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Illuminated Site of the Week
The zombie attack that heralded the arrival of the infamous Dr. Kromm has been passed off as a hoax. The official story is now that a hacker reprogrammed the signs on Lamar last Monday.
KXAN considered it a "top story," and has their coverage here.
I love Austin!
(Remember, kids, hacking a construction sign is a class C misdemeanor in Texas, and can endanger drivers.)
-- Paul Chapman
Let's look at the component elements: Space pirates. Amazons. Ninjas. (Ninja? Let's go with ninjas.) Catgirls. Artwork by Phil Foglio. Yes, let's face it; as far as card games go, SPANC has just about everything worth counting!
January 30, 2009: Illuminated Site of the Week: What's Taking So Long?
It's Real Snail Mail. No, not a quaint modern quip or a wry observation about obsolete societal infrastructure. It's mail, delivered by snails, the semi-squishy critters in your garden. Boredom Research has found a way to harness the underwhelming power of the snail and use it to forward your missives, employing more technology than should really be dedicated to an aquarium full of gastropods. Yet . . . the mail gets through!
Very, very, very black. No, blacker than that. Got it? OK, now, think of the opposite. That's how white the Star Munchkin Blank Cards are. In the end, it's all black and white.
We've started leaving the 2009 Munchkin Silver Piece lying around the dungeon. It has the avaricious Super Munchkin on one side and the fearsome Plutonium Dragon on the other!
Every month, the 2009 Silver Piece has a different Munchkin rule that applies only during that month -- and that rule will be valid in 2010 and beyond, as long as you're using the 2009 coin! (Which also means that if you already have the 2008 Silver Piece, you can keep using it with the 2008 rules. We're all about recycling at SJ Games . . . You just can't use both coins in the same game.)
You can get the coin from your friendly local Man In Black or from SJ Games staff and volunteers at a con. And we'll probably dream up other ways as well fnord.
Click over to the 2009 Munchkin Silver Piece page for images of the 2009 coin and for the latest rule! (Scroll down to the bottom to see the January 2009 rule and the pictures.)
-- Andrew Hackard
Warehouse 23 News: It's Just Not The End Of The World Without Zombies
Pyramid #3/3: Venturing Into the Badlands - Post-Apocalypse was released last week, with the issue's Last Word given to Todd Breitenstein, designer of many popular games. Based on the title alone, his creation that seems most appropriate for those in a post-apocalyptic mood would have to be Zombies!!! 4: The End . . . (and, yes, it's a standalone game).
January 28, 2009: From Indy To Austin (And E-Mail Update)
Hello, e23 Manager Steven Marsh here! For a few days at the end of January, and for the first time in my nearly nine years associated with Steve Jackson Games, I'm going to be visiting the Austin office. (I usually dwell in what I lovingly call the "Indianapolis office," which is a sectioned off portion of the living room.)
One thing I find amusing is that the folks I'm visiting aren't even in the original building anymore! As I started typing this, I originally wrote, "Steve Jackson Games is in a new office," but I did a smidgeon of research and found that their "new office" is now over three years old. Of course, it's new to me . . .
As a tangentially related note, we've been shuffling around some e-mail duties here. Anything sent to the e23@sjgames.com e-mail address will be read by me, at least temporarily. Unfortunately, as mentioned mere paragraphs ago, I'll be on the road by the time this post hits, so I may not actually be able to tackle that e23 e-mail with a full vigor.
So this is a request for patience from those with outstanding e-mail in the e23 mailbox; if it's not urgent, please don't get nervous that you haven't heard from us in a while. (And if it gets to be mid-February or so and you still haven't heard from us, feel free to send a nudge note!)
-- Steven Marsh
Warehouse 23 News: You Encounter A Polar Bear In A Blizzard
Sure, we could just say, "Look, Munchkin Blank Cards," but where's the fun in that?
January 27, 2009: The Adventures Of Dr. Kromm In Austin
I've worked for SJ Games since the summer of 1995 . . . or since the autumn of 1994, if you count the run of volunteer and freelance work that landed me my job. In the intervening 14(-ish) years, I've seen my coworkers sporadically at GenCon and GTS, but I've only been to Austin three times:
- Summer 1995, just after I took the job, to meet the boss and coworkers. "Wherein Dr. Kromm learns the meaning of 'Texas barbeque' and sees where, in the words of Private Cowboy, Charles Whitman shot all those people from that tower."
- Summer 2000, to touch base with what was by then an almost totally different office full of coworkers. "Wherein Dr. Kromm gets food poisoning on a plane and shoots a gun for the first time (not from a tower, and certainly not at people)."
- Autumn 2005, for a series of serious planning meetings. "Wherein Dr. Kromm discovers that Texas is way too hot even when it isn't summer, and first gets to playtest an SJ Games product that isn't GURPS (Chez Guevara)."
Rather than wait until 2010 for the next visit, I'll be heading to Austin this month to engage in more planning. Who knows what adventures are in store for me there? One thing I do know, though, is that this will be my first chance to see the inside of the new premises. In 2005, I saw the exterior from within a car, after dark . . . er, that sounds creepy, doesn't it? And I've seen the place via remote viewing (okay, okay, on Google Maps). But I'm looking forward to seeing it from the inside!
What this means for you, dear reader, is that I'll probably be unavailable on our forums and by e-mail during my visit, which runs from January 27 to February 1. Yes, it's actually easier to reach me when I'm close to 1,700 miles away from the office than when I'm at the office. Such is the lot of the telecommuter – or at least that of the telecommuter whose electronic communications are almost entirely set up for home access.
Wish me luck in Texas!
– Sean Punch
Warehouse 23 News: Mmm, Munchkin Smoothies
Please keep fingers out of the Munchkin Blender. Warehouse 23 disclaims all responsibility for accidents resulting from improper use of . . . No, wait, this is something different. You'll just have to check it out.
The latest e23 upload is a new issue of Pyramid, this month titled Venturing Into the Badlands: Post-Apocalypse. The theme is pretty self-evident, but the articles present 44 pages of fresh thoughts for both gamemasters and players.
- "Deathball" by Peter Dell'Orto (GURPS Martial Arts) and Sean Punch (GURPS Action) gives your competitive mutants something to do, when they're not struggling for survival.
- "Survivor's Moon" by Paul Drye (coauthor of GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars) details an Infinite Worlds timeline where (when? English grammar isn't set up for multiple timelines) a lunar base watches nuclear winter set in.
- "Zippemart" by Matt Riggsby (author of GURPS Locations: The Tower of Octavius) describes a convenience store that survived the fall. No doubt the plastic wrapped cakes are still fresh. Er, fresh-ish.
- "Does My Nuclear Arsenal Have an Expiration Date?" and "Are Humans a Renewable Resource?" are two installments of the Omniscient Eye, where real-world questions of interest to gamers are answered by experts! Find out if that missile silo is a gold mine, a trump card, or just hazardous materials? Calculate how long humanity would take to pull itself back from the brink, if it can.
- "The Day the World Broke" is a post-collapse setting chock full of aliens, zombies, mutants, and tons of other things to go bump in the night . . . and to unload an assault rifle into.
All this, and regular features like Random Thought Table, Recommended Reading, Murphy's Rules, and more, for just $7.95.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Die, Wicked Munchkin, Die!
We're sorry; the title of this message has an extra comma. The headline writer responsible has been forced to surrender his Wicked Munchkin Die. Now where did I hide my Undead cards . . .
January 25, 2009: Your Lego Is In My Steampunk! Your Steampunk Is In My Lego!
Am I showing my age with that reference?
Anyway, if you're looking to see what happens when you combine Lego with steampunk, point your browser to this Flickr group. Some of the models are truly amazing. I've used Lego minifigures and pieces in gaming before, and it works quite well; some of the pictures in that group have inspired me to think of new and interesting possibilities . . .
-- Steven Marsh
Warehouse 23 News: Need An Arrrrrticle Of Clothing?
Of course, a true pirate wouldn't care about dirty clothes, but let's assume yer shipmates have encouraged ye to expand yer wardrobe. Ye couldn't do better than to don the Munchkin Booty Utterly Unsinkable Shirt. And it protects yer Ship, too!
January 24, 2009: Illuminated Site of the Week: When You Glow, You Can Always Find Your Way
The seas north of Russia are cold, inhospitable, and isolated. Night reigns 100 days out of every year, but before the invention of GPS, someone had to show ships the way lest they crash upon the jagged rocks. So who ran the lighthouses? No one. The Russians installed a few nuclear generators and left them running. They've stopped now . . . stopped performing as lighthouses, anyway. They still pump out plenty of wattage for anyone who cares to loot, get irradiated, and mutate the local wildlife.
-- Suggested by Stefan Jones
Warehouse 23 News: We Need Bigger Guns . . .
As we put the final touches on GURPS Loadouts: Monster Hunters and await the first draft of GURPS Gun Fu, it seems like a good time to remind the world of GURPS High-Tech. This is the master catalog of all that shoots and explodes in GURPS (as well as many things that don't). Or you could go for the slimmed down GURPS High-Tech Weapon Tables. Or if you've a particular penchant for the pulp period, there's GURPS High-Tech: Pulp Guns, Volume 1 and Volume 2.
As we've mentioned before, SJ is away at Chattacon this week. If you're in the Tennessee area, it's a good opportunity to meet the man who put the "Steve Jackson" in Steve Jackson Games! (Okay, he also put the "Games" in there, too . . .)
Unfortunately, Steve might not know you're part of the Conspiracy if he doesn't have a way of identifying you at a glance. So, why not consider wearing a T-shirt from our shirt-printing partner, Printfection?1 The classic designs have withstood the test of time -- I still get people chuckling over my "If You're Really a Goth, Where Were You When We Sacked Rome?" shirt -- and the fact that most of them have been out of print for ages might trick the unsuspecting that you've somehow had a pristine shirt design for years . . . perhaps even in a color that was never available before!
Of course, if you're not attending Chattacon, it's still perfectly acceptable to purchase and wear one of these fine shirts from Printfection. Our agents are everywhere and appreciate being able to recognize you on sight fnord.
-- Steven Marsh
1 Of course, if you needed a shirt in time for this weekend, you really needed to order it a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, our Temporal Agent's last communique mentioned something about accidentally killing his grandfather, so you might not have received a reminder in time to order one for Chattacon.
Warehouse 23 News: Your Bio Is In My Cyber!
"Where's GURPS Cyberpunk for GURPS Fourth Edition?" If you ask Kromm, he'll tell you it's already here if you look closely. For loads of improvements on nature, get GURPS Bio-Tech. If you just have to have your 80s chrome, also pick up GURPS Ultra-Tech. And if you're really looking close, you'll notice GURPS Transhuman Space: Shell-Tech. It's about uploading your brain into artificial constructs, which ought to be "cyber" enough for anybody who's made of meat.
The following items were received into the warehouse, and have been shipped off to various distributors. Your friendly local game store should be seeing them any day now!
Munchkin Quest 2 - Looking for Trouble
Trouble Is Good!
Trouble means gold. Trouble means leveling up. And with Munchkin Quest 2 -- Looking for Trouble, you can find trouble with up to six players. More help against the monsters! More friends to backstab! More competition for the loot! Whoops, forget we said that last bit.
And now the dungeon has Traps. Axes and arrows, flames and falling rocks . . . Maybe you can dodge. Maybe you can push your buddy in front of you.
Explore 18 new rooms . . . the Tomb Room! The Doom Room! The Chamber of Horrors! If you survive, spend your gold at Ye Swankie Donjon Shoppe . . . or Ye Cheape Donjon Shoppe, if you're not picky. Shake off those pesky monsters in the Sun Room, and get healed at the Temple of Generic Niceness.
And new monsters! Flee the stomping power of Bigfoot! Fear the tiny terror that is the Fright Sprite! Fight the sticky menace of the Gummi Golem! Plus more weapons, scrolls, and potions to equip your character, new curses to inflict on your fellow munchkins, and a new kind of passageway that lets you grab gold between rooms.
Munchkin Quest 2 -- Looking for Trouble was designed by Steve Jackson and illustrated by John Kovalic, the troublemakers that brought you Munchkin and Munchkin Quest.
5.75" x 11.75" x 3.5" box, with nine 3.5" square heavy cardstock room tiles, over two dozen link connectors, 100 full-color cards, six monster standies, dice, rulesheet, and enough tokens, level counters, and sculpted plastic pawns for two additional players. Stock #1471, ISBN 978-1-55634-780-1. $34.95.
+6 Bag O' Munchkins
Official Munchkin Plastic Bag!
Extra bonus -- free Munchkins!
These six Munchkin pawns are identical to those found in Munchkin Quest . . . the four colors found in the initial set, plus the Purple and Orange that you'll see in the first expansion. The obvious thing to do would be to keep this set around for the day one is lost.
But if you're truly evil, and your friends let you get away with it, you'll show the world just what a munchkin you really are by using these pawns in other games.
In Munchkin
Any time you are entitled to go up a level -- or when you do something that WOULD earn you a level if you weren't already Level 9 -- you may, instead, place a munchkin pawn in front of you. In any combat, you may discard it for a 1d6 bonus. You may only have one in front of you at a time. Unless, of course, you "lose" these rules and tell the other players that you're allowed to have more. Six is a good number.
In Other Games
Because you're a munchkin, you may claim a munchkin advantage for using these pawns in ANY game. For instance:
- In any roll-and-move game, if you use the munchkin as your pawn rather than one that came with the game, then once per game you may add or subtract 1 space to the move you roll.
- In any game in which you start with money, then if you use the munchkin as your pawn, you start with 10% extra. Round up, of course.
- In chess, a munchkin pawn can move forward two spaces at any time.
If you create your own official rules for using the Munchkin pawn in other games, please share your rules with us at the Steve Jackson Games forums.
Six plastic Munchkin Quest pawns, in six different colors, polybagged with a punched header card. Stock #5504, ISBN 978-1-55634-794-8. $5.95.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Martial Arts Mayhem!
Is your GURPS game flagging? Does it lack excitement? Then perhaps you need more fightin'. For fighting around the world – armed and unarmed, historical and modern, Eastern and Western, and just about everything else, from rolled-up magazines to ultimate styles – look no further than GURPS Martial Arts, by Peter Dell'Orto and Yours Truly (Sean Punch). Yes, a 256-page add-on to the combat system of GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns and the abilities and weapons in GURPS Basic Set: Characters ought to do the trick . . .
. . . but if it doesn't, don't despair. e23 has more! Want some early 20th-century Shanghai and WWII martial-arts action? Then try GURPS Martial Arts: Fairbairn Close Combat Systems, by Hans-Christian Vortisch. Or maybe you crave less realism and more Glowing Fists of Doom? I hate to shill two of my own works in one post (not really), but check out GURPS Power-Ups 1: Imbuements.
Everybody loves Munchkin bookmarks. They're rare, they're special, and they're a munchkinly power boost right when you need it. What I've never seen them used for is marking anyone's place in a book.
In preparation for this year's convention season, we just received a mega-reprint of nearly every bookmark we've done for our favorite card game. Yep, that's two full pallets of pure Munchkin in a convenient 2" by 6" form.
We'll be bundling these up and sending them to our loyal MIB as prizes at your local convention and to our distributors to pass along to their favorite retailers (aka anyone who orders Munchkin). Some of them will be included in Warehouse 23 orders as well.
(And for those wondering about the Official Munchkin Cthulhu Bookmark of Udder Ridiculousness, yes, we've corrected the errata. While using it still doesn't count as a bookmark, you are limited to one use per game. And yes, you can still get a triple digit bonus from a large enough book. This is still Munchkin after all.
Oh, and if you don't have a "large enough book" at Origins or GenCon, go to the Adventure Retail booth -- they've got dozens of hefty Cthulhu-related tomes.)
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: The Arr-Dacity Of Hope
A new day dawns as optimism and opportunity blossom across the land. It's a time for daring vision, for remembering our roots and thinking to the future -- a time to seize the can-do entrepreneurial spirit that lifts us up and makes us believe that anything is possible.
We're talking, of course, about Munchkin Booty, still available at Warehouse 23. It's amazing to know we live in a world where anyone can become the scourge of the seas, no matter how outrageous his Accent.
Are we able to plunder the ocean blue and send our foes to Davy Jones'? Yes, we can!
SJ's off to Chattacon this week, to show off new releases, playtest some designs, and generally wave the company flag. He'll also be speaking at a couple of panels, including one with David Weber, on the topic of tanks.
That's right, the author of Bolo! and the designer of Ogre in one room, talking about giant armored war machines. Does it get any better?
On the dice rolling hand, Chattacon will host the world premier release of Munchkin Quest 2 -- Looking for Trouble, the first expansion for Munchkin Quest. This set expands the number of players to six, and adds new rooms, new monsters, and new treasures. Prepare for 50% more munchkinly tile-laying.
Once you've experienced the new Munchkin Quest, and gotten in on the Top Secret Munchkin Expansion playtest (shh!), track down the prototype of Revolution! we sent with SJ. It's a new type of game for us -- bidding for area control -- and it's fun, competitive, and you can squeeze a game into less than an hour, even when learning the game. You'll be hearing quite a bit about this one in the upcoming months.
-- Paul Chapman
January 19, 2009: This Tank's So Big, We Wrote A Book About It
e23 continues its mission of bringing classic material to the digital format. This week, the upload is The Ogre Book, filled with scenarios, fiction, and even the unofficial (but eeriely accurate!) unit cost calculator.
If you don't know the Four Howitzer Defense, or aren't familiar with the Fuzzy Wuzzy Fallacy, you need this book. If you like drastically unofficial units like BPC subs or continental siege aircraft, you need this book. If you're interested in SJ's original designer's notes on Ogre and G.E.V., you need this book.
Really, if you're any kind of Ogre fan, you need this book.
-- Paul Chapman
Fade Manley, our webmaster and the designer of SPANC, has left us for the hallowed halls of academia. You may still find her around the forums, but odds are she will also be buried in books written in Latin, rather than in Perl.
We want to send our best wishes to her in her scholastic pursuits. We'll miss her and the many hats she wore around the office (both the figurative and literal ones).
-- Jimmie Bragdon
January 17, 2009: Pyramid Archives Available Again for Former Subscribers
As frequent readers of the Daily Illuminator know, we closed the old weekly version of Pyramid a couple of months ago. Nearly all readers had their old subscriptions convert to the monthly PDF version of Pyramid, and most readers have already started downloading new issues from their e23 Libraries.
However, we received numerous comments from former readers of the weekly version that we didn't give enough time to access the old archives during the two-week window they were available. Well, we've heard those requests!
For the next 30 days, we are offering those who were Pyramid subscribers as of November 7, 2008 (when we shut down the weekly version) access to the zipped archives of the old weekly version of Pyramid. Simply point your browser here and get what you need.
Note that the archives have not changed since the last time we offered them; if you got them at a previous time, you don't need to download them again.
The archives will only be available to former subscribers until Monday, February 16, 2009. After that date, they'll be gone forever!
-- Steven Marsh
Editor of Pyramid Magazine
Warehouse 23 News: One Munch Is Never Enough
One is not enough, two is too few, three is just odd, four seems so square, and five? Well, if you're going to bother with five, you may as well just go whole hog and move up to six. And thus is born +6 Bag O' Munchkins.
Steve Jackson Games announces, for release in April:
Revolution!
Blackmail the printer. Threaten the innkeeper. Bribe the priest. Welcome to Revolution!
Secretly bid against your opponents to win the support of the people, control territory . . . and gather more gold, blackmail, and force for the next round of bidding! The revolutionary with the most support wins the game, but each location grants bonus points. The tavern or the fortress? The harbor or the plantation? Knowing which areas to hold -- and which to let your opponents fight over -- is the key to victory. But are your opponents bidding on the same location, or are they bluffing? Are you bluffing?
Bidding tokens have different shapes (and colors) for easy identification, even across the table. Colorful cardstock shields keep your bids private, and provide a handy rules reference while you're deliberating during the auction. Traditional wooden blocks allow players to see, at a glance, who controls what.
The rules can be taught in minutes, and plays with three or four players. A complete game takes less than an hour, even for the first time. Each new game lets players discover new strategies and tactics.
Get ready for Revolution!
11.75" x 11.75" x 3" box, with 100 wooden cubes, a mounted gameboard, dozens of chipboard counters, four player bidding screens, four bidding boards, and rulesheet. Stock #1902, ISBN 978-1-55634-793-1. $39.95.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: In Soviet Dungeon, Trouble Find You!
But since we're not in the Dungeon of Sickles and Hammers, we're afraid you'll just have to look for trouble yourself. But that doesn't mean we won't help. See here? It's Munchkin Quest 2 - Looking for Trouble! Who loves ya, babushka?
Steve Jackson Games is seeking a full-time Webmaster. The webmaster is responsible for maintaining, updating, and improving the SJ Games websites, developing new content and graphic designs, and acting as our in-house expert on the web and related technology. This is a full-time job, with health benefits and paid leave, and requires working in our Austin office.
Candidates must be highly organized, and be good communicators, both in person and in writing. In addition, candidates:
- Must have at least two years' experience in developing and maintaining an Apache-based web site, preferably on Linux or other Unix-based system.
- Must be an expert with HTML and CSS, and able to create standards-compliant pages.
- Must be able to do image manipulation and graphic design with Photoshop.
- Must know enough Linux to handle basic site administration without the help of the System Administrator.
Much of our web scripting is done in Perl. While knowledge of Perl is not a requirement, it is very helpful in maintaining the site and developing new features. Familiarity with one or more of XML, Mason, JavaScript, PHP, Python, or SQL databases is also very beneficial.
Please respond to jimmie@sjgames.com with a current resume (in plain text, PDF, or .doc format) and links to samples of your work, if available.
-- Jimmie Bragdon
Now that 2008 is well and truly "in the can," we can take a look back, and review the e23 releases for the year.
The grand total is 1,218 pages of new, never-seen-before material. By any standards, that's a bunch. GURPS Fourth Edition accounted for 1,127 pages of that, and Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch contributed over 200 pages himself. The guy's a machine!
And that's only the new material. We also uploaded 32 products that had been previously released, from Killer and the Cardboard Heroes series to GURPS Basic Set and 17 classic Third Edition books from our GURPS archives.
The crazy part is, despite our best efforts, we weren't really running at 100% last year. But now that we've staffed up, and gotten some experience under our belts, 2009 is looking like an excellent year for PDFs.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Sumptuous Scrolls for Periodical Playtime
e23? A trend setter? Perhaps . . . Or perhaps the universe is a whimsical little producer of one amusing coincidence after another. (Or perhaps there's a fnordy third option. But we're not telling.) Either way, not long after our own relaunch of a magazine in PDF format, we're happy - gleeful, even - to point you at another PDF periodical. The Sorcerer's Scrolls is now available at the E of Twenty and Three.
One of the end of the year improvements we made was to order a greenhouse. SJ loves plants, and they're all over the office and grounds. But Texas' weather can be harsh, and sometimes the greenery needs a little vacation. This will be the perfect place to nurse them back to health.
Construction took just a few hours, as it isn't that large. It's nothing compared to SJ's personal setup, but it does have plenty of shelves built in.
-- Paul Chapman
GURPS, despite the gigantery of its rulebooks, does not stand for "Grandiose Unwieldy Role Playing System." You really can play it without knocking back some 500+ pages of rules, guidelines, suggestions, settings, and Dread Math. In fact, everything you need to know about GURPS can go on one page. You can see for yourself by downloading GURPS Ultra-Lite. Careful, though: blink and you'll miss it.
January 12, 2009: First New e23 Releases Of The Year!
The first non-holiday Thursday of 2009 has come, and e23 delivered two new GURPS goodies!
GURPS Mass Combat by David Pulver is the Fourth Edition update of the GURPS battlefield rules. The focus is cinematic resolution of big battles, deciding the fate of massed companies of troops with just a few die rolls. The commanders -- the players -- have real influence over their success or failure; they're just not bogged down with the less exciting business of logistics and campaigning that often win real conflicts.
GURPS Ultra-Lite is a distillation of GURPS Fourth Edition . . . down to a single page! Designed to fold up into a mini-book, this freebie by Sean Punch is a work-in-progress. Download, print, and give it a try. There is already a lively discussion on our forums.
Two new releases, by two of the architects of GURPS Fourth Edition -- what a way to start 2009!
-- Paul Chapman
Nobody writes sonnets about some dude and his buddy kicking a kobold over. Nobody makes documentaries about that one time you shot a Nazi in France. Nobody commits to the Grand Memory Spire the time Lorbax got in a fist-fight with that blimpod trader from Alpha Centauri. So if you're looking to make your GURPS games truly epic, maybe it's time you had a glance at GURPS Mass Combat. Run the sort of games Ken Burns would commit to film.
January 11, 2009: Munchkin Booty 2: Checked And Printing
Over the holidays, Will received the proofs for Munchkin Booty 2 -- Jump the Shark. After a festive checking session, he gave the printer the all-clear.
Even as we speak, paper is taking ink, cards are being cut, and boxes are being labeled. The shipping container will be loaded late this month, and the first Munchkin Booty expansion will be hitting our warehouse in March, quickly to be sent to your Friendly Local Game Store.
We're getting quite good at these Munchkin games, aren't we? I'm not suggesting designing, illustrating, and producing 112 cards is easy, but we've learned much in the past 8 years. Creating expansions have become equal parts pleasure and perspiration, with the balance sliding more and more towards "pleasure."
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Dice Are Nice, Too
You, the fine people of the Internet, buy a number of things from our humble store. Games. Books. Games that are books. Books that think they're games. Plush that are neither games nor books, but are cute anyway. The list goes on. But something oft overlooked is the fact that we carry dice. Lots and lots of dice. You can see them all here. Or you can just go straight to one of the really cool ones. Your call.
Every so often, valued staff members escape into the wild, to see what trouble they can get into. Some of them get into so much trouble that we never see them again, and that makes us sad. But some of them find their way back home, and that makes us cackle with glee and plot new devious ways to exploit their talents.
One such returning staffer is Andrew Hackard, our first hire of 2009. Andrew spent over two years wearing the Managing Editor hat. He helped bring many projects to life, but none was as big as GURPS Fourth Edition in 2004. Shortly after that, he pursued other opportunities. (The rumors of padded cells and quiet rooms by the sea have never been conclusively proven.)
When we started talking about bringing Andrew back, he said he'd done the Managing Editor thing, and wanted something challenging. We said, "OK, smartypants, you're the Munchkin Brand Manager." He insisted on Munchkin Czar, so we compromised: he'll have business cards with both titles, and use whichever one seems less likely to get him shot by revolutionaries.
Be careful what you wish for, Andrew . . .
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: (Actually Just A Neat Cthulhu Book)
Looking for Darla - the much-anticipated sequel to Beckett's classic Waiting for Godot - is now available at Warehouse 23! (We may want to cut down on the number of outright lies in our advertisements. People may start to notice. The last thing we need is another "also, it brings your loved ones back from the dead" incident. -Ed.)
Late last year, David Tennant announced he was planning on leaving the Doctor Who franchise in 2010. Now, I'm a late-comer to the Whoniverse, but it's easy to recognize the power of a science fiction series that's lasted 46 years. But even so, the flurry of rumors that surrounded the question of "Who will be the Eleventh Doctor?" was surprising.
My house was rooting for either Paterson Joseph or Jennifer Saunders. Joseph is known for his role as Marquis De Carabas in Neil Gaimen's Neverwhere, where he had a cleverness that would have suited the Doctor well. Saunders is, of course, the creator of Absolutely Fabulous, and has a manic energy that might have been very interesting in the big blue police box.
The BBC made the announcement earlier this month, and chose . . . Matt Smith. Other than what I've read in his online bios I know nothing about him. If you're familiar with his work, drop by our Geeks Rule! forum and let your fellow Whovians know what we're in for.
-- Paul Chapman
Icehouse: Pink Treehouse may be a funny name, but the idea behind them is dead serious. A percentage of sales on these Icehouse pieces are are given over to breast cancer research. Of course, that doesn't mean you can't put them on top of your head and make "whoop-whoop" noises. Really, that's the best of both worlds.
The rule-bending ubermunchkins at BoardGameGeek continue to rave about Munchkin Quest. Simon Lundstrom just posted a review with this perfect summation:
[T]his board game version of Munchkin is a huge success with me. It's not the perfect game, but it's the perfect Munchkin game. It's precisely the type of humourous adventure game that I want, and it's beautifully presented.
We know some people, like Simon, don't play silly card games. We don't understand them, but we know they're out there. If you know someone like that, why not sit them down for a silly board game instead? Add Munchkin Quest 2 -- Looking for Trouble, and your five best friends can help you explore a dungeon that's different every game. But always silly -- that's the Munchkin guarantee.
(And, on a personal note, may I say that it's great to be back? Well, I just did. So there.)
-- Andrew Hackard
Warehouse 23 News: Or, Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Multiverse (But Were Afraid To Ask)
Wow, that silly (and, we admit, somewhat dated) joke ate up so much space, we don't have enough room to tell you how cool Dungeons & Dragons: Manual of the Planes is. Oops.
Renovations are ongoing, giving the office a smell of drying paint. It's . . . distinct. An office that was set up for one person has been re-arranged for two (which prompted the new coat of paint). On the other end of the building, one overly large break room will be turned into a break room and an office. (Yes, this is indicative of staff expansion. We have Big Plans.)
Outside, plans have been made for a genuine gazebo -- no word yet on if it will be "dread" or just the normal type. I expect it to ignore all attacks, but a Nerf assault wouldn't be out of order, just to be sure.
On top of all the construction, someone raided the old art archives, and soon we'll have bits of classic cover art hanging on our walls. I spotted several from Car Wars, and of course a couple Ogres. Ironically, the more recent art will take a bit longer, as there are no "originals" of digital submissions to frame.
It's like a brand new office, to go with the brand new year!
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: It's Actually A Book
Welcome to Tour de Lovecraft: The Tales. Please keep your head and arms inside the bus at all times. No, seriously. Stop that. Okay, fine, lean out the window to look at the gug. See what that gets you.
Maybe you haven't noticed, but we upgraded our header. You know, that big gold-ish thing at the top of many of our pages. In addition to looking good, it provides quick access to the places you want to go! (On our site. We're still working on the "click a link to teleport to the Caribbean" code.)
We trimmed a few links, combined a few links, and added a couple of new ones. Take a look, click around, and let us know what you think! Our site is quite large – this happens when you've been on the Web since '94 or so – and we're always looking for ways to help surfers navigate better.
– Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Warehouse 23 Top Ten
Warehouse 23 has posted an updated Top 10 Page for December. Check it out, and see what all the cool kids are buying . . .
January 5, 2009: Our First iPhone App: The Fnorder
The Fnorder is our first iPhone project. It's free! We created it for practice, for fun, and to further the plots of the Secret Masters. The Fnorder brings you messages from the Illuminati . . . encoded information and instructions for world conquest, for your eyes only. This is all for real! Honest!
Use it to boggle your friends . . . or ask it for help when you need to make a decision. Think of it as the I Ching for paranoids.
It also includes a variety of beautiful Illuminated wallpapers which you can use for your iPhone.
You can download it now from the iPhone App Store.
Warehouse 23 News: A Few Munchkins More
Trade that stiletto fer a six-shooter and swap yer plate mail fer a poncho, because Munchkin has gone West! There's plenty o' outlaws what need shootin', but if they're not enough, feel free to turn them irons on yer so-called "amigos." Remember, it's called The Good, the Bad, and the Munchkin because there's good, there's bad, and then there's munchkin.
While clearing out old episodes of Ninja Warrior from my DVR over the holidays, I was reminded of Monster9's other obstacle course shows. Wikipedia informs me that Makoto Nagano, in addition to being one of the two men to complete the Sasuke course, is the only person to ever reach the final stage of Viking: The Ultimate Obstacle Course. I'd like to see that.
Can any fellow geeks out there point me at a source for recordings of this series? (Yes, there's likely a dozen torrents of it in the darker corners of the net, but I'd like to have a legal copy -- if it's good enough to watch, it's good enough to pay for.)
-- Paul Chapman
The bioengineered, nanomachine-filled, artificially-intelligent wheel, that is. Time marches on, rules get revised, and people often get stuck with a load of books that no longer work with the best roleplaying rule set conceived by man. Case in point: Transhuman Space. We went and did something quite inconsiderate, releasing the fourth version of GURPS without updating THS. Transhuman Space: Changing Times rights that grand injustice rather nicely. Your stack of THS books is once again functional.
At Maker Faire last year, we saw many widgets, gadgets, and trinkets of incredible coolness -- an attraction magnified by the fact that each was homemade. If you're keen to start constructing similar projects of your own, Instructables.com is the answer.
With guides to geeky projects from science fair fodder to homemade plastic, this site has instructions for an extremely broad range of "stuff." Personally, I'm going to be looking very carefully at the solar and wind power experiments, but if you construct your own CNC (computer numerical control) machine, send us pictures!
-- Paul Chapman
Illuminati Y2K is nothing new, but we were silly and let it go out of print for a little while. In case you hadn't heard: it's back now. And if that sounds like a heavy-handed hint to dash over to the product page and order a copy, well . . . yeah, it kinda is . . . Did it work?
Terry Pratchett has been knighted.
(Cheers, fanfares, and general rejoicing.)
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: Sneak, Sneak, Ker-Blooie
The Ogre Miniatures: Ogre Ninja is as subtle as several hundred tons of metal can manage to be. That is, if you kill everything you run into, it has the same practical effect as not being seen in the first place. Probably more fun, too.
Still no flying cars, nine years into the 21st century. We do have communicators better than Kirk ever got, however, so maybe it balances out.
2008 was a heck of a year, by any standards. And 2009 looks to be equally . . . well, "interesting" is a good word, but doesn't really convey the proper flavor. Hide and watch.
(To those in time zones in which it isn't 2009 yet: last year's rumors of cake proved to be unfounded. This year, Future Us has spoken of giant munchkins roaming the earth. Be wary.)
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: We're Not Allowed To Talk About It
As often as "unspeakable" finds its way into horror genre, it's astonishing that we ever manage to tell one another scary stories. Munchkin Cthulhu 3 - The Unspeakable Vault, more than likely, a great expansion. But good luck getting anyone to actually say anything about it. Ah well.
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