June 8, 2023: Play On The Table Interview With Steve Jackson

Italian gaming site Play On The Table, probably better known as Il Gioco In Tavolo as they are originally an Italian language site, have recently launched their English site. We're honored that they have selected their recent interview with Steve Jackson as one of the first posts to be translated! You can check out the interview here.

Thanks again to Play On The Table for featuring us on the new site! Give them a follow there and on social media for more content in both English and Italian.

-- Hunter Shelburne

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June 7, 2023: Murphy's Rules Available In Print-On-Demand

For many, many years, Steve Jackson Games published Murphy's Rules. Exactly what, you may ask, is Murphy's Rules? I'll let the book's sales text answer that question for me.

"Some game rules are good, some are bad, and some are Murphy's! From the pages of Space Gamer and Pyramid, this is the cartoon feature that takes those rules and skewers them, bleeding, for everyone to mock. (Us? Attitude? It's all right; we pick on our own stuff, too.)"

Over the years, Murphy's Rules has featured a great roster of artists, including multiple-Origins Award-winner John Kovalic and Pulitzer Prize-winner Ben Sargent!

This edition includes everything from the original 1988 compilation, plus all the Murphy's Rules that came out in the 10 years after!

Available now as a print-on-demand softcover book!

-- Phil Reed

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June 6, 2023: Jean's Rant About Tools

Jean McGuire wrote this for the README file that goes with our STL releases. I thought it was of general interest, so here it is! – SJ

Many people, when getting started with a new hobby, want the cheapest tools they can get. I get asked about tools a lot . . .

I used to manage a craft store. We sold two styles of beading looms: A good hobby loom, and one that was little more than a toy. Over and over again, I had customers who wanted to learn loom beading wanting to buy the toy loom. It was the cheapest, certainly. But it was difficult to use, even for me, and I knew what I was doing. For a beginner, that difficulty added to learning a whole new set of skills would make using it nearly impossible. It's not surprising that it was the people who got the good bead loom who came back again and again to buy more beads. The ones with the toy loom gave up; they decided it was too difficult, . . . [more]

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June 5, 2023: Multi-Tribe Tribes

In its basic form, Tribes represents a single community of early humans or near-humans. They live together and know each other intimately. They are, after all, the only Real People in a world of disasters, horrifying sabertooths, and child-snatching hyenas! But what if the People are not the only people? What if there are . . . Others?

In a large enough group – for example, in a convention setting – multiple tribes can be created. The largest such meta-community that I have ever refereed was five tribes . . . slightly over 40 people. The game lasted about four hours, plus some setup. We decided that the tribes lived around a very large lake. Each tribe would be only a day's travel from at least one close neighbor, but would know their most distant neighbor only by rumor. They were all of the same species and shared a common language. The highly stylized countryside allowed . . . [more]

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June 4, 2023: Follow Us On Twitch!

Folks that watch our weekly #SJGamesLive stream may have noticed that we're now streaming exclusively to Twitch, with the recordings uploaded to our YouTube channel afterward for those that missed it. And if you didn't know, now you do! We're doing this in order to allow more people to find the stream on the platform, and it lets us use a few more of the fun tools that Twitch offers for streaming. Not to mention, it's a bit easier to keep track of live comments and actually interact with the audience!

While you don't need an account to watch our streams, we do recommend signing up so you can Follow us on Twitch, which will give you an alert when we go live. We have plans for live-plays, hobby streams, and much more in the works. Join us each Thursday at 2 p.m. Central time and chat along with the #SJGamesLive crew!

-- Hunter Shelburne

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Previous Illuminators • Steve's Appearance Schedule

The dog is Japanese. June 8, 2023: Play On The Table Interview With Steve Jackson Italian gaming site Play On The Table, probably better known as Il Gioco In Tavolo as they are originally an Italian language site, have recently launched their English site. We're honored that they have selected their recent interview with Steve Jackson as one of the first posts to be translated! You can check out the interview here. Thanks again to Play On The Table for featuring us on the new site! Give them a follow there and on social media for more content in both English and Italian. -- Hunter Shelburne Share this post! June 7, 2023: Murphy's Rules Available In Print-On-Demand For many, many years, Steve Jackson Games published *Murphy's Rules. Exactly what, you may ask, is Murphy's Rules? I'll let the book's sales text answer that question for me. "Some game rules are good, some are bad, and some are Murphy's! From the pages of Space Gamer and Pyramid, this is the cartoon feature that takes those rules and skewers them, bleeding, for everyone to mock. (Us? Attitude? It's all right; we pick on our own stuff, too.)" Over the years, Murphy's Rules* has featured a great roster of artists, including multiple-Origins Award-winner John Kovalic and Pulitzer Prize-winner Ben Sargent! This edition includes everything from the original 1988 compilation, plus all the Murphy's Rules that came out in the 10 years after! Available now as a print-on-demand softcover book! -- Phil Reed Share this post! June 6, 2023: Jean's Rant About Tools Jean McGuire wrote this for the README file that goes with our STL releases. I thought it was of general interest, so here it is! – SJ Many people, when getting started with a new hobby, want the cheapest tools they can get. I get asked about tools a lot . . . I used to manage a craft store. We sold two styles of beading looms: A good hobby loom, and one that was little more than a toy. Over and over again, I had customers who wanted to learn loom beading wanting to buy the toy loom. It was the cheapest, certainly. But it was difficult to use, even for me, and I knew what I was doing. For a beginner, that difficulty added to learning a whole new set of skills would make using it nearly impossible. It's not surprising that it was the people who got the good bead loom who came back again and again to buy more beads. The ones with the toy loom gave up; they decided it was too difficult, . . . [more] Share this post! June 5, 2023: Multi-Tribe Tribes In its basic form, Tribes represents a single community of early humans or near-humans. They live together and know each other intimately. They are, after all, the only Real People in a world of disasters, horrifying sabertooths, and child-snatching hyenas! But what if the People are not the only people? What if there are . . . Others? In a large enough group – for example, in a convention setting – multiple tribes can be created. The largest such meta-community that I have ever refereed was five tribes . . . slightly over 40 people. The game lasted about four hours, plus some setup. We decided that the tribes lived around a very large lake. Each tribe would be only a day's travel from at least one close neighbor, but would know their most distant neighbor only by rumor. They were all of the same species and shared a common language. The highly stylized countryside allowed . . . [more] Share this post! June 4, 2023: Follow Us On Twitch! Folks that watch our weekly #SJGamesLive stream may have noticed that we're now streaming exclusively to Twitch, with the recordings uploaded to our YouTube channel afterward for those that missed it. And if you didn't know, now you do! We're doing this in order to allow more people to find the stream on the platform, and it lets us use a few more of the fun tools that Twitch offers for streaming. Not to mention, it's a bit easier to keep track of live comments and actually interact with the audience! While you don't need an account to watch our streams, we do recommend signing up so you can Follow us on Twitch, which will give you an alert when we go live. We have plans for live-plays, hobby streams, and much more in the works. Join us each Thursday at 2 p.m. Central time and chat along with the #SJGamesLive crew! -- Hunter Shelburne Share this post! Previous Illuminators • Steve's Appearance Schedule		Latest Videos You are the 1614th superior mutant here today. (28955778 since August 1, 1995)