaumatology in softcover, as well as bunches of the POD edition of the Dungeon Fantasy series, and Power-Ups 1: Imbuements as well!
Phil, Will, and Randy won't have anything to sell, but they will be showing off Munchkin Quest, Munchkin Booty, and a couple of other games at PAX. It's the first year any of our staffers will be attending the show, though we have some hardcore Penny Arcade fans in the office. If all goes well, we'll be ramping up our participation next year.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot
Spycraft 2.0: World on Fire is a book all about how wonderfully chaotic the world has become and all the neat things a superspy can do in this bubbling pot of mistrust, subterfuge, and explosions. It is not a book about how the heck your superspy is still alive while the world literally roasts on a spit. Though that would be pretty cool, too.
Sometimes, digging through the crates in the Basement, you find what you're looking for. Sometimes, you find what you actually wanted, but didn't know existed.
For instance, when Excavation Team Theta ("The Brawling Bobbies" -- don't ask) came across GURPS Infinite Worlds: Lost Worlds, it was certainly a surprise -- a welcome surprise, to be sure, as any alternate Earths from Kenneth Hite are sure to be.
Well, except for the one he wrote about this Earth. We suppressed that one. But the rest are available from e23 right now!
-- Paul Chapman
In case you missed in the first time around, Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles has been rereleased in a larger format and with a cover of hardness. If you did not miss it the first time around, well, now you get to ask yourself something. Does size truly matter, or is it all in how you use it?
GenCon's a big place, and our team didn't cover all of it. But we did spot a few things we found notable. Yesterday Phil mentioned his "pick of the show;" here's what others saw:
- Randy discovered shirts featuring pinup art, perfect for an old sea dog like himself. A bit risque, but nothing you'd worry about wearing around town. I might not wear it into the office . . . well, actually, I could, but our office is exceptionally cool.
- My primary purchase of the show: Starblazer Adventures. I've been following the development since Angus mentioned it to me two GTS shows ago, and it does not dissappoint. It may, in fact, be too much of a good thing -- included in its 600+ pages are everything from character, alien, and spaceship creation to plot synopses of the comic series the book is based on, with plenty of stops in the realm of examples.
- Steven Marsh seemed to violate the rules of "industry pro at GenCon" and actually played in a game -- or several, if he's to be believed. He's writing up his experience with the new Dr. Who RPG for Pyramid, so maybe it actually happened.
- Will went absolutely insane for Monsterpocalypse. Raving, talking in his sleep, making repeat trips to buy more -- the guy's got it bad.
- While Kromm didn't get out of the booth much -- he signed a small mountain of GURPS books! -- he was impressed by the diversity he saw in the crowds. More women, more kids, more folks from places other than the States . . . it's always good to get more gamers, and the more varied the view points, the better the gaming. Oh, and he saw enough zombies that whenever he tried to eat people's brains, no one commented. Not sure if that's a good thing . . .
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: A Quote Macro For Life
Tired of having endless arguments over the oft imprecise Monty Python and the Holy Grail quotes your friends and family keep making? Find yourself simply too busy to quote an appropriate line when the opportunity arises? Like annoying people by repeatedly pressing a button that makes noise? Friend, the Monty Python: Talking Coconut Keychain is for you.
I grabbed a copy of The Kobold's Guide to Game Design, Wolfgang Baur's new book of adventure design tips, when I was at GenCon last week. This book was created from essays Wolfgang wrote for his earliest Open Design project, a project that I'll happily admit to supporting (I was a sponsor on the first few adventures) and I'd also like to mention that the project just won the Diana Jones award. While most of the work in the book was written for D&D DMs, there's enough here on pacing, world design, monsters, city adventures, and underworld adventures that I think GURPS Dungeon Fantasy players will find the information useful. And if you've ever wanted to write magazine articles, the chapters titled "Shorter, Faster, Harder, Less" and "Why Writers Get Paid" will be worth the cover price.
-- Phil Reed
Warehouse 23 News: Turn On, Hack In, Find Out
In the Sixth World, the Internet is anything but a big truck. You might think it's a truck, given its tendency to crash in the sort of spectacular manner only a worldwide information network can manage, but it is decidedly untrucklike. It's not even the Internet, it's the Matrix. The Matrix is, however, fully capable of controlling your truck. Or the doors on your house. Or any of a number of techno-gizmos that saturate daily life in 2071 and keep you hale, hearty, and well-armed. Sound safe? Didn't think so, chummer. Get Shadowrun: Unwired. You'll thank us later.
Sorry. Sometimes, you just gotta go with the easy jokes.
Those of you who've visited That Other Website With 23 in the Name are probably familiar with the Dungeon Fantasy line. (If you haven't visited e23, then get ye to that place! It's substantially better than a kick in the teeth.) Well, when GenCon rolled around this year, we decided to turn some of our PDFs into PODs - softcover "print-on-demand" volumes.
"But," we thought, "why limit the fun to just GenCon?" Yeah, why? What makes GenCon so special that the rest of us shouldn't get a piece of the POD?
Nothing, says I! And says SJ Games. (Which is good, because they don't actually listen to me. We just happen to be in agreement this time.) So here's the GenCon POD releases for your tactile pleasure. They include volumes 1 through 4 of the Dungeon Fantasy books from that most universal of generic men Sean Punch. AKA "Kromm." AKA "He Who Sits On High and Gives Us Unworthy Mortals GURPS Books." And, because one product line simply isn't enough, we also have a POD version of GURPS Power-Ups 1: Imbuements. It, too, hails from the Kromminomicon. So buy a book or five and show that orc horde what a Holy Avatar of Kromm can do with a fiery sword and a bad attitude.
-- Fox
Warehouse 23 News: Lies, Darned Lies, And Stuff We Just Made Up
The best lies are truth, and the best truths are lies. Or that that's what They want you to think, anyway. Classic BattleTech: Jihad Conspiracies - Interstellar Players 2 sifts through the propaganda and hearsay of the Jihad and presents you with the Truth. In fact, it presents you with several Truths. Pick whichever one you like!
August 21, 2008: Want Something Too Cute For Reality?
Chibithulhu is darned cute. Too cute, in fact, to wait until September. We have two -- one green, one pink -- up on our eBay store.
The auctions are only active for a couple more days, so if you need one of these now, click that link!
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: It's Good To Be King
It's better to be the person who tells the king what to do. Legend of the Five Rings: Masters of Court concentrates its coverage on the three of the Great Clans most inclined to talk your ear off, but its general courtly coverage will prove useful for anyone wanting to find out how far you can get with just a kind word. (Surprisingly far, it turns out. But having a sword on hand just in case still isn't a bad idea.)
Due to a departmental restructuring, we have an immediate opening for a Retail Manager. This is a full-time position, working 9-5, Monday-Friday in Austin, TX. The Retail Manager will be responsible for the retail side of Warehouse 23 and e23, including customer service, website maintenance, warehouse maintenance, shipping, and stock selection.
If this sounds like an interesting opportunity, please take a look at the full job posting.
- Shadlyn Wolfe
Until the pit trap goes off. Then you're down here. Until the flamethrowers activate. Then you're up here. Until the spikes drop from the ceiling. Then you're over here. Until . . . you know what? Let's just go to the map. Or, more specifically, the Dungeon Tiles.
GenCon was very, very busy. In addition to the normal "selling stuff at the booth" busy, Will and Randy spent a good chunk of their waking hours showing off Munchkin Quest. And Ross normally sits down with, well, pretty much everybody, but with Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch, Phil Reed and Steven Marsh in attendance, creative meetings were thick on the ground as well.
We'll be writing up the details of those meetings this week for our internal discussion, and we'll share some of the things that may be of interest.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: See The Galaxy. Meet New People.
Exterminate them with extreme prejudice. Spacers seeking to add a little run-and-gun-and-maybe-get-paid-this-time to their lives would do well to get their hands on a copy of Traveller: Mercenary. It covers all the fun little particulars of being an independent armed force. How to build mercs, how to run ops, how to get paid, how to not get paid, and even how to not get killed this time. Maybe.
August 18, 2008: The Abbreviated And Slightly Delayed Worldcon Report
It's been a week since I got back from Worldcon in Denver. I enjoyed myself, though I made it to only two (2) programming items the whole time. One of the two was Lois McMaster Bujold's reading of the first two chapters of her upcoming, unfinished, untitled Vorkosigan novel. Cheers! Miles rides again! (And yes, work continues here on GURPS Vorkosigan. I am officially "off" for the next months, but I'll be shepherding the revised-for-4e manuscript through the final stages before it's ready for approval.)
I spent most of my convention time catching up with old friends. Monica and I had dinner with Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary, and I finally got to meet his wife Sandra, who is every bit as smart, neat, and generally fun as Howard. We got to hang out a bit, though not enough, with Phil and Kaja Foglio, and tell them again how well they are doing with Girl Genius. Phil was up for a Best Professional Artist Hugo to go with his Best Fan Artist ones. Sigh . . . not this year . . . but it will happen. I had a quiet lunch with John Barnes, who lives in Denver and knows how to get away from the crowds. I got to hear about his next novel, but all I can tell you is "Woooo, cool ideas." Envy me.
Hmm. Isn't it interesting that two out of four of my most memorable experiences were with webcomic creators? Right now, SFWA doesn't even recognize science fiction webcomics as the kind of professional work that will qualify one for membership. Rumor has it that that might change. I hope so!
The convention itself was very physically tiring. The convention center was several blocks from the hotel that housed gaming, filking, the con suite, and so on. A city shuttle covered most of that distance, when it was running, which was reliable in the daytime and less reliable as it got later. I missed some things because it just wasn't feasible to get from A to B and back. Better to stay at A and grumble. I'm going to do my best never again to support a convention that tries to sell us the line about "Yes, we're spread out, but it's easy to get around, really."
And, of course, I spent a bit of time in Gaming (not as much as I would have liked, due to the distance issues). So some of the gamers there got to see and play Munchkin Booty a few days before it was officially launched at GenCon.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: The Farm: Cooler Than You Think
Farmboys are constantly leaving home to save kingdoms/worlds/galaxies far, far away. And sure, that's one way to get out of living in a two-room hut with Stinky Uncle Dorp and your sister who enjoys starting fires way too much. Agricola presents some other options, however. Why go questing, after all, when there's a fortune out there just waiting to be tilled?
August 17, 2008: The Ogre Ninja: Corporeal At Last
When I think "ninja" the first thing to pop into my head is a person in black pajamas creeping across the roof. (Okay, that's a lie. The first thing that pops into my head is a turtle, but this is a close second.) I do not, however, typically associate the word with tanks. Especially cybertanks. Especially cybertanks that tend to blot out the sun as they roll by. But I should. And you should. And we will. Because, defying all logic and reason, there exists a sneaky Ogre known as the Ninja. Sure, it might not be tiptoeing across a pond anytime soon, but it will flip out and kill just about everything. As far as I'm concerned, that's close enough.
So why am I bringing this up? We recently got a whole mess of these long-awaited shadow warriors cast and put up for sale in our online store, Warehouse 23. You can find them by utilizing this wondrous new invention called the hyperlink. Click, and unto you shall it deliver the craftiest, sneakiest, most imperceptible rolling building you'll ever see. (Or should that be "never see?")
And by "imperceptible," I of course mean "it will kill every single thing it comes in contact with, which - in an operational sense - is exactly the same thing as nobody having ever seen you in the first place."
-- Fox Barrett
Warehouse 23 News: Return To The Fight!
Dark Heresy, not content with being out of print, has pulled itself up from the pits and is carving itself quite a nice little path to your bookshelf. Not to say it's killing indiscriminately, of course. Just everything evil. That guy over there with the silly hat? Oh yeah. He's totally a threat to the undying/unliving God Emperor. Better kill him. And the people standing next to him. Really, the whole village should be cleansed. In fact, have we got any nukes back on the ship?
What is Project Donut? It's a new RPG -- from Hidden City Games -- even if it does look more like an ARG than a traditional RPG. Take a look at the "about" video and then read the blog.
-- Phil Reed
Warehouse 23 News: Nightmare Fuel Or Just Darn Cute?
Everyone loves the soul-devouring horror of H.P. Lovecraft's blasphemous, unspeakable writings. Not everyone, however, has developed the necessary reading skills to enjoy the works. In fact, they can't even tie their shoes yet. For such youngling horror aficionados, we present Cthulhu: Where the Deep Ones Are. It's Lovecraft, through Kenneth Hite, in a form even the tiniest tots can enjoy. Which, uh . . . seems like a good idea . . .
August 15, 2008: Illuminated Site of the Week: The Map Is The Make-Believe Territory
Fantasy Cartography. No, the maps aren't imaginary, they just depict imaginary places like Tolkien's Middle-earth (with hexes, no less); the path of Glen Cook's Black Company; and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Lost trying to visualize the landscape while reading a fantasy novel? Maybe they've got what you need. And if they don't, you can help them plug holes in their knowledge base.
-- Suggested by Kira
Warehouse 23 News: We Publish Weird Stuff
And we like it that way. Sometimes, though, things get really weird. Not necessarily, say, tentacle-weird, but odd none the less. Like King's Blood, the Japanese card game of royal genealogy that we englishified. It's the kind of thing that makes the world go "come again?" So here we are, repeating ourselves for the benefit of a befuddled world. King's Blood. Neat, huh?
The tragic nature of being a small publisher is that you simply cannot keep everything in print, all the time. Collecting errata, watching cash flow, and checking new printers for bargains alone would overwhelm you. So some games, despite reasonable sales numbers, must be allowed to fall by the side, in order to make room for new products. But they're not gone forever!
Case in point: SPANC. A fun game with great art, it had the misfortune of, well, not being Munchkin. But we've got a space in the schedule, and so we're bringing it back!
Due to the vagaries of printing and shipping schedules during the end-of-year holidays, we're not 100% certain you'll see it in stores before 2009. But it'll be on the way.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Keeping Good Company
We like Atlas Games. We're just gonna come right out and say it, put it there on the table. We like 'em. We think you oughta like 'em, too. We'll start by drawing your eye to Feng Shui . It's a roleplaying game about rearranging your furniture to the positive benefit of your life. Such as kicking a table over for cover and firing your Uzi through it to create a gunport.
All the staffers who are going to GenCon have arrived, flying in at various hours last night. Today is booth construction, with a side order of gaming this evening at a special hidden location.
If you miss tonight's events, worry not. Will and Randy will be doing their song and dance throughout the weekend, in the Board Game Hall and "around." Look for the guys with shaved heads and giant foam Munchkin weapons wandering the event.
For the rest of us, it'll be meetings, meetings, meetings. Kromm and Smarsh are going to be hatching devious GURPS related plans for e23, I'll be chatting with [FNORD] about [FNORD], and Phil conversing with printers. It'll be one of the busiest GenCon's since 2004, behind the scenes.
Oh, and we'll have a special GenCon softcover edition of GURPS Thaumatology as well.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: We Sell Comic Books
Specifically, ones from Dork Storm Press. Well, those aren't the only comics we carry, but that's the particular block we want to mention today. Which we sorta just did, what with the link and all. Hm. This advertisement seems to have lost its way, now . . . Um, just go buy some cool Dork Storm stuff. We guarantee it will keep the Martian Invaders From Planet Venus from taking your chocolate pudding in the night. Or something.
Munchkin Quest, even though the game is still at the printer, has been reviewed again at BoardGameGeek. Read the review and then, if you want to know more about the game, find us at GenCon or PAX and sit in on a session. I think that once you see the game in action, and hold the heavy box, you will understand why this game has eaten so much of our development and production time.
-- Phil Reed
Warehouse 23 News: Genre Convention + Loophole = Comedy
The Cthulhu Mythos is filled with blasphemous and brain-busting unspeakable truths. Unspeakable is the key there, as being "unspeakable" doesn't stop anyone from writing about all this stuff. That's good, because while we cannot tell you we have the entire Arkham Horror line in stock, we can write it down for you. We hope this didn't make you go crazy. Unless you are now crazy to get Arkham Horror. But that's something you can cure with a simple credit card charge.
In 1988, Terry Gilliam directed The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, presenting a rather sanitized version of one of the Baron's adventures, crafted for mass consumption. Many people are aware of this film.
Fewer are aware of The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, published in 1895. These tales are closer in factual content to his legendary activities. These volumes are difficult to find, although I personally won an autographed, leather-bound set in a thumb-wrestling match in the Balkans in 1983. Lost them several years later, in a hurricane, but that's another story.
However, the most sought-after edition was published in 1808. Collectors believed all copies to have been destroyed. Only the efforts of one James Wallis unearthed what is likely the last copy. Tales of his pursuit of this manuscript have been confirmed to have induced at least three heart attacks, nine fainting episodes, and one case of intense gastrointestinal distress. While he has taken a vow of silence regarding the entire tale, he may, if plied with flattery and expensive drinks, relate a portion of the harrowing story.
The rest of us can read the lost manuscript, distributed exclusively through the digital portal known as e23, in the form of The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen. This parlor game allows participants to test their tale-telling skills, aspiring to the bar set by the Baron himself.
The difference is, of course, that the Baron's adventures were all true.
-- Paul Chapman
You went through all that trouble, spent all that time hiding, endured all that grief to get out of Faerie . . . and now you want to go back? Well, we certainly won't stop you, and Changeling: The Lost - The Equinox Road will serve quite nicely as guide to all the sights, but when you go all nutso from the inherent wackiness of the fae lands don't say we didn't warn you. Not that crazy people are know for their coherent mental faculties, so you probably won't remember us saying it, but darn it all the point still stands.
Yes, this is the stuff that just kind of lies around our office -- the proofs of the GenCon print run of the Dungeon Fantasy series and GURPS Power-Ups 1: Imbuements .
These won't, of couse, be the only new releases we have. I have reliable reports that Munchkin Booty will be there, as will another GURPS book that I'm less sure of, but will be sure to holler about once I see the proof.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Stupid Abyss, Stop Gazing Back!
Enjoy hounding the dark and terrible forces of Horrible Evil to the ends of the Earth? Get a thrill from cornering and confronting these fell beasts of the night? Have a massive, massive death wish/case of survivor guilt/lack of good sense? Then the RPG you're looking for just might be Hunter: The Vigil.
August 9, 2008: Illuminated Site of the Week: Let The Sun Shine
Daniel G. Nocera, professor of energy and chemistry at MIT, may have found an efficient way to store all the solar energy that we gather before the sun goes down. He can tell you about "time-resolved spectroscopies (from femtoseconds to milliseconds)," or you could read the somewhat more accessible story in the MIT news. -- Suggested by Ed Elder
Traveller: 760 Patrons is a book with 760 patrons in it. That means that, if, by some bizarre sequence of events, your players manage to need 759 impromptu encounters, you'll still have one left up your sleeve. Handy, no?
I'm at Denvention, aka the Somethingth Annual World Science Fiction convention. Well, technically I'm at the hotel. But tomorrow I will register at the con.
I'm not on the program. I'm not on the convention staff. We don't even have a table in the dealer room.
But I will still have my pro hat on - if you're at the con, look for me in Open Gaming, at the SFWA suite, in the dealer room and art show looking for the Next Great Game Artist, and in panels relevant to a gamer/publisher from the 20th century who finds himself in the 21st.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: The Whys And Wherefors Of War
Okay, so maybe -- maybe -- the unending blowing-up of Those Guys Over There isn't sufficient reason for you to warm up the LRM 20s and start blowing them up. Maybe you're kinda curious just why the heck you're doing this. Maybe you need that weird "reason" thing. Classic BattleTech: Blake Ascending (for the factual) and The Corps Anthology - Volume 1 (for the fanciful) should do nicely.
GenCon is, as most of you know, coming very soon. I'm sure you're all anticipating my normal "I'll be at the Adventure Retail booth; stop by!" message, but I've got extra notes for this convention.
Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch will be attending. We'll be pummeling his brain with GURPS line questions, and generally attempting to poison his liver. During the day, he'll be hanging around the booth, answering your questions and scribbling that mess he calls a signature on anything that'll stand still . . .
. . . Like the Dungeon Fantasy softcovers we'll have available there. We'll also have a couple other surprises for sale, but we'll keep you guessing on those for the moment.
Will and Randy will be there, as well. While not as good-looking as Sean, they'll be toting the gorgeous Munchkin Quest prototype, and running as many demos as they can squeeze in. They'll also have working copies of several other games, unannounced and in development. If you'd like to see what's coming through our pipeline, or just chat with these two on the topic of game development, this is an excellent chance.
Also in attendance will be Phil Reed and Ross Jepson, who are planning high level talks with e23 bigwig Steven Marsh. They've got meetings planned with a multitude of printers, distributors, translators, and publishers as well, but those are too secret to reveal here -- plus, I don't have their schedule yet.
The Men In Black will be on hand running many, many games. Swing by the MIB HQ in the Board Game Hall (500
Ballroom) to follow the Path of Illumination and play an unscheduled
game at your leisure..
Oh, and I'll be there, doing my whooping crane impression at booth #1621.
-- Paul Chapman
The Spinward Marches. Huh. Don't know what it is, but it sure sounds fun! Like a Tilt-A-Whirl. Only more marchy. What's that? "A Traveller book?" Oh . . . well, hey, that's fun, too!
"We have water. We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted." -- William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer.
What's the big deal, water on another planet? Besides being a requirement for NASA's criteria for planetary habitability, available water makes a Mars mission much easier. Take water, apply energy (provided by the sun), and you'll get hydrogen to fuel your power plants, and oxygen, for that breathing thing.
It's a good time to be a geek
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Warehouse 23 Top Ten
Warehouse 23 has posted an updated Top 10 Page for July. Check it out, and see what all the cool kids are buying . . .
August 5, 2008: Who Watches? Lots Of Folks, Apparently
One of the biggest attractions of Comic-Con was the Watchmen exhibits. Personally, I was a bit skeptical when I first heard the movie was in production -- how could you cramp all 300+ pages into two or even three hours?
After seeing the trailer, I'm cautiously optimistic. The Owlship on display at Comic-Con further reinforced that optimism. It's the actual prop used in the movie, according to the director, and it looked great.
I'm still a bit worried about what had to be cut from the plot. For instance, it looks like the reader of the Tales of the Black Freighter is leaning against a hydrant, instead of a charging station. Yes, I may be picking at geekishly small nits.
But based on the visuals, I'm willing to give it a chance.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: A System By Any Other Name
"Basic" isn't the dirty word one might think it. Certainly, it can be a difficult word to advertise. People see "basic" and think "well great, what cool shiny doodad is it missing?" But it needn't be so, friends. It can also mean "fundamental" or "essential." So don't let the name of Basic Roleplaying turn you off. If you really, truly need it to sound cool, call it "Elemental Roleplaying." Everything sounds cooler if it's an elemental.
Kromm. Doing to the explosive 80's action movie genre what he did to dungeon crawling in Dungeon Fantasy.
GURPS Action 1: Heroes brings the familiar tropes of movies like Ronin, Sneakers, and Leon: The Professional into GURPS character creation. Want to out-Impossible Tom Cruise? Heck, want to build The A-Team? This is the book for you.
Watch for the sequel, Action 2: Exploits, for advice and rules tweaks for GM's, coming later this summer.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: The Boom's The Thing
You don't play BattleTech to make happy-fun-tra-la-la time. You play it to make boom-boom-dead time. In order to accomplish this (admittedly juvenile sounding, but never-the-less satisfying) goal, you employ giant robo-men. As it is a great deal of trouble thinking of giant-robo men for every occasion, Technical Manuals are employed. Technical Readout - 3039 and Technical Readout - 3075 should serve you quite nicely.
It isn't unusual to link to a review. It's less usual to link to a review before the game is released. However, it's downright odd to link to a review in which the reviewer didn't like the game. Here we go, being odd.
John Mellby got a look at Munchkin Quest back in June during the Dallas Games Marathon, and wrote about his experience on Boardgamegeek.
Now, John didn't like the game. But his review is entertainingly written, and the three other players in his session enjoyed themselves, so it's very much a taste issue. The bottom line is, as John said, "The humor is the same as all the Munchkin games. If you like this kind of thing you will love Munchkin Quest."
Which is rather what we were shooting for.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Return Of The Aiyeeee!
Like a barely-remembered fever dream filled with visions of things classified as "unspeakable," CthulhuTech was here and gone again in a flash. But, like some sort of cursed penny that is slowly driving you mad -- mad -- it has returned! Oo, and it brought a little friend called CthulhuTech: Dark Passions. How monstrously delightful.
Back in February, we took stock of the e23 releases, up to that date. Well, it's five months later; let's revisit the topic.
Items released for GURPS Fourth Edition, with page counts:
That's 694 pages of original GURPS Fourth Edition material, in just under seven months. Add to that the 580 pages of the GURPS Basic Set and the 1,851 pages of classic GURPS releases, and you've got quite a stack of electrons.
And we've just getting started. There's still a couple installments of the Spaceships series in playtest, a "blast from the past" piece in the wings, and support for Transhuman Space and In Nomine coming up. Oh, and whatever Kromm comes up with when he's not being the Dr. Manhattan of RPG line management.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Sneak, Sneak, Ker-Blooie
The Ogre Miniatures: Ogre Ninja is as subtle as several hundred tons of metal can manage to be. That is, if you kill everything you run into, it has the same practical effect as not being seen in the first place. Probably more fun, too.
August 1, 2008: Illuminated Site of the Week: Really Popular Art
Maybe you don't know much about art, but you can find out what you like. In fact, you can find out what everyone likes, and what they don't. The Komar and Melamid Homepage lists the results of its intensive look at what makes people tick when viewing art, with information fed to them from around the globe. Want to know how your tastes stack up against Turkey? Is there really some sort of commonality about what's good? -- Ed Elder
Warehouse 23 News: Just A Friendly Reminder
Kobolds Ate My Baby! Super Deluxx Edition exists. If you already own this fine book, then carry on about your business. The rest of you? Well, we thought you might like to know that there's a roleplaying game out there about eating babies, fighting chickens, and getting yourself killed in the most entertainingly gruesome way you can manage. And you won't get in trouble for playing it or anything! Truly, life is a beautiful thing. (But only if you own this book, of course.)
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