Daily Illuminator Archive for April 2006

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April 1, 2006:
The winner of the secret GURPS contest is Alessandro Vila Paredes, of Curitiba, Brazil. Alessandro spotted the F-N-O-R-D in the initial letters of five paragraphs in the GURPS Basic Set, Fourth Edition . . . he decoded the instructions and carried them out . . . and he wins one copy of everything we release for GURPS for the rest of his life, or as long as we're in business . . . may these both be a long, long time . . . . . read article

April 2, 2006:
You can quit looking now. (2) Yes, there will be a Report to the Stakeholders soon; the only piece missing is my time to finish it. (3) Server downtime is scheduled for next Friday, from 1 a.m. (or thereabouts) to 7 a.m. (or thereabouts). Our site will be unreachable . . . read article

April 3, 2006:
Michael Cule, in the latest Alarums and Excursions, raises an interesting point: "The odd thing [about Yrth] is not that the world has the same length of year; it's that it counts the months and years according to the modern Gregorian calendar." Got me. That is indeed odd . . . read article

April 4, 2006:
The details are here. We'll be posting at least one more opening at the Austin office, and maybe more than one, within a few days . . . read article

April 5, 2006:
SF characters' diets - for decades. But if this CTV story is to be believed, the real thing may be on the horizon . . . . . read article

April 6, 2006:
Toon Munchkin is the best of two great games that go great together - Toon and Munchkin! All the crazy characters, silly spells, troublesome traps, mirthful monsters, wondrous weapons, and terrific treasures from the Munchkin card game are now yours to play in Toon, the funnest roleplaying game ever . . . read article

April 7, 2006:
The first Schlock Mercenary book is available for pre-orders right here. This is NOT a Warehouse 23 or Steve Jackson Games release . . . you can only get it from the author, Howard Tayler . . . read article

April 8, 2006:
Those of you who follow the stirring debates carried out on America's back bumpers are well aware of the Darwin Fish. Okay, now they've found its fossil . . . read article

April 9, 2006:
Enough of this petty bickering. We can raise bickering to a whole new level . . . read article

April 10, 2006:
My current effort has eaten far more of my time than originally planned, and all the people who want me to finish various writing projects can justifiably grump at me for getting involved in a building task. So it goes . . . read article

April 11, 2006:
We have now posted an opening for Warehouse 23 Troubleshooter. Trouble around here does not USUALLY shoot back, but sometimes it takes a full magazine to get it to lie down . . . read article

April 12, 2006:
Da! Munchkin is now in Russian! The samples just arrived, and look good, albeit very, very Cyrillic . . . read article

April 13, 2006:
It's out, it's out, and Warehouse 23 has it . . . here's the order link. We're very pleased and complimented to have an actual "Dummies" book for GURPS . . . and it's good . . . read article

April 14, 2006:
Einstein seems to have lowballed General Relativity, to the tune of 100 million trillion. The European Space Agency General Studies Programme has (super)conducted three years worth of experiments and believes it could be on its way to the quantum theory of gravity . . . read article

April 14, 2006:
GURPS Thaumatology is the complete GURPS Fourth Edition guide to magic systems, compiled by Phil Masters. A mixture of updated Third Edition material and all-new Fourth Edition rules, Thaumatology explores variations on the basic magic system described in GURPS Magic and presents several alternative systems -- including ritual magic, clerical magic, threshold-based magic (known to Third Edition players as "Unlimited Mana"), and high ceremonial magic (the "ritual magic" system from Third Edition) . . . read article

April 15, 2006:
I never know, when I write an Illuminator, what will draw lots of comments and what won't. This one did . . . thanks to everyone who commisserated with me on the painting . . . read article

April 16, 2006:
Our Las Vegas warehouse is closed, and most of its contents have been shipped to distributors or returned to Austin. It was a noble experiment, but it didn't work out . . . read article

April 17, 2006:
Of the "let's get this Chaos organized" type. The Chaos Machine will be at Penguicon this upcoming weekend, wrangled by Schlock Mercenary's Howard Tayler . . . read article

April 18, 2006:
Can anybody help me get in touch with: Rook Steel Storage, manufacturer of metal card boxes? Yes, I know about their nice website at myrook.com, but e-mail to the address there gets no answer . . . neither do messages left on the phone number listed in the site . . . read article

April 19, 2006:
I spent Tuesday evening as a judge at the Game Court, a game design contest sponsored by the UT-Austin Science, Technology, and Society program and the UT Electronic Game Developers Society. Verrrry interesting! . . . read article

April 20, 2006:
One of the finer features of GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars is Chapter Ten: Starship Combat. But where do I find hexagonal counters decorated with silhouettes of Interstellar Wars Era ships? . . . read article

April 21, 2006:
One of the oldest roleplaying publishers of them all is in a bad way right now, and asking for fan support. Palladium Books, publisher of the classic Rifts, reports that serious theft from within has left them unable to continue business without assistance . . . read article

April 22, 2006:
You can use statistics to prove just about anything, but now you can point to an official website that categorically proves your point. Just pump the numbers you need into eSolutions Data and challenge your detractors to show you're wrong . . . read article

April 23, 2006:
The ones at Letterhead Fonts are especially so . . . read article

April 24, 2006:
Well, they've finally knocked our old building down. Nothing there now but a flat spot amid the spring greenery . . . read article

April 25, 2006:
If you love those airport signs that warn you not to joke (about anything, apparently) under penalty of Heaven Knows What, you'll want to send all your friends this . . .-- Steve Jackson . . . read article

April 26, 2006:
We are advised that the Hebrew edition of Munchkin, from Silver Stars Publishing, is on the shelves in Israel, though we have not yet seen a copy . . . read article

April 27, 2006:
Kira and I have continued to hammer on UltraCorps, with the help of a lot of dedicated playtesters. We'd hoped to have things feature-complete for launch right now, and make the new game the beta test . . . read article

April 28, 2006:
Why on (or off) Earth would they call it Extra-Vehicular Activity Research if they're already sitting on the prototype? Well, that's how it looks anyway . . . read article

April 29, 2006:
Fans of the art in our recent release, King's Blood, may want to check out our wallpaper page. Ekatarina, Fawn, Hecato, and Helious are featured, along with one featuring the logo . . . read article

April 30, 2006:
We've had a number of interesting board and card game submissions recently . . . playtest nights have been busy! We're hearing from new designers, and new artists as well . . . read article

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