The vice squad walks to the Watergate Hotel and torments the scenario.

April 19, 2025: Panic At The Disc-os?

If you are a DVD fan and still have a library of discs that fill two whole walls of your house including floor-to-ceiling shelves like – um – a guy I heard about, you might want to be aware that many Warner Bros. Home Entertainment DVDs made between 2006 and 2008 seem to be deteriorating and unable to play due to a flaw in the manufacturing process. The company is aware of the issue and is apparently replacing them with the same discs when those rights permit them to do so. More information can be found in this Ars Technica article, including a link to a list of affected discs.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to help this guy I know mop tears from his eyes as he sorts through his media library.

-- Steven Marsh

April 18, 2025: Meredith Placko Resigns As CEO (And Other Updates)

Meredith Placko has resigned as our CEO. This was not anticipated; when I get a plan, I'll share. For right now, everyone who was reporting to her will be reporting to me. I have nothing to add to her interview in ICv2 but to wish her and Turbo Dork the best of luck in these tough times.

I cannot say how much I appreciate the support of our staff right now. Your messages – heck, your just showing up for work every morning – mean a great deal. Thank you.

Events have overtaken the Illuminator that I wanted to post about tariff effects on our announced and upcoming releases. Executive summary: nothing good.

I had my first cataract procedure yesterday, and survived, though I slept through the rest of the day and am still groggy today. Next Tuesday we do it all again on the right eye!

-- Steve Jackson

April 17, 2025: Download Possum Creek From Warehouse 23 Today!

Readers of the Daily Illuminator may recall we recently welcomed Possum Creek as part of the Steve Jackson Games family. We're happy to announce that many of their games are now available to download instantly from Warehouse 23. With the click of a mouse (or tap of a device if that's how you roll), can you add these amazing PDFs to your digital library:

• Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast – a cutting-edge slice-of-life fantasy game.

• Wanderhome – A fantasy RPG about traveling animal-folk.

• Sleepaway – A game where you play as a camp counselor at a not-so-ordinary summer camp designed as a refuge for misfit kids.

• Uncanny – An expansion for Sleepaway that adds new characters, setting elements, rituals, and more.

• Wickedness – A game where you play as a member of a coven, navigating the relationships and challenges between each other.

• The Flower Court – An RPG about scheming . . . [more]

April 16, 2025: Game Recommendation: Pilfer

Did you know that there is a fantastic little collection of word games on the Merriam-Webster website? I only stumbled onto them recently! But before you go explore, let me tell you about one in particular that I just can't get enough of.

Pilfer is a quick multiplayer anagram game that you can play against a bot, with friends, or with other online players. Create words from a common pool of letter tiles, or alter existing words by adding more letters – rearranging as much as you'd like! If you steal a word, it's yours until someone adds another letter to it. Everyone's score is the total number of letters in their words at the end of the game.

This was a massive hit on a recent family Zoom call; we ended up playing several rounds because it's just so fast! If you enjoy Bananagrams, Boggle, Scrabble Slam, or any other real-time word games, it's a must-try.

-- Irene Zielinski

April 15, 2025: I Respond To All My Texts With A Unicorn Sloth

I'm not going to say I've wasted far too many hours on the Emoji Mixer, but I don't think I'd be able to deny it in a court of law, either. The premise is simple: Take one of a number of emojis and combine it with another. Voila! You can then download the combined emoji.

Personally, the bulk of my time has been spent mixing the "rabbit" emoji with others, to often hilarious results. ("Rabbit" + "Burning heart" just looks like the cutest pyromaniac imaginable.) Oh, and it is possible to "combine" an emoji with itself. And, yes, "rabbit + rabbit" yields predicable-but-adorable results.

For those looking for tabletop-gaming utility, this is a real quick-and-easy way to generate an "icon" idea for any appropriate NPCs. "The secret coordinates to find A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. are being held by . . . the Strawberry Nerd?!"

-- Steven Marsh