Over 5915
people caught hunting for naked-elf-woman GIFS here in the last seven days.
As previously reported, Cthulhu Dice will come in four colors -- green, purple, black, and yellow. In your friendly local game store, you'll be able to grab whichever color -- or colors; they are, after all, only $4.99 each! -- strikes your fancy. (If you don't know where your FLGS is, may we suggest our Retailer Finder?)
If you're lacking a FLGS for whatever reason, Warehouse 23 will of course be carrying Cthulhu Dice in all its many colors. Due to the ethereal nature of online ordering, however, please be extra sure the stock number you're ordering is indeed the color you desire. Of course, if you're quite happy with a random color, we can accommodate you as well. Heck, if you want one of each, we can do that as well.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Choose Wisely
Which would you rather have? The hollow, cold, empty feeling that comes from a life bereft of joy and happiness, or a copy of Transhuman Space: Teralogos News - 2101, Second Quarter?
Money! Bah! Who needs it? We don't! We have cast aside our material needs. We have risen above such petty earthly desires. We look toward the looming giant named The Economy and say "nuts to you, buddy!" We're going to give away these two new products, and damn the torpedoes!
Transhuman Space: Teralogos News - 2101, Second Quarter is a collection of fake news articles for a real game about fake people having real fun. It will cost only your time. The Stars Are Right Invocation Symbol Counters are a collection of counters that will help you play The Stars Are Right without going completely mad. It will cost you only about 2 SAN. By offering these products to the public without a demand for monetary recompense, we believe we shall form the vanguard for a oncoming societal upheaval that will replace the bloated, decaying world of capitalism!
What's that? Transhuman Space Classic: In The Well was released this week and it's not free? One does, in fact, need about ten dollars to partake of the book's Martian, Venusian, and Mercurian goodness? Oh. Well. Nevermind, then.
-- Fox Barrett
Warehouse 23 News: e23: When Album Art Attacks
Long have fans of Molly Hatchet waited for their own RPG. Now that we have The Adventures of Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer: Shadows of Mirahan, that wait is finally over.
The Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 used a lightweight imaging radar known as Mini-SAR to identify over 40 pockets of ice on the moon's north pole. The data doesn't include depth of the craters, so any estimate of the available water is pure speculation. Of course, that hasn't stopped the phrase "at least 600 million metric tons of water ice" from being thrown around.
Water on the moon isn't new -- the Daily Illuminator first mentioned it twelve years ago. But this latest report has the water in easy-to-mine, easy-to-melt ice craters, a significant improvement over the old "mine, process, and purify moon dust" idea.
That's one less thing we have to pack for our return trip to our closest satellite.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Planets And Stuff
What does Transhuman Space Classic: In The Well have? It has planets. Mercury, Mars, and Venus, specifically. It also has some stuff. Most of that stuff is about the planets. So, if you like planets and stuff, we have a book you'd like. If you don't, that's too bad. Stuff is cool.
March 6, 2010: Illuminated Site of the Week: A World Of War-Crafting
Everyone already knows Lego bricks are great fun (at least, if you read the Daily Illuminator you already know it). Now turn a killer toy into killer fun with BrickArms. These folks have gone to entirely too much trouble to create customized weapons for your little soldiers - machine guns, bazookas, even a trusty bat. They have a couple of accessory parts that Lego really should have thought of already: the U-clip and the round minifig stand. They even offer entire custom minifigs . . . mustache-twirling villains and female sheriff's deputies. Get the weapons in different color sets. Get one weapon in multicolored glory. Get them in clear plastic. Give your tiny agent a briefcase with a tiny SMG in it. In fact, just get them, before the awesome overwhelms you.
-- Suggested by Edward Elder
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Crazy (But That's How It Goes)
We understand if you can't keep everything in your head while playing The Stars Are Right. After all, you are an insane cultist. Being a few tentacles short of a cephalopod isn't just expected, it's basically required. So here are some The Stars Are Right Invocation Symbol Counters. If you still need help, even with these in hand, it may be time to consider subcontracting your craziness.
Austin is filled with geeks, it's true. As "Little Silicon Valley," the streets teem with people who can quote Monty Python as well as they can script in Python, know the difference between Doctor Who and a doctor working with WHO, and can tell you about their character in three different game systems.
This tends to be doubly true during South By Southwest. The interactive festival attracts the digital gaming geeks (like the ScreenBurn participants), the film portion brings in the A/V geeks (I believe there are a billion movies being screened this year), and the music . . . well, the music brings in band geeks of all varieties (even nerdcore!).
If you're a geek, and you're in Austin on Saturday, March 13, stop by our Open House (directions!) between 4pm and 9pm. We're not thinking anything very formal, but if you're interested, please RSVP (it'll help with planning). We'll roll some dice, and chat about games -- tabletop vs. digital, the importance of playtesting, new releases and old favorites. Honestly, the number of gaming-related topics we won't talk about is pretty small.
After all, we're all geeks here.
-- Paul Chapman
The producer-consumer model works on a very simple underlying principal: more. Who are we to argue with something so simple? And so, we present Munchkin 7 - More Good Cards. What it lacks in subtley it makes up for in honesty.
Sailing across the Atlantic is commonplace. Sailing across using only solar power? The catamaran "sun21" did that back in 2007, so it's hardly news.
How about not just a transatlantic trip, but a 'round the world one? And, instead of sun21's puny 6-person capacity, how about 50 passengers?
That's the goal of Planet Solar, a 31-meter catamaran unveiled in Germany. The team will use only the power of the sun, converted to electricity by the 5,000 square feet of solar panels adorning the top of the boat. At each port of call, the ship will host educational workshops on alternative energy.
Me, I'm wondering how many MREs you could stash on board. The Planet Solar sounds like an interesting refuge from a zombie apocalypse.
-- Paul Chapman
Savaged Buckshots: For Whom the Bugle Blows isn't just an adventure! It's . . . It's . . . Okay, maybe it is.
A couple of days ago, we passed the 20-year anniversary of the Secret Service raid on our office. We didn't send out a press release, hold a candlelight ceremony, or even put a giant copy of GURPS Cyberpunk on our roof (okay, that one would have been pretty cool). Instead, we worked on Munchkin projects and tested the alpha version of a Zombie Dice app for the iPhone.
In other words: We just made games. And this is a good thing. The point of the lawsuit against the Secret Service was to defend our civil liberties. Liberty means the freedom to go about your business in peace, and once the lawsuit was over and the computer-snatchers put, for the moment, to flight . . . we went about our business, which is making games. And we're still at it.
But we might not be making games today if it weren't for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The founders of the EFF took on the very serious business of defending us - all of us - against perhaps the worst menace a democracy can face: its own police, laws, and courts gone astray. The balance between freedom and security never stands still, and new technology changes the details but mustn't be allowed to change the principles. That's why the EFF was created, and that's why it's still around, 20 years later. And I'm very grateful.
On Tuesday, March 9, EFF-Austin will sponsor a panel discussion about the raid, its aftermath, and its relevance to our civil liberties today. Time: 7pm. Place: Independence Brewing (a good-omened name!), 3913 Todd Lane #607. I'll be there, along with Pete Kennedy, who was our lead attorney, and Bruce Sterling, who chronicled the whole thing in The Hacker Crackdown. Admission is free, but please plan on dropping something into the hat to support EFF-Austin!
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Wait, Gnomes?
Yes! Gnomes! Deadly little things. They'd just as soon eat your face as look at you. Don't believe us? Fine. Go put your face close to a gnome and see what happens. Just don't come crying back to us when you're faceless and regretful from not having bought the incredibly informative (and fun) GnomeMurdered RPG.
