Steve Jackson's Blog, page 22

March 27, 2025: Grab Bag Status Report

I'm back in Austin. The pre-op procedures went well and my "real" cataract surgery is still on schedule. Can't come too soon for me!

MidSouthCon was a blast. Like LibertyCon, it has small-convention vibes but the variety of events you expect from a thousand-person show (which this was). And I got to play a lot. We did a Last Shot tournament and introduced the game to a number of spies . . . it's a shame so few survived! I had my first experience with Barenpark , a 2018 tile-laying game that holds up very well. I want to play again. And I played a couple more of the Dahlia's mini-RPGs, and had a great time.

Did I mention that I finally have a Real Move Date scheduled? On April 26, the van will be loaded and I will wave goodbye to Texas; by the 27th, I should be waving hello to Atlanta for real. After driving 15 hours. Then I am falling into bed. The next day the van will catch up and the Great Unloading will happen.

I have signed a Fantasy Trip license, but I think I won't spill any details until I do a posting on the TFT home page. And that won't be tonight because it's getting close to bedtime . . . that whole "after conventions, sleep is needed" thing!

– Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: The City Never Sleeps Because Of All The Action

There are a million stories in the city, and they're all exciting! GURPS Action 9: The City shows how you can add GURPS City Stats to your GURPS Action campaigns. It also features six sample cities to use with your own action-packed adventures. Download it today from Warehouse 23!

March 26, 2025: "Survive The Tyrant" . . . RPG Style!

RPG settings that pit characters against an oppressive regime – a Galactic Empire, extraterrestrial invaders, a government bent on hunting down rogue psis or mutants – have been around for decades.

Recently I have (For Reasons) been looking into real-life popular resistance movements that fought back against authoritarian regimes in the 20th century. These were, by and large, not guerrilla groups or militias. They used people power: strikes, demonstrations, and sometimes absurd humor (like Poland's Orange Alternative, a delightfully nutty performance art group that matched wits with the late-80s martial law regime).

I just came across a document that nicely ties things together: Survive the Tyrant: An RPG-style guide to living under an oppressive regime. Using the terminology and tropes of roleplaying, it explains the challenges of living in, and resisting, an authoritarian regime. There are character classes (Agitator, Community Leader, Transport and Sanctuary specialists) and foes (Informants, Corrupt Bureaucrats, Quislings). Under "Skill and Ability Checks" are suggestions for staying safe, out of custody, and healthy. Treasure is defined as the community ties and activities (including creative pursuits and playing RPGs . . .) that help you stay sane and brave. Mind you, this isn't a game system! It's a lesson plan and an action plan. And I imagine a lot of people would find it relevant.

For Reasons.

You can read a bit more on the project's website, which has various versions available to download. The document is also available on a "pay what you will" basis from DriveThru RPG.

– Stefan Jones

Warehouse 23 News: The City Never Sleeps Because Of All The Action

There are a million stories in the city, and they're all exciting! GURPS Action 9: The City shows how you can add GURPS City Stats to your GURPS Action campaigns. It also features six sample cities to use with your own action-packed adventures. Download it today from Warehouse 23!

March 25, 2025: Name Of The Rose Is A Simulationist Dungeon

I finally read Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco last month while visiting my dad in Colombia. It's an amazing book (and it's no wonder both of my parents have been trying to get me into Eco for decades now). One aspect that stood out to me was that the monastery, as conceptualized by Eco, is very similar in structure to an old-fashioned dungeon crawl. Eco has mapped out the dimensions of the monastery and the position/activity of every monk inside of it, and the story is just the clockwork movements of the monks through their home, like wandering monsters in a cave. It's very simulationist – each conversation lasts as long as it makes sense for it to take, considering the geometry of the monastery itself. It's even concerned with precise timekeeping and strict mapping (two tenets of Gygaxian Naturalism).  I would love to see an "adventure" that's just a monastery, with each monk's trajectory, intentions, and behavior mapped out across time. The PCs can show up to help the monks or work against them, get involved or spend the night – but barring their interference, the monks will just keep ticking along their little paths . . .

– Jay Dragon

Warehouse 23 News: The City Never Sleeps Because Of All The Action

There are a million stories in the city, and they're all exciting! GURPS Action 9: The City shows how you can add GURPS City Stats to your GURPS Action campaigns. It also features six sample cities to use with your own action-packed adventures. Download it today from Warehouse 23!

March 24, 2025: Take A Tour Of GURPS Conan Adventures With Castle Archon

YouTube video channel Castle Archon is taking a tour of the GURPS Conan adventures. To start it off, the channel provided an overview entitled "Why You Should be Playing: GURPS CONAN Solo Adventures" (if you want a spoiler as to what Castle Archon thinks). You can also find reviews and commentary about all four adventures individually:

• GURPS Classic: Conan Beyond Thunder River
• GURPS Classic: Conan and the Queen of the Black Coast
• GURPS Classic: Conan the Wyrmslayer
• GURPS Classic: Conan – Moon of Blood

If you're inspired by these reviews to check out these classic Conan tales yourself, I'd be remiss if I didn't drop a Warehouse 23 link all nice and cozy in the last paragraph.

– Steven Marsh

Warehouse 23 News: The City Never Sleeps Because Of All The Action

There are a million stories in the city, and they're all exciting! GURPS Action 9: The City shows how you can add GURPS City Stats to your GURPS Action campaigns. It also features six sample cities to use with your own action-packed adventures. Download it today from Warehouse 23!

March 23, 2025: Tribes Playtest On Discord

Kevin Mitcham is looking for playtesters! That's the tl;dr of it; here's his actual message.

Come test my Tribes server!

Tribes is a game with simple mechanics but really cool emergent properties that come from the players' interactions. I've implemented a program on a Discord server to handle the rules and inventory system, freeing the players to spend their time and attention on each other.

I'm looking for playtesters to play a few sessions of a few hours each to help smooth the documentation and game flow and to shake out the remaining bugs before I open it to the general public. Please contact me at kmitcham@gmail.com or just dive in at https://discord.gg/CX7VTt7uue if you want to try it. Most players will be able to read the help text and get started without any handholding, but I'm around most evenings after 6 Seattle time for questions.

Tribes is best with 4-6 players, but as few as two can succeed. While players with no Tribes experience are the intended audience, Tribes experience is a plus for understanding what is a bug and what is rules-based suffering. When in doubt, mention it. I am interested in feedback on the help text, command descriptions, rules implementations, and of course bugs.

I realize that Discord isn't the best environment to do this, but until someone wants to team up to work on a cooler, stand-alone tool, this is what we have.

(Now, this is Steve again. I enjoyed the first iteration of Kevin's server. Give it a try!)

– Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: The City Never Sleeps Because Of All The Action

There are a million stories in the city, and they're all exciting! GURPS Action 9: The City shows how you can add GURPS City Stats to your GURPS Action campaigns. It also features six sample cities to use with your own action-packed adventures. Download it today from Warehouse 23!

March 22, 2025: Solving For Scheduling

Everyone who has tried to schedule an RPG session knows this aspect of the game is often the biggest challenge hopeful heroes face. What we don't always think about are the odds of success in this part of the game. A group of scientists recently applied their skills to this problem, and Hank Green made a great video breaking down the math.

– Will Schoonover

Warehouse 23 News: The City Never Sleeps Because Of All The Action

There are a million stories in the city, and they're all exciting! GURPS Action 9: The City shows how you can add GURPS City Stats to your GURPS Action campaigns. It also features six sample cities to use with your own action-packed adventures. Download it today from Warehouse 23!

March 21, 2025: Armchair Dragoons Interview

During the GAMA show, I was interviewed for the Armchair Dragoons podcast. Good interview! And it is up now. So please give a listen, if podcasts are your thing.

– Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: The City Never Sleeps Because Of All The Action

There are a million stories in the city, and they're all exciting! GURPS Action 9: The City shows how you can add GURPS City Stats to your GURPS Action campaigns. It also features six sample cities to use with your own action-packed adventures. Download it today from Warehouse 23!

March 20, 2025: Making My Own Legions Imperialis

My side hobby when I'm not writing games is painting miniatures. I have a tremendous number of Kruleboyz Orruks and Gloomspite Gitz (or, as I like to call them, Orcs & Goblins), but for the past year my obsession has firmly been in Legions Imperialis : Games Workshop's current iteration on the old Epic rules, set in the Horus Heresy. The size of an average human is ~6mm, and so you end up with some truly gargantuan armies.

I have no issue with the Legions Imperialis rules, but I find myself wanting more. I want a game I can play with friends who aren't familiar with wargames, that avoids the fiddly wound-tracking that is such a pain at this enormous scale, and I want it to be escalation-based instead of attrition-based. Normally in a wargame, each player lays out their whole army, and you whittle away at each other's forces over time. I want a game where you start with just a few troops on the board and slowly increase the scope of the combat until giant robots are punching each other while hordes of infantry get swept away.

There are some wargames that capture aspects of this ( Chain of Command has a really interesting approach to escalation, and there are plenty of indie wargames that avoid fiddly math-details), but nothing that quite scratches that itch. So I guess I have no choice but to make it myself!

I'll get back to you once I've got something worth showing off.

– Jay Dragon

Warehouse 23 News: The City Never Sleeps Because Of All The Action

There are a million stories in the city, and they're all exciting! GURPS Action 9: The City shows how you can add GURPS City Stats to your GURPS Action campaigns. It also features six sample cities to use with your own action-packed adventures. Download it today from Warehouse 23!

March 19, 2025: Be A Funny Bunny With Munchkin Warm Fuzzies!

The newest expansion in the Munchkin universe is absolutely ear-resistable! Munchkin Warm Fuzzies brings a host of cuddly creatures to the classic card game.  Included are 56 all-new cards with art by Katie Cook. Before kicking down the door, put on your Rabbit Ears and Angora Sweater, then equip your Bunchucks to prepare for battle. They might appear soft and cute, but these critters can be vicious! Suffering a loss to the Snuggle Bunny will take away your armor, but losing to the knife-wielding Chinkilla means certain death. After all, his teeth are really sharp! And if you can learn to Master the Hopsicord, you'll go up a level and live hoppily ever after. You won't have a bad hare day when you shuffle Munchkin Warm Fuzzies into any fantasy-backed deck! Head over to Warehouse 23 or your FLGS to pre-order your copy today. Hop to it!

– Michelle Richardson

Warehouse 23 News: The City Never Sleeps Because Of All The Action

There are a million stories in the city, and they're all exciting! GURPS Action 9: The City shows how you can add GURPS City Stats to your GURPS Action campaigns. It also features six sample cities to use with your own action-packed adventures. Download it today from Warehouse 23!

March 18, 2025: Good Kickstarter News X 2

I have reports on two campaigns and it's all good news.

First: the CARnage 2 campaign for Car Wars STLs, which has been out there for rather too long, has finally fulfilled. Props to Jean McGuire, our STL Czar, who hung on through serious illness, serious husband illness, a freaking hurricane, and a raft of other mischances. Jean was a Single Point of (potential) Failure on the project, knew it, conducted herself accordingly, and made it ship by sheer force of will. There are something like 400 STLs in that campaign, including one that you won't see elsewhere for a long time, if ever . . . the "Outlander" cycle in full Car Wars scale, as a little surprise gift for the supporters who were so patient with us.

Second: the Fighting Fantasy campaign, in its last hours as you read this, has broken $300,000. In fact, it hit that mark between the time I started typing this entry, and the time I started typing this sentence. There are only 16 hours to go, so that means that if you are reading this in the morning you have until 7pm or so, our time, to get under the wire. If you're reading this in the afternoon, time to learn about "late support," I guess!

With more than 5,000 backers, this has turned out to be one of our more popular campaigns, and we appreciate every one of you. As a fan of the series, I am personally grateful for this strong launch. Look for the "here come the next five!" announcement in a few months. And if you haven't yet supported the first five, please jump on board! Here's a link!

– Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: The City Never Sleeps Because Of All The Action

There are a million stories in the city, and they're all exciting! GURPS Action 9: The City shows how you can add GURPS City Stats to your GURPS Action campaigns. It also features six sample cities to use with your own action-packed adventures. Download it today from Warehouse 23!