January 16, 2019: Munchkin Musings: January 2019

Happy New Year! We hope all of you made it through the holidays safely and with at least a little time to enjoy friends and family.

We came back to Munchkin HQ and immediately had a full load of work to do to make sure 2019 is as awesome as it can be. I'm pleased to report that we did, in fact, get Munchkin Warhammer 40,000: Savagery and Sorcery off to print before the end of the year, so it's on schedule for release this summer. Thanks are due to our talented production team who made this happen, to the team at Games Workshop for turning around approval far faster than we had any right to expect, and to John Kovalic for art that made me giggle. A lot. You'll see the Munchkin Warhammer 40,000 base game in March – make sure to come to the forums and let us know what you think!

Herd of Unicorns?

Of course you've heard of unicorns! We got Munchkin Unicorns and Friends into almost all our backers' hands before the end of 2018, even though everything from weather to a Canadian postal strike tried to prevent it. The good news, for those who may have missed that Kickstarter, is that Unicorns and Friends will be coming to hobby retailers this month. Ask for it!

Speaking of Kickstarter . . .

Girl Genius Sparks Enthusiasm!

Our Kickstarter for Munchkin Steampunk: Girl Genius concluded last month with almost 2,200 backers pledging nearly $90,000. By the time it was over, stretch goals had doubled the size of the expansion and added some new steampunky accessories, and even made it clear we needed to reprint Munchkin Steampunk to make sure we had enough copies when the expansion came out. As of now, everything's on schedule for a release this summer. We'll keep you updated.

(Did you miss one, or worse both, of these projects? Follow Steve Jackson Games on Kickstarter to make sure that never happens again!)

Reprints Ahoy!

As we previously posted in the Daily Illuminator, we're letting some games go out of print to make room for new Munchkin awesomeness on the shelves. But not everything is going away; we're reprinting some games we want to keep around. Look for reprints of Kittens, Starfinder, and Starfinder 2 – Far Out (in its first hobby release as an expansion, rather than part of the I Want It All! box) coming next month. Later this year, we'll have our usual big reprint of original Munchkin expansions heading into the summer, plus some other games that are running low before we're ready to say goodbye.

Yee-Haw!

One of our favorite Munchkin varieties is The Good, the Bad, and the Munchkin. (We are in Texas, after all.) In April, we'll publish it in a Complete Edition, including both the core game and Beating a Dead Horse, plus every promo card and bookmark we've made for Good/Bad. Going forward, this will be the only version of Good/Bad available . . . and thanks to Phil, Darryll, and our friends at GPI, we've even been able to bring this out for the same price as the original game.

Does this mean there will be Complete Editions of other sets? Good question, pardner . . . keep watching to see if we announce more down the road a piece!

Anniversaries!

I recently posted a short essay looking back over my 10 years at the helm of Munchkin. It's been a lot of fun and a pretty weird ride, and it's definitely not over yet! Go here if you missed it.

Coming up at Gen Con this August is the 18th anniversary of Munchkin's original release at Gen Con 2001. Our little game is old enough to vote! (No, I don't feel old at all, why do you ask . . . ?)

Come to Austin!

We've been teasing plans for an SJ Games-specific convention in Austin this April. There will be lots more, both here and at munchkin.game, as details firm up and the date draws closer. For now, all I can say is that I'll definitely be there, showing off Munchkin and talking about plans for 2019. We hope to see lots of you there!

That's enough news for one month. Come back in February when we'll be able to talk more about FnordCon, reveal more of our summer plans, and bring you up to date on all the news from the world of Munchkin!