October 4, 2024: After The Storm: Jean's Notes From Helene

As the devastating fallout from Hurricane Helene continues to be uncovered, we are abundantly thankful that everyone at Steve Jackson Games is okay, and our hearts go out to those who were not so fortunate.

Here's an on-the-ground report from Jean, who does magical things with our 3D printing projects: Some things on my end (STL projects) have been delayed because my power was out until Monday (9/30). I just got my Internet back a few hours ago (Wednesday, 10/2), but aside from the contents of my refrigerator, nothing is damaged here. Irene in Atlanta had nothing worse than leaky windows, although that can't be said for the rest of Atlanta, and other parts of Georgia got hit pretty hard. The short version is that the southeast is a mess.

While most of our staff is in Texas, I work remotely from South Carolina. Helene was just ("just!") a tropical storm when it went past about . . . [more]

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October 3, 2024: Well, We Have Incidents And Badgers – So We're Golden?

Not too long ago , I helped edit a Daily Illuminator from Stefan Jones about how he ran Quick Quest 7: Incident at the Golden Badger. One of the behind-the-scenes things I do is add images as appropriate in order to provide the JPG pizzazz that's all the rage on this World Wide Web.

To keep from having too many disparate images floating around, I checked to see if we had featured Incident at the Golden Badger in a previous Daily Illuminator, using Google's handy search ability where I can say "Hey, please pull up all results of 'Incident at the Golden Badger' from the Daily Illuminator section of our website."

Google informed me that we did not have any results in that area for "incident at the golden badger" . . . in quotes. But outside of quotes? Where Google searches each word individually? Yes, it had one hit . . .

The Illuminated Site of the Week Archives, where, indeed, the word . . . [more]

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October 2, 2024: Why Does The Secret Lab Have A Network 123DONT-TELL-BOSS?

I recently came across an article about how senior officials serving on a Navy ship conspired to get themselves Internet wi-fi while aboard their ship. The network had the name "STINKY."

Because I try to get my inspiration from everywhere, I'm trying to envision how to add this to a GURPS Action adventure. What might the heroes do if they came across a clandestine wi-fi hotspot clearly not part of the organization they're interacting with, but also somehow still a part of it?

-- Steven Marsh

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October 1, 2024: Sleepy Hollow

Rick Hershey, who creates 95% of the illustrations in Hexagram, has a new game company: Kids in the Attic. There's a crowdfund going on right now, ending in just a few hours, for the new TTRPG Sleepy Hollow, which uses the Year Zero engine. It's a folk horror game set in early 19th-century New England. Headless Horseman . . . It's already blasted through its funding goal and added several supplements as stretch goals.

And now you know! If this sounds good, support it in what little time you have left.

-- Steve Jackson

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September 30, 2024: Squeezy Is Not So Easy!

For those who enjoy daily word games in the vein of Wordle, Strands, or Connections, I found one recently that's different and fun, called Squeezy.

Basically, you have a selection of words on the right-hand side – such as BITER, CAD, ONCE, and RETIRE; and a selection of tiles on the lefthand side: say, E, R, T, U. You need to select those tiles on the lefthand side and put them in between the letters of the words on the right-hand side to form a new word.

So, using those tiles, the answers might be BITTER, CARD, OUNCE, and RETIREE.

The filled-in tiles all spell a word in their order . . . so, in this case, TRUE.

Each puzzle consists of three rounds (with the third round having one or more words that requires multiple tiles). The three resultant clues have some connection that isn't required to "solve" the puzzle but is fun to think about.

It's an interesting game that makes . . . [more]

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Cyberworld is plump and the file is treacherous. October 4, 2024: After The Storm: Jean's Notes From Helene As the devastating fallout from Hurricane Helene continues to be uncovered, we are abundantly thankful that everyone at Steve Jackson Games is okay, and our hearts go out to those who were not so fortunate. Here's an on-the-ground report from Jean, who does magical things with our 3D printing projects: Some things on my end (STL projects) have been delayed because my power was out until Monday (9/30). I just got my Internet back a few hours ago (Wednesday, 10/2), but aside from the contents of my refrigerator, nothing is damaged here. Irene in Atlanta had nothing worse than leaky windows, although that can't be said for the rest of Atlanta, and other parts of Georgia got hit pretty hard. The short version is that the southeast is a mess. While most of our staff is in Texas, I work remotely from South Carolina. Helene was just ("just!") a tropical storm when it went past about . . . [more] Share this post! October 3, 2024: Well, We Have Incidents And Badgers – So We're Golden? Not too long ago , I helped edit a Daily Illuminator from Stefan Jones about how he ran Quick Quest 7: Incident at the Golden Badger. One of the behind-the-scenes things I do is add images as appropriate in order to provide the JPG pizzazz that's all the rage on this World Wide Web. To keep from having too many disparate images floating around, I checked to see if we had featured Incident at the Golden Badger in a previous Daily Illuminator, using Google's handy search ability where I can say "Hey, please pull up all results of 'Incident at the Golden Badger' from the Daily Illuminator section of our website." Google informed me that we did not have any results in that area for "incident at the golden badger" . . . in quotes. But outside of quotes? Where Google searches each word individually? Yes, it had one hit . . . The Illuminated Site of the Week Archives, where, indeed, the word . . . [more] Share this post! October 2, 2024: Why Does The Secret Lab Have A Network 123DONT-TELL-BOSS? I recently came across an article about how senior officials serving on a Navy ship conspired to get themselves Internet wi-fi while aboard their ship. The network had the name "STINKY." Because I try to get my inspiration from everywhere, I'm trying to envision how to add this to a GURPS Action adventure. What might the heroes do if they came across a clandestine wi-fi hotspot clearly not part of the organization they're interacting with, but also somehow still a part of it? -- Steven Marsh Share this post! October 1, 2024: Sleepy Hollow Rick Hershey, who creates 95% of the illustrations in Hexagram, has a new game company: Kids in the Attic. There's a crowdfund going on right now, ending in just a few hours, for the new TTRPG Sleepy Hollow, which uses the Year Zero engine. It's a folk horror game set in early 19th-century New England. Headless Horseman . . . It's already blasted through its funding goal and added several supplements as stretch goals. And now you know! If this sounds good, support it in what little time you have left. -- Steve Jackson Share this post! September 30, 2024: Squeezy Is Not So Easy! For those who enjoy daily word games in the vein of Wordle, Strands, or Connections, I found one recently that's different and fun, called Squeezy. Basically, you have a selection of words on the right-hand side – such as BITER, CAD, ONCE, and RETIRE; and a selection of tiles on the lefthand side: say, E, R, T, U. You need to select those tiles on the lefthand side and put them in between the letters of the words on the right-hand side to form a new word. So, using those tiles, the answers might be BITTER, CARD, OUNCE, and RETIREE. The filled-in tiles all spell a word in their order . . . so, in this case, TRUE. Each puzzle consists of three rounds (with the third round having one or more words that requires multiple tiles). The three resultant clues have some connection that isn't required to "solve" the puzzle but is fun to think about. It's an interesting game that makes . . . [more] Share this post! Previous Illuminators • Steve's Appearance Schedule		Latest Videos You are the 173rd interstellar sex god here today. (30082196 since August 1, 1995)