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Illuminated Site of the Week
GURPS Space: Starships Update adds new vehicle rules from GURPS Vehicles Expansion 1 and GURPS Vehicles Expansion 2 to the GURPS Space starship construction rules. Author Eric B. Smith has also added some systems from GURPS Traveller, plus some all-new material.
It will be released in PDF form on e23, Steve Jackson Games' ever-closer site for sales of digital products.
If you want to participate, you need to do two things: First, be a Pyramid subscriber! Access to playtest files and the chance to make a contribution to a SJ Games product are two of the perks of a Pyramid subscription. The second thing you need to do is to send an email to Scott Haring, e23 Manager, requesting to join the playtest.
The playtest is scheduled to run through most of July, and will be run on a dedicated mailing list. The list moderator is Jeff Wilson. Jeff requests you check out his instructions on how to set up your email client to best handle a playtest list, at http://www.io.com/~jwilson/gurps/playtestmail.html.
See you there!
-- Scott Haring
Look At The Slipcase!
It wasn't ready yesterday, but now it's done. Here's a mockup of the slipcase for the GURPS Basic Set Deluxe Edition. Each side will have the "puzzle" image from one of the covers. The top will have the GURPS logo. The front, of course, is open. The back will have the title and credits laid out as if it were the spine of a book, for those of you who like to put your slipcases on the shelf spine-out.
When this posts, there will be just 24 hours left for orders . . . that is, they close next midnight.
Long popular in Germany, The Dark Eye is a fantasy roleplaying game only recently translated into English. Now you can explore that world with The Secret of the Blue Tower and Witching Hours, a compilation of two introductory adventures for the setting.
In August 2004, Steve Jackson Games will release GURPS Fourth Edition, starting with the two-volume Basic Set. In addition to the regular Basic Set books, we'll also do a special, one-time Deluxe Edition. These will be available three ways:
- By pre-order from Warehouse 23.
- At GenCon 2004, while they last.
- And a very limited number will be available through retail stores which pre-order from their distributors. *
The print run will be based on pre-orders. When they're gone, they're gone; we will not reprint. On June 30, we will close orders for the Deluxe Edition . . . in the unlikely event that we have any left after GenCon, we'll open sales again.
These will truly be deluxe books. Both volumes will be bound in bonded leather with two-color foil stamping. They will have buckram-textured endpapers and cloth head and foot bands. Book 1 will include a special full-color autograph page in front, with the signatures of Steve Jackson, Sean Punch, David Pulver, and Andrew Hackard. (Yes, real signatures, not printed copies.)
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Each book will have a full-color dust jacket, embossed, laminated, and foil stamped. The two volumes will come in a heavyweight deluxe slipcase . . . also full-color and foil stamped, with linen texturing.
In other words, these will be NICE. Our print buyer has nearly 20 years of experience, but never before have we given her this big a budget, and she pulled out all the stops!
Warehouse 23 orders for the Deluxe Edition will be shipped as soon as it's finished, a bit before GenCon, so pre-order customers will see the Fourth Edition before anyone else.
* Available In Stores?
Yes . . . available in stores. When this set was announced, our plan was to have it be a GenCon and Warehouse 23 only item. I didn't think that most retailers would want to shelve a big, costly item that on the average they'd sell just one or two of.
Bzzzzt. Steve was wrong. In fact, some retailers were quite unhappy that they couldn't get the Deluxe Edition. And I'm not in business to make retailers unhappy. We need our retailers and I do not wish to do them dirt . . . it's hard enough running a store without the publishers messing things up for you.
But there was time to fix the problem, and with the help of our distributors, we're making the Deluxe Edition available to retailers after all. So if you want to buy from your local retailer . . . let him know now!
This does put me in the position of having advertised a W23-only item that now will also be in stores. I hope that doesn't annoy anyone who has already ordered it. But if it does . . . write to me personally and I'll let the W23 crew beat me up, and we'll fix it. We can either take it off your order or cancel the entire order that it's part of, as you wish.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: A Pack Of Wandering Barbarians
When you need a quick horde of orcs on the tactical map, cardboard counters are a cheap and easy way to provide loads of wandering menaces. Tribes, Clans & Cults gives you hundreds of disposable minions to use. If you're calling up your own minions, try Summoned Creatures, full of cannon fodder critters to fight back.
I'm now engaged in signing tip-in sheets . . . many, many tip-in sheets . . . for the GURPS Basic Set Deluxe Edition. Orders haven't closed yet, so we don't know how many we'll print, but it'll be at least 800. Think nice thoughts about my signing hand. And about Andrew's . . . he gets them next.
In other news, it's raining. Austin is having a surprisingly wet summer. This is me NOT complaining . . . anything that staves off the incredibly hot and dry weather is a Good Thing. My garden is happy, and when my garden is happy I cannot be completely unhappy.
Did we get the GURPS Basic Set to print Saturday? Well, one book, and the covers. Which is enough to get the printers started. What's left should be easily knocked off on Monday; the death march is over. Except that now we have to finish the layout on GURPS Lite so THAT can go to press . . . Onward, then.
-- Steve Jackson
It's crass, it's self-abusive, and you wouldn't want to meet any of the characters involved. But you probably have. Welcome to In the Pit #1, the first issue of Eden's new comic about dysfunctional gamers.
June 27, 2004: Illuminated Site of the Week: I Just Have To Outrun You
What do Spider-man, Will Smith, Harry Potter, and Vin Diesel have in common? They're all going to be running like hell from stuff this summer. Is it likely? Is it even possible? Depends on who they are, what they're driving, and what they're trying to outdistance. The Reality of Running Away from Stuff could hit them like a Mack truck. -- Suggested by Stephen Dedman
The party heads north in Nodwick #24, the newest issue of the comic about our favorite henchman. When a sea serpent sent by your offended gods is destroying all of your ships, Nodwick and his employers are probably the last people you want to hire to fix the problem. Pity that these Norsemen haven't realized that. Yet.
June 26, 2004: Moaning And Twitching, We Persevere
We really thought the GURPS Basic Set would go to press today. Well, not quite. Check, fix little things, recheck, fix little things, recheck, OHMYGOSH, fix big thing, recheck . . .
Actually, Book 2 is burned onto disk already, as is the cover to Book 1. But it will be sometime tomorrow before we get the last little colored flag off the stack of laser-printed pages and finish with Book 1.
Big thanks to everyone who has been helping with this final down-to-the-wire stretch . . . Monica Stephens, Moe Chapman, Alex Fernandez, Justin De Witt, Fade Manley, and of course Andrew Hackard and Sean Punch. Soon it will be over and we can sit back and wait for the applause. Please, please, let it be applause . . .
Word from Origins, though, is that GURPS Dragons is being well received. This is the book that's a hybrid between Third and Fourth editions (and yes, we have made all the cheesy "3.5" jokes around the office already). It was written with Third Edition rules, but an appendix was added to translate it to Fourth, and it's a full-color hardback like the Fourth Edition books will be. Alex did the illustrations, and it's really nice; we're not surprised that it's going over well, but we're still grateful!
Anyway . . . tomorrow morning we'll be back here for the last little push, and then it goes into FedEx, and Monday it'll be in the hands of the printers and we'll be working on GURPS Fantasy.
PS - Origins Awards
The results just came in, and you voted us two Origins Awards this year. Thanks! Pyramid won the Gamer's Choice award for "Best Electronic Product," and Munchkin Fu was named the Gamer's choice for Best Card Game. And congratulations to Loren Wiseman on his induction into the Hall of Fame!
Check out the Ogre Cave for the complete list.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: Because The Zombies Keep Eating People
When you're trying to stomp the zombies in All Flesh Must Be Eaten, the zombies keep stomping back, and it's easy to run through those PCs awfully fast. Fortunately, there's The Book of Archetypes 2, full of yet more Norms, Survivors, and Inspired, ready to step up and try not to be eaten.
June 25, 2004: D6 Space: Ships Now In Playtest
West End Games, publisher of the recently released D6 Adventure game as well as the forthcoming D6 Space and D6 Fantasy games, is conducting a playtest of D6 Space: Ships open to all Pyramid subscribers.
Although this is a playtest for an as-yet unreleased system, familiarity with D6 Star Wars, D6 Metabarons, or other D6 System rules will suffice. Please note that this is a quick playtest; all comments must be received by July 5th.
Pyramid subscribers can access the playtest files. And if you're not already a subscriber, subscribe today!
--Steven Marsh, Pyramid Editor
The d20 game of covert operatives, Spycraft, has both sides covered. Agency gives you all the rules you need to build a top-secret agency that's the envy of the CIA, while Mastermind shows you how to set up villains that can bring those agencies to their knees.
Pyramid Magazine is currently seeking a number of experts for a possible long-term writing relationship.
"Experts in what?" you ask.
Well... just about anything. Astronomy, engineering, economics, physics,
chemistry, biology, the legal system, medicine... that sort of thing. (And, yes, those are the big categories we're looking for right now. But we'll entertain applications for experts from other areas, too.)
Note that we do NOT need you to be experts with any game system or game
mechanics. We don't CARE about any specific game experience.
The amount of work entailed will be extremely flexible, but should never amount to more than 3,000 words a month, and will probably be much less.
(Ideally we're hoping for highly trained professionals, professors, or other gurus on their subjects. We understand these folks are often busy; we can work around that.)
We also need you to be able to write well, although that's nowhere near as important as being all-knowing in your field of expertise.
If this sounds like you, please submit a ONE-PAGE RESUME-- maximum of 400 words -- of your credentials for the Expert niche you're seeking to fill. (Again, we don't really care about writing experience at this point. We only want your professional qualifications.)
Submit it with a subject line of "Expert Resume" to pyramid@sjgames.com (THAT SUBJECT LINE IS VITAL; otherwise your application might get eaten by ravenous spam filters.)
We will be accepting applications until June 30th, 2004.
Warehouse 23 News: Cute Creepy-Crawlies
You've seen the plush germs, but what do you do when everyone's already gotten the flu? Move on to the critters, of course! Giant Microbes has branched out into slightly larger creatures with its plush Dust Mite, Book Worm, and Bed Bug. Cuddly, leggy, and ready to nibble their way into your arms.
June 23, 2004: More Arrrrr: Pirates Of The Caribbean!
We're down to the wire on the GURPS Basic Set, and everyone is working hard. But tonight was movie night, and what did we watch? Pirates of the Caribbean, which, what with one thing and another, I had never seen. Okay, now I have. Fun flick. I liked Johnny Depp's character more than the reviewers wanted me to.
And speaking of GURPS, it's been pointed out to me that I didn't give as much information as I might have about the details of the deluxeness of the GURPS Basic Set Deluxe Edition. Okay. I'll see what I can do to add detail to the description, and there's no reason I can't post some images. So I shall. Just not tonight, for it is 11:41 as I post this, and part of Pirate Movie Night involved a national brand of spiced rum that isn't going to get any free advertising here because, piratey though it is, it's not as cool as Puzzle Pirates. But it did work . . .
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: Books, Dice, Action!
The Action! System is a generic system with supplements out for all sorts of genres and settings. Gunslingers: Wild West Action! takes a trip to the land of gunsmoke and cattle, while San Angelo: City of Heroes deals with a fictional Californian city of superheroes and mystery.
June 22, 2004: Illuminated Site of the Week: Because I Could Not Stop For Death, He Kindly Dogpiled Me
Ever wondered how people die? Wonder no longer. At all. Ever. About any of it. Because it's all at NationMaster.com. -- Suggested by Joseph North
It's hard being a dragon. When it's not your own people trapping you in the center of a volcano, it's those gnomes chip-chip-chipping away at the mountain itself, or your squabbling hordes of minions. But there's a prophecy of great things yet in store for you . . . Solusek's Eye presents a new area for the EverQuest RPG.
Well, mateys, I bethought me that ye might like to hear what's been a-eatin' of me brain these past watches . . .
It's Puzzle Pirates, a (massively) multiplayer online game from Three Rings. This is a first effort from a small group of experienced game creators who banded together to do something different. And boy howdy, they did.
I'm having a huge amount of fun with this game. Part of it, of course, is, well, it's pirates . . . and as all know, I'm a pirate fan. That was enough to get me to check it out, but it's not what's keeping me there. Yes, I am actually taking time every few nights to sail the Midnight Ocean. And while I am definitely learning from the experience . . . because they did SO many things RIGHT . . . let's face it, I wouldn't be there so much if I wasn't having a good time. (And it's not just me. I was not the first member of the SJ Games staff to join, nor the last.)
- The graphics are great. Cartoony but sophisticated, very pretty, with a huge variety of character appearances.
- No killing. In fact, you can't even injure another player's possessions except by plundering him on the high seas (which stings, but you don't lose much) or sinking his ship in a blockade (and if you don't want to risk your ship, it's easy to avoid blockades, though once I sailed with a captain who forgot, and that's my best sea story).
- The people are nice. Every experienced player that I have met has been (at least) polite and helpful. Many of them go hugely out of their way to help newcomers. (And the game is designed to REWARD those who help newcomers. Smart.)
- The puzzles are fun. I'm not a huge fan of puzzle-type games, but in context, these work. They're not too hard (okay, Navigation still eats my lunch, and my brain doesn't like Carpentry, but I'm good with the others) and they're not too easy. And they're darned clever. The Swordfighting puzzle has its roots in Tetris, for instance, but with a couple of brilliant twists.
- The puzzles work in the context of the game. You have to do certain puzzles to keep a ship moving; the Sailing, Bilging, and Carpentry puzzles all have to be done, all at once, and if you also have someone on Navigation you go faster. So you NEED to cooperate with other players. The metaphor for ship operations is brilliant; no, working the sailing puzzle is nothing like real sailing, but having several people all doing different things, all together, switching jobs when they need to, and all of it making that ship go . . . that is perfect. I am unspeakably impressed.
- The game's economy is complex and interesting. Pirates forage for (or pillage) raw materials, which are used to make a variety of goods, from the spiffy pirate duds you can buy to the ships ye use for yer pillagin'. Shops are player-owned; some shops produce materials that are only used by other shops. (An apothecary, for instance, makes dyes which are bought by weaveries. The weavery, in turn, makes regular and fine cloth which is bought by tailor shops, and sailcloth which is bought by shipyards.)
- There's lots to do ashore. When you want a break from the digital pillaging, you can socialize in the taverns (with the Drinking and Swordfighting puzzles), work at a job (with the Distilling puzzle), or get involved in the economy by buying a booth and trading commodities. There's also a high-level political metagame, with alliances between crews, battles for control of islands, and so on . . . but this doesn't touch the ordinary pirate unless he chooses to get involved.
All in all, they've got a great game here. I've privately recommended it to friends who are now having a great time. Now I'm recommending it to you all. The coolest thing is, you can get ten logons for free, and that's plenty of time to figure out if you like it. So check it out!
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: The Universe Keeps Expanding
Mongoose Publishing continues to support its product lines with Signs & Portents, a full-color monthly magazine with articles for Conan, Babylon 5, and more. Most recently in are Signs & Portents 8, Signs & Portents 9, and Signs & Portents 10.
June 20, 2004: Origins Award Voting Now Online!
There's not much time left, so if you haven't voted for the Origins Awards, hop on over to their voting page and get it done. We would be thrilled, of course, if you found any of our nominees worthy, but it's more important that you vote.
And in case you've forgotten, our nominees happen to be:
So go vote already!
Warehouse 23 News: Mechanical Disorder
Contrary to popular belief, chaos interacts with technology in a well-behaved manner, allowing properly trained engineers to use the primordial stuff of the universe in predictable, static ways. Or so Chaositech, the d20 System supplement, would like to claim. And if they're wrong . . . well, a little chaos never hurt anything, right?
The new edition of the GURPS Basic Set goes to print soon. Very soon. Wednesday I got to do the index. As in, Moe said "I really need this tomorrow."
Well, it had been a while since I did an all-nighter anyway . . .
So. The index got done. I went home Wednesday evening and got to work, and Thursday a bit after noon I e-mailed it to the office. Then I put myself together, drove in, and delivered the marked copy. I am pleased to report three things:
- Sure enough, after you've been off coffee for a while, it really, really works when you need it.
- That's going to be an awfully nice pair of books. The copy I was working from was aaaaaalmost complete - a few of the illustrations remain to be done. But it looked GREAT. And, of course, I was proofreading as I went along, and I sure didn't find much, and most of what I found was on the order of "Think there ought to be a comma here."
- The index was a pretty good fit for the space Andrew had allowed for it, in a readable size of type . . .
The books ought to go to press next week!
-- Steve Jackson
Expand your dice collection, or introduce gaming to the very young, with 10-Sided and 20-Sided Plush Dice. Try rolling your next pool of d10s with plush, or go for a critical hit on that d20 with fuzzy stitched-on numbers; it'll add a whole new level to the gaming experience.
The following items are shipping to game distributors everywhere right now, and will be on your local game store shelves in a matter of days:
GURPS Dragons
Dragons! The most fabulous of all fabulous beasts. Throughout history, around the world, tales of fire-breathing monsters have stirred awe and terror. Now . . . play a dragon. Take to the air with prodigious wingbeats, soaring effortlessly for hundreds of miles. Terrify your foes with fire, claws, and teeth. Gather your hoard. Study ancient lore and magic . . . and take human form to walk in the world of men!
GURPS Dragons includes:
- Origins of the dragon, through myth and legend and even true history.
- How do dragons fly?
- How to hunt dragons . . . and survive.
- Creating dragon characters in GURPS.
- Dragon-specific combat maneuvers.
- Templates for Firedrakes, Naga, Chinese Dragons, Sea Serpents, and others.
- Ideas for dragon-centric campaigns, including two campaign backgrounds!
160 pages. Full-color.
Stock #6540,
ISBN 1-55634-599-2.
$29.95.
I S S A R I E S
Gathering Thunder: Sartar Rising Volume 3
The Lunar Empire has been defeated at the Battle of Iceland. Orlanth is free, and across Dragon Pass and the world the winds have been released. This is the time to strike, the time for heroes to raise the rest of the land against the Empire, begin quests that will take years to bear fruit, and finally to aid Kallyr as she returns a lost planet to the sky and upsets the plans of the Empire.
Gathering Thunder is the third book of the Sartar Rising campaign. It continues the epic struggle of the Heortlings against the Lunar Empire, building on the events and information provided in Barbarian Adventures and Orlanth is Dead!, the first two books of the series. This 80-page book includes six scenarios set in Dragon Pass, each a testing ground for heroes as they rise to become leaders in the rebellion:
- The New Breathers, by Martin Hawley
- Sheep, Clouds, Thunder, by Jeff Kyer
- The Other Side of the Dragon, by David Dunham
- Orane's Spindle by Ian Cooper
- Final Days at Skullpoint, by Ron Edwards
- Ship of the Sky, a heroquest by Greg Stafford
80 pages.
Stock #ISS1403,
ISBN 1-929052-17-0.
$19.95.
The Cthulhu mythos and insanity go together like peanut butter and jelly. Go a little bit mad yourself with five new books for the mythos: Singers of Strange Songs, Nightmare's Disciple, The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, The Book of Dzyan, and Song of Cthulhu.
June 17, 2004: September And October Releases
Steve Jackson Games will have the following products out in September, 2004:
Get Nifty!
Strange inventions. Mysterious aliens. Beautiful babes. Lurking demons. And vampires, way too many vampires . . .
This is the world of Sluggy Freelance, one of the world's most popular webcomics. Hundreds of thousands of "Sluggites" check sluggy.com every day to check out the misadventures of Torg, Riff, Zoe, and their murderous, switchblade-wielding bunny.
You don't have to be a Sluggite to enjoy this game . . . but playing it may turn you on to the comic.
The cards, illustrated by cartoonist Pete Abrams, represent characters, gadgets, and situations from the Sluggyverse. You'll start by getting Safe (which is rare in the Sluggyverse) and getting Weird (which sometimes seems unavoidable). Then you're eligible to get NIFTY . . . collect enough nifty companions and gadgets . . . and win!
Playable by three to five players, or by six players in three teams of two.
110 full-color cards, rules, and die-cut counters, in a 6" x 9" box.
Stock #1385,
ISBN 1-55634-736-7.
$24.95.
Cardboard Heroes Modern Characters
Enough full-color miniatures for every modern game you'll ever play! Over 400 human figures, plus hundreds of weapons, accessories, corpses, and other lie-flat counters. Soldiers and cops, Nazis and gangsters, cowboys and Indians, and lots and lots of modern-day civilians for all your games.
16 sheets; over 400 characters.
Stock #2120,
ISBN 1-55634-437-6.
$24.95.
GURPS GM's Screen
Put the amazing flexibility and power of GURPS at your fingertips with this data-packed GM's Screen. This four-panel screen features all the crucial charts, tables, and other essentials from GURPS Fourth Edition. . . . complete combat tables, reaction charts, and other references to make the GM's job faster and easier.
Also included is a copy of the new Fourth Edition version of
GURPS Lite,
the 32-page core of the GURPS rules. GURPS Lite is a valuable rules summary, but it's also designed, in particular, as a teaching tool . . . it makes it easy for an experienced player or GM to introduce others to the system.
This screen is beautiful, useful . . . and yes, you can use it to hide your die rolls, too.
Four-panel screen. Includes GURPS Lite.
Stock #01-0005,
ISBN 1-55634-732-4.
$19.95.
And In October . . .
Munchkin Bites!
It's the World of Dorkness!
The Munchkins are now vampires . . . and werewolves . . . and changelings. Bash through the haunted house and slay the monsters. The OTHER monsters. You can't slay your fellow munchkins, but you can curse them, send foes at them, and take their stuff. Of course . . .
This is a stand-alone game, which (of course) can be combined with other Munchkin games. And it's illustrated by John Kovalic. OF COURSE. See Igor, Gilly, and all the other Dork Tower characters in their munchkin-vampire finery . . .
So bring along your Coffin (+3!) and wield The Sword Of Beheading People Just Like In That Movie. Face foes like the Banshee, the Heck Hounds, and the dreaded Were-Muskrat. Smite them all, and be the first to Level 10 . . .
Boxed game with 168 cards, rules, and die.
Stock #1419,
ISBN 1-55634-735-9.
$24.95.
Warehouse 23 News: Comics That Never Were
Z-Man Games puts a new twist on superhero gaming with Omlevex, a detailed study of a Silver Age superhero comics setting. Get all the details on the heroes and villains of the Omlevex Universe, read behind-the-scenes info from writers and artists, and--what do you mean it never existed?
June 16, 2004: Like A Candy Store, Only Better
So Austin now has its very own Apple Store. So we went. Oooooo.
I'm particularly impressed by the "Genius Bar" feature; Apple users can walk in and ask tech questions right there. I will be taking advantage of this.
I'm not impressed by the slogan "iLife - it's like Microsoft Office for the rest of your life." That would be like, say, having one arm in a sling for the rest of my life . . .
-- Steve Jackson
Explore the nature of the universe, the primal forces surrounding it, the Gods of Law and Chaos . . . It's Stormbringer, the roleplaying game based on the classic fantasy novels by Michael Moorcock.
I am delighted to report that Randy Milholland made his goal and has given notice at his Awful Day Job. Soon he'll be full-time on Something Positive and his other projects.
How cool is it when something like this happens? Cool enough that Neil Gaiman mentioned it in his blog . . .
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: Lovely Crinkly Edges
Map-making is full of the joy of placing continents, arranging rivers, situating cities . . . but no one wants a planet full of smooth, blobby continents. Fractal Mapper not only contains hundreds of mapping symbols and tools for building everything from dungeon floorplans to entire globes, it does all the edge-crinkling for you.
Elizabeth McCoy has written a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that can be used to design celestials
for In Nomine. See the complete list of game aids here.
The patriots in Boston are having a tea party, and you're invited! Time to toss a few crates of tea into the harbor and call it a good night's work. Of course, in the board game Tom Jolly's Cargo, it's a bit more complicated, as you're being paid on the side by a captain to load tea back into one of the ships . . .
June 13, 2004: Using Third Edition Books With Fourth Edition
We continue to get questions about what the Fourth Edition of GURPS will have on existing campaigns. We know that our fans have a significant investment in the current edition of GURPS. One of our goals in the Fourth Edition design process was to make sure that your entire library would not become obsolete overnight.
Of course, the very "crunchy" rulebooks, such as the old Basic Set itself, the two Compendium volumes, and GURPS Vehicles, are outdated. There's no way around that; that's the point of a new edition.
But most of the collection will still be completely useful. We'll keep a lot of them in print for at least the next couple of years; in fact, some older Third Edition books, like GURPS Greece,
were just reprinted. See this ludography for a more detailed list of Third Edition books that are easy to use with
GURPS Fourth Edition - and still in print!
Warehouse 23 News: Beyond Superstition
There was magic and wonder in the world . . . but in the age of reason, who has time for such fanciful things? Welcome to Victoriana, where the magic of old isn't so far in the past as people would like to believe. Dragon in the Smoke conveniently provides an adventure to get you started in the setting.
June 12, 2004: Waving "So Long" To Phil, With Thanks
After several years as production artist, artist, Art Director, Director of Special Projects, and various other hats, Phil Reed has returned to a freelance life. We'll miss him, but not too much, because he'll still be doing contract projects for us, and we expect to see him at a playtest every so often . . .
Many thanks go to Phil for all the time and talent he gave us. We're a smarter and more creative company thanks to his contributions.
And, just in case anyone in the industry hasn't noticed that Phil is free again . . . Hey! Talented writer and artist, looking for work . . . catch him before his dance card is full! You can see his site at philipjreed.com, or e-mail him at philip@philipjreed.com.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: Lurking Beyond The Veil
If you think modern RPGs are too warm and fuzzy, too full of homilies and heroic do-gooding, too uplifting and bright . . . you probably haven't been playing Kult.
June 11, 2004: Illuminated Site of the Week: Beam Us Up Scotty, There's No Rush Here
Maybe they were told fishing hole and they heard black hole. For whatever reason, the little town of Mayberry finds itself invaded by the United Federation of Planets. It takes a keen eye (or a bunch of publicity stills and video grabs), but Mayberry in Star Trek has the subtle photographic evidence that those Trek backgrounds are getting rural free delivery.
-- Suggested by Fnord
Warehouse 23 News: Back To The Dungeon
NPCs are for slaying, loot is for the taking, and the PCs will be rampaging through the enemies: it's back to the classics with Dungeon Crawl Classics, adventures for the d20 System. Bloody Jack's Gold sends the party after pirate treasure, while Aerie of the Crow God uses the traditional "maiden in distress" motivation.
Executive summary: We're working on it. Actual progress has been made on new coding, but there is much left to do. 37 files are completely ready for sale, and many more are in progress . . . these range from a couple of complete unpublished GURPS books, to a variety of short adventures for GURPS, In Nomine, and others.
A couple of questions have been raised recently. "Will the GURPS adventures in e23 support Third Edition, Fourth Edition, or both?" The answer is, both. There will be some 4e material in e23 as soon as it opens, but there will also be 3e material, and if we get submissions of good material, we won't reject it just because it's 3e (though we are likely to include 4e conversions if at all possible).
"Will the PDFs you sell be user-limited with some sort of digital rights management scheme?" No, they won't. We understand this is a hot issue right now because another company just opened a PDF store with encoded, "protected" PDFs that won't even work on some computers. We looked into that whole issue, and decided that copy protection would create far more trouble for our users than it would save for us. The l33t g00bs will break it anyway, and it annoys the honest people.
Heh. Looks like soon we'll have to update the snarky FAQ on the e23 page with these, and some other real answers.
-- Steve Jackson
Tribe 8 is a world of the future, where humanity has rebuilt itself after the apocalypse. Outcasts from the tribes will face the horrors still rampant in the world using the powers they've discovered, but the greatest enemy might be their own people.
In August 2004, Steve Jackson Games will release GURPS Fourth Edition, starting with the two-volume Basic Set. In addition to the regular Basic Set books, we'll also do a special, one-time Deluxe Edition. These won't be available in stores . . . they will be a Warehouse 23 exclusive, except for those sold at GenCon 2004.
We haven't set the print run yet; it will be based on pre-orders. We'll print enough to cover all pre-orders received by June 30 . . . plus a few hundred for GenCon. On June 30, we will close orders for the Deluxe Edition . . . if we have any left after GenCon, we'll offer them at that point. But when they're gone, they're gone.
Both books will be faux-leather bound with foil stamping. The two books will have full-color dust jackets, and will come in a deluxe slipcase. Book 1 will include a special autograph page in front, with the signatures of Steve Jackson, Sean Punch, David Pulver, and Andrew Hackard. (Yes, real signatures, not printed copies.)
The Deluxe Edition will be shipped as soon as it's finished, a bit before GenCon, so pre-order customers will see the Fourth Edition before anyone else.
(We'd love to show you a picture, but since it hasn't been printed yet, we can't. Trust us . . . this will be a really nice set.)
At any rate: you can order it now, here. Note that all by itself this meets the W23 minimum for free regular shipping in the U.S.
We hope you like it. We're going to make it extra pretty.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: Welcome To The City
You will never forget The City.
But The City will forget you.
a/state
How often have you wished that a creator whose work you really liked . . . an artist, a writer, a cartoonist, a musician . . . would give up that stupid, distracting day job, and devote himself to entertaining YOU with his creations?
You've probably wished for that a lot more than it has happened. Day Jobs are a fact of life. It's a rare and lucky creator who can pay the rent with his art, whether it's music, art, or game design.
But right now it looks like somebody's about to pull it off. Randy Milholland, the creator of Something Positive, recently put up an appeal to his readers. "Send me enough donations to cover my crummy salary for a year, and I'll quit my job and cartoon full-time."
And he's almost there. His goal is a bit over $22,000, and as of the last update his readers had contributed more than $19,000.
We're rooting for Randy. Obviously, we believe in him, or we wouldn't be carrying his T-shirts (and other apparel, some of it rather frightening) in Warehouse 23. And we think it is just massively cool that (a) he's willing to take this chance on his art, (b) that his readers are coming through, and (c) that if it works, there'll be a whole more more evil, funny Milholland cartoons out there! (Among other things, if he can pull this off, he'll start updating his new strip, The New Gold Dream, every weekday. This is a fantasy story, very unlike Something Positive, but with an interesting twist . . . some of the characters in The New Gold Dream are the gaming characters of the S*P characters.)
Anyway: If you're a fan of Randy's, and you haven't contributed, think about throwing him a few bucks for everything that you've enjoyed so far and everything you WILL enjoy. And if you haven't ever looked at Something Positive, and you think you might enjoy a NON-work-safe comic about . . . well, about people . . . check it out.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: A Bankrupt Wizard Is A Dangerous Wizard
Meet Pewfell, a wizard struggling to keep his finances together in the middle of a city that only occasionally remembers the definition of "law". It's not that he means to end up in adventures, but these things seem to keep happening . . . This collection pulls together strips and stories from the webcomic in a convenient print edition.
This Illuminator is a bit late, because the SJ Games party is just back from watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Mini-review:
- Sufficiently faithful to the book.
- Yes, it's darker than the previous movies. This is okay.
- Best. CGI. Ever.
- Can someone tell me how to stop proofreading? I saw two things in the credits, and one was just a typo, but the other indicated that somebody needed to be beaten with the Apostrophe Stick.
Summary: Definitely worth seeing.
-- Steve Jackson
June 6, 2004: The Eye Of The Pyramid Is On You
Down in the depths of the warehouse, we have a few little . . . research projects. Investigations into the nature of beings from other realities, how to build a better conspiracy, applesauce bread recipe modifications, you know how it goes: the usual projects one uses to fill up slow times between the coverups.
Lately we've had our intern Rupert looking into the mysteries of the pyramids; it's a good beginner's project, after all. Unfortunately, there was an . . . incident . . . involving ancient texts, a scale model of the Great Pyramid, and a crate of special items from the warehouse. We were able to clean up the mess, but we're reasonably sure we're not going to be seeing Rupert again. (Not in the same form that we last saw him, anyway.)
Fortunately, there's a plus side to this whole affair: before his untimely end, Rupert came up with a snazzy T-shirt design featuring the all-seeing eye in the pyramid that had been haunting his dreams for so many nights. Or at least, that's how we interpreted the bloody scrawls we found in the room during the cleanup. It's a cheerful, smiling pyramid done in a nice happy blue, and all of us here at Warehouse 23 think it's a sign that the pyramid wants to be our friend.
Buy a T-shirt. For Rupert, who gave us so much. (And this has nothing to do with that recent call for entry-level position applicants. Really. )
-- Fade, Warehouse 23 Clerk
Most science fiction RPGs start with humans, Earth (or something very much like it), and then build out from there. Mechanical Dream takes a different direction, with a strange and beautiful setting unlike any you've played in before. Find out what The Dream creatures and the Subtle Mechanisms really are.
Okay, so Munchkin Blender hasn't even gone to press yet and you're already working on another one?
Well, yes. You know you want it.
Munchkin Bites! will be a stand-alone game which, like the previous Munchkin sequels, will be combinable with the others. In this game, you become Vampires, Werewolves, and Changelings . . . or unholy crossbreeds . . . bashing through a haunted house, slaughtering the other monsters and everything else you find. Any vague resemblance to a certain soon-to-be-late World of Not-Much-Light is strictly . . . hee hee . . . well, you'll see.
Munchkin Bites! is illustrated by John Kovalic. John practically MADE us do this game, in fact, just so he could draw a lot more vampire pictures of Gilly, Igor, and the rest of the Dork Tower crew. As you see, he had a good time . . .
I had a good time, too, at the last playtest. I was a sex-changed vampirESS with Goth Boots, a Punk Hairdo, a Maniac Minion, and the Bat Bat and several really cool powers, including Metathesis, Transmogrification, and Celeritousness. And I won. Faced a Wind-Up Skull . . . a FLUFFY wind-Up Skull . . . and demolished it. Insert evil laughter here!
Munchkin Bites! will ship in October. Of course.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: Hero Needs New Powers, Stat
The team already has the Fire Guy, the Weather Guy, the Really Strong Guy, and just about everyone can fly... It's time to add something different to your superheroes. Powers Unlimited Two is a whole new book of ideas for doing new things with the characters of your Heroes Unlimited game.
June 4, 2004: Illuminated Site of the Week: Character Assassination
Looking for a new way to wage an internal war? This site is satire. Repeat: This site is for the purpose of satire only. Thank you. -- Suggested by Anonymous
Warehouse 23 News: One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others
Can you pick out the Cthulhu that isn't like the others? Maybe you'd rather color in the Shoggoth, or read one of the cheery poems about the Elder Gods. Spend a rainy day waiting for the end of the world with the Cthulhu Rainy-Day Activity Book.
June 3, 2004: So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu
[WARNING: Not safe for worriers!]
Ever really given serious thought to the end of the world? Yeah, well, you probably haven't come close to the guys at Exit Mundi. Has scenarios ranging from the frighteningly plausible to the, uh, not.
-- Andrew Hackard, Managing Editor
Warehouse 23 News: Now With More 3v1l
Monsters rampaging through Tokyo. Beer runs. Beautiful women with mysterious backgrounds. A shoulder angel who can only get a hamster for assistance. Cute Japanese schoolgirls who happen to be game console accessories. Hordes of zombies. It's another day in the Megatokyo online comic, now available in two manga-sized print compilations.
The Maestro program lets you drive Spirit and Opportunity on Mars! Well, not really. It's a simulation. As far as we know . . .
Look more closely at the children of plane-jumpers in Aasimar & Tiefling, a sourcebook for half-celestials, half-fiends, and the eponymous creatures of the book. If you'd prefer to keep your d20 a little closer to a single plane, Corwyl: Village of the Wood Elves examines an elven village for a good solid elfy background.
The title says it all. I will consider volunteer proposals to translate the Fourth Edition version of GURPS Lite to Klingon. Your proposal should show the strength of your Klingon language expertise and experience; previous translations will weigh heavily in our decision. However, your proposal must be in English . . .
Write me at sj@sjgames.com, and make sure that "GURPS Lite Klingon" is the message title.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: Strange And Stranger
Hellboy is back for more in two new takes on his career. Weird Tales One collects stories about the Big Red Guy, written and illustrated by a variety of cartoonists taking Mignola's hero for a spin. Hellboy Junior is a irreverent twist on the Hellboy stories, by Mignola and the creator of Ren and Stimpy.
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