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Illuminated Site of the Week
August 31, 2007: Illuminated Site of the Week: As Below, Not Above
If you like sites dedicated to weird things like aliens and the supernatural, half your ship has come in. Obiwan's UFO-Free Paranormal Page wants you to share your bizarre stories of visits from beyond the grave, snapshots, and nothing in the way of UFOlogy (they admit spacecraft could be responsible for some sightings, they just don't want to talk about it). Beware the links that take you back to where you started; it's all just a ghostly glamor. -- Andy
Warehouse 23 News: 100% Pure, Unfiltered Awesome
ps238: Not Another Learning Experience is the fourth ps238 trade paperback ever. Which, actually, doesn't really mean anything . . . but doesn't it make the book sound more enticing? No, you're right. It's ps238. It basically sells itself on Pure Awesome alone.
After rather a long time with no giant UC games, we're starting another one. If you've played UltraCorps before, you know how, and you're eligible to join (it's free). If you haven't played, it's still free . . . the only requirement is that you finish at least one solo game first, so you know enough of the mechanics to have a chance of surviving past the halfway point. Yes, this can be a mean game . . .
-- Steve Jackson
If you spend your evenings sitting around a table, shouting about how your half-elf ranger could totally track "hot chicks," Full Frontal Nerdity: Big Book of Epic Fail is the book for you. Which is to say, it's about you. Remember, those who can't make fun of themselves are doomed to be made fun of by their friends. And family. And the Internet.
The Adventure Retail crew, including myself, will be at Dragon*Con once again this year. Although this show is primarily considered a "media" show, focusing on special guests, movies, and mainstream coolness, there is still a good deal of gaming going on. It's a fantastic experience, for the parade of eye-popping costumes if nothing else.
If you're in the Atlanta, Georgia, area over Labor Day weekend, stop on by Booth 1021 and experience the Exact Change Dance for yourself, or just grab a copy of GURPS Supers, Martial Arts, or Call of Cowthulhu.
-- Paul Chapman
The American Heritage Dictionary defines a nebula as "a diffuse mass of interstellar dust or gas or both, visible as luminous patches or areas of darkness depending on the way the mass absorbs or reflects incident radiation." We define the Nebula dice from Chessex as "dude, sweet!"
GURPS Martial Arts has been shipping from Warehouse 23 for a few days, and should be on your Friendly Local Game Store's shelves right now. If you don't see it, ask!
Wondering what's inside? Check out the excerpts on the book's page, including the table of contents (which has been available for a while) and two new ones -- covering ninjas and tactics.
If you'd like to chat with others who have already picked up the book, or even the authors themselves, jump over to our forums. William Stoddard has started a thread about fencing styles, the aforementioned excerpted tactics page is discussed here, and Eric Smith has announced the
GURPS Martial Arts datafile for GURPS Character Assistant.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Lies (Statistics Sold Seperately)
Rifts and the Megaverse: The Art of John Zeleznik is exactly what it sounds like. Yup, that's right, it's a cookbook. Made of chocolate. Written in Esperanto. From space. (Yeah, okay, those are all lies. Buy the book anyway.)
The Good, the Bad, and the Munchkin has ridden off into the sunset . . . er, the printer. We spotted the proofs back late last week, and everything looks good.
This set is scheduled for release in late October or early November. In either case, it'll be on store shelves in time for a very Munchkin holiday season.
Get along, little doggie . . .
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Weapon Of Mass Dei-struction
What's better than one Holy Hand Grenade? Two Holy Hand Grenades. Get a set of Monty Python: Plush Holy Hand Grenade Danglers for your car and you'll never have to worry about being underarmed on the interstate.
A journalist recently asked me for photos of Evil Stevie's Pirate Game in progress, and I was sad to discover that (a) I could not locate any around here, and (b) most of the web links I had been sent in the past are to dead sites.
If you have taken pictures of the Pirate Game and have any to share, I'd love to get them . . .
- Only send me your three best ones, because I'd like to create a little archive of photos from various people;
- Don't send me anything unless it's okay for me to post it and let others use it;
- If you give me caption info about each of your photos - credits, subject, whatever - I'll include that if I use it.
Thanks!
-- Steve Jackson
PS - Yes, I realize that the Pirate Game site hasn't been updated since 2004. Time flies when you're having fun. The Pirate Game is fun. Therefore time flies. That's me story an' I'm stickin' to it, arrrr. BUT - I will do an update soon. AND - I have agreed to come to a California convention in 2008 and run the game. I'm not saying where yet, because they get to make the announcement first.
Warehouse 23 News: You Down With DRD?
Yeah, you know we. We've all enjoyed watching Moya's miniscule minions scuttering around, making and cleaning up messes in equal measure. Alas, everyone's favorite little frellnik has been unavailable for use at home. Until now. It's the Farscape: Plush DRD! Guaranteed not to go insane and start shooting at you! Or much of anything else, unfortunately. Plush and all.
August 25, 2007: Illuminated Site of the Week: The All-You-Can-Banish Buffet
You thought they were secret masters, but it turns out the Illuminati are just tasty snacks. At Supernatural Spirit, Psi-Lord Tim Rifat offers to eliminate (and "shred"!) any and all kinds of weird beings, from aliens to cryptozoids. His prices are reasonable (current special: spend $600 and Soul Rescue is free) - but if he consumes the psi energy of the things he kills, should he be charging you at all? After all, you just bought him lunch. -- Suggested by lilith
. . . no one can hear you overuse a joke. All Flesh Must Must Be Eaten: All Tomorrow's Zombies is very narrowly saved from being the subject of a "Zombies! In! Spaaaaaace!" joke because - wait, does that count as actually making the joke? Poopie . . .
Beginning this week, a new batch of emails has started showing up in our inboxes, purporting to be confirmation emails for mostly game-related sites that we have recently signed up for. Doesn't sound unusual, right? The problem is that we haven't signed up for anything, or didn't remember it if we did. This is really the latest round of attempts to spread the Storm Worm. Most of the variations this time around contain something like this:
----
Account Number: 73422529174753
Your Temp. Login ID: user3559
Temorary Password: jz398
Please Change your login and change your Login Information.
This link will allow you to securely change your login info: http://a.b.c.d/
----
You might remember the Storm Worm from all of the "friends who have sent you an e-postcard" emails earlier in the month, as well as various other attempts this year. All of these are attempts to get you to click through to a site and then download something (the postcard, a secure login applet, a video player, etc.) that is really the Storm Worm in disguise. There are a couple of different variants, but almost all of them make your computer part of what is called a botnet, a network of infected computers that someone else can take control of and use to send spam or make attacks on other computers.
Most of us safely avoid these, but every now and then the cover sounds believable enough that we might be enticed to check them out. You can rest easy though . . . you're not going senile and forgetting about the sites you've signed up for. It's evil spam. Unless you have some ninjas you can send to visit the creators, just ignore it.
-- Jimmie Bragdon
Warehouse 23 News: To Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrms!
Wait, was that too many R's? One, two, three . . . nope, that's right. Har, matey! Ignore all those other books, they be rubbish, arr! The only book ya be needin' is RuneQuest: Pirates. And if anyone be tellin' ya different, jes send them our way, ha-har! We be havin' all manner o' ways of . . . convincin' em, ha-har! Like these dissertations! Aye, you'll find no more convincin' an argument in all tha seven seas!
GURPS High-Tech is at the printer! In a week or two, we'll have the proof, and we'll post an image of it. But for now, all we can do is wait about three more months for it to get back . . . and start working on the next thing.
Well, we can show you just a little sneak peek.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: You Smell Funny And I Will Destroy Your Town
Messages. T-shirts are all about 'em. Some more nuanced than others. Example: the I * Tokyo T-shirt is vague enough as to be open to interpretation. The big nuclear lizard saved Japan as often as he put it in danger. The Dork Hygiene T-shirt, however, is about as subtle as a bowling ball dropped from a fifth-story window.
I'm back in Austin, following an exhausting GenCon. It was, as expected, an excellent show: Wizards announced the fourth edition of D&D, the MIBs ran over 200 attendees through their Path to Illumination, and our booth was busier than ever. It may have been, in fact, the best year ever for booth sales, at least equaling 2004's launch of GURPS Fourth Edition.
Unlike Origins, this time I remembered both my camera and the memory card for it. Like Origins, my time was absorbed by other things, and I never got around to wandering the hall, taking pictures. But J. Hunter Johnson has my back, and his photo album is here. Once again, many thanks!
There were simply too many cool things going on in Indianapolis. Every evening, I had multiple options on where to go and what to do. Between hanging out with friends, the Wizards press conference, a couple of games, and the White Wolf/CCP party, I had a great time. Heck, I could go back in time, do something different every night (and drink a lot more Red Bull), and still have a great time. My only regret is Friday night, when I shamefully fell asleep after dinner.
In the final evaluation, I did get to play some games, saw a lot more, and talked to a great number of awesome gamers. It was a fantastic event, and I am definitely looking forward to next year.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Lookie! Look Look!
Dice! Everyone loves dice! Even 40th level necromancer/alien invader/eldritch horror/Secret Master/bunny rabbits love dice!
Vortex dice! (As it turns out, they don't suck!)
Velvet dice! (As it turns out, they aren't soft. Ow!)
Borealis dice! (Borealis!)
Well, not on purpose, maybe, but it can happen.
One of the games we playtested last week was the next supplement to Munchkin Cthulhu. No, not revealing the name yet . . .
It ended up with a four-way win. Everyone was level 9 and Loren was about to win, with nobody able to stop him. Then Jimmie gave Andrew, the only non-cultist, a Sudden Head Blow, recruiting him to the cult and ending the game. Only Munchkin game I have ever heard of that ended in everyone winning.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: Yes, You May Play With Madness
We wouldn't recommend it, but feel free to play with the Plush Screaming Cthulhu to your heart's content. Sure, the little guy looks innocent enough. In a vile, Elder God, I'm-gonna-eat-you sort of way. Look, it's your soul either way, but if you want our advice, don't squeeze the little guy. Trust us on this one.
August 20, 2007: Munchkin Cake! Eat It For Levels!
Is this cool, or what? This is the 12th birthday cake of Alex, a serious Munchkin fan. We are advised that the party featured card tables all over the house with different Munchkin sets on them. The munchkin Illuminati have sent Alex a special gift, fnord.
Here's another picture. When the candles are lit, the Munchkin's helmet is on fire! I would absolutely allow that to earn the bonus against the Angry Giant Chicken.
-- Steve Jackson
What do you say about a guy like Elric? Kind pale. Broods a lot. Star of his own RPG powered by RuneQuest. That's right, everyone's favorite soul-sucking proto-goth, Elric of Melniboné, is back once again to kick ass and . . . feel really bad about it afterwards.
For some reason only known to the Secret Masters, I keep referring to David Pulver's upcoming e23 book, covering spaceship creation and combat, as "GURPS Starships." This is, of course, incorrect: the proper title is GURPS Spaceships.
Oddly, during the first discussions on this project, I had the same problem. Dr. Kromm would thump me in the brainpan, and eventually I stopped. But lately, as David turns the final chapters in for editing, Thomas and I have been marvelling at the system, and I started up again.
So if you spot a post of mine on the GURPS forum, talking about "starships," give me a gentle poke, and I'll fix it. Unless you're Kromm; then I deserve the abuse.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Wood For . . . Fish?
Doesn't really work. "Fishing for wood" is probably as close as we can get with this one. The brow may be higher for the humor inherent to Settlers of Catan: The Fishermen of Catan, but the price sure isn't. Good things truly do come in small packages. It seems crude innuendo, however, needs a little more elbow room.
August 18, 2007: Illuminated Site of the Week: Science Ain't Pretty
The Leading Edge International Research Group is so far out ahead it's hard to see where they're coming from . . . er, so to speak. Some of their content is pumped in from other websites, some of it is original, and all of it is baffling. A haphazard clearinghouse for everything from air traffic to orbital traffic, from an analytical chronology of fluoridation to the astrology of history, you can find just about anything. Must mean truth is in there somewhere, too, right? -- Suggested by observer
Warehouse 23 News: The Worm Plays Pinochle
. . . on your soul! Call of Cthulhu: The Spiraling Worm is the latest of the blasphemous tomes of horrific, horrible, horrifying, um, horror. It's scary is what we're tryin' to say, and we think that merits purchase. So come on. What's another 1D6 SAN to you at this point, anyway?
First, the Wizards of the Coast announcement was indeed D&D Fourth Edition. Much marketing speak was spoken, and some interesting ideas were floated. How many of them were over-hyped, how many understated, and what impact they'll all have on our industry is the topic of much debate. Time will tell.
On more important matters, we sold out of our supply of GURPS Martial Arts in the first few hours. Not to worry, we're getting a resupply from the warehouse for the weekend.
Happily, GURPS Supers arrived tonight, so that'll be on the shelves Friday. And Munchkin Cthulhu 2 should be available Saturday.
But if you've already blown your budget just getting to Indianapolis, wander over to Room 139 for tons of demos and Steve Jackson Games event from our trusty MIB. After all, it's about the games!
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Splattered Rookies, Live On Pay-Per-View!
Every legend has a humble beginning. Sometimes, that's a a dirt farm or slave pit. Sometimes, it's running away from orcs. On television. Live. Xcrawl: Dungeonbattle Brooklyn is an introductory adventure for low-level participants in the American Empire's favorite bloodsport. Sure, if you die, you die. But if you live, just think of the glory, prestige, and endorsement deals!
As I write this, we've finished setting up the Adventure Retail booth here at GenCon. After turning twelve pallets of boxes into 800 square feet of gaming powerhouse -- including a couple cases of GURPS Martial Arts, I might add -- I'm pooped. Jerry and his crew are used to this sort of "throwing boxes while keeping everything organized and in harmony with the big picture" sort of activity, but I'm largely a desk jockey these days.
Walking back to the hotel, we saw the earliest stages of the mighty GenCon stirring to life. The lines for the badges had started. Gamers are filling the streets.
And it looks like Wizards of the Coast is announcing D&D Fourth Edition tomorrow as well. It's going to be an interesting convention . . .
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: The Only Thing We Have To Play Is . . .
. . . Fear Itself!
Yes, in 2008 we'll finally release [FNORD]. The [FNORD] technology has finally progressed to the point that recording [FNORD] doesn't require multiple [FNORD] of [FNORD], so we can product this long-awaited [FNORD] game with all the [FNORD] it deserves at a reasonable price.
We are extremely excited to see [FNORD] in print, and know you'll [FNORD] with [FNORD] for years to come.
Now, if we can just get the message past the [FNORD] . . .
Warehouse 23 News: Mundane Items: Mundane
Always will be, too. But you don't want mundane. Frodo didn't carry a mundane ring. Aladdin didn't spend all day polishing a mundane lamp. The power of Greyskull was not summoned with a mundane sword. Items with enchantments are what all the winners wield. Ya wanna be a winner, don'cha kid? Then snatch up Fantasy Hero: Enchanted Items!
GenCon Indy is creeping up on us, if a freight train barreling at full speed directly towards you can be called "creeping." As usual, Adventure Retail will be representing us in the exhibit hall (stop by Booth #1421 and say hi!), and the loyal MIB will be running sessions, tournaments, and demos of a broad selection from our catalog. In fact, they're running so many events, GenCon Indy gave them their own room! If you're looking for a Steve Jackson Games event, check in at Room 139 first; if the event isn't there, they'll certainly know where it is.
If you're planning your purchases, here's a couple of new releases to check out. For Munchkin Cthulhu fans, we should have Call of Cowthulhu in stock. This is the first expansion for Munchkin Cthulhu, and takes barnyard humor to places your sanity doesn't want to go.
On the GURPS front, we'll have two new offerings: GURPS Supers, the POD edition of the cosmically popular e23 release, filled with pulse-pounding genre guides for the four-color hero in all of us; and GURPS Martial Arts, 256 pages of combat options for GURPS Fourth Edition, bringing hardcore realism or over-the-top wire-fu to campaigns everywhere.
All this, and Adventure Retail's pile of plush, Cthulhiana Corner, and much, much more!
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: This Little Light Of Ours
We're gonna let it . . . uh . . . flowers? Look, it doesn't matter anyway. The little light got a lot littler as of late. So little, in fact, that it no longer guides ships in from the sea. It's also haunted now, which is just dandy. Stupid light. In fact, you can just have the dumb light. If you ever wanna get it fixed, Castles & Crusades: Secret Of Smugglers Cove should do the trick.
We've got a mess o' updates for the Munchkin Cthulhu line, so we collected them all here, for easy reference.
First, the core Munchkin Cthulhu reprint has already been scheduled for this fall. With luck, no one will notice this, as we'll have a couple weeks of overlap when both the first and second printings are selling simultaneously, and no one will need to hear "sorry, out of print."
Second, the first expansion, titled Call of Cowthulhu, is at the printer. Some sample cards, and the complete card list, are posted on the product page, and Warehouse 23 is taking pre-orders. We're also hoping to have a case or two at GenCon, but it'll be tight.
Finally, the second expansion is entering playtest. No, I'm not going to tell you anything about it, both because it's too early, and because the first group of playtesters hasn't recovered enough sanity to tell us if the cards are ready. The doctors say some peace and quiet will do them a world of good.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Right-O, Switch It On Now
Aaaagh! Oh gods, turn it off, turn it off! Gonna miss that arm . . . oh well! Let's just try to think of it as a new component in this Infernal Contraption and continue construction. That'll probably be the last of the - Guaahagaow! Turn it off!!
August 12, 2007: Make Me Send You Money, Darn It!
I just finished signing the monthly stack of e23 royalty checks. This month they totaled $4,060.06. Some of that went to other game publishers whose PDFs we carry in e23 . . . others went to individual authors. If you're an author or publisher, one of those checks could have been to you. Was it? If not, you really ought to visit our e23 Wish List or the publisher section of the e23 FAQ and make me send you some money.
-- Steve Jackson
And we've recently updated the Wish List, adding a Traveller section, and linking to our brand-new adventure template.
-- Thomas Weigel
Warehouse 23 News: Goblins: Being Stupid So You Don't Have To
If they weren't constantly being stabbed, smushed, bashed, stomped, kicked, punched, eviscerated, incinerated, and disintegrated, goblins wouldn't be anywhere near as entertaining as they are. Kragmortha takes that theme and runs with it until it slams face first into a brick wall. To grand comedic effect.
August 11, 2007: Illuminated Site of the Week: When Slide Rules Ruled The Earth
History is worth preserving, as are the tools that took us there. So says the Oughtred Society, dedicated to the celebration of calculating devices (though it all looks like slide rules from here). Meet with others who share that sense of nostalgia, find manuals like "the long awaited K&E Salisbury Products Division Slide Rules," and get answers to burning questions. Sorry, kids, the one question they don't answer is "What's a slide rule?" -- Suggested by Bob Portnell
Warehouse 23 News: Evil Has Its Reasons
True, sometimes that reason is just "Evil!" Sometimes, though, there's all this backstory-y stuff running around that you don't know about that drives the evil. Deep, meaningful, and sometimes even complicated stuff. Or, in the case of The Order of the Stick: Start of Darkness, the most important kind of stuff of all: funny stuff.
So . . . Thursday night we had our very first playtest of Munchkin Quest. Fun was had. The next draft will be smoother. Right now, the low-level monsters are perhaps a bit too tough. In the meantime, it was fun to see Richard fight a Potted Plant and lose, and to watch the deadly combo of the Fungus and the Psycho Squirrel chase Loren the Wizard across the dungeon. We called it quits at 9, when the highest player was Level 6; with a Bullrog camped on the entrance tile, it was going to take some serious player cooperation to continue. And we all know how well munchkins cooperate . . .
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: Pick A Level Between 1 And 10
Dungeon Crawl Classics: Saga of the Dragon Cult is a series of adventures that contains not just several dungeons, but also an honest-to-goodness dragon. These two things well in hand, what else does an adventure really need?
August 9, 2007: Bavarian Fire Drill To The Printer!
It's true!
Every card has art. Every rule has been edited. The bluelines of the box has been proofed. The files have been collected and sent to the printer.
We know Illuminati fans have been waiting patiently (and not-so-patiently) for this 110-card expansion, and we're very happy to have reached this milestone. The kind of happy that you achieve after a marathon - exhausted but pleased.
Bavarian Fire Drill will be on store shelves in October - yes, October 2007, Mr. Smarty Pants - and will be priced at $17.95.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Warehouse 23 Top Ten
Warehouse 23 has posted an updated Top 10 page for July. Check it out, and see what all the cool kids are buying . . .
GURPS Martial Arts has landed in the United States, and is currently heading toward our warehouse. From there, it will be counted, received, and reshipped to our distribution partners. Then your Friendly Local Gaming Store will order copies, and you'll see it on store shelves shortly thereafter.
You'll notice we didn't mention any specific dates or durations. There are just too many variables in the process to be able to say, "you'll have copies of Martial Arts two weeks from Tuesday." Two to four weeks is typical, however, and we'll be sure to mention it again when the books get closer to your hometown.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: More Things To Kill And Beat
Villains! GODSEND Agenda: U.S.E.R.'S Most Wanted is bursting, bursting, at the seams with 'em! Look at those seams. See?! There goes another! Hurry, buy this book before it destroys us all!
We saw a sample copy of the new GURPS Supers today. Pretty! And, unless something awful happens, it will be on sale at GenCon.
Meanwhile, the online version is going great guns in e23. It broke into the all-time top 20 after only a few days on sale, and it continues to move up the charts. In a week or so it will probably hit #10. Where will it peak? Well, the last full-sized GURPS book to launch on e23 was GURPS Mysteries . . . which is in spot #2 now, with 980 sales. We'll probably be celebrating 1,000 before long. So GURPS Supers could aspire to a very high ranking of its own. Fingers are crossed!
Thanks and backpats to author William Stoddard, editor Andy Vetromile, lead playtester Jeff Wilson, and to everyone here who made this book happen.
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: Subterfuge, Influence, Politicking
Ah yes, high school. It wasn't about learning. They like to say that, but those of us who attended know better. It was really about finishing the year with the most signatures in your yearbook. And, of course, all the scheming that being popular entails. Just think, without all that formative High School Drama, we wouldn't be the people we are today. Hey, waitaminnut . . .
Mongoose Publishing has just announced a comprehensive Traveller license and a strongly supported reintroduction of the Traveller system. Here's their press release.
I have one big comment on this: YEA!
It is my hope . . . as it is Marc Miller's hope . . . that this will reinvigorate Traveller, bringing new fans to this great game universe, and bringing new enthusiasm to the many players and GMs who have been enjoying it for decades.
Under the terms of Mongoose's license, most existing Traveller licenses will "sunset" . . . that is, they will reach the end of their current term and will not be renewed. GURPS Traveller and the Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society are specifically exempt from the "sunset" provision. Our license for those two projects runs until the end of 2011. At that time, Marc Miller will decide whether the license is renewed . . . just as he has been doing since we started. We are highly honored by this exemption. We take it as a compliment to the work that we have done so far with GURPS Traveller and JTAS. (And when I said so to Marc, he said, "Well, you should." That made my day.)
Just as we have done since Day 1, we'll continue to do the best that we can by Traveller, so you'll think we're worthy of your support, and Marc will once again say, "Keep it up, guys."
Needless to say, JTAS will fully support the Mongoose line. Editor Loren Wiseman is already talking with Mongoose's Matthew Sprange about an interview to more fully introduce their plans for the universe of the Iridium Throne.
Hold onto your helmets, troops. It's about to get interesting!
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: A Game That's Going Places
Ingenious: Travel Edition is the ideal diversion for long trips in a small space. You and a rival mind can while away the tedious hours as you steadily travel from point A to point B in your car. Or plane. Boat. Train. Buggy. Hot-air balloon. Sleigh. Palanquin.
Oceanographers learn a lot from tracking the junk that we drop into the seven seas. In particular, when a shipwreck releases buoyant cargo, it can serve as a useful marker for years as it drifts with the currents. Tennis shoes, hockey gloves, Lego pieces . . . But perhaps the most appropriate escapees of all time are the plastic floaty toys - including, yes, yellow duckies! - that went overboard in mid-Pacific in 1992 and are now reaching England. Read the Daily Mail story for the details.
Warehouse 23 News: Enter The Drunken Fist Of The North Flying Guillotine
One GM. One Monk (level 7-9). One book. One on One Adventures #7: Eyes of the Dragon. For the honor of the temple, justice will be served! Wu-chaaaa!!
It's funny to think of "old-fashioned" as applying to spacesuits, but the ones NASA is using now are heavy, inflexible, and very tiring to use. Dava Newman, a researcher at MIT, is working on a sleek new model that would look just fine on the cover of a 1940s science fiction mag. Not that that's the main design goal, but it's still a feature!
Warehouse 23 News: Dear Evil, Take A Vacation
Sincerely, The Rest of the Planet. Honestly now, the world already ended once. Are two apocalypses really necessary? The Evil Nasty-Bad Ones outlined in RuneQuest: Hawkmoon - Granbretan sure seem to think so. Sure, you expect this sort of delinquent behavior from a group of people who call themselves the "Dark Empire," but need they beat a post-apocalyptically dead horse so vigorously?
August 3, 2007: Illuminated Site of the Week: It Comes With Superstrings Attached
Once you've got the Unified Field, what do you do with it? Give total consciousness to your students, of course. Maharishi Central University promises a new age of enlightened peace and understanding on their campus, to be built at the exact center of the United States. Sound too good to be true? Well, if it was a scam, there'd be contact info for someone other than the professors . . . right? -- Suggested by William J. Keith
Let's not mince words: the pak'ma'ra are butt ugly. They are as ugly as an ugly butt. And they smell twice as bad. Sure they've got a grand history spanning the ages and a culture richer than an oil baron, all of which is outlined in Babylon 5: The Lurker's Guide to pak'ma'ra, but . . . but . . . Nothing living should have the aroma of cheese that's been sitting inside sweat socks in the sun for twelve hours.
August 2, 2007: The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good
. . . and this week, the ideas that I've been having for digital games are really getting in the way of my ability to sit down and work on the non-digital stuff on my schedule. Must . . . be strong. Must . . . have faith that one of these days I'll really get to work with somebody to execute some of these ideas. Must . . . get back to work on Munchkin Quest, and try not to think what a cool digital game THAT would be. Or may be I SHOULD be thinking about that! Hmm.
-- Steve Jackson
It sounds messy. Three can't fit into one, after all, so everything would spill over. One is inherently smaller than three. In fact, it's only a third of three's size. And yet: Icehouse: 3House. Three games. One product. Don't think about their amazing feat of quantum gaming too hard or blood will shoot out your ears and your eyes will boil and steam will - look, just don't, 'kay?
While we do wish all attendees a super time at GenCon Indy this year, the title of this entry isn't missing a word. As we did with GURPS Mysteries and GURPS Transhuman Space: Changing Times, GURPS Supers will be available in softcover format, first at the Steve Jackson Games booth and shortly thereafter from Warehouse 23.
GURPS Supers brings the genre of four-color heroes to GURPS Fourth Edition, providing the world-building counterpart to the superhuman abilities in GURPS Powers. The print version will include all 151 pages, with a full color cover.
If you'll be in Indy the third weekend of August, stop by booth #1421 and pick up a copy. I'll be there, doing the Exact Change Dance with the Adventure Retail crew, right next to the huge pile of Cthulhu-ese plushies.
If you can't make it this year, stop by Warehouse 23. It went up for pre-order on Monday, but we'll be happy to reserve one for you today.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Y'know What Glorantha Needs?
Another city. RuneQuest: Jrustela provides. Now that that's taken care of, we all get to live happily ever after. Cool, huh?
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