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Recently we absorbed a few new brains in the production department. We also stealthily slurped up a couple new batches of processing power in the game side of things.
Jonathan A. Leistiko has been playtesting with us for months and months, and designing his own games as Invisible City Productions, when he wasn't starting up the first Austin convention devoted to playtesting. Now he'll be putting in design time for our nefarious needs. Bwahaha!
Ryan McEathron is stepping into the "Randy's Minion" slot that we weren't certain we needed -- until we saw the feedback from the Road Trips. Plus, this summer is going to be a busy one; having an extra hand to wear the mascot suit and fetch Red Bull for everyone is going to be useful.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Nope, No Punchline Up Here, Either
Where do drow learn how to fight? Why, at the 0one's Blueprints: Drow City - Military Academy of course! Um, no, seriously. They do. It's not a joke this time. We actually mean it. Um. The end?
An important part of the World of Munchkin is the Munchkin card suggestion page. We've used quite a few of those fan-submitted ideas in the past, and we're always open to more. If you've got the ultimate Munchkin card idea burning a hole in your brain, now's your chance to send it in. (The card, not the brain.)
We're going to award a copy of an upcoming UNANNOUNCED Munchkin set to the person who submits the best* new card idea (for any Munchkin card game!) between March 31 and April 30. The set will have signatures from Steve Jackson, John Kovalic, and Andrew Hackard, making it a collector's item. (So be sure that your e-mail address is accurate . . .)
Type ***CONTEST ENTRY*** into the comments field so that we don't miss your brilliant idea when we go through the list.
* In the sole opinion of the contest judge(s).
Legal meeble: Employees of Steve Jackson Games are ineligible to win the contest, but don't let that stop you from submitting ideas. All card submissions become the property of Steve Jackson Games. If we use your idea, even if you don't win the contest, you'll get credit and a copy of the set in which it appears! (Warning: Lots of ideas are essentially duplicates . . . either of existing cards, or of card ideas we already had on the list. On the other hand, some suggestions result in cards that the original suggestor would not recognize, but WE know where we got the idea and we give credit accordingly. Therefore, the final decision as to who gets credit is entirely up to us here at Munchkin Central!)
-- Andrew Hackard
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Who Are You, Again?
If you had a copy of Colonial Gothic: Templates you'd know! Or, at least, you could fake it with relative ease by using one of the handy templates included in the book.
George Bailey was wrong. As it turns out, it's actually quite difficult to lasso the moon. And eating it? Forget about it. You'll chip a tooth well before you get to the "shooting moon beams out of your hair" stage. (Though that would be pretty cool.) No, the moon makes for a terribly impractical gift.
I propose, then, an alternative. In lieu of the moon, Transhuman Space Classic: High Frontier. While it may not be the genuine article, it does have quite a good deal of information about our lunar lovely. It also goes on at length about all the junk that's floating around the Lagrange points. So in a sense, it's even better than the moon, since it doesn't just limit itself to one rocky spheroid. Also, unlike the actual moon, you can eat it if you print out a copy!
Not, um, not that you should, honestly. But at least the option is there, which is more than you can say about the moon.
-- Fox Barrett
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Game Changer?
Advanced Adventures #13 White Dragon Run doesn't just have the power to change the way you play roleplaying games, it might just change your life. (But probably not. Honestly, you'll probably just have a really fun handful of sessions and then move on. That's good too, though, right? Right.)
PAX East is going better than I could have hoped. On Thursday night I taught a few people Zombie Dice, Cthulhu Dice, and Nanuk before the crew joined me, but it wasn't really until Friday that we dove headfirst into the show . . . and we're still buried in gaming! Unfortunately, we had only a few dozen advance copies of the dice games. They sold out almost immediately, so we have to keep sending players home without new dice . . . but now we know for sure these are going to be huge hits with the casual market. At one point I ran Zombie Dice with 14 players, and we constantly have at least ten players in Cthulhu Dice and Zombie Dice games. (I bet there's a crowd playing right now as I write this.)
We've also been running Revolution! (with the 5-6 player expansion). Those sessions haven't been as loud as the dice games, but we can tell the players are having fun. Getting to watch the look on people's faces as they "get" the game is always fun, and we've seen that look several times at this show. Revolution! can be subtle -- especially compared to the dice games -- so demonstrating it takes a different approach. That's why I've been mainly teaching the dice games; I'm not known as subtle.
Anyway, I'm rushing back to the show now. For more PAX fun, keep an eye on our Twitter account and don't forget to look through our PAX East photo set at Flickr. If you're at the show, swing by and say hi -- we're on the 2nd floor near the tabletop HQ.
-- Phil Reed
Flight, super strength, invulnerability. Yeah, it's been done. So about some cyberkinesis? Or perhaps the ability to turn your body into a black hole is more your speed? Or even, yes, the most unbelievable power of them all: the ability to win the lottery. It's all here in Champions Powers.
We're looking for an experienced full-charge bookkeeper to work in our Austin office. This is a full time position. For more details, please see our Craigslist post.
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Fly Me To The Moon
With all the other planets we have floating around this solar system of ours, it's sometimes easy to forget that we've got a perfectly good moon up there. Well, it was easy to forget, but then we went and released a book called Transhuman Space Classic: High Frontier. Take that, solar system!
You've heard me rave about how much I like Revolution! multiple times, so we'll just take that as a given. And with my admittedly biased opinion aside, here's what's new!
Over on Crows 'n' Bones, Philip duBarry has given an interview on the game, talking about the publishing options he explored, the process of working with us, the expansion, and the upcoming German version . . .
. . . Images of which have surfaced. Pegasus Spiele is our partner on this project. Long-time fans will recognize their name, since they handle the translation duties for our Munchkin games (and hosted my trip to Essen Spiel last year!). Their art style is very different from ours: Here's their cover, and their board. The illustrations are hard for me to judge objectively, since I've been looking at our version so long. But many hardcore Euro-gamers are praising it, so it has its fans.
The expansion (you know, the one Philip mentioned in his interview above?) is working its way through the playtest cycle. I'd call it rock-solid at this point, but the Dev Team want a few more sessions. The print buying has begun, but it's much too early to talk about things like price point or release date. We'll have prototypes at PAX East, of course.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: What Is The Sound Of One Mind Being Blown?
What happens when you marry the gratuitous, over-the-top, non-stop violence of a dungeon crawl with the gratuitous, over-the-top, non-stop violence of kung fu movies? Yeah, we don't know either. Just thinking about it made us all pass out from how extreeeeme it would be. When we came to, though, we had a copy of Munchkin Fu sitting on the table. So that must be pretty close to what it's like.
The D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit is an annual gathering of video game professionals. This year, Jesse Schell gave a particularly interesting speech.
The digital game design blogs are all calling it "the one everyone is talking about." I'm not one for just reposting links because "everyone" says you should, but this one is chock-full of things to think about. A virtual plant "game" in the new Ford hybrid? The cycle between "I'll pay for it because I've been playing it" and "I'll play it because I've paid for it" that generates so much capital for casual games? The elastic velvet rope?
Whether you're a game designer, a game consumer, or something in-between, this presentation has something for your brain to chew on. For me, it was the idea that future mainstream marketing campaigns could be patterned after games -- thus the "points for brushing your teeth" of the title. Toothbrush manufacturers may be hiring a game designer sooner than we think.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Greenskins For Greenbacks
The QUERP Greenskins Extra Set won't cost you many greenbacks. Which is good, because much more green flesh and this whole situation could get really gross.
March 24, 2010: Goodbye Justin, Hello Judey And Gabby
Just last year, we welcomed Justin DeWitt back into the office. It was very good to have him back on the team, but even as he solved problems and did Neat Stuff for us, he was working on getting his own first game, Castle Panic, into distrubution back then. Now, with Castle Panic getting rave reviews, he's going to focus on promoting it - and to work on his next release. Justin's always been a good egg, so while we're sad to see him go, we're excited to see what's next from his Fireside Games.
Now, of course, we need brainpower in the production department even more. And with the upcoming waves of Munchkin reprints -- holy cow, there's a ton of stuff that needs to be reprinted this year! -- we needed to grab a couple of extra brains.
Most of those brains are concentrated in the skulls of Judey Dozeto and Gabby Ruenes. Judey will keep the paperwork in line and crack heads as necessary*; Gabby will add his skills to the "putting words and text together in a pleasing fashion" team. Welcome, Judey and Gabby!
The rest of the brains? I can't say, except to firmly deny that we have a team of zombie staff writers in Austin. (What Dr. Kromm does in his basement, we have no control over . . .)
-- Paul Chapman
* Don't let the brains out!
Warehouse 23 News: e23: We Are Not So Different . . .
Just because they live in caves doesn't mean that drow don't dream of raining down death and destruction from on high. They've seen movies, y'know. They know how cool Christopher Lee looked. And so it is for those who dare to dream that we offer 0one's Blueprints: Drow City - Tower of High Sorcery.
Nanuk was a ton of fun while we were playtesting it. Some of the best games I participated in were during our "upper limit stress test" sessions, when we gathered as many people as possible to try to break it. Eventually we settled on eight as the official maximum number of players, but fun was had even with a dozen hunters sitting around the table.
Personally, I'm hoping to get a couple of "over the limit" games in during PAX East later this week. Smack talk is fine and all, but when you're trying to convince a dozen people that 7 fish in 2 days is totally possible . . . that's a good time.
I've heard rumors of groups taking the cards from two games to get groups upwards of twenty players. While we can't Officially Condone such crazy behavior, I would love to hear about it! Tell us about your biggest game of Nanuk on Twitter (we're @sjgames) or on our forums.
-- Paul Chapman
Do you like digging up things better left dead and buried? You do? Great! Then you'll like Pyramid #3/17: Modern Exploration! Also, um, the next time someone asks you that question, you should probably answer "no."
It's that time again, kids! What time? Why, Pyramid time, of course! This month's issue is Pyramid #3/17: Modern Exploration, and it's now available for download. And just what sort of magical mystery tour have the Pyramid fungineers cooked up for you this time? Buy a copy and find out!
What, that isn't enticing enough? Oh. Well, what if I told you that this issue is about the exciting and wondrous world of modern exploration? Ah, you already guessed that from the title. Uh, well, what if I mentioned that it has an article about a mummy? Everyone loves mummies! To even suggest otherwise would be insane. So clearly this magazine is of the highest caliber, fully deserving of your cash.
Yes, there's more to it than just that one article, but you can't expect me to tell you everything that's in it, right? Don't you want to go see for yourself? Do you want to . . . explore it a bit and discover this issue's hidden treasures? Ah-hah! You can't possibly resist ad copy that clever. My work here is done. Enjoy your magazine!
-- Fox Barrett
If you're going to be beating people up - and let's face it, if you're running HERO, you are - you may as well do it with style. HERO System Martial Arts devotes over 300 pages to that very subject. One can never have too many ways to say "I kick him in the face," after all.
It's that time again -- time to look back at the previous year and match "what happened" against "what we wanted to happen." Yes, it's SJ's annual Report to the Stakeholders.
You can read the entire report here, but the short version? 2009 was a good year.
-- Paul Chapman
Hey, kids! Throw out your history books. You don't need 'em anymore! We've got Colonial Gothic: Gazetteer now. If there's anything you need to know about the 13 colonies, you can just consult this handy tome. And don't worry about the fact that it doesn't cover any other place or time in history like your old history book did. None of that stuff is important!
Chez Geek
Beer. Nookie. Roommates. It's another Friday night at Chez Geek. Set up house with your friends -- for as long as you can stand them. Get a job -- they're all bad. Spend money and your precious spare time to accumulate Slack points. Drink cheap booze, hang out at the cafe, and play with the cats. Do unto your roomies before they do unto you. What other game gives you points for sleeping?
Just remember, when your roommate and his S.O. keep you up all night: You can't throw them out. They live here.
This edition includes the original Chez Geek . . . plus Slack counters and a die . . . PLUS the cards from the supplements Slack Attack and Block Party.
224 full-color cards, counters, a die, and a rulesheet, in a 6" x 9" box. Stock #1391, UPC 8-37654-32019-8. $34.99.
Munchkin Marked for Death
Munchkin Marked for Death is a double-duty booster set! This pack contains 17 all-new cards, including Anvil, Recalculate Your XP, and the horrifying effervescence of the Soap Golem . . . plus two almost-new cards. And they’re balanced to let you use them as a quick rigged demo for your friends, to get them into the madness that is Munchkin!
Note: This is NOT a collectible or randomized set. Every Marked for Death pack is the same as every other.
19 cards and a rulesheet, in a finseal pack. Stock #4210, UPC 8-37654-32052-5. $4.99.
-- Paul Chapman
How do you describe in one short advertisement a gameworld that took 400 pages to explain? We could write "it's a space thing," but that's awfully broad. We could write "there are scary aliens," but that's kind of a given in space. We could write "look, I don't know, words and stuff," but that's barely even proper English. So we'll just write Fires of Heaven and hope for the best!
Randy's not the only one who can pull off a road trip! He, Will, and I are doing an (almost) coast-to-coast journey next week.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, we'll hit the GAMA Trade Show (GTS) in Las Vegas. This is the longest-running retailer-focused event in the hobby games industry, and one I've personally attended for ten years straight. We'll chat up the managers and owners of your FLGS, and teach everybody Cthulhu Dice, Zombie Dice, and Revolution!.
On Thursday, we fly to Boston for PAX East, where Jimmie (long-time MIB and our current sysadmin), Phil, and SJ will join us, along with tens of thousands of fellow gaming geeks. This event is less like work, and more like playing games all day. Not that I won't log the time, of course! Unlike GTS, where the attendees are mostly interested in the newest and hottest, at PAX East we'll get a chance to play Munchkin, maybe some Chez games, and whatever else folks want to be entertained with. The TableTop HQ there has a huge library of games from us (and a ton of other publishers).
I'm hoping for a plethora of photos to be uploaded to Twitter, and a Daily Illuminator post or two, while we're out and about, much as Phil did during his Hong Kong trip.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Just Forget About Highlander 2, Okay?
Sequels. What would science fiction be without them? Without Aliens, we'd have no "game over, man." Without Wrath of Khan, we'd have no "Khaaaaan!" Without Empire Strikes Back, we'd have no, well . . . franchise. So "huzzah" to the sequel, we say! Celebrate this time honored tradition of keeping hot properties alive by buying a copy of Star Munchkin 2 - The Clown Wars.
Zombie Dice and Cthulhu Dice. Very similar names, but very different games.
Zombie Dice (scheduled for a June release, by the way) is a pure "press your luck" style game -- how many brains will you collect before you roll three shotgun blasts, ending your turn? Will you stop and score, or will you try for just one more brain? To show you how to play, we've created a Flash demo! Braaaaaaainnns!
Cthulhu Dice (hitting store shelves in May) is a "retribution" style game. You steal Sanity points from your rivals, and they do the same back to you. Of course, if someone is in the lead, he's the obvious target. Unless you're just carrying a grudge. Keep stealing Sanity (or losing it to Cthulhu) until someone -- hopefully you! -- is the last player with marbles. If everyone loses their marbles, Cthulhu wins! This one can play in five minutes. In fact, it can play twice in five minutes if Cthulhu gets lucky. We're working on a Flash demo for Cthulhu Dice as well; watch for an announcement soon!
We will, of course, be running live demos at both the GAMA Trade Show and PAX East. The dice are very shiny. Watch the shiny dice . . .
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Complimenting The Complementary
Are there two books more complementary than Born To Be Wild and The Great White Hunter’s Bestiary? No! Of course not! Don't be ridiculous! Now buy them both, that their perfect nature may enrich your life like nothing else you could possibly buy!
Yet again we're shipping a Cthulhu-themed product across the Pacific Ocean. At this point, we're just thumbing our noses at Fate.
Yes, Cthulhu Dice was loaded onto a boat this past weekend, and is now headed to us with all due speed. Keeping those crazy dodecahedrons company are stacks of Munchkin Fairy Dust and Waiting for Santa.
The whole shipping container should arrive in mid April; expect to see them all on shelves a couple weeks later.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Guaranteed To Make You 20% More Mysterious
Consider the humble chakram. Without it, Xena would just be some crazy Greek lady that likes to do flips and yodel. Her signature weapon raises her above the masses of other yodeling Greek gymnasts. Your hero, too, needs something different, something exotic, something . . . listed in Dhanurvidya & Varman: The Arms and Armor of India.
Is this a picture of munchkins about to be crushed by an Ogre, or of a squad of munchkins leading an Ogre assault? Tell us your caption on Twitter: we're @sjgames!
Of course, real Ogre fans recognize the above question as a ruse. The real question is: "What the heck is that Ogre made of?" The answer is "thin wood, laser cut and stickered." Obviously it's a prototype, and alert fans will deduce the source as the upcoming Ogre 6th Edition.
Not up to speed on Ogre 6th? Don't worry, we've been a bit stingy with the details, mostly because our current plan for the release generates consistent "are you sure we can fit all that into one box?" responses from staffers. It'll be bigger -- both in scale and weight -- and more impressive than any previous edition. This will be a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the game's first release, so we were not content just incorporating the maps, units, and rules from GEV. (Yes, Ogre and GEV in one huge box -- I wish Phil had a packaging prototype to photograph, because his current idea is pure genius.)
As the numbers come in, and we nail down details, we'll share whatever we can with you. But it won't be long now . . .
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Remember That Time The World Ended?
It's not often that post-apocalyptic fiction decides to go all the way back to 1948 for its setting. It's understandable, then, that you might need some help getting acclimatized. Fret not, for Serpent Scales #1: The New Konfederacy is the first in a series of PDFs to help flesh out The Day After Ragnarok. (Not that a world that has a 350 mile wide dead snake on it really needs more flesh, mind you. But it wouldn't be the end of the world if they went about this by halves!)
Let it not be said that there are no GURPS books about Uranus. Among other things, Transhuman Space Classic: Deep Beyond covers Uranus quite thoroughly. It exposes Uranus' secrets, probing deep into Uranus to . . .
Okay, okay, I'll stop. Actually, Deep Beyond has more stuff about Jupiter and Saturn than Uranus. In fact, it's 160 pages of info on everything from the asteroid belt on. But where's the fun in that? I mean it just doesn't compare when you hold it up against "have you seen the rings around Uranus" or "so just how big is Uranus, anyway," or "I wonder if we'll find life on Uranus" or . . .
Sorry, I did say I'd stop, didn't I? Right. Well, the other new release on e23 is Transhuman Space: Teralogos News - 2101, Third Quarter, the latest and lastest in the free Teralogos series. I'm not about to make that one the butt of a joke. That'd be a terrible way to end the bottom of this post. (. . . Sorry.)
-- Fox Barrett
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Paid For By The Drow City Tourism Board
Everyone loves drow, right? Oh sure, they may seem like a race of unredeemable nasty-bads that are eternally bent on being as cruel and obnoxious to everyone else as they can, but that's all in the past. We're certain that if you were to visit the city in 0one's Blueprints: Drow City (or its super-mega deluxe version), you'd find naught but chaotic good rebels bucking the trends of their predecessors. Trust us.
We printed up a batch of new shirts for the staffers attending this summer's conventions. There's one for each color of Cthulhu Dice, and one for Zombie Dice. Rumors put a Nanuk shirt in the very near future.
Yes, we're aware of how made of win these are. Making them available for wider distribution is on our "to do" list. But for the moment, if you see one of these shirts, you'll know the wearer is a staff member. Ask them to show you a dice game!
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: It's Not The Size, It's How You Document It
Pluto may not be a planet any more, but that doesn't make it any less deserving of all the respect and dignity due to any celestial body! Well . . . maybe it does a little. But we originally wrote Deep Beyond back in '03, three years before the little guy was retconned. What can ya do?
Need a dice tower really quick? Just print one of Russell Howell's Single Page Dice Towers on any reasonably heavy cardstock, snip, cut, and assemble as instructed, and you've got a dice tower for your game.
These are very snazzy. They fit on one single 8-1/2" by 11" page, and the assembly is much simpler than other print-and-play projects I've seen. A good, simple design that does what it sets out to do -- gotta love it!
-- Paul Chapman
No, it's not the part number for an InfiniCorp X-71 quantum spectroanalyzer. (Close, though). It's Transhuman Space: Teralogos News - 2101, Third Quarter, a book with a title so long that we didn't have room for a price. So we just decided not to give it one. Enjoy!
March 12, 2010: Munchkin Opposable Thumb Drive
Traditionally at the GAMA Trade Show, we distribute a blizzard of printed information to retailers in mysterious folders, marked with "Top Secret." This year, we're going for something a little different.
Instead of killing trees, we'll be enslaving electrons -- hammering them into the shape of PDFs and HTML files, and trapping them all inside the highly-portable 2GB boxes pictured here. (Our Twitter followers got a sneak peek at them last week.)
(Of course it will have a rule! It says Munchkin on it, doesn't it?)
Because we know the collecting instincts of the Munchkin fanbase, we have a few we'll be selling on Warehouse 23. We'll make the leftovers available on Wednesday March 31, for $20 each. But order quickly! We won't have many, and I imagine there are more than a few Munchkin fanatics who will be snatching them up.
-- Paul Chapman
Have you hugged a copy of Star Munchkin lately? Because Warehouse 23 has quite a few copies of Star Munchkin, and they are all very lonely.
One of the first places you'll be able to play both Cthulhu Dice and Zombie Dice "in the wild" will be will be PAX East. Most of the staff will be carrying a copy around with them (since both games fit inside the Zombie Dice cup, as shown here, it's easy!) so they'll be ready to play any time, anywhere. And given the speed at which the game can be taught, played, and won -- SJ claims to have taught Cthulhu Dice to a group and played twice, all in just seven minutes, but he has Crazy Mad Skillz -- I'm confident you'll be able to find a game as easily as you can find the TableTop Open Play area.
In addition to playing our new dice games, you'll also be able to actually purchase copies. The Complete Strategist will be carrying our games and goodies, and we'll have a couple of displays there, fresh from the rush air delivery. But they won't have many, so if you're dying for a copy, get there early!
(A frequent question regarding conventions is "why don't you take a retail booth to shows anymore?" The smarty-pants answer is "because we're better at running a demo than we are at making change." The longer answer is that retailers are, unsurprisingly, much better at physically selling games than we are. They have the equipment, the supplies, and legal paperwork that makes it all go smoothly. And they know how to make change faster than we do. So we leave the retailing to the specialists.)
Remember: At PAX East, you're very likely going to be standing in a line for a few minutes. Why not pick up a game that can be played while you're waiting in the Queue Room? (And if you're at the head of the line for the MC Frontalot concert on Friday night, I'll be happy to bring my copies over.)
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Pontificating On Playtime
1 on 1 Adventures #13: The Pearls of Pohjola is a Pathfinder piece that plays particularly peculiarly. Parties are pleonastic, as only one powerful person need play the PC. Can plentiful personalities partake with some permutations of this perilous pursuit? Perhaps, if planning is performed.
We announced this last week, so this is just a reminder. Or, if you missed last week's DI about our Open House during SXSW, this is news to you. Or if you're still on the fence about attending our little event, this is a nudge to encourage you to RSVP and attend.
It is, as Alton Brown would say, a multi-tasker.
On Saturday, March 13 (yes, that's this Saturday), we're inviting geeks visiting Austin (and the natives as well!) to swing by our office between 4pm and 9pm. We'll have games to play -- including, of course, ones we can't talk about here -- and stories to tell. RSVP to me, if you please.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: It's Pretty Self-Explanatory Anyway
We'd really like to tell you all about the books in the Transactions of the Royal Martian Geographical Society: The Journal of Victorian Era Roleplaying series, but we seem to have run out of room in the text box already. Sorry!
As previously reported, Cthulhu Dice will come in four colors -- green, purple, black, and yellow. In your friendly local game store, you'll be able to grab whichever color -- or colors; they are, after all, only $4.99 each! -- strikes your fancy. (If you don't know where your FLGS is, may we suggest our Retailer Finder?)
If you're lacking a FLGS for whatever reason, Warehouse 23 will of course be carrying Cthulhu Dice in all its many colors. Due to the ethereal nature of online ordering, however, please be extra sure the stock number you're ordering is indeed the color you desire. Of course, if you're quite happy with a random color, we can accommodate you as well. Heck, if you want one of each, we can do that as well.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Choose Wisely
Which would you rather have? The hollow, cold, empty feeling that comes from a life bereft of joy and happiness, or a copy of Transhuman Space: Teralogos News - 2101, Second Quarter?
Money! Bah! Who needs it? We don't! We have cast aside our material needs. We have risen above such petty earthly desires. We look toward the looming giant named The Economy and say "nuts to you, buddy!" We're going to give away these two new products, and damn the torpedoes!
Transhuman Space: Teralogos News - 2101, Second Quarter is a collection of fake news articles for a real game about fake people having real fun. It will cost only your time. The Stars Are Right Invocation Symbol Counters are a collection of counters that will help you play The Stars Are Right without going completely mad. It will cost you only about 2 SAN. By offering these products to the public without a demand for monetary recompense, we believe we shall form the vanguard for a oncoming societal upheaval that will replace the bloated, decaying world of capitalism!
What's that? Transhuman Space Classic: In The Well was released this week and it's not free? One does, in fact, need about ten dollars to partake of the book's Martian, Venusian, and Mercurian goodness? Oh. Well. Nevermind, then.
-- Fox Barrett
Warehouse 23 News: e23: When Album Art Attacks
Long have fans of Molly Hatchet waited for their own RPG. Now that we have The Adventures of Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer: Shadows of Mirahan, that wait is finally over.
The Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 used a lightweight imaging radar known as Mini-SAR to identify over 40 pockets of ice on the moon's north pole. The data doesn't include depth of the craters, so any estimate of the available water is pure speculation. Of course, that hasn't stopped the phrase "at least 600 million metric tons of water ice" from being thrown around.
Water on the moon isn't new -- the Daily Illuminator first mentioned it twelve years ago. But this latest report has the water in easy-to-mine, easy-to-melt ice craters, a significant improvement over the old "mine, process, and purify moon dust" idea.
That's one less thing we have to pack for our return trip to our closest satellite.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Planets And Stuff
What does Transhuman Space Classic: In The Well have? It has planets. Mercury, Mars, and Venus, specifically. It also has some stuff. Most of that stuff is about the planets. So, if you like planets and stuff, we have a book you'd like. If you don't, that's too bad. Stuff is cool.
March 6, 2010: Illuminated Site of the Week: A World Of War-Crafting
Everyone already knows Lego bricks are great fun (at least, if you read the Daily Illuminator you already know it). Now turn a killer toy into killer fun with BrickArms. These folks have gone to entirely too much trouble to create customized weapons for your little soldiers - machine guns, bazookas, even a trusty bat. They have a couple of accessory parts that Lego really should have thought of already: the U-clip and the round minifig stand. They even offer entire custom minifigs . . . mustache-twirling villains and female sheriff's deputies. Get the weapons in different color sets. Get one weapon in multicolored glory. Get them in clear plastic. Give your tiny agent a briefcase with a tiny SMG in it. In fact, just get them, before the awesome overwhelms you.
-- Suggested by Edward Elder
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Crazy (But That's How It Goes)
We understand if you can't keep everything in your head while playing The Stars Are Right. After all, you are an insane cultist. Being a few tentacles short of a cephalopod isn't just expected, it's basically required. So here are some The Stars Are Right Invocation Symbol Counters. If you still need help, even with these in hand, it may be time to consider subcontracting your craziness.
Austin is filled with geeks, it's true. As "Little Silicon Valley," the streets teem with people who can quote Monty Python as well as they can script in Python, know the difference between Doctor Who and a doctor working with WHO, and can tell you about their character in three different game systems.
This tends to be doubly true during South By Southwest. The interactive festival attracts the digital gaming geeks (like the ScreenBurn participants), the film portion brings in the A/V geeks (I believe there are a billion movies being screened this year), and the music . . . well, the music brings in band geeks of all varieties (even nerdcore!).
If you're a geek, and you're in Austin on Saturday, March 13, stop by our Open House (directions!) between 4pm and 9pm. We're not thinking anything very formal, but if you're interested, please RSVP (it'll help with planning). We'll roll some dice, and chat about games -- tabletop vs. digital, the importance of playtesting, new releases and old favorites. Honestly, the number of gaming-related topics we won't talk about is pretty small.
After all, we're all geeks here.
-- Paul Chapman
The producer-consumer model works on a very simple underlying principal: more. Who are we to argue with something so simple? And so, we present Munchkin 7 - More Good Cards. What it lacks in subtley it makes up for in honesty.
Sailing across the Atlantic is commonplace. Sailing across using only solar power? The catamaran "sun21" did that back in 2007, so it's hardly news.
How about not just a transatlantic trip, but a 'round the world one? And, instead of sun21's puny 6-person capacity, how about 50 passengers?
That's the goal of Planet Solar, a 31-meter catamaran unveiled in Germany. The team will use only the power of the sun, converted to electricity by the 5,000 square feet of solar panels adorning the top of the boat. At each port of call, the ship will host educational workshops on alternative energy.
Me, I'm wondering how many MREs you could stash on board. The Planet Solar sounds like an interesting refuge from a zombie apocalypse.
-- Paul Chapman
Savaged Buckshots: For Whom the Bugle Blows isn't just an adventure! It's . . . It's . . . Okay, maybe it is.
A couple of days ago, we passed the 20-year anniversary of the Secret Service raid on our office. We didn't send out a press release, hold a candlelight ceremony, or even put a giant copy of GURPS Cyberpunk on our roof (okay, that one would have been pretty cool). Instead, we worked on Munchkin projects and tested the alpha version of a Zombie Dice app for the iPhone.
In other words: We just made games. And this is a good thing. The point of the lawsuit against the Secret Service was to defend our civil liberties. Liberty means the freedom to go about your business in peace, and once the lawsuit was over and the computer-snatchers put, for the moment, to flight . . . we went about our business, which is making games. And we're still at it.
But we might not be making games today if it weren't for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The founders of the EFF took on the very serious business of defending us - all of us - against perhaps the worst menace a democracy can face: its own police, laws, and courts gone astray. The balance between freedom and security never stands still, and new technology changes the details but mustn't be allowed to change the principles. That's why the EFF was created, and that's why it's still around, 20 years later. And I'm very grateful.
On Tuesday, March 9, EFF-Austin will sponsor a panel discussion about the raid, its aftermath, and its relevance to our civil liberties today. Time: 7pm. Place: Independence Brewing (a good-omened name!), 3913 Todd Lane #607. I'll be there, along with Pete Kennedy, who was our lead attorney, and Bruce Sterling, who chronicled the whole thing in The Hacker Crackdown. Admission is free, but please plan on dropping something into the hat to support EFF-Austin!
-- Steve Jackson
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Wait, Gnomes?
Yes! Gnomes! Deadly little things. They'd just as soon eat your face as look at you. Don't believe us? Fine. Go put your face close to a gnome and see what happens. Just don't come crying back to us when you're faceless and regretful from not having bought the incredibly informative (and fun) GnomeMurdered RPG.
I don't have much to say about this picture, really. The game is fantastically fun, so much so that I wonder why the heck SJ hasn't done a dice game before. And now the packaging has proven to be awesome in its own right.
I know, I know . . . "How can packaging be awesome?" Everybody knows a good looking box can attract attention, but Zombie Dice's blister pack does it right. It's just big enough to hold the game so the paper you throw away is minimal; it shows plenty of theme (if you like zombies, how can you say no to a grin like that?); and the primary component -- the dice -- are right there for all to see.
I can't wait for this one to hit store shelves (looks like late May right now) and the masses to get their hands on it.
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Many Mini Men
The rules found in A Fistfull of Miniatures 2E Basic aren't very picky. Got some miniature dudes with swords? How about spears? Bizzare yet intriguing sword-spear hybrids? Then you can play A Fistfull of Miniatures with just a fistful of those miniatures.
March 1, 2010: You Don't Have To Go On A Quest, But You Can't Stay Here
If I lived in a fantasy town, I'd create a temp agency. Think about it. A sizable chunk of your population spends its time looking for any and all work that involves treasure and/or stabbing things. The way they job hunt? They go from seedy dive to seedy dive, looking for anyone with a hood over their face. Think for a moment about how terribly inefficient that is. So I'd make a killing, and it would revolutionize the adventuring industry! (Heck, a bulletin board would revolutionize the adventuring industry.)
But I don't, so I can't, so bar hopping it is. If your heroes are going to be doing something silly, though, they may as well do it silly right. This is where GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns comes in. It has a selection of taverns all mapped out and detailed for your convenience, but that's only part of the book. It also drops stats and suggestions for a number of standard issue barflies. And barfights? Oh, yes. They get their own chapter.
And remember, please adventure responsibly.
-- Fox Barrett
Warehouse 23 News: e23: Meaningful Violence
With so much meaningless violence in our hobby, is nice to see that the violence in it isn't meaningless Stellar Strike. In Stellar Strike you're trying to take over galaxy. See? That's very directed, purposeful violence.
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