October 31, 2009: Illuminated Site of the Week: Real Estate Has Gone To Hell
The housing market is low - lower, in fact, than you think. Pandemonium Real Estate has listings for all the best properties in the Underworld. Want a lakeside view with a dock? Something overlooking the Styx? Don't wait to go to Hell before negotiating these things - order them now! And if you're convinced a loved one has one foot in the grave and another in perdition, it makes a lovely gift. They won't be able to enjoy the overly warm summer evenings on the veranda yet, but they'll receive a handsomely framed certficate informing them of their eternal reward. And anyway, no matter which side of mortality you're living on right now, you already know you're going to hate your neighbors.
-- Suggested by Michael P. Owen
Warehouse 23 News: e23: "We're On a Mission From God."
Stand fast, ye unholy abomination! For righteous fury comes for you, the hammer of the of the All-Mighty in hand! Or maybe it's not a hammer so much as a big stick. Oh, or perhaps a trident! That might be cool. You see, righteous fury can take a lot of different forms if GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 7: Clerics is to be believed. We're having a hard time picking just one, however. So you might want to sit fast, instead. Could take a while.
Today is our traditional Halloween Game Day! We'll be playing games, eating way too much sugar, and trying to navigate the office with costumes on.
What that means for you, our loyal fans, is a slight delay on responses. We'll be checking email and dealing with burning emergencies, but most things we'll let slide until Monday. This "office outage" includes Warehouse 23.
As always, e23 can automatically process your order and deliver PDF files to your inbox. In fact, Dr. Kromm just mentioned a bunch of scary-themed GURPS books here.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: And "Evil" Is Really Subjective, Anyway
0one's Blueprints: Hunters' Lodge is not a dungeon. It isn't a tower or a keep. It's not even a catacomb. It's just a nice lodge out in the woods. A very nice lodge, in fact. Not really the sort of place you go to clear the stench of evil from, though. Oh! Hey, maybe it's run by an eeeeeeevil ranger. And if it isn't . . . well, you could always just tell the authorities he was evil. You're heroes, right? They'll totally buy it.
A recent dig through our vaults uncovered some previously lost files related to the original production archives for GURPS Greece and GURPS Wizards. Turns out someone had wedged the discs between some discarded copies of the 2179 Farmer's Almanac and the robot head of Jimmy Hoffa.We pulled them out, dusted them off, and worked a little PDF magic on them! Now those two books are no longer icky "scanned in" PDFs, but rather nice PDFs converted from the original files.
If you purchased those books a while back, you need only log into your account to download the new versions! (If you don't have an account, sorry, but you're outta luck.) If you haven't purchased either of these PDFs, then I can safely say that there has literally never been a better time to buy 'em.
Bloodworms, Bloody Wheels, and Banshee. These are The Three Bs of Freakshow. Why does Freakshow have Three Bs? We have no idea. It does add to their freakish mystique, but that may or may not have been intentional. (Unless that mystique makes you want to buy them. In which case: yes, it was totally intentional.)
Max Brooks hit a cultural nerve center with The Zombie Survival Guide, the undead tongue-in-cheek . . . well, it's a guide to surviving zombie outbreaks. His follow-up, World War Z, was equally fantastic.
Lately, he's been on a bit of "cash in" streak, with zombie-themed flashcards and notebooks. Not that I mind an author milking a cash cow, but I prefer something with a bit more substance.
And it looks like he's delivered, this time in graphic novel format. The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks is an illustrated tale of historical warfare between the living and the undead. Just what I needed for the long flight to Essen!
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Deals So Good, They're Scary!
Oooga booga booga! Hah! Got ya! We did get you, right? Aw, not even a little? Not even a teensy, tiny, itty, bitty, little bit? Okay. How 'bout now? Still . . . nothing? Okay, fine, forget it. Just have some horror bundles from Tabletop Adventures instead. They've put together fantasy, modern, and future bundles, so you can scare yourself in any setting. Except this one in front of your computer. Obviously, it needs work.
As we told you on Friday, the new Munchkin mini-expansions, Fairy Dust and Waiting For Santa, have cards that are curling, even inside the packs. After further discussion, we have decided that these cards fall so far below our standards that our only option is to recall them. Both of these expansions are being taken out of print while we arrange a reprint.
Waiting For Santa is the easy case; we had not started shipping these to stores yet, and so we simply won't. Both sets will EVENTUALLY be reprinted, but we don't know when - we have to decide whether to use metallic ink or regular, and we have to work them into the existing schedule.
Fairy Dust is working its way through distribution, and some retailers have already received their copies, which means some of you have bought copies. Anyone who has already purchased Fairy Dust (and those few of you who picked up Waiting For Santa at a convention) can get a free replacement when they are republished. We do NOT want you to send the cards back now, because we don't have replacements ready. Play with them, have fun, and watch for a replacement announcement.
Retailers, of course, may return any unopened packs or POPs to their distributors, following our usual procedure for returned product.
I apologize for the inconvenience and for releasing substandard product in the first place. It was a horrible surprise, but fortunately a small one. We will learn from this, and move on to NEW mistakes. Thank you all for your comments, even the harsh ones; we hold ourselves to very high standards and we are glad to have fans who expect us to meet them.
We're not really sure what to say about Blood Tales: The End. It's over by the time you're done reading the title! We suppose there's some stuff in there about . . . blood, maybe. Probably in the form of a tale.
With the release of Pyramid #3/12: Tech and Toys, I think I can safely stop referring to the "new" version of Pyramid as "the new version of Pyramid." It's a year old, so it gets to be just Pyramid, now.
What's in this issue of Just Pyramid? Tech, for starters! Our contributors have put together a whole mess of cool toys for you to dangle in front of your players. (Only to then cruelly pull them away for "game balance." Ah hah hah hah hah!) I would describe a few, but that would give away too much, and then I wouldn't be able to sell you the PDF. Then people around here would start yelling at me, and bullets would start flying . . . look, it just wouldn't be pretty. So trust me when I say this issue has "cool things" without getting any more specific than that.
Now that we've created the Third Age of Pyramid, it's time to start looking forward to what future incarnations will bring. Me? I'm hoping for genetically engineered parrots that recite the entire issue at your whim.
Warehouse 23 News: Super Awesome Really Long Title Game Go!
Ninja Burger. It's a name synonymous with quality, integrity, and delicious food. Also, ninjas. It's a restaurant we love so much that we made the game. And then we made some more game to go with the game. But now, for the sake of simplicity, we've put all the game in one place. We call it Ninja Burger Secret Ninja Death Touch Edition. Which, ah, isn't all that "simple" of a title, but you get the idea.
No, we haven't released GURPS Evil Clowns (maybe we should . . .), but with Halloween upon us, you might be up for some suitably spooky GURPS. Ken Hite's GURPS Horror is still a work in progress, but there are Other Options . . .
First, you'll need a setting. Consider GURPS Banestorm: Abydos, a hidden city of necromancerswith an undead militia, a library made of people, and a sewer maze of the condemned, all run by a free-willed zombie. Then there's bad stuff, like Senator Donovan Hawk, free-roaming demons, and the "dumping site for garbage, offal, rotten wood, stillborn infants, crippled zombies, and alchemical waste." That's for GURPS Banestorm (which has its own horrific twist on p. 92).
Perhaps you prefer the modern world? Try GURPS Locations: Metro of Madness. It has cultists, serial killers, ghosts, and demons, not to mention the entirely mundane horrors of lost children and crazy people. I'm sure there are rats, too.
This being GURPS, you could link the two. But how? Well, if you can't wait for the Hitean goodness of Horror, check out Ken's GURPS Infinite Worlds: Collegio Januari (for GURPS Infinite Worlds). It describes a wizardly conspiracy with little respect for the barriers between realities.
Next, you'll need monsters. I'll just point to GURPS Creatures of the Night 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 for this. Grave-dwelling worms, ghouls suspended from chains, spiders lurking on the tightropes of time, withered heads skittering around like bugs, evil freakin' buildings . . . you know what to do with this stuff.
And what would Halloween be without bad mojo?GURPS Thaumatology offers many ways to make wholesome fantasy magic (e.g., GURPS Magic) horrific and wrong. If words like "The Evil Eye," "Spiritual Distortion," and "Undermining Defenses with Fear" appeal to you, and you want to put the contagion and sacrifice back into spellcasting, get this book. Alternatively, do it the Scanner way with GURPS Psionic Powers.
Finally, you could adapt any of the GURPS Third Edition horror-tinged supplements to GURPS Fourth Edition. It isn't all that hard. Check out the previous edition of GURPS Horror (andthreeadventures), plus GURPS Cabal for Sinister People, GURPS Places of Mystery for Menacing Places, and GURPS Warehouse 23 for Disturbing Things.
We've got more Clipart Critters! No, these aren't the same ones we mentioned a earlier this month. This is yet more Critters! Of course, if you missed the link the first time around, you have no idea what we're writing about. And if you aren't familiar with the line, well, you're probably totally lost by now. But you know what you can do to straighten out any of those situations? Click that little link up there.
October 24, 2009: Illuminated Site of the Week: Check The Website And See If It'll Eat You
The Cryptid Zoo: A Menagerie of Cryptozoology is quite a mouthful, but if you don't want to become a mouthful for some bizarre, unidentified entity you may wish to bookmark this site. (That way you can be eaten by an identified entity.) It's chock-full of fiendish and freakish animals that share our planet but never actually step into the daylight - or moonlight, depending on their feeding habits. It looks well researched if, uh, that's how one should approach this, and has plenty of outside sources and cross-referencing. Familiar (ahem) names like Bigfoot and Nessie stand beside (relatively) esoteric critters like bunyips, kangaroos, shug monkeys . . . the list goes on.
With the release of Pyramid #3/12: Tech and Toys, our humble little magazine has turned one year old! Um, for the third time! It's . . . it's kinda complicated. Anyway, come help us celebrate by purchasing and perusing this fine periodical.
October 23, 2009: Card Curling Issues With Fairy Dust And Waiting For Santa
When we got our first actual packs of Fairy Dust and Waiting For Santa, we noticed that our cards were showing some curl starting a day or so after opening them. That's not uncommon in new packs of cards, and we were not concerned.
Then we noticed it in other packs, as soon as they were opened. Now we were concerned.
Now we're seeing this curl even in unopened packs in our warehouse. The short answer is: it's caused by the foil, which covers one whole side of the card. Clearly this was not the way these should have been done.
We've tried to flex the cards the other way, and to put them under heavy books for a couple of days, and so far we have not found a permanent solution. As a temporary solution, you can bend the cards against the curl right before play, then shuffle them into your decks. And maybe if the cards are flattened for a month or two, they'll stay flat. But maybe not. We don't know. Billions of years from now, when the Sun is a red giant and the Earth has been reduced to gas, these cards may be floating through space, still curled.
If this bugs you, you should spend your $8 on something else. Do you have a Chibithulhu? If this doesn't bug you, yay, they're very shiny.
We didn't print very many of these, because the whole idea of Munchkin "boosters" was an experiment. It turns out that you folks like boosters, but this other problem makes me glad it was a short print run. We do expect to reprint, and probably very soon, but unless the printer finds a way to for-sure avoid curling without doubling the card cost, we will NOT use foil. We'll either use metallic ink for the shiny bits, or do without shiny bits.
Or bundles of Champions, at least. You see, Hero Games just sent us a whole slew of Champions books, all tied together into little themed packages. Ostensibly, they're put together to help Champions Online players familiarize themselves with the setting. But we won't tell anyone if you buy one of the bundles because you're looking for a good deal on Champions sourcebooks. We promise.
One of the highlights of PAX '09 -- for the Steve Jackson Games crew, at least -- was getting to see our Munchkin mascot play Rock Band. We recently obtained covert surveillance footage of this event and have made it public, thanks to the good folks at YouTube. Enjoy.
Thanks to the Penny Arcade folks for making us . . . and our favorite Munchkin . . . feel welcome!
This week, I'll be attending SPIEL '09 in Essen, Germany. As much as I'd like to provide on-the-spot coverage of the event, I'm not crazy enough to think I'd be able to get a look at more than a quarter of the 450,000 square feet of games, demos, and tournaments. I will be taking as many photos as possible, of course, so after I return I'll be able to point and say, "this game/fan/costume/booth was awesome!"
If you're lucky enough to be in Essen this week as well, stop by the Pegasus booth in Hall 6 and say "Fnord!"
Hero Games has taken their two HERO System 6th Edition rulebooks and pulled out some stuff. In fact, lots of stuff. In fact, nearly all the stuff. They thoroghly unenstuffified them, and the result is the HERO System Basic Rulebook. It's the slim and trim HERO built specifically to familiarize you with the basics of the game.
Over the past couple of weeks, you've seen note in this space about two events staffers attended: the Diamond/Alliance Summit and RinCon. At first glance, one may be tempted to say, "A convention is just a convention, right?" Alas, you'd be wrong.
The Diamond/Alliance Summit was a trade show. The attendees were retailers from around the country, clients of Diamond (the comic industry's primary distributor), Alliance (one of the largest distributors in the hobby games industry), or both. The exhibitors were publishers who sell through either of the two. The focus of trade shows is the presentations, either in slide-show or game demonstration format. The idea is to inform retailers on the "what" and "when" of upcoming releases.
RinCon was a regional convention. The attendees were gamers, and the exhibitors were mostly local retailers. Gaming was the primary focus; it was, as RinCon '09 Convention Director Boyan Radakovich put it, a "relax-a-con." Some of the guests gave brief talks or panels, and there was a small dealer's room.
The staffers who attended these two events reported a great time was had by all. And both types of events are equally important to us: trade shows so we can interact professionally with the other tiers of our industry, and regional conventions so we can actually play some games!
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Spaceships, Not Spacious Ships
It's an important distinction. The ships in the Paper Miniatures: Starships Set aren't very big. In fact, they're deliberately designed to be very small. In our experience, this is a good thing. Helps them fit on the table and what not.
Once upon a time, there was a game about a land that was having a terrible time. In this land, the oil was drying up, food was in short supply, and things were generally looking pretty grim. Then one day, a man from this land got the idea that it might be fun to stick a .50 cal machine gun on his car. He was right. It was indeed quite a great deal of fun. And so was born a game where the right of way went to the biggest gun.
But as time went on, the fun little game about crazy people in cars shooting at each other faded away. Players moved on to pretending to be vampires, or amassing suitcases full of cards, or playing with these tiny men that made clicking noises, or any of a vast number of other games that primarily revolved around kicking doors and taking things. The game packed up its bags and headed to the retirement home for classic games, where it passed away quietly.
. . . Or so everyone thought. Turns out that plucky little game, like any smart autodueller, had its brain backed up! And so it is that the Car Wars Compendium rides again through the miracle of modern science! (Or "e23," as we like to call it.) And it can't wait to teach all these young punks why "drive offensively" are the two most useful words they'll ever hear.
On Friday, October 30th we'll be donning costumes and breaking out the dice -- it's our annual Halloween Game Day! Those lucky enough to be in the Austin office will be playing games all day, so don't expect quick replies via email. The phones will mostly go to voice mail, and Warehouse 23 will be closed for the day.
And our whole office -- including Warehouse 23 -- will close from December 21 through January 1, 2010. Our last day in the office will be December 18th, and we'll return on January 4. After years of juggling family gatherings and office hours, we've decided just to enjoy the end of the year. Don't worry; we'll remind you of this downtime again.
A note to shoppers: e23 will remain available during both the Halloween Game Day and the holiday break. The automated systems will process your order and deliver your files without any human interaction (spooky, isn't it?). Customer service will, of course, be delayed.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Eastbound and Down (the Gun Sight)
Who doesn't enjoy a good blast from the past? Especially when it's the blast from a hood mounted anti-tank gun on the front of an armored car. The Car Wars Compendium now graces the virtual shelves of e23, and is patiently waiting for you to lovingly download it. But it's only so patient, and you don't want to keep a game with multi-fire rocket pods waiting too long.
Next week, I'll be headed over to Germany -- the town of Essen, specifically -- for SPIEL '09. Just another convention? Not on your life.
Essen routinely sees a hundred thousand attendees -- Gen Con would be lucky to break 30,000 people. And with over 150 new games being unveiled, this place is Mecca for fans of tabletop games of all kinds. The 450,000 square feet fill up with over 700 exhibitors and thousands of games, demos, and tournaments. Pegasus, the German Munchkin publisher, will be hosting Ross and me; in return, the mascot will be doing his thing . . . somewhere. We'll let you know more about times and places as the dates approach.
Last year, an Essen release jumped the pond and ended up on our schedule -- The Stars Are Right. This year, who knows what games or ideas we'll come home with?
As long as it's not H1N1 -- I've dodged that bullet all summer, and I'm not ready to spend Halloween sick!
Warehouse 23 News: e23: The Game that Plays Like a Duck
Nevermore is a funny little place. Not funny like a clown is funny, unless the clown is some kind of shapeshifting dream-form prone to fits of random cannibalism. No, Nevermore is funny like an upside-down duck on the ceiling. You're not sure how it got up there, you're definitely not sure what it's doing up there, but you're fairly certain it is, at least, a duck. You get the component parts, just not when they're all in the same place like this. That's Nevermore.
We've been trying out this variant Munchkin rule and figured we'd throw it out for y'all to play around with.
At the start of your turn, draw a face-down Door card ("Listening at the Door"). You may now rearrange your items, do trades, or whatever. Then you Kick Down a Door (starting combat if there's a monster) and your turn proceeds normally . . . except that if you Loot The Room, you draw a face-down Treasure instead of a Door.
So far, we kind of like it, but we wanted more feedback from the folks who play the game all the time. So what do you think? Try it out and let us know how it goes, by posting at the forums or sending me e-mail!
Most adventurers have parties. But you? You're a true hero. You're one-man army! You'll chew up 1 on 1 Adventures #12: Journey into Riddle Canyon, spit out, and ask for more. Well, okay, you might actually just die in obscurity, alone and afraid, secure in the knowledge that no one ever truly loved you. But hey, a 100% share of the loot is worth the risk, right?
As the release of the Vorkosigan Saga Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game draws near, we prepare with another batch of previews. These three answer the question, "What if I don't know the worlds of Miles as well as I'd like?" This book has you covered, my friend. A section on the history of the galaxy is to be expected, but the wealth of information on each planet -- and the number of planets covered -- may take you by surprise. Take a look at the entry for Komarr, the crossroads for merchants from dozens of planets, or Sergyar, the frontier world with a rather famous governor.
Vorkosigan Saga hits our warehouse the end of the month, and should start appearing on the shelves of your friendly local game store a few weeks after. If you simply can't wait, the book is also available as a PDF from e23.
We know the title is pretty vague, but we're pretty sure that the Klingon Armada Ship Cards are related to spaceships. In particular, Klingon ones. It's just a hunch, but we think you'll reach the same conclusion upon closer examination.
Of course you are. While we can help you out when it comes to Cthulhu-themed games (Munchkin Cthulhu is ready for action right now and Chez Cthulhu is heading your way), and we even have an assortment of Chibithulhu plush toys, I'm afraid that you're going to have to venture into the wild to find a wide variety of Cthulhu toys. Fortunately, the crew over at Sci Fi Wire have put together a list of "14 Great Cthulhu Toys that Make Devouring Souls Fun."
Top of the list is John Kovalic's My Little Cthulhu vinyl toy. And a few notches down we find his Mythos Buddies toys (mistakenly labeled as "Cthulhu Buddies" toys in the article). Both of these were manufactured by Dreamland Toyworks and are available now. (I've got a complete set of Mythos Buddies, thanks to a shipment from David over at Dreamland, and I can happily report that they're great little vinyl toys. And compared to a lot of the designer vinyl toys I pick up, especially Ashley Wood's insane robot toys, these Mythos Buddies toys are priced extremely low.)
There are also a few different plush Cthulhu toys on the list (some of which we offer on Warehouse 23, if you need a plush Cthulhu or two for Halloween), some handmade stuff, and items I'd never heard of before. It's a fun list.
As you might expect from the name, The Dungeon Under the Mountain: Level 9 is pretty deep underground. In fact, this particular level is under a city that is, itself, underground. Which sorta means that this level is under-underground. If that didn't just blow your mind, then you may just be stalwart enough to face this dire dungeon, adventurer. If it did, well, uh . . . sorry about blowing your mind.
I'm starting to get the sneaking suspicion that David Pulver really likes sci-fi. I can't point to any one thing, of course, but this nagging feeling is there. There's just something about the fact that he's now written five books in the GURPS Spaceships line that makes me think I'm right.
Speaking of five spaceship books, GURPS Spaceships 5: Exploration and Colony Ships is now available for purchase on e23! (In fact, it's been available for a couple days by the time you read this, but my statement still holds.) This time around, the Pulverizer treats us to a treatise on ships designed to boldly go where no man has gone before. It also includes some rules on what to do out there in the final frontier: geological surveys, talking to new aliens, dealing with radiation, upsetting new aliens, colonizing planets, running away from all those aliens you offended with your vulgar human form, that kind of thing.
So pack a bag, for the stars themselves await you! And do try to remember that, funny though it may be, "take me to your leader" is never the best way to start a conversation with a flesh-eating alien killing machine.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Klingons Off the . . . You Know
Amarillo Design Bureau just joined the e23 family. With it comes the excellent Prime Directive line of products, and Module Prime Alpha is leading the way. Considering the title, that seems supremely appropriate, don't you think? Buy a copy today and help us welcome ADB into our humble store! (Or just buy it because the book is darn handy. As long as you're giving us money, we don't really sweat the details.)
By now, you've heard of Revolution!, seen pictures of the components, and read reviews and session reports. But where did the game come from?
The short answer: Philip duBarry. For the long answer, read his Designer's Notes. It's a great essay for both fans of the game and blossoming game creators.
The barren landscape of a post-apocalypse world needn't be completely barren. It's much less boring if you break up your endless wastes with the occasional oasis. And by oasis, we mean bottomless, poisonous swamps that are home to multi-headed, tentacled, acid-spitting crocodiles. Creatures of the Wastelands: Habitats shows you how spice up your game in that very manner.
Super-Secret Ninja Detectors have alerted us that the newest edition of Ninja Burger has arrived in our warehouse! Of course, we only detected the delivery, but not the actual ninja. Our detectors are good, but not that good.
The Secret Ninja Death Touch Edition combines the cards from the original edition with the supplement, Sumo-Size Me! Also hidden within the stealthy black box are Honor and money tokens, plus dice designed specifically to *not* be stealthy. Our experiments with stealthy dice were . . . inconclusive. (Which means we couldn't find any of them after we rolled them. -ed)
Ninja Burger will be shipping out from our warehouse next week, and should find its way -- ever so quietly -- to a shelf near you before the end of the month.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: What's a Worm Going to Do with a Kingdom, Anyway?
Really, now. You're a worm. You can conquer all you want, but you still haven't got the chops to manage an empire. Really, your skills kinda peter out at "eat stuff." Oh well. All the more reason for the heroes to win in Advanced Adventures #11: The Conqueror Worm.
I'm on my way to Boston (for both work and pleasure). I'll spend time going over upcoming games with one of our printers -- we have a couple of games that require special components and it's going to be easier to "show and tell" than it will be to trade hours of phone calls -- and then I'll hit a few game stores. (Do you know of any good stores in the Boston area?) I'll then spend a couple of days relaxing in the Boston area, hitting the local toy stores and hanging out with the guys over at Onell Design (the exact same guys who helped us with the Frag Flash game). The last time I was in Boston was 2003, so I'm looking forward to visiting the city again. Plus, the weather is going to be beautiful.
After I get good and relaxed it will be time to head to Baltimore where I'll hook up with Will for a trip to the Diamond Retailer Summit. This is our chance to meet with retailers, show off some of our upcoming releases (like Nanuk, Munchkin Fairy Dust, and Chez Goth), and even play a game or two.
This job sometimes involves a lot of travel, but I love getting the chance to see different cities so I don't mind living out of a suitcase for a week.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: A Public Service Announcement
e23 would like to make it known that GURPS Spaceships 5: Exploration and Colony Ships is now available for purchase and download. This book is everything you will ever need to run games based around deep-space exploration. It will also make you more successful and more likable. Your life is incomplete without this book. Thank you for your attention.
October 9, 2009: Illuminated Site of the Week: The Brass Ring Just May Grab You
We'd call them sculptures, but they look more like they were born than built. No, it's not some creepy statue that looks eerily alive, it's a series of creepy statues that look eerily like a steampunk engineer's scrapheap took on a life of its own and went for a job interview. Quirky, crazy, and perfectly mesmerizing, the works of Kezanti combine metal and mannequins, engines and optical fibers . . . some are for looking, some are for touching, and a few are even for locomotion. Harlan Ellison says, "Some days you ride the talent, some days the talent rides you." Trust Kezanti to straddle the metaphor.
-- Suggested by Dave
Warehouse 23 News: e23: We're Self-Deluded, but in an Endearing Way
Here at e23 we're all about filling your needs. Here's an example. Need a space ship? Boom! Here's Future Armada: Orion. No, no need to thank us. It's all part of the job.
At GenCon, one question we were surprised to receive was, "Where can I buy one of those attractive, strong, PINK Munchkin Fairy Dust shirts you buff specimens of masculinity are sporting?" To which our sad reply was, "You can't; we printed just enough for the booth workers. Sorry."
Full disclosure: this was not strictly true. We also sent one to John Kovalic.
We of Steve Jackson Games pride ourselves on needing no more than twenty or thirty bonks to the noggin before we figure out that people are serious about something. In this case, we tried to figure out a way to give our loyal fans the glorious pinkness they seemed to want. Ultimately, the solution was right under our noses, and we are pleased -- nay, tickled pink! -- to announce that the Munchkin Fairy Dust T-shirt is now available from our partners at Printfection. Make sure to print out the rule on the shirt page!
(P.S. A reminder: I'll be attending RinCon this weekend, and I'm loaded up with Munchkin and Munchkin Quest promotional stuff. I've also got a prototype of Nanuk, as well as . . . well, that would be telling. If you're in Tucson, swing by the con, track me down, and say hi!)
Sure, the miniature people featured in Creatures of the Wastelands: The Thrasher Gang aren't dressed well (or at all, some might say). It's not really their fault, though. We'd like to see you keep your fashion sense after the bombs drop.
Are your games safe? We thought they were, but back in 2007 there were a series of product recalls that led the U.S. government to give us a new law (Public Law No: 110-314), commonly known as the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. The CPSIA is a source of personal stress for me at the moment because I'm dealing with trying to cover safety testing costs without increasing the MSRP on our games. And these costs aren't minor; for a game like Munchkin Quest we're looking at somewhere around $3,000 to $4,000 for the CPSIA testing. That's a significant increase in our production costs, and is a lot for us to absorb, but for the moment we're going to try to cover these costs without passing the increase on to the players.
I expect there will be more to say about the CPSIA and its impact on our games, but for as long as possible we're going to continue working on our planned releases and not let safety testing costs affect our game component plans. I'm looking at this very closely, both on my own and with the assistance of our printers (including Grand Prix International, the company we've worked with on several releases over the last few years), and I promise that we'll do everything we can to continue improving the physical quality (and durability) of our game components.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Seriously, Those Wigs Are Fearsome
Just when you thought that powdered wigs were the scariest thing to be found in 1777, Colonial Gothic: The Landlord's Daughter comes along and shows us how wrong we are.
As Revolution! gets played out there in gamer-land, more people are being moved to write reviews. BoardGameGeek in particular has a couple of excellent ones. If you're still on the fence about Revolution!, check out some of these pages.
Sam Healey wrote "Revolution!...A Pleasant Surprise!" Despite not liking the blind bidding mechanic generally, Sam rated the game a 4 out of 5 overall.
Kolby Reddish posted "Red Hot Reviews: Revolution!" He was drawn in by the tagline, and liked it. The discussion that the review spawned includes some excellent discussion of various strategies, as well as the optional rules.
Clive Lovett's very first review was of Revolution!, titled "Review of First Game Played." Hey Clive, we'd love to see a review of the tenth, or hundredth, time you play!
Most reviews just list the various points the writer wants to make. John Cosgrove does this (and does it well!), but also injects a fishing theme into "Viva La..."
We got a "2," and according our table, that means that Creatures of the Wastelands: Random Encounters is as free as "a thing that doesn't cost any money whatsoever." Hm. Perhaps we should retool this table.
It's true. Really, the only robots worth your time are the ones you can climb inside and drive around. Which . . . come to think of it, may mean they're not technically "robots," what with the human pilot and all. Bah! Details, details! Point is, freakin' big humanoid machines are pretty cool.
By extension, GURPS Classic: Mecha must be fairly cool, too. It's all about those heavy metal wonders from the Land of the Rising Sun. Bits of it discuss how to make the 'bots. Other bits tell you how to drive 'em around. Still more bits go into the genre itself, including a full write up for a setting called Cybermech Damocles by famed GURPS Dude David Pulver. It's pretty heavily reliant on the old 3rd edition rules, but all that setting stuff is quite handy regardless of game system.
Saaaaay . . . Pulver and giant robots? Now you're cookin' with super-heated plasma beams!
With these new entries to the Clipart Critters line! We admit, we're not entirely sure just how Halloween ties into these new products, nor how you'll celebrate the holiday by purchasing them, but . . . Um . . . Well, that's half the adventure!
The Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle last month was a ton of fun, with the tabletop games, the exhibits, and the panels. If you're like me, you're hating the idea of waiting another eleven months to experience that frenzy again.
Luckily, we don't have to. Gabe and Tycho have turned their evil genius powers toward the East Coast, and PAX East is the result. This March, the city of Boston will see a wave of geekery like it has never before experienced.
Steve Jackson Games will be there. Considering the fun we had on the West Coast, we'd be crazy not to. Who's going? What prototypes will we be showing off? Watch this space; we're sure to be talking more about this show in the upcoming months.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: A Piece of (Very Recent) History
Wanna see something neat? Here, take a look at The Legend of the Steel General. As one of the first d20 PDFs to enter the scene, this book offers you a unique glimpse into the past. Now you too can experience the long-forgotten thrills of an adventure lost to mists of time! Yes, open this book and step all the way back to . . . 2003! Truly, history comes alive with this PDF!
We at SJ Games are always happy to see Munchkin get mentioned on the Web, and this webcomic made our collective week. Thanks to Alina Pete for a great laugh.
(SJ adds: It's SO true. Look at the two little tables pushed together. Yep, that's what you have to do. Darn clubs don't have tables big enough for a card game . . .)
Who is GURPS Classic: Mecha for? People who know what a Zaku is. People who have ever longed for an S2 engine. People who know how to end an intergalactic war with a pop song written millennia ago. Or, we suppose, people who just really dig old GURPS books and/or like buying things on e23. (But that first bunch might like it a teeny bit more! That has to count for something.)
Ah, we've made it past Labor Day weekend, thereby putting the convention season behind us . . .
Or not, as I look at the calendar. Mark (aka MIB Control) will be seen at Archon this weekend in Illinois. Andrew is making an appearance at RinCon next week. Phil and Will are attending the Diamond Alliance Summit in Baltimore a couple days after that. (If you're an East Coast retailer, go and play Nanuk!) Sean Punch will be speaking at a panel during Draconis. And hey, I'll be flying to Germany for Spiel Essen at the end of the month!
But wait, there's more! We'll be at BoardGameGeekCon in Dallas this November, plus we've got two Game Days scheduled here in the office before the end of the year.
I know we tell everyone that working for a game company isn't just playing games all day. But some days, I can see why they'd think that.
Now that's weird. We mentioned the Vorkosigan Saga Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game (whew, what a title!) in yesterday's Daily Illuminator, but didn't provide you with a link to the book on e23! Well, we can't have that. So there's a little hyperlink to the Big Book of Vork, that you might, perchance, purchase a copy.
If you've been reading the Daily Illuminator for a while, you know that when the printer finishes the print run, they send a couple of representative samples to us. This occurs at the same time the games are being loaded onto whatever method of bulk conveyance we've arranged.
Look what showed up! That's an honest-to-goodness hardcover copy of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game. It feels really good to be able to flip through the pages!
While we can't let you actually crack open the book for another couple of weeks, we can let you peek at a random page or two, just like you will when it appears on your FLGS' shelves. This week, we have three pages: descriptions of the Dendarii Mercenaries and their leader, and a helpful section on including the Vorkosigan Saga's most famous character in your games.
Watch the official webpage for more peeks in the upcoming weeks!
You're reading this website, so it's fair odds you're a gamer. You've probably played more than one game, and it's safe to say you've probably played some of the more popular ones. It's not unreasonable to assume, then, that you're familiar with Champions. But just how familiar are you? If you find your familiarity lacking (and you like saving $10), we suggest purchasing the Champions Universe Lore Bundle.
ect for the barriers between realities.
