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The Stars Are Right is the little Cthulhu-themed puzzle game Phil and SJ picked up at Essen last year. One batch of translations, a few graphical tweaks, and an approval later, the game's almost ready to go to the printer.
(As an aside, we didn't change the art at all. Goomi rocks, and he knows his Mythos magic. No reason to change what already works most excellently.)
And by "almost," I mean "they're dealing with the last checklist issue right now." When most of you read this, the printer will already be working on the proof.
(As a second aside, Phil just poked his head into my office with a prototype of a plush we'll be announcing in May. You'll like it.)
If you didn't see TSAR at BoardGameGeek last year, or at the GAMA Trade Show earlier this month, don't fear. We'll be showing it off at Origins and GenCon, and pretty much anywhere else we'll be this summer.
The Stars Are Right will be a July release.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Periodical Tome Of Game Enhancing +1
Goodman Games spends a lot of time putting out material for D&D. Who can blame 'em? They're quite good at it, having published a number of adventures and supplements. But even that isn't enough to contain their plethora of dungeon-diving delights. Good news! Now we've got Level Up, their new magazine, to gather up that excess and bring you even more Goodman-ery.
Pandemic is one of the many games that my co-workers rave about, that I haven't had a chance to play yet. Now, what could have made me think of that particular game . . .
Oh yeah, the media's, er, energetic coverage of swine flu. Now, I don't want to belittle the very valuable efforts of the CDC -- which actually has a Twitter feed full of information for up-to-the second tracking of emergencies -- but perspective is important. For instance, as I write this, only 40 cases have been reported in the US. Last year, three times that number of malaria cases were reported in Texas alone.
That said, take a glance at the recommendations for preventative action: things like "Wash your hands often with soap and water," and "Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze." These are just plain old Good Ideas, pandemic or not.
A little common sense will go a long way. As a great man once said: Don't Panic.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Wizards Of The Clearance
In case you missed it, we've got a sale going on. All Wizards of the Coast stuff is 10% off! Be there or be . . . uh . . . WotC-less.
April 28, 2009: Two RPGs Enter, One RPG Leaves
In one corner, we had GURPS, the local favorite. In the other, the 800 pound gorilla, D&D. The battle raged . . . well, pretty quietly actually. But a champion has now emerged, and the loser* is getting kicked to the curb.
Well, not so much "kicked" as "sold." Warehouse 23 is clearing out all D&D products, in the form of a 10% off sale, as of right now. Offer is only good while supplies last, so if you need a book to fill out your miniatures-shoving, dungeon-crawling, dragon-slaying collection, now's the time.
(* The results of any battle held in W23 should not be taken as relevant to markets outside of W23, nor anything, really, other than the marketing guy's fevered imagination. But we are clearing out Wizards' products.)
-- Paul Chapman
We don't really know what's in Road to Revolution: Puncture the Blackened Vein, and honestly, it's entirely possible that this is one of those Things that we are Not Meant To. Here's hoping you're braver than we are.
April 27, 2009: "Go On, You Freeloaders! Git!"
Is what we would say if we hated our fans and (more importantly) their money. But we don't, so we won't, and thus I didn't!
Right. The point. Um. So, the new somewhat-less-new-than-it-used-to-be PDF incarnation of Pyramid has hit its sixth month, and (as you might expect) its sixth issue. That means that this is the last issue you'll receive if your subscription was rolled over from the old web-based version of Pyramid. If you want any more, you'll either have to pony up for a new subscription or buy the releases individually as they suit your whim.
So what is this issue, Pyramid #3/6: Space Colony Alpha, all about? Well, it's got space. It's got colonies. And alpha? Are you kidding? This thing is loaded with the letter "A." Pick it up if you're looking for ways to take those first small steps for a man. Or woman. Or genderless personality downloaded into a vaguely dog/spider cybershell thingie. Whatever, it's GURPS, go crazy.
-- Fox Barrett
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Names. What's In 'em, Really?
Colonial Gothic: Elizabethtown is a guide to the town of Hagerstown. Which isn't as confusing as you might think, but honestly you won't have much time to worry about it. What with the terrifying beings of unspeakable horror stalking the woods and all.
April 26, 2009: More Cool Stuff From The MIT Media Lab
In a recent talk posted online at TED.com, Pattie Maes at the MIT Media Lab demonstrated wearable tech that lets you get instant information about the people, places, and things in your environment. It's still in the very early stages, but it looks like it has a great deal of promise. Watch the video to learn more.
-- Andrew Hackard
Warehouse 23 News: e23: And A Crew, Too
So you bought that latest issue of Pyramid. Now you need some little dudes to push around the hex map of their little colonial space ship. Or their tiny colony hut. Or the surface of the frighteningly inhospitable planet that they were stranded on when the computer wouldn't open the pod bay doors. You'll find such tiny people in Paper Miniatures: Hard SciFi Set I: Salvage Crew. What horrible deep-space mishaps they run into is somethig you'll have to provide, however.
April 25, 2009: Illuminated Site of the Week: Open The Pod-Bay Doors With Brute Strength
Assuming it's not another movie publicity stunt, it looks like the real Cyberdyne in Japan is going to mass produce a mechanical exoskeleton that multiplies the user's strength. This device, affectionately called Robot Suit HAL, should allow compensation for physical ailments; extreme mountain climbing; and bit-parts in upcoming comic-book films. The company (the "leading edge of cybernics"?) is prepared to charge the princely sum of $4,200 American for their modern marvel, according to secondhand reports in h+ Magazine.
-- Suggested by Clifford Anderson
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Just Trying To Get Your Attention, Honestly
Pyramid #3/6: Space Colony Alpha. What is it? When is it? Where is it? No one can say . . . Actually, yes we can. It's just over there on e23. It's really not all that mysterious. Sorry.
Some games spring forth from the designer's brow whole and prefect -- not often, but it happens. Most games evolve over time, absorbing playtest comments and number crunching to grow from a rough but fun idea into the product you see on the shelf. Some products, however, mutate from unexpected feedback.
Revolution! went through the normal playtesting routines, and eventually we sent a prototype to Toy Fair. We expected feedback; we didn't expect the feedback to be so uniform. Nearly everyone who saw our mockup said "The box is too dark." Back at HQ, Ben played around with a few ideas, and now you can see the result. The original black is on the right; the new classy red is on the left.
Revolution! will hit stores in late June/early July.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: "Strike Me Down, And . . ."
Y'know what? Forget coming back "more powerful than you can possibly imagine." Just waste that dude! You've got the staff, the hat, and the chutzpah to reduce that sniveling little upstart to a tiny pile of ash with glance and a word. So how about it? Feel up for a little Eldritch Ass Kicking?
April 23, 2009: 10'x10' Rooms For Fun And Profit
As we've mentioned (a few times), we're doing some renovation on the warehouse. Communication between what we want, and what the contractors assume we want, has occasionally been an issue . . . until we fell back on our old-school gamer habits.
Yes, the solution to our troubles was quarter-inch graph paper, and maps that look like they should be labeled with "orc guarding pie here." They're actually kinda fun to draw, in the "as much fun as directing construction work can be" sense. And there is no doubt that they're effective -- now everyone involved is on the same page, for every step of the process.
See, dungeon crawling can teach you a useful skill!
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: (You Don't Really Have To)
The characters featured in Citizens of Bedlam are for use in Bedlam City, and Bedlam City alone. They are not to be used elsewhere. Taking them out of Bedlam would violate International Gaming Law, and a task force of Way-To-Play Enforcers would be dispatched to your gaming table. To even suggest that this book of 90+ NPCs could somehow be transplanted to another setting, or even system, is blasphemy of the highest order! So do the right thing. Buy both books.
Fox News has come in for a lot of criticism in some circles because of a perceived slant to their reportage. Give them credit, however: when they discovered one of their long-time reporters wrote a movie review based on an illegally downloaded early cut of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, they sacked him. Read the BBC story.
-- Andrew Hackard
Warehouse 23 News: e23: She's Super Freak-Ay, Yow!
The beings featured in Freakshow: Avenging Angels and Auditors of Order are not the kind you'd normally bring home to mother. Unless your mother is known in the adventurer circles as "One-Eyed Mary, the Fiery Goddess of Terrible Vengeance and Eater of Souls." In which case, yeah, she can probably handle herself against these two.
Last week's GAMA Trade Show has wrapped up, and the crew is all home. Overall it wasn't a bad show. The number of attendees was lower than last year, which was lower than the year before. The official reports have the drop at a mere 20%, but we gave away about half the retailer packets we did in 2008.
But we did keep busy. Fewer retailers meant we had more time to actually chat with each one, answering questions on our favorite topic: our games. Munchkin and Munchkin Quest received much love, Frag Gold Edition attempted to break wrists, and the Revolution! demos turned more than one "hmmm" into a "WOW!" Oh, and the Munchkin mascot was running around. I took a ton of pictures -- and a couple videos -- so we'll have Flickr fodder just as soon as I can sort out the incriminating photos from the promotional ones.
The show wouldn't have run nearly as smoothly for us without Will and Randy acting as the fantastic demo monkeys they are, or Phil and Andrew playing the roles of mascot and handler. Thanks guys! You guys made this booth boss' job much easier!
(And a special tip of the hat to Fox, for lending the crew his stash of GameBoys. A couple of link cables makes a three hour flight flash by!)
We're always happy to have the chance to get face time with the retailers out there on the front lines, selling and playing the games we make. And we remind all those who didn't get to make it to Vegas this year that a) we have all the promotional information we were handing out available on the Retailer Packet page, and b) we also attend the various distributor open houses coming this fall!
See you there!
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Slayin' With Mr. Cooper
Cooper's Compendium corrects coo-coo critter construction, collects creatures completely, and costs inconsequential coinage. Cool! Commend this compendium to your cart. Chop-chop!
Which might explain why They are always trying to steal our women . . .
Hey-hey, check it out, we released another GURPS Classic on e23! Up for some digital distribution this time is GURPS Classic: Mars, our guide to everyone's favorite rusty red rock this side of Proxima. It joins its two long-time e23 brethren, Grendel and Rescue Mission, to form some sort of interplanetary trifecta of gaming goodness. Seeing as how this is GURPS and all, you can expect information on everything from antennae-bearing people to antennae-bearing probes.
And if any of the natives try to take the women on your expedition, just firmly explain that we got over that whole Red Scare thing years ago . . . and that our women all know Venusian Laser Judo or something.
-- Fox Barrett
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Angry Puritan Guys!
The great thing about angry puritan guys is . . . actually, they don't quite have the same magic touch as pirates. But they can still be pretty cool! Take a look at this book, here: The Savage World of Solomon Kane. Big hats, grimaced faces, and "I can weild a sword and gun at the same time" action!
The recent reprint of Burn in Hell reminds me of an oddly frequent question we get: "When are you going to reprint SPANC?" The answer is, of course, "last November!"
If you missed the announcement, get thee to a friendly local game store and pick up this fun little romp of capers and catgirls. You won't be sorry!
-- Paul Chapman
The great thing about pirates is that anything they're attached to practically sells itself. You just add the occasional "arrr" or "me hearty" or "yo ho ho," and bang! You're golden. It makes sense, after all. People love pirates. Don't believe us? Here, we'll demonstrate: Yarr, me hearties, you best be buyin' the Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG, yo ho ho, or we'll be makin' ye walk the plank!
Warner Brothers has released 150 titles from its archives in DVD. This in itself is not unheard of; what's new (or at least unusual) is their method of manufacturing and distribution. Customers will order the discs direct from WBShop.com, who presses to order. WB avoids any inventory hassles, and movie buffs get access to hundreds of films that have traditionally been collector's items.
The POD concept isn't new, of course -- we've used the technology ourselves several times. But applying it to DVDs is. Short-run manufacturing is maturing; are matter compilers (ala Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age) far behind?
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: I, 5th-Level Robot
Take your game a step closer to literal character construction with Living Constructs, a guide to playing "made men" in D&D 4th Edition. It has everything you need to play a lean, mean, door-kicking machine.
April 17, 2009: Illuminated Site of the Week: Please Allow Six To Eight Decades For Delivery
Someone's been leaving pyramids lying around all over the world like discarded lottery tickets. The planet's lousy with them, in fact, and Professor Robert Schoch thinks he knows who's at fault. Like a tribe of seafaring Johnny Appleseeds, a mysterious group of primordial masons has been all over the world depositing these monolithic wonders at each stop. If his books don't sate the appetite for knowledge, take one of the professor's courses at Boston University.
-- Andy
Warehouse 23 News: e23: The Human Condition (Also, Buy Our Book!)
The human race has never been one to be complacent. It's not enough to scale a mountain. It's not enough to sail an ocean. It's not even enough to break the pull of the planet's gravity and stick a flag on a ball of rock orbiting our home. Nope, we just keep setting our sights higher. Or further. Whatever, direction in space is relative anyway. The point is, we want Mars! We can't have it quite yet, however, so we'll just have to make do with pictures and our seemingly endless imaginations. And books like GURPS Classic: Mars, which collect those imaginative thoughts into a conveniently corporeal form.
Holy cats, this show is moving fast. Attendance seems to be somewhere between the extremes I'd heard predicted; I'd guesstimate 150-200 stores to be represented here. But while I wish I had more folks to talk to, I cannot fault the value and quality of the conversations I'm having.
The picture is of the Game Trade Magazine section of the Alliance booth (our biggest distributor). That's the cover to the latest issue of GTM, featuring The Stars Are Right. It looks fantastic, and deserves a solid "woot!"
We have a ton of other photos, including many of the Munchkin mascot, and I'm sure I took a ton more at last night's PSI Game Night. We'll sort through and find the best ASAP.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Dungeon Crawl Combination
Take one throne, one Punjar, and one band of kooky adventurers, and you get . . . ah, actually, we don't really have any idea. But it'll probably look something like Dungeon Crawl Classics #60: Thrones of Punjar.It's got two of the three words right there in the title!
We always do a new Where We're Going (WWG) for the GAMA Trade Show. This year, we decided to change the format. Gone are the multiple pages, attempting to duplicate information we already cover on our website, and in its place is a snazzy double-sided page, with lots of photos.
You can pick up a copy at booth #507 at this year's GTS, and maybe run into the Munchkin mascot. Or you can hit our new WWG page, with links to not only the new, sleeker version, but WWG of years past, for that blast of nostalgia.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: A Peg To Be Taken Down
The advertising copy supplied with Trail of Cthulhu: The Dying of St Margaret's assures prospective buyers that they are "powerless" and that their choices come to a grand total of "death," "insanity," or a somewhat quieter version of insanity. Well, then. If that doesn't take some of the bluster out of the level 20 arch-mage/blademaster/psi-lord half-dragon/half-troll in your group, we don't know what will.
By the time most of you read this, the crew will be headed off to the GAMA Trade Show, in sunny (and dry) Las Vegas. Today is travel, quickly followed by booth setup. Tomorrow is opening day -- if you're an attending retailer, stop by the PSI section (booth #507) and say howdy!
If you can't attend -- and most retailers can't -- we won't be able to hand you our handy-dandy retailer packet, filled with information about what's available now, and what's coming soon. However, we can point you at our new retailer packet page, with PDF files of our promotional flyers. Download all the info you'd get at GTS -- minus our clever quips and smiling faces -- from the comfort of your personal computer.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Variety! (Also, Shameless Advertising)
Pirates? Zombies? Pirate zombies? All this and more awaits you in the Savage Tales line of adventures! (Provided, of course, you've got the Savage Worlds rules. If you don't, it just so happens, purely by coincidence, that we can sell you that as well.)
. . . the final place to resolve our differences with violence. These are the Spaceships books written by David Pulver. Their mission: to expand on rules presented GURPS Space. To seek out new designs, and new ways to run space games. To boldly make more money that any of you could possibly imagine.
Wait. Scratch that last bit. Um, you didn't see that. Fnord and stuff.
Hey, folks, it's time for another chunk of spacey goodness from the most Pulvery of authors we have. This time around we've got GURPS Spaceships 3: Warships and Space Pirates. From the title, you can probably guess what's inside. If you've read the first two, of course, you don't need to guess. You already know that nothing but Awesome awaits you within. Then again, if you've really read the first two, you aren't still reading this stuff. You've clicked through the link and have bought the book. Those of you who are still here . . . hey, you're getting left behind! Go see what you're missing!
-- Fox Barrett
If only the Axis and Allied powers could have resolved their differences with a game of Fields of Honor: WWII, things might have been much less tragic. On the other hand, without WWII, we suppose there wouldn't be a Fields of Honor: WWII. Stupid time paradoxes ruin everything!
April 12, 2009: Looking For A Drone Of Your Own?
Sure, hobbyists recently got the gear they needed to build a unmanned aerial vehicle, but what if your solder tends to start fires instead of affixing wires? The solution: Throw money at the problem.
More specifically, throw money at Lehmann Aviation (http://www.lehmannaviation.com/). Their LP960 includes a 12 megapixel camera that can stream video to the operator, stay in the air for half an hour, and weighs around two pounds. Of course, the "money" part of "throw money at them" comes to around $17,000, so maybe you'd like to practice with your soldering iron some more?
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: The Even Newer Old West
What's better than a monster-filed reimaging of the Old West with a post-nuclear wasteland as the backdrop? A monster-filed reimaging of the Old West with a post-nuclear wasteland as the backdrop in space! That's more or less the idea behind Lost Colony. Okay, maybe it's not "in space" in the sense that it takes place on spaceships, but it does bring the Weird West to its conclusion on the alien world of Banshee. If you've made it through Deadlands and Hell on Earth, you certainly owe it to yourself to see just how much of a bang this all ends with.
April 11, 2009: Illuminated Site of the Week: The Only People You Can Depend On Are You
Burt Goldman has discovered the means to self-discovery and personal improvement: He asks himself what he would do. No, not in the sense of introverted examination . . . he actually goes to one of the universes next door and talks to his alternate-world selves. That's how he learned to sing and paint, among other things. One can only wonder what his alternate selves came here to learn from him. He's offering a few lessons on Quantum Jumping for free. No word on when WWBGD? T-shirts will be made available; presumably he's the only one who would buy them.
If no one buys into his story, no worries. Burt still has that American Monk gig to fall back on.
-- Suggested by Anders Starmark
Warehouse 23 News: e23: The New Old West
What's better than a monster-filled reimaging of the Old West? A monster-filed reimaging of the Old West with a post-nuclear wasteland as the backdrop, that's what! Hell on Earth is just like its daddy Deadlands, only a few bombs lighter. It still has all the gun-slinging, spirit-rasin', desert-travlin' goodness of the old frontier with all the robots and mutants of a world gone completely to hell. So, in other words, it's perfect!
Dave Arneson, co-creator of the original Dungeons & Dragons, died on April 7.
Dave never did get as much attention as the other guy whose name was on the box, and he never will. Sometimes things just work out that way. But it was, from all accounts, Dave who had the original breakthrough idea "What if instead of commanding an army of miniatures, you were just playing a single figure . . . call him 'your character' . . . and that figure could try to do anything you could think of?"
I didn't know Dave as well as I would have liked to, but I never heard him say a grumpy word (an amazing thing, in this often-grumpy hobby), and I always enjoyed his company. He was one of the good guys.
Rick Loomis has written a short but heartfelt tribute to Dave, and the current episode of Rich Burlew's Order of the Stick gives credit where credit is due. (Update: As of the afternoon of April 10, Dave's passing is getting a gratifying amount of media recognition. Here's the AP story as it appeared in the NY Times, and here's the CNN link.)
Dave will be missed.
-- Steve Jackson
The Dying Earth RPG might be on its way out, but Pelgrane has one last book for you before everything goes offline on April 30th. It's a little something called Tooth, Talon and Pinion, XPS 7/8. Therein shall you find many a treatise upon the fauna of the Dying Earth. But remember to take those plot hooks to go, because time, as always, is truly running out.
You've heard us gush about this abstract game, and if you've been to any conventions with us over the past year, you've seen us doing demos with a maniac glee. And now it's at the printer. Nothing can stop the Revolution!
What's all the fuss? In many ways, Revolution! is an unusual project for us. The components and game play have much more in common with modern German board games than, say, Munchkin. The designer was an outsider, publishing the prototype on his own (check out the reviews of his version on BoardGameGeek). In others, it's exactly what you'd expect from Steve Jackson Games -- a fun game with excellent production and solid rules.
In the end, however, the core reason we're making so much noise about Revolution! is simple: we love this game. If you're a retailer, stop by our booth at the GAMA Trade Show later this month and play a round or two -- you'll see what we mean. If you won't be in Vegas, you should be seeing it on store shelves in early July.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: The End Of The Beginning
In anticipation of the all new Heavy Gear stuff we'll be publishing Any Time Now, we've been steadily getting all of the old stuff up for sale on e23. Well, now that the third edition is online, we can happily announce the following: if it's Heavy Gear, it's here! And we'll see you down the road with all new books just as soon as we get those pesky fnords squared away.
April 8, 2009: Thinking Good Thoughts At Two Industry Veterans
Over the weekend, the blogosphere spread the word that both Aaron Allston and Dave Arneson have recently been hospitalized -- Aaron for a quadruple bypass following a heart attack, and Dave for complications arising from cancer. Dave, of course, is a founder of our hobby, as co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons. His Blackmoor setting remains an active campaign world, the most recent version having been published by Zeitgeist Games.
Aaron Allston is best known for his Star Wars novels, including the just-released Fate of the Jedi: Outcast. Around this office, of course, Aaron's remembered as the lunatic genius who - along with Scott Haring - blended Car Wars and Champions into Autoduel Champions. There's a new LJ page with details of what happened and regular updates on his condition. In particular, see the info on how you can donate blood in Aaron's name. It will help.
Get better, guys!
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Warehouse 23 Top Ten
Warehouse 23 has posted an updated Top 10 Page for March. Check it out, and see what all the cool kids are buying . . .
The thing about traveling is that there's a (not unreasonable) assumption that eventually you're going to end up somewhere. Maybe you're going to run out of supplies, maybe you've got passengers or cargo to drop off, maybe you've just been listening to Bart talk about his kids non-stop for the last four days and you don't really want this working relationship to end with a gunshot. Whatever the reason, all journeys must end eventually.
You can't just stop the ship, pull the parking brake, and hop out just any-old-where, though! (For one thing, there's nothing but hard vacuum outside.) You need a spaceport. By extension, that means you need GURPS Classic: Traveller: Starports. It's the "hustle" to GURPS Classic: Traveller: Starships' "bustle." From shady hives of scum and villainy to massive hubs of interstellar commerce, this book is just what the navigator ordered.
Feel free to make it what you ordered, too.
-- Fox Barrett
Glorantha! It's full of Janubians and Carmanians and Loskalm! It has God Learners and Malkionism! And Wyrmfriendism! And . . . no, offhand, we're really not sure what all that means. Sorry. But you, the loyal fanbase of Glorantha, do, so we're certain you'll appreciate Glorantha: Fronela.
Bruce Sterling and his wife, Jasmina Tesanovic, have a deeply annoying and all too believable problem with our federal government. Apparently, when you move your affairs to the Internet, there comes a point when the bureaucrats don't believe you're real.
Just go read Bruce's post on Wired.
Then, if you happen to be in a position to testify that they are a real couple, please do.
-- Steve Jackson
Maps are for pansy wussy explorers without the guts and determination to get themselves good and lost. Real explorers pick a direction, hop in their ship, and keep flying until something eats them alive. Or ruptures the ship's hull. Or infects their food and gives them a terminal case of space dysentery. Or . . . look, never mind all that! Just take a look at Traveller: Scout and see what all the cool spacers are doing.
It's that time of year again -- the GAMA Trade Show is once again in Las Vegas, the week after Easter. The major players of the hobby game industry will gather with retailers from around the world and do our "What's New for You?" song and dance.
Our particular a cappella will include glorious displays of Revolution!, Frag Gold Edition, and our heavyweight champ, Munchkin Quest. Will and Randy have the responsibility of showing off these games, plus The Stars Are Right (heading off to the printer very shortly!), Munchkin Quest 3, and a couple of games we can't talk about yet.
If you're a retailer, be sure to stop by both the PSI Game Night on Wednesday -- we'll have three tables of fun -- and open gaming area, where we'll be rolling dice with Munchkin Quest . . . and maybe a few unreleased games! And as you're wandering the exhibit hall, we'll be at booth #507. I can't promise that's where the Munchkin Mascot will be, but he'll be around there somewhere.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: A Smattering Of Words
Ol' George R.R. not keeping up with your ravening hunger for all things Westerosian? Make your own! Point your browser through this hyperlink and buy A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying. And then play it! (We suppose you could just buy it, as that would serve our purposes, but we suspect just having it inside your house will, in fact, not feed your hunger for all things Westerosian. We could be wrong, of course, but we feel it's a safe bet.)
As sharp eyed consumers have noted, Frag Gold Edition and the reprint of Burn in Hell have moved from warehouse (the one in Atlanta) to warehouse (Warehouse 23 that is). This is usually a good indicator that cases of our goodies have, or are about to, hit the shelves of your local game seller.
What's different about Frag Gold Edition? Don't recall the details of Burn in Hell? Time for an infodump!
Frag Gold Edition
Game starts. Enemy in sight . . . Frag him! Grab his stuff! Run! Get a bigger gun! Grab some armor! There he is again! Frag him! Run . . . you're hit! You're down. Respawn! Grab a weapon! Start again!
Frag is a computer game without a computer -- a "first-person shooter" on a tabletop. Move your fighter and frag your foes. Draw cards for weapons, armor, and gadgets. Move through the blood spatters to restore your own health! If you die, you respawn and come back shooting!
The new Gold Edition offers upgraded components: a two-sided solid gameboard, plastic figures, erasable character cards, and 18 (!!) dice, to roll really BIG attacks.
Boxed game with 112 cards, six plastic pawns, 18 dice, six erasable character cards, one dry erase marker, rulesheet, counters, and a two-sided color gameboard. Stock #1901, ISBN 978-1-55634-774-0. $49.95.
Burn in Hell
Cleopatra. Blackbeard. Attila the Hun. Richard Nixon. John Wilkes Booth.
Collect the souls of the damned! In Burn in Hell, you try to assemble the tastiest "Circles" of history's sinners. Trade souls with your rivals . . . or just steal the ones you need. Collect groups of Mass Murderers, Cannibals, or even Clerics . . . or build sets of the Seven Deadly Sins. Burn in Hell will keep you on your toes -- can you see the sets that fit together for the most points? Can you steal a rival's key card before he can make a Circle?
Each card includes a great Greg Hyland caricature and a biography of the soul. You'll have a lot of fun reading (and arguing) about why each of these people was invited to the Permanent Pitchfork Party. And to rule in Hell, you must use strategy and cunning, because this game's not over until the last soul is snatched . . .
Boxed game with 168 full-color cards, score pad, pencil, and rulesheet. Stock #1420, ISBN 978-1-55634-666-8. $27.95.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: It's A Shy Sort Of Horror
We don't know what The Horror Beneath the Surface is hiding from, but it certainly can't be us. We aren't covered in pointy-stabby death spikes like this expansion for the Call of Cthulhu LCG is. Then again, it's probably best that it stays down there rather than coming up here. What with us being made of soft, squishy, easily-torn flesh and all.
April 3, 2009: Illuminated Site of the Week: A Little Help?
Warehouse 23 is endless, or so rumor has it. So what is The SCP Foundation? The same thing? Another branch? A competitor? A clever disinformation campaign? Some or all of the above?
You could . . . ring the doorbell and ask.
What could go wrong?
-- Suggested by Michael Hahn
You can't keep a good game down. The bad ones, however, are not only kept down, they're kept all the way down. Burn in Hell has risen from the Abyss, however, and once again beckons you to come play with the damned. Literally.
April 2, 2009: Call For Playtesters: GURPS Urban Magics
Fantasy stories are filled with great cities: Baum's Emerald City, Leiber's Lankhmar, Pratchett's Ankh-Morpork, and many others. A city can be an adventuring party's base of operations, the destination of their quest, the place they have to defend in a war – or a ruin that someone else failed to defend. Or an entire campaign can take place in an urban setting.
But fantasy's about magic, and fantasy cities will have their own kinds of magic. William H. Stoddard's GURPS Urban Magics explores the interaction of magic and cities. New optional rules provide many distinctively urban magical practices and supernatural beings. Other sections discuss how to run campaigns in magical cities and provide templates for magically gifted city folk, from the urban shaman to the thaumatological scholar.
We need playtesters for this new supplement. Playtesters should have access to the GURPS Basic Set, and to one or more of GURPS Fantasy, GURPS Magic, and GURPS Thaumatology. Close examination of the new magical rules will be a major part of the playtest. Comments on plausibility and dramatic effectiveness will also be welcome. Playtesters aren't required to have previous experience; how well this material comes across to new readers is important information that will help make this a better book! We encourage first-time playtesters to apply for a reserved portion of slots available, as well as those with professional or other real-life experience with the subject matter. Prospective playtesters will also need to be registered e23 customers who have spent more than $50 at e23 in the past 12 months.
Prospective playtesters should e-mail jwilson@io.com with [UM] (for "Urban Magics") in the subject, and include your preferred e-mail address for the closed playtest mailing list, correct spelling of your name as it may appear in print, your e23 login name, and a few words about your qualifications, experience, and current gaming group(s). Information about preferred submission formatting is in the forum post for this playtest call.
-- Steven Marsh
Everyone's favorite computer game without the computer has respawned as Frag Gold Edition. This version features updated graphics (that is, a new, honest-to-goodness board), a redesigned user interface (rather, dry erase character sheets), more streamlined network code (specifically, there's a whole pile of dice included), and build-in support for voice chat (or, "yelling at the other players")! Upgrade today!
No, not a new building, but a new office within our building (which still could be considered "new," given the length of time we were at the Metcalfe location . . . ok, I'll stop now). Our break room was much too large -- large enough, in fact, for a break room and an office.
Thomas and Russ were the lucky winners of the "who gets the new spot" lottery. They're both IT types, so it made a certain amount of sense. Plus, the extra blank walls were filled nicely with whiteboard, so Thomas can think with his hands all the better. And yes, they do grin deviously like that most of the time. Sure it's worrying, but they're IT . . . what can you do?
The construction took place during the mess in the warehouse, so we of course took many pictures. A wall was added, a hole knocked into a wall for a door, and the entire project was finished in about 4 days. Quick and easy!
-- Paul Chapman
You probably haven't given much thought to the average foot soldier of Fantasy Army X. He's average, after all. He only exists to either be cut down as you ride triumphantly through the enemy ranks on your +2 Warhorse of Nobody Trampling or to take the first volley of arrows for you so that you can make cute quips about fighting in the shade. The Army's Arms series looks to change that by presenting fantasy armies as more than just cannon fodder. System-free, setting-free, but far from quality-free.
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