Daily Illuminator Archive for March 2007

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March 1, 2007:
Steve Jackson Games announces for release in June, 2007: Munchkin 5 – De-Ranged Munchkin 5 – De-Ranged brings you more of the twisted humor of Steve Jackson and John Kovalic in a 112-card supplement for Munchkin! • Treasure! Track down the Philosopher's Scone, put Racing Stripes on your Steed, and fill your Canteen of Spleen with Carbonated Holy Water! • Monsters! . . . read article

March 2, 2007:
It's small wonder Bill Gates is retiring. He knew it was only a question of time before his creations rose up against him . . . read article

March 3, 2007:
Yes, the first Fnordcast of 2007 has arrived! In this episode, SJ gives us the Stakeholder's Report for 2006, Randy and Nicolas give us a Shameless Plug, and Will and I put the gamer's eye on GURPS Ultra-Tech . . . read article

March 4, 2007:
McDonald's Pirate Poster: I never got one . . . read article

March 5, 2007:
Tuesday afternoon I leave for the Game Developers Conference. Wednesday afternoon I'll be giving a presentation on blindtesting . . . read article

March 6, 2007:
This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Robert A. Heinlein . . . read article

March 7, 2007:
Frontier Airlines and liked it, happily read parts of the GURPS Thaumatology draft while in the air, survived one of the worst shuttle rides EVER, made it to the hotel, had a wonderful sushi dinner . . . . . read article

March 8, 2007:
The technology being developed by Emotiv Systems obviously has applications far beyond gaming. But what do we care, if we can think "hit dragon" and see our character do it? . . . read article

March 9, 2007:
Just what would a zombie outbreak be like? It might be a whole lot like what you see at the Zombie World News . . . read article

March 10, 2007:
I did get a miserable cold, starting Thursday not long after getting up, but since my talk was Wednesday, it's a survivable disaster. Responses to the talk were good - at least, no produce was thrown, good questions were asked, and several people caught me over the following days to make happy noises . . . read article

March 11, 2007:
After illustrating almost 2,000 Munchkin cards, you'd think John Kovalic would have gotten to the "I love them all equally" stage. But no . . . "By the way - the "Find Secret Door" may be my favorite card drawing EVER. :-)" John Kovalic plays favorites! . . . read article

March 12, 2007:
Now that I'm home, recovering from my cold, and mostly unpacked, I still think it was a good show. I got to visit with a number of old friends from the old school, including Greg Costikyan (who won the GDC's Maverick Award, and you can see his acceptance speech here), Eric Goldberg, Steve Peterson and Ray Greer of the original Hero Games, and Andrew Leker (who is now fully on the digital side, but you'll remember him as the creator of Skyrealms of Jorune) . . . read article

March 13, 2007:
Offered without comment or interpretation, for the half-dozen or so of you who haven't already read the story of the fellow whose defense in a case of lingerie theft included "Maybe my (female, elf) Shadowrun character did it." Here's the BBC report . . . read article

March 14, 2007:
We made it through the new Daylight Savings changes this week fairly smoothly. There are a few things that don't seem to have updated with the rest of the systems yet, so we are planning to have the servers down for a short time this coming Thursday evening . . . read article

March 15, 2007:
If you happened to catch CBS' "The New Adventures of Old Christine" on Monday night, you may have spotted a familiar game -- GreedQuest! If you missed it, you can watch the episode (titled "Sleepless in Mar Vista") at cbs.com . . . read article

March 16, 2007:
You won't find these tomes in your local library (unless it glows an eerie green). Instead, esoterica like this is conveniently collected at The Hermetic Library where its depths can be plumbed safely . . . read article

March 17, 2007:
The only easy day was yesterday. -- SEAL motto Now available - SEALs in Vietnam for GURPS, Fourth Edition on e23! SEALs in Vietnam is a weapons catalog, history supplement, campaign guide, and inspirational source for playing grunts in mud, written by Hans-Christian Vortisch (author of Modern Firepower, GURPS WWII: Motor Pool and other genre favorites). -- Thomas Weigel . . . read article

March 18, 2007:
Loren Wiseman (our own GURPS Traveller Line Editor) has released a new deckplan! The 20-ton Launch offers nine configurations for one of the tightest spaces in known space, from military liaison to mobile retail store . . . read article

March 19, 2007:
Herewith, the Supermegatopia take on Munchkin. We laughed . . . read article

March 20, 2007:
It ain't Ninja Burger, but it's close . . . Ninja Warrior (or Sasuke) is a Japanese game show that pits contestants against an obstacle course . . . read article

March 21, 2007:
Fidel Lainez and Chris Oakley used our Munchkin Card Suggestion Page to contribute card ideas which wound up in Munchkin Cthulhu. (Thank you! . . . read article

March 22, 2007:
Paul and Ross are at Games Expo in Las Vegas this week. This is a new trade show for game publishers, not to be confused with the venerable GAMA Trade Show next month . . . read article

March 23, 2007:
The University of Iowa's Radio and Plasma Wave Audio Group has collected some of the solar system's greatest hits. Hear lightning in the heart of Saturn, or listen to collisions with the solar winds . . . read article

March 24, 2007:
A persistent legend spread at SF conventions is that US law makes it illegal to talk to space aliens. Cameron Tuttle's excellent Paranoid's Pocket Guide (scary book, highly recommended) repeats this story . . . read article

March 25, 2007:
The very good news: not only has George R. R. Martin recovered the RPG rights to his epic fantasy series, following the Guardians of Order debacle, but in the settlement he also acquired the remaining stocks of the super-deluxe hardcover edition . . . read article

March 26, 2007:
A news story at the BBC site tells about Liverpool's newest attempt to deal with its pigeon problem: "Ten robotic birds of prey are being brought into the city centre to scare off the pigeons and visitors are being warned not to give them food." Warned not to feed the robotic birds of prey? (Visions dance through my head of tourists tossing them computer mice . . . of vendors selling little bags of nuts and bolts . . .) . . . read article

March 27, 2007:
Engineers at MIT have created SpaceNet, a program that models the allocation and transfer of resources between "nodes" in an interplanetary research/exploration/development scenario. For instance, if you have to keep five astronauts alive at Tranquility Base and two more are arriving next month, you'd better have put extra food in the pipeline quite a while ago . . . read article

March 28, 2007:
Warehouse 23 has an immediate opening for a Shipping Clerk at our Austin office . . . read article

March 29, 2007:
If you belong to a college or university game club, you can apply for a grant from WotC, provided D&D is the "primary focus" of your group's activities, and you "passionately pursue roleplaying" and are "passionate enough to apply." Suggested uses for the grant include "food for club gatherings." Hands up, everyone who's passionate about pizza! . . . read article

March 30, 2007:
Want something for nothing? Sure, we all do . . . read article

March 31, 2007:
Welcome to the next campaign of one of our favorite live-action roleplaying games. In vs . . . read article

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