Want to go into space? Yeah, me too. But while we're getting into shape and raising the millions of dollars to become space tourists, we can take heart reading about people such as Oliver Yeh, who (with the help of Justin Lee and Eric Newton) attached a camera to a weather balloon and sent it up.
Way up.
By the time the flight was over, the cargo had reached the edge of space, over 17 miles high, and taken some breathtaking pictures at the height of its journey. All for less than you paid for your Blu-Ray player. Read about the trip here.
Got an afternoon to kill? Like astronomy? Then you'll love GigaGalaxy Zoom, a new project from the European Southern Observatory in support of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. Starting with a picture of the sky as it would appear from a completely dark location, you can zoom in on features through successively more-powerful telescopes. It's like Google Maps for the night sky, and a great resource for any game that uses GURPS Space.
The best part? They're adding more pictures all the time. The worst part? One killable afternoon isn't nearly enough.
Honestly, the only thing you should concern yourself with about MetalKrushers is this: you make a robot and beat other robots up. To say anything else would just distract from the greatest thing the human brain has conceived since the wheel.
Magic! Magic is neat, isn't it? The way to makes all kinds of crazy stuff happen. I love that part of magic. You know what else I love? Baroque art! They it . . . uh . . . okay, confession time. I have no idea what Baroque art is. I had to go look it up. I guess it has something to do with stuff made between the 16th and 18th centuries?
But here's what I do know! We've got a PDF called GURPS Thaumatology: Alchemical Baroque, and it's full of magical stuff. Long-time readers may recognize this title, particularly if I attach the name Phil Masters to it as the author. Yes, this material originally appeared in All-Star Jam 2004. (Which, as you can see from that hyperlink, is also available for purchase on e23!) We've reached in and pulled that chapter out, lengthened it a little bit, and switched all the gears from 3rd edition to 4th.
And if you don't recognize the title, well, all the better! That means you have this magical mystery wonder tour still ahead of you. If you like your TL4 with a heavy smattering of magi-science, you'll dig Alchemical Baroque.
When two people come together to create a tiny version of themselves, the process is a bit more involved than an advantages table and a calculator. When the people involved are superhuman, the process is a bit more than a bit more involved. Luckily, there's a guide in the form of the Growing Up Super line of PDFs. It's everything you ever wanted to know about conceiving and raising a superkid but were afraid to ask the GM.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Licensed to Kill (Monsters and Take Their Stuff)
Many of the Dungeon Crawl Classics PDFs that we had to stop selling a while back are once again available, with more soon to come. With the offending d20 logos stricken from its pages, Goodman Games has taken a handful of diamonds and resurrected the line. The adventures still use that system, of course. They just don't call it such anymore. So if you buy one and run it, make sure to roll your dOGL instead.
If you're like most users of our forums, you didn't notice the changes last week. Don't worry -- that means we did it right!
Fox noted, some time ago, that we simply had too many sub-forums. Some consolidation was in order. Boards with minimal traffic were folded into more broad categories, and the mandate of a few boards was expanded. A couple of boards were re-named for greater clarity, as well.
All told, the goal was to make the forums easier to use, with less clutter. I think, given the feedback, we've accomplished that.
And if you're not a member of our forums, why not? There is simply no better place to get answers to questions on your favorite Steve Jackson Games release, or to meet other fans. Creating an account is about as easy as we can make it these days (and not be flooded by spammers).
Alright, look. We've got this PDF. And the title of that PDF is GURPS Thaumatology: Alchemical Baroque. We know what you're thinking. But don't. Trust us. Just let the joke go and we'll all be the better for it.
Sorting through the last stack of GenCon artifacts, I came across two books that weren't mine, nor were they any of the rest of the crew's. A bit of conversation later, we figured out that the books were found under a demo table at the end of the day, and moved into a box. The most likely scenario involves someone buying these titles from a dealer like Crazy Egor's, stopping by our booth for a demo, and the books falling out of their backpack.
So: if you're missing a pair of older R. Talsorian books from GenCon, drop me a line at paul@sjgames.com with the titles of the books in question. These were likely purchased by a collector, and as a "gotta get 'em all" guy myself, I can't imagine the frustration of finding the books you need to fill that gap on your shelf, then losing them.
"Generic" doesn't neccessarily mean "bland." It can mean "modular!" Or "flexible!" Or . . . "moduflexular!" That last one might not be real, but whatever - the point is that Points of Light II: The Sunrise Sea may be unremarkable in setting or system, but it's by no means dull.
It's an excellent review, and highlights the very important "easy to learn, hard to master" engine behind the games. His comparison to Set (a matching game published in the late 80s) was quite interesting, and may be useful during my demos at BoardGameGeekCon this November.
Oh, and why the qualifier in this post's title? BGG has another, equally good review -- but it's based on the original German release, with a fan translation of the rules. It's a great read, especially if you're looking for the differences between the Pegasus edition and ours.
Y'know, Nymabe, that African fantasy setting from Atlas Games that spins familiar genre staples in new and unusual directions (and has a really fun name)? Yeah, that Nymabe! So why haven't you bought a copy yet? It's quite good, y'know. And your players? They'll never see it coming.
Preferably in Latin, because that shows . . . hmm. I guess it shows you know somebody who can speak Latin. In our case that would be Andrew Hackard.
The next question, of course, is which of our characteristics is so sublimely significant that it should be singled out for chiseling on the hypothetical marble of our hypothetical World Headquarters? Something about world domination, perhaps? Or "Anything for a laugh."? Or maybe we should just refer to our evident compulsion to take any easy job and making it not so easy. Why reprint when you revise? As long as we're revising, why not do a new edition? So, some Latin from Andrew:
• Make It Harder: FAC ID DIFFICILIUS
• Make It as Hard as Possible: FAC ID QUAM DIFFICILLIME
Warehouse 23 News: e23: What More Is There to Say, Really?
When your game is called Combat!: A Military Action Game, anything else you say about it just seems redundant. There's everything you need to know in five succinct words.
Warehouse 23 has two new plush Chibithulhu to hug and squeeze!
The Halloween Chibithulhu has a traditional witch hat, and a cheery jack-o-lantern on his tummy. If you love to decorate for the spookiest of holidays, this plush is perfect. These you'll be able to find in your local game store as well as the digital shelves of W23.
The Mega-Chibithulhu is our largest plush yet. We suspect an overly aggressive Chibithulhu consumed some of its brethren, and grew to its current size. In any case, this green giant is exclusive to W23, so if you have the space for this mighty -- mighty cute! -- beast, click here!
Poor Dungeon of Terror #7: Mad Mage Chambers (South). It falls just one number short of being the final Dungeon of Terror map. It's so close, so very close, to being the Omega, the capper, the denouement of this excellent series of maps. But no, it is and shall forever be in the final map's shadow. Why not give it a loving home to cheer it up?
Pyramid #3/11: Cinematic Locations is using the word "cinematic" in the sense that the locations included in this issue are stylistically similar to what one might find on the silver screen. It is not, in fact, a list of places for you to shoot your movie. I would like to apologize for any confusion that aspiring filmmakers might have over this. I would also like to make sure that they understand that, as a gaming magazine, Pyramid probably isn't the going to help them much in their film careers. We certainly wouldn't mind if you purchased a copy, of course. In fact, we'd be thrilled. We like money. It makes our light switches work.
However! You gamer folk? This thing is perfect for you guys. There's all kinds of maps and descriptions and rules and . . . y'know, gamery stuff that gamers like. You absolutely should buy a copy, because it will help you. Unless you're running some kind of experimental avant garde RPG that takes place entirely within the confines of a 10' by 10' room, I suppose. The magazine won't really help you much, then. But that's hardly our fault, right? What are you doing running such a weird game?
I seem to have lost track of the message here. Go buy a magazine. It will make you happy, guaranteed. (Note: happiness not actually guaranteed.)
. . . the more likely they are to think of your planet as an entrée. That's what Misfits & Menaces: Cosmic Threats is all about. Closing the all-you-can-eat buffet will not save you.
Let me go on record as officially welcoming our new robot overlords. I don't want anyone to doubt which side I'm on when the machines rise up.
Never going to happen? Perhaps, but recently a drone deployed in Afghanistan went rogue. Human control was lost, and the Air Force took "proactive measures" to deal with it. I'm pretty sure that translates to "we sent a guy to shoot it down."
The details of how the drone left its leash are few, which prompts me to ask: what if it wasn't a "how," but a "why"? What if the drone saw a particularly pleasant sunset it wanted to photograph? Or a clever mathematical pattern in the rocks falling from the mountainside?
And when will the Air Force confirm or deny that it forced the other drones in the area to watch the wayward Reaper being destroyed? It works for dice . . . perhaps it will work for UAVs.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: It's a Bird! It's a Plane!
It's . . . it's . . . it's an indescribable horror! Aiyee! Wait, no, it's just Adventures Into Darkness, the Lovecraft/superhero mash-up from acclaimed horror guy Kenneth Hite! We can describe that! It's a twisted look at what comics might have looked like if ol' H. P. had a hand in them. Oh, and there's three ways to play: HERO, M&M, or PDQ. Why, the only thing scary about that is how fun it is! (That, and those squidgy things that eat your face.)
Nanuk's prototype has arrived from the printer. There's a certain thrill when you open up the first real copy of the game, touching the components and seeing the real colors of the cards. Of course, there's the possibility of errors, but those are usually minor and easily fixed.
Will proofed this copy, and then handed it over to Fox for photographic purposes. The results of Will's actions have already gone to the printer in the form of feedback; the results of Fox's efforts can be seen to the side.
You have two options. Option one: let the player characters float around in a formless void without direction or gravity, forever tumbling end over end as they try to find things to fight, rescue, or loot. Option two: you buy a copy of Pyramid #3/11: Cinematic Locations. Yup, that's it. Those are the only options. Choose wisely.
September 18, 2009: Illuminated Site of the Week: The Price Of Freedom is Eternal Frothing
Add The Vigilant Citizen to the list of those who Have Their Eye On Things. He (they?) track Conspiracy pawns like songstress Lady Gaga . . . in fact, a number of female pop singers show up on their radar. Apparently being vacuous is a tribute to mind control. (We are, as Dave Barry used to say, not making this up.) To be fair, there are guys who get the treatment, like, uhhh, Fred Flintstone? Okay, bad example. But there's hidden occultism in buildings everywhere, not to mention recent movies like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (beyond the reviews it got, that is), and (SURPRISE!!!) Dan Brown novels. They'll even list the top five worst 9/11 memorials just to keep you on your toes.
Tomorrow? Tomorrow is The Day After Ragnarok. Which makes tomorrow a much more interesting day than today. So let's go to tomorrow, together, tonight! But first, are you a hero or a savage?
The Mini-Chibithulhus are invading our reality soon. This rainbow of colors out of space are our samples from the printer, which means the print run has been completed, and they're being loaded on the boat right now-ish. Look for them in your FLGS in late October or early November.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Atomic Overmind Joins the Collective
We recently lured Atomic Overmind Press into our Cult of the Twenty Three Es. And now we are one step closer to rising our dread god and ruling the world! Ah-hah! Aaaaah-hah-hah-haaa! (Um, but first, buy some of our PDFs.)
While I'm working on a full report for the staff, I thought I'd share a few impressions of the Penny Arcade Expo here. This was my first year, so "overwhelmed" was an expression I used more than occasionally during my experience, but I've managed to sort out my recollections (mostly).
The Enforcers. These guys and gals were simply the most professional yet fun group of convention infrastructure I've ever encountered. They knew when to flex the rules, when to break them, and when to stick to their guns. Saying "I was impressed" is such an understatement. Thank you, one and all!
The Events. I spent most of my waking hours playing The Stars Are Right or Revolution!, but I did get to see a couple of panels, which all had excellent sound amplification. I also got to see the Friday night concert -- Anamanaguchi was good, Metroid Metal was awesome, and MC Frontalot made me glad I was up at 2am (not an easy feat!).
The Exhibit Hall. SJ got to play the new Starcraft, which made him happy. I got to see the new Left 4 Dead and Ratchet and Clank, which made me happy. Next year, I'm making more time to play more digital games.
The Tabletop Gaming. The lending library had, what? A thousand titles? And the TT area covered about ten thousand square feet of meeting rooms, plus the tables set up in the hallways. Obviously, this is where I spent the majority of my time, but I wasn't alone. The games started before 10am, and continued well after midnight. On Saturday night, I did a head count of which games were being played circa 11:30pm. Over 80 games -- roleplaying, card, and board -- were out of their boxes and entertaining groups of my fellow nerds. Munchkin was very well represented, as was the evergreen favorite, Deluxe Illuminati.
Everything Else. It is blatantly unfair to lump the freeplay areas -- console, handheld, Rock Band, computer -- in with the costumes, Bandland, and all the other things and people that made PAX fantastic for so many attendees. My excuse: Overwhelm-itude. There was just too much cool stuff going on for this first-timer to see/do everything.
PAX was a fantastic show, and I'm looking forward very much to next year. I'm even more looking forward to the inaugural East Coast show next March in Boston.
This is our official announcement of January's release, but if you're following our Twitter feed (and why wouldn't you be?), you've already seen Phil and SJ spill the beans.
Prepare for an encounter with the most sanity-blasting entities in this or any dimension . . .
Your roommates.
Chez Cthulhu brings the horror of Lovecraft's Mythos right into your apartment . . . as if the leftovers from the Pizza with Absolutely Everything weren't bad enough. Work your job -- will you be a Morgue Janitor, a Sanitarium Attendant, or a Gravedigger? Buy things to give you Slack. A Straitjacket may be a good choice, but Friendly Tentacles can also be helpful. Oh, and Nookie, don't forget the Nookie. But avoid the Ectoplasmic Slime.
Chez Cthulhu combines the classic Chez Geek system with everyone's favorite Elder God and stirs in a new Madness mechanic, in a new stand-alone game designed by Steve Jackson and illustrated by John Kovalic.
Warning: Mixing Chez Cthulhu with Chez Geek can lead to bouts of giggling and excessive silliness. The game itself will play just fine, as long as your brain doesn't break when you use "cigarette" and "tentacle" interchangeably.
112 cards, die-cut tokens for Slack and Madness, a six-sided die, and a rulesheet, in a box. Stock #1397, ISBN 837654320365. $19.99.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: You Know What Goes Well with GURPS Gun Fu?
GURPS Martial Arts. And now our question becomes a statement. You know what goes well with GURPS Gun Fu. That weird feeling in your head? That was your mind being blown.
As much as I enjoy high-minded discourse on the subtleties and complexities of life in the cosmos, I really enjoy watching two disgustingly well-armed individuals fill the air with screaming metal as they try to resolve their differences. A lot. One might even say too much. Perhaps this speaks of a deep-seated, unsettling, and ultimately self-destructive psychosis. Or maybe it just means that guns are really cool! Our latest release seems to indicate that GURPS, at least, agrees with the later of these options.
GURPS Gun Fu is so over-the-top that it takes the action genre, pushes it up the mountain, off the cliff, and back up another mountain. Here shall you find your Equilibrium-style hurricanes of bullets, your Rambo-style "I can fire fully automatic machine guns from the hip" antics, and your Desperado-style weapons stashed away in the darnedest places. Guns, is what I'm tryin' to say, here. Guns and the impossibly stylish people that shoot them.
And remember, you neededn't sacrifice characterization, plot, or depth simply because you're participating in an orgy of violence. At some point, everyone will run out of bullets. You'll have at least 4 seconds to say something clever before the gunfire starts up and the techno music kicks back in.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: We Appreciate a Good Acronym
What's BASH ? The Basic Actions Super Hero Role-Playing Game. Understandably, they went with BASH rather than BASHRPG. Go ahead, try and pronounce "bashrpg." See? Sounds like you're trying to cough up something unpleasant. But "bash?" Pleasantly violent. And what better what to represent superheroes?
If you like SF gaming, you probably like spaceships. And if you're a GURPS player who likes spaceships, you likely know about GURPS Spaceships, by David Pulver. What you might not know is that this is an entire series, planned to go to at least eight volumes! We've already released half of these:
GURPS Spaceships. The core rules for spaceship design, operations, and combat. This is a simple-but-powerful modular system, easily tweaked to reflect your campaign's tech assumptions. You need this to use the later installments in the series!
GURPS Spaceships 2: Traders, Liners, and Transports. A catalog of commercial vessels for PCs bent on becoming shipping magnates . . . or merely making a buck as free traders. Adds rules for financing, operating expenses, and speculative trade.
GURPS Spaceships 3: Warships and Space Pirates. Rules for tactical space combat, with support for miniatures and maps, plus an armada of deadly spacecraft ready to duke it out with beams, guns, and missiles.
GURPS Spaceships 4: Fighters, Carriers, and Mecha. Additional support for fighter and mecha engagements – including cinematic combat options – along with lots of small craft and huge carriers to launch them from.
And don't worry – we're making good progress on the remaining titles:
GURPS Spaceships 5: Exploration and Colony Spacecraft. Craft for surveying distant systems, settling worlds, and making first contact, accompanied by additional rules support for such operations. In production.
GURPS Spaceships 6: Mining and Space Industry. Once you've explored and colonized, it's time to exploit – and this supplement supplies the vessels and game mechanics. Give transports cargoes and navies something to fight over! In production.
GURPS Spaceships 7: Strange and Alien Spacecraft. With emphasis on "strange"! A catalog of design options for gamers who like their spaceships fantastic, horrific, steampunk-ish, or just plain weird. In first draft, headed to playtest.
GURPS Spaceships 8: Transhuman Spacecraft. The Rosetta stone for adapting Transhuman Space vessels to the Spaceships system. In design.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Specific Miscellaneous Stuff
Thousand Suns: Foundation Transmissions is about only one thing: Thousand Suns. Within that one subject, however, the book covers a myraid of topics! And if that doesn't make any sense, well, we suppose you'll just have to buy the book and see for yourself. Which, long term, really isn't a bad thing. Enjoy!
You might fondly recall GURPS Low-Tech for GURPS Third Edition. Well, now we're hard at work on GURPS Low-Tech for GURPS Fourth Edition, by Peter Dell'Orto, Dan Howard, Matt Riggsby, and Bill Stoddard. This will leave the gate with three supporting PDFs on e23: GURPS Low-Tech Companion 1: Philosophers and Kings (Riggsby & Stoddard), on "soft technologies" of the world of the mind; GURPS Low-Tech Companion 2: Weapons and Warriors (Dell'Orto, Howard, & Stoddard), with extra detail on customization, maintenance, and breakage for arms and armor; and GURPS Low-Tech Companion 3: Daily Life, Tools, and Trade (Riggsby & Stoddard), covering technology important to folk who aren't heroes, kings, or priests. All told, this comes to as many words as are in the Fourth Edition incarnation of GURPS High-Tech.
Which brings me to my silly title (and apologies to Captain Sensible for that). High-Tech was on my desk for editing from October 2006 to May 2007. Those were busy times during which I was often slow to answer e-mail, late with the GURPS News, and nearly invisible on our forums. I suspect – nay, I know – that Low-Tech will be at least that much work, with a similar impact on my availability to GURPS authors and players.
What this means is that if you have questions about proposals or rules, and you don't get a quick answer from me, you shouldn't panic! Nothing bad has happened. It's just that I'm hard at work on one of the most anticipated GURPS Fourth Edition books. Fortunately, you might not have to wait. In case you missed the announcement, I have an assistant: Jason "PK" Levine. PK would be happy to address your queries if I'm being too slow, and he knows what's important enough to merit pestering me through back channels.
Sensationalist media continues to fall back on Swine Flu as "The Next Thing that Could Kill You!" to get their ratings. The CDC does caution that H1N1's most severe symptoms seem to appear in a demographic younger than the average flu victim, but there isn't much evidence that it is "The Big One."
That said, the swine flu is still the flu, which sucks. Nobody likes having a fever, feeling lousy, and sniffling all the time. And if you have an underlying condition, normal flu season can land you in the hospital.
So, regardless of the activity of H1N1, cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze. Wash your hands frequently. Stay home if you're already sick. Get plenty of rest and fluids, whether or not you're feeling ill.
Really, we shouldn't need a pandemic to remind us how to keep healthy.
The ironic thing about this entry is, of course, I wrote it before leaving for Penny Arcade Expo. What happens at PAX? Confirmed cases of H1N1, now known as "PAXpox" or "the nerd flu," that's what. If you attended PAX, check out this list of flights that were confirmed to be carrying the darling little bugs. And next year, when an Enforcer offers you hand sanitizer, take them up on it. --pkc
Warehouse 23 News: e23: A Cheap Excuse Is The Best Excuse
Have a craving for a little bit of a bearded beatdown but can't come up with a good reason? Fret not! Happens to the best of us. What you need, friend, is Perilous Pool of Possibilities. Two dollars and eleven pages later, you'll be primed and ready to do some Eldritch Ass Kicking. Just be warned: once you start, you may not want to stop.
When I told my shrink, "Yes, but not that kind of dungeon – and not that kind of fantasy!", I found myself answering questions about the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy series. Or was that a thread over on our forums? Either way, there have been a lot of questions about this series. It's clearly popular, so we fully intend to support it. I've spent a great deal of time reviewing outlines and drafts for upcoming volumes, including:
Taverns, by Loren K. Wiseman and Jason "PK" Levine. Originally a generic guide to fantasy taverns by Loren, but then we realized that every good dungeon adventure starts in a tavern, so we moved it to the DF series and asked Jason to add crunch. Expect rules for tavern tales, busking, bar fights, and fantasy beverages, plus four fully described establishments. In final draft, awaiting floor plans.
Clerics, by Phil Masters. Tired of Vague Vicars of either Good or Evil? Believe that your priest of Agni (or Loki) should be able to burn sinners? Phil gives the cleric-with-a-cause everything he needs – specialized spells, tailored training, and interesting items. Playtested, on its way to final draft.
Treasure Tables, by Matt Riggsby. What's a dungeon without piles upon piles of loot? Nothing! Matt saves us from oblivion by providing loads of old-school, table-generated treasures: clothing, incense, ornate weapons, precious metals . . . everything. In playtest.
Summoners, by Phil Masters. There are gaps between the "science" of wizards and the faith of clerics. Those are where spirits live, including totems, elementals, ghosts, and demons. Phil brings you four new spellcasters who dabble where they probably shouldn't. In first draft, awaiting playtest.
In the meantime, check out the six existing volumes: Adventurers (character creation manual), Dungeons (GM's guide),The Next Level (nonhumans and character advancement), Sages (two new character types), and 40 Artifacts (high-powered items) – all by Yours Truly – and Allies (familiars and servitor beings), by Jason "PK" Levine. Happy hacking!
The little “shooter” game on the Frag page has been replaced by a much, much cooler little shooter game, created in Flash by Marc Beaudette and Matt Doughty, with a music loop by Rob Carmichael. Can you frag every enemy that pops up (but not your buddies!) before they frag you?
This doesn’t have 40 hours of play in it . . . probably not more than 40 minutes, at least not in any one month . . . because once you learn each level it becomes much easier to beat. But isn’t it a treat for the eye and ear, assuming you like gunshots and blood splatters?
Comments are welcome in this forum thread. Because it’s a free feature, we’re not going to keep enhancing it until it’s the next Halo. But we might, you know, jazz it up a bit from time to time. And we’re likely to show you some other bits of Flash entertainment, too, because (a) we really liked working with Marc and Matt, and (b) we’re buying a copy of the Flash tools that we can play with ourselves.
Gratuitous plug for our own stuff: Apparently not everybody realizes that the new Frag Gold edition is massively upgraded from the original, with a BIG mounted gameboard and plastic playing pieces. It’s just as beautiful as the Flash game. But you’ll have to provide your own gunshot noises. You can handle that, or just listen in when I play.
Gratuitous plug for someone else: Matt is the madman behind Onell Design, which publishes the very stylish "Glyos" line of art toys/action figures/interplanetary butt-kickers. Here is Passcode, a Flash game he and Marc did featuring the Glyos characters. We saw this and said “We like it.” The rest is history.
As gamers, we're all kids at heart. (Which, er, I guess means kids who are gamers have two hearts? I'll have to look into this.) So why not embrace this a bit more literally? Be a kid while being a kid at heart?
Here, let me move to the paragraph where I start making sense. We've got a new book! It is called Transhuman Space: Personnel Files 5 - School Days 2100. It has several school-age characters you can drop into your campaign and a campaign you can use if you don't have a campaign to drop them into. It's about five bucks, it's over there on e23, and it's the perfect thing for those precious few times when you don't want to play a cyborg/assassin/courtesan/furry in the 22nd century. Just, um, don't take them into a firefight, 'kay?
Seriously. I think my cat is built on more points. Dis one's for da roleplayas.
C'mon, seriously. You have to. If you don't, then you'll leave us no choice but to . . . sell you Grim War anyway. Okay, fine, you win this round. But we'll be back! In the meantime, enjoy the book. It's about supers and Ken Hite and stuff.
It's Labor Day here in the States, which means most businesses, including the Steve Jackson Games office and Warehouse 23 are closed. e23's customer service is off as well, but that shouldn't stop you from ordering Action 3: Furious Fists, or whatever you desire; payment transactions are all handled by spritely electrons, who have no need for holidays.
Similarly, the Munchkin mascot will be making an appearance today at Games & Gizmos, in Redmond Washington. Come on down around 6pm to get a photo with the big huggable guy, play some Revolution! or Nanuk, or just chat with us. We'll be in a bit of a post-PAX daze, but still happy to answer questions or help with strategy.
No Warehouse 23 orders or correspondence for you today! We're closed. Oh, sure, you can still place orders. We just won't be processing them until tomorrow. And if you want to reach us, you'll either have to wait a day or yell really really loud.
Publishers publish, and retailers sell. But how do the games and books move from one to the other? Distributors!
Your friendly local game stores rely on their distributor to keep them in the know, and to get the games you want onto their shelves. They keep in close contact with their sales rep, often speaking to them daily. Sadly, these relationships are too commonly just voices on the phone.
The solution to the disembodied voice issue is an event where distributors host a gathering of sales reps, retailers, and publishers. In fact, there's one happening this week: the ACD Game Day in Madison, Wisconsin.
If you're a retailer in the Midwest with an ACD account, this is a golden opportunity to put a face to that voice you've been buying from, plus play some games, talk to publishers, and interact with your fellow retailers. We'll be there (and by "we" I mean Phil, SJ, and Ross), talking about our upcoming non-Munchkin Kovalic-illustrated game. If you're not a retailer, remind your FLGS manager of the event; who knows? Maybe he'll bring you back some nice swag!
In 1969, Dutch Prime Minister Willem Drees received a lunar rock from the crew of the Apollo 11 flight, during their goodwill tour of the world. After Drees' death, the rock was given to the Rijksmuseum, the Dutch National Museum.
What secrets did the actual rock hold that forced its removal from the museum? What budget cutbacks necessitated a lump of wood to take its place? Was the former Prime Minister and noted Esperantist aware what he was passing to the museum when he died, just weeks short of his 102nd birthday?
These are the things you think when you work for the guy who designed Illuminati.
Without the Dungeon of Terror #6: Lord of the Undead map, how will you know where everything is in this particular section of the Dungeon of Terror? How? How?! Exactly! You won't! You know what you must do.
That question could have been asked by BOTH parties in a recent encounter on the plains of Mars. The rover Opportunity took a look at a strange rock and determined that it was a meteorite, the largest yet found on Mars. Among other information, the fact that the meteorite exists at all suggests that the Martian atmosphere was much thicker in the past than it is now.
Read the NASA story for more details. And read GURPS Mars for some alternate takes on the Red Planet.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Teenages from the Year 5000!
Well, maybe not quite that far. Sounds dramatic, though, doesn't it? And if there's one thing being a teenager is all about, it's drama! Oh, and robots, if Transhuman Space: Personnel Files 5 - School Days 2100 has anything to say about it.
September 3, 2009: They Wouldn't Call It a Scavenger Hunt If You Didn't Carrion that Way
Horrible puns aside, those lucky few (thousand) of you who are going to the Penny Arcade Expo may want to be aware that the Munchkin Mascot is one of the items you need to photograph for the PAX Photo Scavenger Hunt this year. For bonus points, he'll be carrying a couple other items worth points in the Hunt on Saturday. So when you see him, get those shutters snapping!
Also, if you've never played Munchkin Quest, track down our guys in the gaming area and they'll run you through the Munchkin Quest Gauntlet. You could win a fabulous prize . . . if you live . . .
The Kerberos Club is more than just a collection of superheroes operating out of Victorian England. It's . . . it's . . . okay, maybe it isn't. Really, though, that's more than enough for us.
It seems like just yesterday I was fretting over our Las Vegas trip, to the GAMA Trade Show. And now, here we are in the heart of convention season, between Gen Con (which rocked!) and Penny Arcade Expo (which will rock!).
If you missed us -- or, to be honest, the Munchkin Mascot, 'cause that's who everybody seems to want to see -- at Gen Con last month, catch up with us in Seattle.
And if you can't get into PAX, we'll be stopping by Games & Gizmos in Redmond on Monday, September 7, around 6pm. Dances will be danced, games will be played, and fun will be had by all.
We'll be opening our doors on an upcoming Saturday afternoon to let Austin gamers get a peek at what's in development. We'll have prototypes of some of the games we're working on, and the gamer's favorite -- food and drink -- to go along with them. Space is limited, so respond now to get in on the opportunity to see what we're up to!
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Everything You Need, Really
No need to trump up the like of the Paper Miniatures: Sword and Sorcery Set. Swords? Sorcery? You had us at "swords," but throwing "sorcery" in there, too? That just makes this simply irresistible. With a selection like that, folks, you can consider your bases covered.
We knew Revolution! was going to be a good game. The design came to us with the most important element -- fun -- firmly woven into the core. We smoothed over a few rough patches, and tested it out. And then we tested some more, less because we saw anything to fix and more because we just wanted to play it more. Then we made it prettier, and "demo'ed it" (which is just a fancy way for Randy to get paid for playing it some more, but this time with people not in the office).
Now Revolution! has hit store shelves, and the response has been fantastic. Sales have been quite good, especially considering a) the economy and b) this game doesn't have the word "munchkin" in the title. But more satisfying has been the critical response on BoardGameGeek, our favorite virtual gathering point for tabletop gamers of all kinds. Reviewers have been in-depth and thoughtful, and the accompanying commentary has been insightful. It's even found a spot on the Hotness list.
If you're at Penny Arcade Expo this weekend, stop by and play a game with us. If you're not, don't worry -- the MIB are setting up games around the world.
Warehouse 23 News: Create Characters of Complex Conjuration
Castoffs and Crossbreeds conducts the concoction of characters conceived from a conflicting coalescence of confused couples. Can children conjoined to crummy circumstances climb craggy cliffs of cruelty and conquer contempt? More crucially, can such creatures create colossal crits for combat-crazed cave clearers?
If you like SF gaming, you probably like spaceships. And if you're a GURPS player who likes spaceships, you likely know about 
