Steve Jackson Games Daily Illuminator Archive: September 2004

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September 30, 2004: One Down, One To Go
SpaceShipOne, with pilot Mike Melvill, succeeded in the first of two required suborbital flights to claim the $10 million X Prize.
According to CNN, it was an unexpectedly eventful flight. Read the story for more details.
SJ Games congratulates Paul Allen, Burt Rutan, and the entire Scaled Composites team. Good luck on flight number two!

Warehouse 23 News: Behold The Doom Cow
For everyone who loved the bovine mayhem and four-hooved action of Battle Cattle, there's now Rambull, a squishably cuddly (yet dangerous and hostile!) plush cow, complete with missile launchers and grenade cowbell.

September 29, 2004: SPANC Update
There's some new art on the SPANC webpage, for those of you frothing for more Foglio-ey catgirl goodness.
And the Weekly World News is getting into the act. Would we make this up?

Warehouse 23 News: Things Nazis Were Not Meant To Know
In the heart of World War II, there are things worse than the enemy, things no human tongue can pronounce, that no human mind can comprehend. And to let the enemy control such things would be worse yet . . . Delta Green has work to do in Denied to the Enemy, a new novel of Cthulhoid mythos horror.

September 28, 2004: Heaven. Hell. Horses.
This is a new In Nomine MUSH set in modern-day Louisville, Kentucky. It follows the secret war of Heaven and Hell for the souls of humanity in a time where Greed holds an unsteady rulership over the local area. Humans (whether Soldiers or unaware of the war), Undead, angels, and demons are all available for play, and the Kentucky Derby will be a reoccurring plotline.
Heaven. Hell. Horses. is located at telnet://nekodojo.org (port 4206) and will be open for new player applications as of Monday, Sept. 27, 2004.

Warehouse 23 News: Arcane Tech
Warcraft has always had a touch of steampunk to its fantasy, and now Magic & Mayhem shows you just how to run with all that technological magical goodness.

September 27, 2004: And The Microphone Is Made Of Anchovies
Researchers from MIT, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and the University of Tennessee have developed a solar cell made from spinach. (Well, spinach molecules anyway.) Fortunately, the secret of other eavesdropping components made from pizza toppings still eludes them.

Warehouse 23 News: Back Into The Dungeon
Whatever happened to the good old-fashioned dungeon crawl? Apparently, it wandered over to Goodman Games, sniffled around looking pathetic until someone noticed, and got a brand new home. Check out these puppies: The Secret of Smuggler's Cove, Dungeon Geomorphs, The Sunless Garden, and The Dragonfiend Pact.

September 26, 2004: MIB - Junior Division
Meet one of the Conspiracy's youngest members, Anna - shown here in all her illuminated splendor. Her father, Benjamin, reports that Anna thought the temporary tattoo was a sticker, and became quite distraught when she couldn't spread the Conspiracy by peeling it off and sticking it to something else.
Go, Anna!

Warehouse 23 News: From The Shadows
Covert operations, a touch of magic, a heck of a lot of firepower . . . Shadowrun, Shadows of Europe, Mr. Johnson's Little Black Book, Shadowrun Companion, and State of the Art - 2063 are waiting.

September 25, 2004: How Not To Be Illuminated
It started when WalMart marketed the rabidly anti-Semitic "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" while neglecting to mention that it was widely known to be a complete hoax.
They've stopped. A "business decision," they called it. Apparently it would have been inappropriate for them to admit to making a moral decision?
However, in their complaint letter to WalMart (quoted at the above link), the Anti-Defamation League managed to refer to Hitler as a persecuted Jew. Your heart's in the right place, guys, but let's work on that grammar.
Klingons for Kerry
And yet the same universe that produced THAT also gave rise to THIS. So perhaps there is hope for the children of Eris . . .

Warehouse 23 News: Brick To The Head
Sometimes, all that flashy glitzy stuff of fancier superpowers just gets in the way. Sometimes, all you want is to hit someone. Really, really hard. For moments like that, you need The Ultimate Brick. Nicely compliments the heavy hardcover core rules for the Hero System.

September 24, 2004: Illuminated Site of the Week: Sleep The Sleep Of The Just
Some disasters just aren’t worth getting out of bed for.
-- Submitted by SilverFox

Warehouse 23 News: Rumble, Rumble, Rumble . . .
Are the PCs getting a little too confident in your modern d20 System game? d20 Mecha: Military Vehicles covers over 100 military vehicles old and new from around the world. Bet they won't feel quite so good about their gun fu when the tanks start rolling towards them.

September 23, 2004: Now Shipping!
These are our September 2004 releases, headed out across the country and the world to distributors and game stores everywhere:
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 screen features a gorgeous John Zeleznik painting with all of the Fourth Edition iconic characters, plus six panels full of 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. A second 48-page book includes character sheets, forms, a master list of character creation features, and GURPS Update, a complete guide to converting your PC to Fourth Edition.
This screen is beautiful, useful . . . and yes, you can use it to hide your die rolls, too.
Four-panel screen. Includes GURPS Lite and a 48-page book of conversion notes and game aids. Stock #01-0005, ISBN 1-55634-732-4. $19.95.

Frag (Reprint)
Game starts. Enemy in sight . . . Frag him! Grab his stuff! Run! Get a bigger gun! Grab some armor! There he is again! Frag him! Whoa, there's another one. Run . . . you're hit! You're down. Respawn! Grab a weapon! Start again!
Frag is a computer game without a computer. It's a "first-person shooter" on a tabletop. Move your fighter and frag your foes; draw cards for weapons, armor, and gadgets; move through the blood spatters to restore your own health! If you die, you respawn and come back shooting!
Easy to learn, fast-moving, fun . . . two supplements are already out, and more are coming!
Boxed game with cards and color game map. Stock #1339, ISBN 1-55634-651-4. $29.95.

Munchkin (Reprint)
Go down in the dungeon. Kill everything you meet. Backstab your friends and steal their stuff. Grab the treasure and run. Admit it. You love it. This new card game, designed by Steve Jackson, captures the essence of the dungeon experience . . . with none of that stupid roleplaying stuff. You and your friends compete to kill monsters and grab magic items. And what magic items! Don the Horny Helmet and the Boots of Butt-Kicking. Wield the Staff of Napalm . . . or maybe the Chainsaw of Bloody Dismemberment. Start by slaughtering the Potted Plant and the Drooling Slime, and work your way up to the Plutonium Dragon . . . And it's illustrated by John Kovalic! Fast-playing and silly, Munchkin can reduce any roleplaying group to hysteria. And, while they're laughing, you can steal their stuff.
Boxed game. Stock #1408, ISBN 1-55634-473-2. $24.95.

Munchkin 3 - Clerical Errors (Reprint)
You wanted more Munchkin, so here it is! Created by Steve Jackson and illustrated by John Kovalic . . . Munchkin 3 - Clerical Errors has 112 more cards for the best-selling game of killing monsters and taking their stuff. Play a new race: Gnomes! Try on the Bard class. Face the Tequila Mockingbird, the Bad Ass, and the dreaded Auntie Paladin! Equip yourself with amazing items like the Chainmail Bikini and the Stab-A-Matic . . . and show them who’s the mightiest, munchkinest dungeon delver of them all.
And this set has a special treat. We asked five of our favorite Comic Guys to do one card each. So in this set you'll find:

Phil Foglio's Magnificent Hat
Pete Abrams' Perfectly Ordinary Rabbit
Tom Ricket's Stick Figure
Jon Rosenberg's Fowl Fiend
and Randy Milholland's Redneck Tree!

112 cards. Stock #1416, ISBN 1-55634-713-8. $16.95.

Warehouse 23 News: West End Games Is Back!
And the D6 System has leapt back into full swing, with three new sourcebooks, each a self-contained rulebook and genre guide. Pull out your AK-47, laser pistol, or magic sword and try out D6 Adventure, D6 Space, and D6 Fantasy.

September 22, 2004: The Lead Llama Speaks!
Jim Doherty, owner of Eight Foot Llama, the small press card/boardgame publisher that brought you Who Stole Ed's Pants?, Monkeys on the Moon, and The Penguin Ultimatum, will be stopping by Pyramid's Chat Auditorium this Friday! He'll answer questions about breaking into the boardgame business, his upcoming game The Nacho Incident, and where he gets those awesome names. (Walla Walla, Washington, perhaps?)
Stop by Pyramid Friday September 24 at 7pm Central (8pm for you East Coasters) and pick the brain behind the Llama.
Pyramid is our online zine, featuring Ken Hite's Suppressed Transmission, weekly comics (including John Kovalic's Dork Tower and Murphy's Rules, drawn by Greg Hyland), and reviews from every area of gaming. Click here to subscribe!

Warehouse 23 News: Vexed Vixens
A supervillain who uses and discards cute female sidekicks has to watch out; they might get annoyed . . . Silver Age Sentinels: Roll Call 3 - Country Matters presents two dozen women Janus has encountered in the past, complete with powers and just what they think of him now.

September 21, 2004: Yes, Ziggy, We Are.
Take a look at this.
-- Andrew Hackard, Managing Editor

Warehouse 23 News: The Fate Of The Imperium!
Traveller20. A classic science-fiction roleplaying setting combined with the most ubiquitous roleplaying system. Gateway to Destiny presents the Gateway Domain in enough detail for entire campaigns, where, naturally, you'll be deciding the fate of the Third Imperium. As PCs are wont to do.

September 20, 2004: Meme Of The Month
Or maybe of the millennium. "Respond To Religious Harassment By Singing Show Tunes." You've got to read the story.
-- Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: Woe, Woe
Fear. Madness. Corruption. Just another day in the life of an adventurer! If you're playing a horror game in the d20 System, that is. And if so, Darkness & Dread has all the information you need to build atmosphere and enjoy lots of crunchy bits. Darky spooky crunchy bits.

September 19, 2004: Talk Like A Pirate Day!
Arr! Sunday be Talk Like A Pirate Day. Ye know the drill by now, ye scalawags.
-- Evil Stevie

Warehouse 23 News: Dork Heaven
Gilly, Igor, Carson . . . If these names aren't ringing a bell, you haven't been reading enough Dork Tower. Join our favorite group of roleplaying geeks with Dork Tower #27 and Dork Tower #28.

September 18, 2004: Star Munchkin Print Problem: We Are SO Hosed
We discovered today that the new printing of Star Munchkin is messed up. Every darned one of them. We are extremely sorry and embarrassed, and we don't yet know how many of them have gotten into stores or been sold. Ouch.
This is not a "collectible" print error . . . no cards have the wrong backs. But one deck, the one that's packaged with the Orb of Prediction on the front, is missing half the cards it should have, and has duplicates of other cards.
How did it happen? Long story. Basically, in reformatting the decks for our printer's new requirements, a HUGE error was made at a very early stage. It was so huge that nobody who checked it saw the forest for the trees. All the cards on the revised deck were right . . . and they were in the right relationship to each other . . . but one batch got duplicated between decks, so 28 cards are missing.
If you are a distributor, don't ship any of those. (Actually, we've phoned all the distributors already.) If you are a retailer, don't sell any, and wait to hear from your distributor on how we'll fix it for you. It's up to you whether you allow returns on those you've sold; if you can't do that, we'll take care of the customer. See below.
If you are a customer, what you need to do is pull the TWO "Chair" cards out of the set (a good set only has one "Chair" card in the first place). Send them to: Star Munchkin Disaster, c/o Steve Jackson Games, PO Box 18957, Austin TX 78760. We'll send you one of your cards back, and a good replacement deck.
How long? We found out about this TODAY. The printer hasn't given us a delivery date for replacement cards yet. Maybe a month . . . maybe a bit more, maybe less if we're all lucky.
How can you tell a good set from a bad one by looking at the box? This only matters if you are a retailer or customer who thinks a box has been on the shelf for a while and might be an OLD, GOOD one. And you can't tell from the OUTSIDE of the box. But if you open the box, an OLD, GOOD set has an ad for Pyramid on one side of the box bottom, while a NEW, HOSED set has an ad for Munchkin Blender.
Please feel free to re-post this embarrassing information to forums and newsgroups where it will be seen. The sooner everyone sees this, the fewer will leave retail stores and the less pain there will be all around.
Questions? E-mail to orders@sjgames.com.
-- Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: Not In The Eyes!
Yes, you too can now blind your opponents and make a daring escape when losing in a wargame, with the MapAid Laser Pointer! Or you could just use it as a pointer for miniatures games and roleplaying games, to avoid drawing on an expensive map or disturbing the arrangement of pieces.

September 17, 2004: Illuminated Site of the Week: We’ll Do The Prophecies Of Elton John Next
Kennedy and Lincoln had their Posner; McCartney had his Gibb; and Princess Diana has, well . . . David Alice. Operating under the assumption that his albums must have some value, singer Morrissey has been singled out as a doomsayer. Not that such a tone is hard to find in his songs, but did they presage the popular princess’ passing? The Diana-Morrissey Phenomenon has the answers.
-- Suggested by Geoffrey Brent

Warehouse 23 News: Slayers and Dragons
The Slayers Try, the third fan guide and Big Eyes, Small Mouth sourcebook for the series is now out, and the Slayers universe has just expanded . . . literally. With new countries and beings from other dimensions, Lina and friends (now joined by the dragon priestess Filia) set off to explore this strange new world.

September 16, 2004: The Illuminati Are In . . . Montana?
You cannot deny the evidence of your own eyes. Behold The Great Sphaynx.

Warehouse 23 News: Whompables
Supers games are all about whomping on the villains. And, more often than not, a bit of whomping on the other heroes before you become allies and whomp the villains together. The Algernon Files give you over a hundred new allies and opponents for Mutants & Masterminds, all ready for property-destroying mayhem.

September 15, 2004: Pyramid Pins!
They're back! The Pyramid Pins are once again available in Warehouse 23, in many, many colors, each with a secret meaning. Or maybe more than one, but we can't tell you that fnord.
After two years of discussion, debate, argument, research, bribes, and divination, the Powers That Be have finally commenced implementation of Directive 412.5d, the reconfiguration of departments and subdepartments and the assignation of the appropriate "Eye-In-the-Pyramid" identification pin color(s) thereto.
Consult the official chart to determine the appropriate Departmental Identification Pin to be worn by members of each department. If you change departments, change your pin. If you are uncertain as to which department you are in, report to Logistics & Support. If you lose your pin(s), report to Internal Security. The contents of this document are not to be revealed to anyone without a Level Fnord security clearance. All information contained within the Official Chart and Directive 412.5d is subject to change without notice or explanation.
If you see someone wearing a pin not on the Official Chart, do not ask questions.
Illustrated: the Surveillance pin.

Warehouse 23 News: Baby's All Grown Up Now
Remember those idyllic days of beating up other kids on the playground for their lunch money? You've moved past those childish pastimes, and on to more important things: Beer Money. A furious little card game for people who don't mind a little blood on their hands.

September 14, 2004: GURPS Lite Translations
We'd like GURPS Fourth Edition to be available in as many languages as possible. Right now, it's being translated into Japanese (to be published by Kadokawa Shoten), Korean (Dayspring Games) and Portuguese (Devir Livraria). Will there be others? For sure . . . but there's nothing to announce yet.
In the meantime, what about GURPS Lite? Realistically, a 32-page book, designed to be given away free, can be translated into a LOT of languages where it'll never be worth anybody's while to translate the whole system. Of course, the Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese languages will be covered by the licensed publishers. And we already have volunteers working on Bulgarian, Italian, Danish, French, and Klingon. Yes, Klingon.
But that still leaves several hundred languages. If you're interested, drop me a line and we'll talk. Where I have multiple qualified volunteers for a language, I'll pick one as the lead translator but encourage them to work together. We will post the finished versions on our site for free download, and permit you (and others) to create hardcopy versions for free distribution. You will of course get credit as translator on our site and on your translated version.
-- Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: Talking About Glorantha
Glorantha fans are undoubtedly familiar with The Chaos Society and their fan publications. Most recently available are Tradetalk #13 and the novel The Widow's Tale.

September 13, 2004: Missing Persons
Sometimes, try as we might, we lose track of people. And when that happens, we've found, you folks can be a big help. If you know anybody on the list below, please let them know that we're looking for them. Or just send us the contact information!
First: Jeff Mallett, of Zillions of Games / Dark Mirror Games. We saw a rather spiffy proposal from him for a computer version of Knightmare Chess . . . but it's been a couple of months since his phone was answered by anything but a recording, and e-mails are falling into a well of silence. This is especially frustrating when the message I'm trying to deliver is "We like it. What do we do now?" If Jeff yet lives, we'd sure like to hear from him.
There are also several missing persons on our royalty recipients list. There are now hundreds of people on this list, and keeping it updated is a chore. We owe money to some of these folks right now, and expect to owe money (or at least a report) to them all before long. Mail to them has been returned, leading us to suspect that we missed, or mis-entered, an address change.

W. Peter Miller
Isaac Bonewits, author of Authentic Thaumaturgy
Gary Makin, in Australia
James Hurst
Dr. Gregory Rose
Holly Langland, for the Nigel Findley estate
-- Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: The Wildlife Is Restless
If it weren't bad enough trying to deal with all the pirates, thieves, and assorted ne'er-do-wells of Freeport, now the local fauna (and some of the more aggressive flora) want to have you for lunch, or maybe just as a playtoy. Creatures of Freeport will give you enough information to figure out what's gnawing your leg off.

September 12, 2004: Teeny Lego Pirate Ships
Big Lego sculptures are impressive, but I get blown away by how much can be done with very SMALL projects. Take a look at this, for instance. The creator has built a perfect little pirate ship, inspired by one of the BIG Lego models, the Black Sea Barracuda . . . but this one is only about 20 studs long.
Take a look at his gallery on Brickshelf for more neat stuff, including several other "micro" models.
-- Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: Poor Little Bugs
Orphaned Races: Ascorbites & Hironem provides an in-depth look at two new races from the Fading Suns universe. Outcasts in a human-dominated universe, these cultures can add an new perspective to your campaign.

September 11, 2004: Illuminated Site of the Week: We Knew Seasons Lasted Six Months Here
There's a tunnel of time over Antarctica. Would we lie to you? Probably, but Pravda wouldn't, else what's the point?
-- Suggested by Joe Taylor

Warehouse 23 News: Poseable Plastic Kitty
STIKFAS! If you don't already know what these are, go take a look. If you do, try the two new figure-and-critter sets with the Alpha Male K-9 Police Unit and Beta Female Safari with Jungle Cat. If you prefer big guns to a fuzzy pal, check out Omega Male Military instead.

September 10, 2004: Hugo Awards
This year's Hugo Awards for achievement in science fiction were announced at Worldcon, and we are rather thoroughly delighted to note that the top two honors went to a couple of very nice people with whom we've had the pleasure to work!
Lois McMaster Bujold is the creator of the Miles Vorkosigan saga, on which we're basing the forthcoming GURPS Vorkosigan. She won "Best Novel" for Paladin of Souls, her first Hugo for a non-Vorkosigan novel. She's won three times previously: in 1990 for The Vor Game, in 1991 for Barrayar, and in 1994 for Mirror Dance.
Bob Eggleton won "Best Professional Artist." He worked with us in 1988, with the cover of GURPS Space Bestiary, and again in 1990 with the cover of GURPS Unnight. Since then, he has won the Hugo for Best Professional Artist in 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2003. We haven't had any more Eggleton game covers (our loss!) but in 2003, our Cartouche Press division released Primal Darkness: The Gothic and Horror Art of Bob Eggleton.
Congratulations, Lois and Bob!
-- Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: Gloranthan Skies
Fans of HeroQuest and the older Hero Wars alike will appreciate Tales of the Reaching Moon, fan-published magazines compiling all sorts of material for the Glorantha setting. Most recently available are Issue #13, Issue #14, and Issue #15.

September 9, 2004: Wonder How Many They'll Sell?
Not satisfied with advertising a price of $124.95 for Munchkin Bites!, our friends at Amazon will charge you an extra $1.99 because this "paperback" is "hard to find."
No, we're not kidding. Let's see how long till they fix it.

Warehouse 23 News: Addictive Little Games
Cheapass Games' computer games are quick, addictive, and a heck of a lot of fun. Their newest addition to the line, Big Box of Blox, is all about dropping blocks. And if you're using a Mac, you're in luck, because the Mac OS X Boiler Plate Special has three of their games on a single CD.

September 8, 2004: Can You Stand Some Good News?
Distributor re-orders for the GURPS Basic Set have been greater than expected - and we thought we were being optimistic. Happy us . . . the warehouse is working hard to keep up!

Warehouse 23 News: Xevolve
From the people who brought you STIFKAS, Xevoz is a line of little action figures you assemble yourself, complete with rules for battling them out using different bits you've plugged into them. From werebeasts to techy soldiers to undead forces, this world is ready for customizable battle.

September 7, 2004: A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!
Apparently it was right under our noses, and a couple of miles of water, the whole time. But at last the story can be told, and it's right here.

Warehouse 23 News: Kill! Loot! Level Up!
For those players who want to squeeze every last plus out of their D&D characters, The Power Gamer's 3.5 Warrior Strategy Guide does exactly what it claims on the cover. Chock-full of numbers and advice and none of that fluffy stuff other books insist on containing.

September 6, 2004: Three Reasons To Be Happy
So three notably good things have happened in the last week or so . . .
(1) I had some very different fun in Puzzle Pirates. A ruffian who goes by the name of LeJerque set up a huge and completely unofficial puzzling contest (with the gleeful approval, of course, of the game's operators). He spent a great deal of time crafting some really killer puzzles . . . word puzzles, riddles, math, even one 3-D puzzle. And he wrote a story to wrap them all up, and ran the whole contest in the game's forum area. And he got donations from other players and created a very hefty prize pot. All unofficial! This is the kind of thing that HAPPENS in this game community. I entered, teaming with one very clever friend . . . We didn't win. We were two points short of a perfect score, but ten teams were perfect. But we had a great time and we'll enter again.
(2) I had the great pleasure of reading the first draft for the Fourth Edition book GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars by Jon Zeigler (with Paul Drye and Loren Wiseman). And it was simply excellent. Best first draft I've seen in a long time, better than some FINAL drafts, and a huge morale boost for Stevie.
(3) I was reading Howard Tayler's blog under the latest Schlock Mercenary, and there he was, saying nice things about Warehouse 23. Wow.
-- Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: Itty Bitty Heroics
Throw a few more heroes onto the table with Fantasy Encounters: Heroes, a set of pre-painted miniatures of a heroic nature. They're good old 'generic fantasy' types, so they'll fit into most fantasy games. Perfect for the lazy player or GM who wants to show off tactical positioning without spending time painting things up.

September 5, 2004: Raccoons
Our dumpster had three visitors . . . adolescent raccoons. (Yes, we could only get two in the frame at once. The third one was just as cute.)
Everybody admired them from a discreet distance, and then we put in a board so they could climb out.
They haven't been back, which is good . . . maybe they were in there long enough to associate the dumpster with "scary imprisonment" more than "free food."

Warehouse 23 News: Lurkers In Your Dreams
There are things that cannot touch you during the day, in the waking world, when you move through what you think is real unconcerned and unafraid. But at night when you dream, there is a place where these things wait. Are you ready to enter H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands?

September 4, 2004: Back-Biter
German doctors have used stem cells to grow a new jaw for a cancer patient. The cells were implanted in a special titanium mesh below his shoulder blade.
Can TL9 be far behind?
Here's the CNN story. Be sure to check out the pictures!
-- Andrew Hackard, Managing Editor

Warehouse 23 News: Scenes Edited From The Action Film
In The Man Between, watch the story of a transatlantic secret agent . . . on a very slow day. Thrill to the phone calls where he gets put on hold! Feel the pulse-pounding action of - no, wait, that's a different movie. Cheapass Games brings you a spy story of truly unusual proportions.

September 3, 2004: Illuminated Site of the Week: . . . And Introducing Hastu . . . Eh, You Know
What happens when you end up with a Necronomicon and Walter and his friends come looking for it? You get The Call of Whatever, a light but entertaining webcomic about Old Ones, mad Arabs, and ~~Ctut~~ . . . ~~Culth~~ . . . whatever.
-- Suggested by Brian Hogue

Warehouse 23 News: Warehouse 23 Top Ten
Check out Warehouse 23's top selling items for August at the Warehouse 23 Top 10 page.

September 2, 2004: Linucon
I'm going to be a guest at Linucon, here in Austin on October 8-10. This is a combination SF and Linux convention, the Texas sequel to Penguicon, where I had a great time just a few months ago. This promises to be just as good and have liquid nitrogen ice cream too.
I'm going to be setting up a big Chaos machine . . . or, rather, providing several large boxes of parts so the con attendees can build their own idea of a Chaos machine. In the hotel lobby.
And there will be the Pirate Game. Possibly the biggest instance yet, in terms of toys if not room size, since the Lego doesn't have to be shipped, but just loaded into a pickup.
My fellow guests will include Eric Raymond, Howard Tayler, and Wil Wheaton. Going to be a good one . . . And you have just a few days to preregister. But you can save five dollars if you put the special Evil Stevie code word on the registration form. I'm not going to tell you what it is fnord, but maybe it'll come to you in time.
-- Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: Make New Friends
Travel to new worlds, meet new people, hope they're not trying to kill you. Stargate SG-1 hits its second season with Friends and Foes, and First Steps provides a sourcebook for all sorts of new unexplored worlds where you can help (or hide from) the natives.

September 1, 2004: Looking For Wireless, Redux
A month or so back, we posted a link to a site with a decent collection of free wireless hotspots for a handful of cities.
Here's a better (or at least bigger) list. Happy surfing!

-- Andrew Hackard, Managing Editor

Warehouse 23 News: Dangerous Beasties
For fans of Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed, Legacy of the Dragons brings new hordes of nasties to your game, from akashic seeker to zetetic. Sure, it also includes NPCs and feats and what not, but what you really want is the things with pointy teeth for devouring unwary PCs.

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