Daily Illuminator

November 20, 2009: e23 News and Notes (Literally!)

If you're a GURPS fan and don't check out e23's news page regularly, you've missed out on some interesting treats. At the end of last year, we started inviting GURPS authors to submit mini-articles for their supplements. Each "Designer's Note" is about 100 words -- the perfect length to share a bit of insider info, behind-the-scenes revelation, or other inspiration.

Here are Designer's Notes we've run so far:

GURPS Powers (by Sean "Kromm" Punch)
GURPS Thaumatology (by Phil Masters)
GURPS Thaumatology: Age of Gold (also by Phil Masters)
GURPS Martial Arts (one note by Sean "Kromm" Punch . . . and another by Peter Dell'Orto!)
GURPS Psionic Powers (by Jason "P.K." Levine)
GURPS Banestorm: Abydos (by David Pulver -- who did two notes for this book!)

Besides visiting e23's news page every day, you can sign up to have e23 news delivered via RSS or e-mail. Of course, that has the added benefit of keeping you in the loop of any other interesting e23 developments.

-- Steven Marsh

November 19, 2009: Off to BGG.Con!

Today is the start of BoardGameGeek.Con, the annual gathering of gamers from BoardGameGeek.com. (If you're not familiar with the site, it's a fantastic resource for any fan of games of all types -- board, card, war, or roleplaying.)

We've got a demo team in place, showing off Zombie Dice, Cthulhu Dice, Nanuk, Revolution!, The Stars Are Right, and whatever else we can rope people into playing (like Top Secret Playtest Sets). There's also a small pile of various games that we can exchange for cash or plastic, including the first copies of Nanuk for sale anywhere.

While we will separate you from your money -- gladly! -- our primary focus is going to be teaching and playing games. If you're attending, stop by our area, and learn a new game!

Phil and SJ are also attending, but their attendance is more "vacation" than "convention appearance." In other words, they want to play games and leave the business side back in the office for a few days.

-- Paul Chapman

November 18, 2009: Ultra-Rare Munchkin Item on Sale Today!

Later today, we'll be making an ultra-rare Munchkin item available on Warehouse 23. How rare? We've got just 30 -- that's it.

These items will be sold on a "first come, first served" basis. The first 30 orders will be processed based on the time stamp in our database. If a payment bounces, we'll move on to the next order.

So, what is this mysterious item? When will it become available? Follow us on Twitter (or watch our Twitter feed on the right hand side of the front page) to get hints and the "go buy now!" announcement!

-- Paul Chapman

November 17, 2009: This Book Is Boring

Get it? See, because it's called GURPS Spaceships 6: Mining and Industrial Spacecraft. It's . . . it's a mining pun. Heh? Well, it was funny in my head, at any rate. (Hm. Unfortunate turn of phrase there.)

So this book is all about breakin' and makin'. It's about going out into that inky nothingness and exploiting the ever-loving heck out of its mineral resources. Sure, it's not as glamorous as commanding a deep-space exploration vessel or piloting a snub fighter down the trench of a battlestation. On the other hand, nobody will be shooting at you. Always a plus, that.

Of course, that's not to say that nothing interesting will happen. Improperly secure one drive plate and you might just end up as the god of a race of highly evolved cat-people. Cool, huh? Or you might play pool with planets! That's pretty cool, too. Or you might get impregnated by an alternate-universe version of yourself! That would be . . . hm, that'd just be kinda weird.

-- Fox Barrett

November 16, 2009: Fifteen Years Of Daily Illumination

Fifteen years ago today, we started the Daily Illuminator to tell our online fans what we were up to on a (mostly) daily basis. It was an experiment, but it worked. It's still going strong today, which makes the Daily Illuminator one of the first blogs on the Internet! As far as we know, it's the oldest one that's still getting updated regularly. In the beginning you can see that we weren't even sure what to call it, since the term "weblog," let alone "blog," would not become widespread for years.

So, for 15 years, the DI has brought you product announcements, sneak peeks at games in development, convention reports, comings and goings of staff, general musings about the industry, and things we thought were just plain cool. So hop on over to the archives and take a stroll down memory lane, or find out what we were doing on your birthday back in the 20th century.

-- Jimmie Bragdon

November 15, 2009: Halloween Games and Costumes

As promised, we've created a page for all the costumes from our Halloween Game Day. This year we had some excellent ones: Ben as Hamburgler, Alex as Rorschach, Justin as Sweeny Todd, and Jimmie as the Monster in the Darkness. But even the subtle ones were fun, from Will's monkey half-mask to Barbara's antenna. And SJ's freaky eyes . . . it was disconcerting to play a game across from those!

And play games we did! From Pandemic and Castle Panic to Incan Gold and Roll Through The Ages: Bronze Age, we gamers did what we do best. A ton of fun was had by all, and much sugar was consumed.

Now it's back to work -- at least until the Christmas Game Day!

-- Paul Chapman

November 14, 2009: Illuminated Site of the Week: Sun Of A Gun

Remember Rob Cockerham? We mentioned him back in January of 2003. He's the guy who wanted to become the super-shopper by having an army of "cloned" superstore buyers' cards all linked back to him.

Well, it turns out this guy doesn't have an "off" switch – he's always up to some prank or another. It all starts as good fun, but as the light sharpener project shows, eventually one goes mad with power. Now an evil super-genius, he turns his intellect to the task of destroying the world one stick of butter or can of cola at a time. See the many steps required to build such an awesome weapon, and tremble at the thought that if he ever figures out how to point it at the ground at midday, he can liquidate us all.
-- Suggested by Dr. Kromm

November 13, 2009: Coming In March

Steve Jackson Games releases in March, 2010 . . . or maybe we should say "unleashes" . . .

Zombies and Cthulhu!

We've been working on these dice games very hard for the last couple of months . . . because they're super-fast to play, and play again, and play AGAIN. They really took over some of our playtest sessions, and now we're ready to share. ALSO, note the price and stock number on the first one . . . Why? Because we could.

Zombie Dice

Eat brains. Don't get shotgunned.

You are a zombie. You want braaains. More brains than any of your zombie buddies.

Zombie Dice is fast and easy for any zombie fan to learn, even non-gamers. The 13 custom dice are your victims. Push your luck to eat their brains, but stop rolling before the shotgun blasts end your turn!

3 to 8 can play. Each game takes 10 to 20 minutes, and can be taught in a single round.

13 custom dice, dice cup, and rules. Stock #131313, ISBN 837654320419. $13.13.

Cthulhu Dice

Serving Cthulhu is fun . . . except for all those other cultists out to get you. So get them first!

Cthulhu Dice lets you drive your rivals mad . . . very, very quickly. Players take turns rolling the big, beautiful, custom 12-sided die, embossed with tentacles, Elder Signs, and more. Destroy your opponents' sanity! Better yet, steal it. But watch out for Cthulhu -- when he comes up, he takes sanity from everyone! The last sane cultist wins . . . unless everyone goes mad together. Then Cthulhu wins!

Cthulhu Dice plays in about 10 minutes, and is fun for 3 to 8 players.

One large custom die and rules. Stock #131315, ISBN 837654320396. $4.99.

-- Paul Chapman

November 12, 2009: Back from Spiel '09!

I'm finally back from the largest boardgame convention in Europe. (I actually returned before Halloween, but between the jet lag and the mountain of e-mails, this post got pushed back a bit!) The trip was fantastic -- the number of games blew my mind, as well as the gamers themselves. MIB from all over Europe attended and provided support for Pegasus Spiel, our German translator. They were all top-notch, both while running games and when acting as "Munchkin mascot handler."

Yes, the mascot made several appearances at Spiel, including cheering on the munchkins playing in the Munchkin European tournament. Mega "thank you!"s to Christian, Danny, and Maria for guiding the mascot around the crowded halls. Special thanks to Marko from Croatia, for guiding the mascot when he was out of the suit and providing the photo to the left. (My biggest regret of the show was leaving my camera in the hotel room. Every. Single. Day. So if you attended Spiel '09, and got a good photo of the mascot -- or just have a good online album of images from the show -- shoot me a link at paul@sjgames.com!)

And of course, many, many thanks to Birger and the Pegasus crew for hosting Ross and me. We're both looking forward to returning next year!

-- Paul Chapman

November 11, 2009: Fixing the Lid on the Shark Tank

We would like to clear up some confusion about the state of our front door. The rumors of several accidental activations of the shark tank are completely unfounded. For that would presume we have sharks, you see, and such an idea is completely insane. We would have to keep them fed! And a shark can eat something like two or three unwanted solicitors a day. Um, hypothetically.

The construction you see here is . . . cosmetic. We're just prettying up the place. You should feel perfectly safe entering our office via the front door.

(Oh, and for the nay-sayers* out there: You've heard of sand sharks, right? That's right -- with lasers!)

-- Paul Chapman

*Also for the nay-sayers: Seven birds in two days is completely reasonable, as long as we all work together.

November 10, 2009: Free! (Or Close Enough)

Not one, not two, but three new releases await you on e23. The first of them is GURPS Infinite Worlds: I.S.T. This tiny text talks about how to integrate the International Super Teams setting into the Infinite Worlds setting. Which makes sense, really, given the infinite nature of Infinite Worlds. The best part is the price. We're selling this one for the low-low price of absolutely no money at all.

Nice, huh? So how do you follow an act like that? Why, with the GURPS Range Ruler, of course. This puppy has everything you need to quickly and easily calculate range modifiers. No longer must you resort to such arcane and obsolete methods as looking in the book or retaining every single rule in your head. For so helpful a tool, you'd think we would charge 300 or 400 dollars, easily. But no! This most helpful of help-things is yours for the asking.

But wait! There's more! We also have Car Wars Expansion Set 6 - The AADA Vehicle Guide Counters for you. (Or "CWRS6TAADAVGC," as we say around here when we wanna be brief.) This collection of cars, trucks, and other wheeled death machines is perfect for playing Car Wars. You might have guessed that from the name, but the title is a bit long, so I felt it was worth mentioning in case you missed it. This one isn't quite as free as the other two releases, I'm afraid. But two outta three ain't bad, right?

-- Fox Barrett

November 9, 2009: Happy Holidays!

Seems a bit early, I know, but if your office is anything like ours, you and your coworkers are starting to schedule projects around the "everybody's going to take off early this day" and "no one is coming in on New Year's anyway" events. Here's our holiday office closure plan; it won't help your schedule, but it makes us feel more organized.

Thanksgiving. The office, including Warehouse 23, will be closed November 26 and 27.
Christmas Game Day. We'll be playing games on December 11, so while some of us will be in the office, we won't be as quick to reply as normal.
Christmas. The office, including Warehouse 23, will be closed December 21 through January 1. We'll be back on January 4.

e23 will be processing orders and delivering digital product as normal during all office closures. However, Fox -- who handles e23 customer service emails and calls -- won't be available.

Now go organize your holidays!

-- Paul Chapman