Steve Jackson's Blog, page 374

September 1, 2015: Q & A With Len Peralta

Today we caught up with illustrator Len Peralta, who is illustrating the upcoming Star Munchkin Guest Artist Edition .



Q: Len, thanks so much for taking a few minutes to chat with us. Can you tell us a little bit about how your illustration style has evolved over your career?



A: Wow. that's quite a question! I like to think that it is constantly evolving and changing. I guess the real question is, who are the artists who have helped shape and evolve your art. That's an easier question. When I was 23, I made a bunch of notes in my sketchbook of artists who I admire. A list of my influences, so to speak. Tim Burton, George Plympton, Edward Gorey, Berke Breathed. Gahan Wilson. Charles Addams. Over the years, I've added artists like Scottie Young, Jim Lee and Leinil Yu to that list. They've strongly influenced my style and added a lot more depth to it. I've tried my hand at digital painting with the last season of Geek A Week and I learned a lot in that time. To a certain extent, I'm trying to avoid becoming static and try different techniques and styles. About three years ago, I made the switch to 100% digital and that has informed my analog work in more ways than I can imagine. But I think I prefer the digital work, especially during the layout phase. I hope that answers your question!







Q: Talk to us a little about doing the guest artist edition of a classic game like Star Munchkin . What most excites you about this?



A: I remember at one point while working on the project, I stopped and tweeted something like "I'm working on something so much fun, I can't even believe I am working on it." And it's 100% true. Working on a game like Munchkin , especially Star Munchkin , has been an absolute dream come true. It was a lot of fun re-interpreting John's work and trying to put my own spin on things. Although, John is SO good. It was a real challenge. But I wanted to pay homage to John's work while giving a new flavor to the game.



I'm really looking forward to hearing what people think about the art. They have been playing the game so long with John's art, I hope they are accepting of it and enjoy it. I think that's what excites me the most about the project: seeing and hearing the reaction to the set and if players will enjoy it. I'm also incredibly honored to be a part of such an esteemed crew of artists. We were all kept in the dark about who the fellow artists were, so when I finally saw who my compadres were, I was totally blown away. This year is going to be amazing for fans of Munchkin everywhere! (I realize how sales-y that sounds. But it's the truth. I am not an official spokesperson, BTW. But I'd love to be!)







Q: You are the illustrator for the Munchkin The Guild booster and the originator of Geek a Week series. Did you find it easy to adapt your personal style to the world of Munchkin ?



A: I think my style fits well within the Munchkin world. As I said before, I was trying to keep that Munchkin feel and pay homage to John's work, while still trying to bring my style to the game. The art of Geek A Week has evolved a lot too and I was lucky enough to bring my painterly art style to a Spyke Geek A Week card last year. I'm just happy to be a part of the project. I hope I'm able to breathe some new life into this classic game. I'm really looking forward to the release and seeing Munchkin fans everywhere trying out the game!



Thanks so much to Len for sharing with us. Keep checking back here for new information about the Guest Artist editions!



– Anna Meade



Warehouse 23 News: Thar Be Dragons!



Back in a new blister pack,  Munchkin Dragons comes with 15 cards full of treasure and, of course, Dragons! Do you have what it takes to defeat the Magic Dragon and take his Dragon Flagon? Find out by picking up a copy from Warehouse 23 today.

August 31, 2015: Announcing Munchkin Fu Guest Artist Edition

When we were first working on Munchkin Fu , John Kovalic, our usual artist for all things Munchkin , had a lot of stuff already on his plate and couldn't do Fu . The slacker. Anyway, we got webcomic illustrator Greg Hyland to make art for the game, and it was good. He did some fantastic illustrations, and we shipped a Munchkin set full of wire fu wackiness.



Well, when we were cooking up the idea for the Munchkin Guest Artist Editions , we remembered that, and we talked to John about showing us his take on Munchkin Fu . He thought that was a great idea (and so did we), and the result is Munchkin Fu Guest Artist Edition , with illustrations by John Kovalic!



So now you can see the Guest Artist Edition lineup starting to take shape, but rest assured that we still have some surprises in store for you. "What surprises?" you ask.



Well, that would be telling. I'm afraid you'll just have to wait.



– Brian Engard



Warehouse 23 News: Color Your Expectations



Unleash a magical rainbow – literally – as you visit a mage whose experimentations blend the arcane with the chromatic. What sinister secrets lurk in his lab? Find out more with Places of Power: The Prismatic Tower – a ready-to-use fantasy locale that's just a download away from Warehouse 23!

August 30, 2015: New Releases For August

August's lineup of new releases has been full of awesome. One of our biggest releases of the year, Munchkin Steampunk Deluxe , features the artwork of Phil Foglio ( Girl Genius ). If you love the delightful grimness of Gloom , now you can visit your miseries upon the munchkins with Atlas Games'  Munchkin Gloom . Fans of The Walking Dead comic book will love USAopoly's new expansion to Munchkin Zombies , Munchkin Zombies: The Walking Dead . We also have a reprint of Munchkin Dragons out and Munchkin Dragon's Trike, both now in our new booster blister pack design. Head to your local FLGS to score some of these great products!

Munchkin Steampunk Deluxe



Grab your gears, put on your top hat, whack the monsters, and grab the treasure . . . with the power of SCIENCE! Munchkin Steampunk Deluxe brings the zaniness of Munchkin to the pseudo-Victorian steampunk era. Bully!



Munchkin Steampunk Deluxe comes with a board and standies for tracking your level, and is illustrated by Phil Foglio!


Munchkin Dragons



Here There Be Dragons!



Dragons are fearsome! Dragons are cool! Dragons have LOTS of treasure for munchkins to loot! Munchkin Dragons has 15 new cards. The treasures are wondrous indeed . . . but first, you've got some dragons to slay. Good luck.



This is an expansion for Munchkin. It is not a stand-alone game. This is NOT a collectible or randomized set. Every Munchkin Dragons pack is the same as every other.



Munchkin Dragon's Trike



Now You've Done It!



You stirred up the nest and now Dragons are everywhere! Big ones, tiny ones, even undead ones. Munchkin Dragon's Trike has 15 new cards. Kill enough Dragons and you might even be able to start your own treasure hoard . . .



This is an expansion for Munchkin. It is not a stand-alone game. This is NOT a collectible or randomized set. Every Munchkin Dragon's Trike pack is the same as every other.


Atlas Games New Release
Munchkin Gloom



Love Gloom ? Did you know the cheerful world of Munchkin can also be sad and benighted? A place where those very same munchkins are all too often backstabbed by buddies, dined on by dragons, and discovered by doom ducks. In Munchkin Gloom , heroes delve too deep, plummet down pits, and lose their loot. And that's before they die.



Clear plastic cards portray the munchkins and detail their mishaps. When stacked, the cards reveal or cover up the effects of the cards below. To win, you must shepherd your party through terrible travails and troublesome tribulations until – inevitably – they perish in pain.



May the Most Miserable Party Win!


USAopoly New Release
Munchkin Zombies: The Walking Dead



Based on the hit comic book series, this 56-card expansion to Munchkin Zombies lets you show your favorite Walking Dead characters who's really in charge. The undead rule!



Do battle with deadly living foes like Rick, Michonne, and Negan. Whack them with a deadly Katana or the brutal Lucille . . . take their stuff and shamble toward victory! Level up to become the most badass undead of all. Show the living that the world belongs to The Walking Dead .




– Anna Meade



Warehouse 23 News: Lions, Tigers, And Bears, Oh Matey!



Sail the high seas as an animal of your choice in Atlas Games' Furry Pirates !   Be a kangaroo sailor, an ostrich gunman, or a squirelly captain, and fight your way across the globe gaining fame and riches.  This complete swashbuckling roleplaying game comes with all you need to start your own pirate adventure. Available from Warehouse 23 in print or downloadable PDF today.

August 29, 2015: July's Top 12

Every month we receive a report from Ross, our Director of Sales, in which he lists our top selling games of the previous month. We thought that some of you might enjoy a peek behind the curtain, so here's our top 12 titles for July of 2015. How many do you already have?







Munchkin Oz


Munchkin Deluxe


Munchkin


Star Munchkin 3 – Diplomatic Impunity


Star Munchkin Deluxe


Munchkin Zombies


Munchkin Pathfinder


Munchkin 3 – Clerical Errors


Zombie Dice


Munchkin Legends Deluxe


Secret! FNORD!!!


Chupacabra: Survive the Night
That 11th title is a secret at the moment. We would tell you if we could, but it's not yet time for that special announcement. It is something that we displayed earlier this year, and as soon as it's in stores we'll let you know.



– Phil Reed



Warehouse 23 News: Where Cloud Nine Meets Warp Nine



From the Lesser Magellanic Cloud bubbles up a brew of interstellar conflict. Get your Star Fleet Battles crew together with the rules, weapons, and options from Module C5 - The Magellanic Cloud Rulebook . And don't forget to shuttle aboard the SSDs you need, in classic black and white or game-aiding color. They're all a download away, from the galactic greatness that is Warehouse 23!

August 28, 2015: Interview With Atlas Games - What You Don't Know About Munchkin Gloom

In addition to the fantastic interview of Atlas Games ' Keith Baker, done by Board Game Geek at Gen Con 2015 in the video below, we decided to do our own questioning. Furthermore we snagged a question from our Twitter followers!

Below is our Q&A with Keith Baker, Munchkin Gloom Game Designer, and Michelle Nephew, Tenured Editor, from Atlas Games.



How did this come to be? When did someone say lets put these two games together and see what happens?!



Keith Baker: Michelle knows what went on between Steve Jackson Games and Atlas Games. When the idea was first presented to me, it was a matter of does this make sense? The basic principle of Gloom is that you are telling a story about a group of characters, and you want them to suffer and die. In Munchkin, you want your character to triumph; where was the bridge with Gloom?



Initially I worked with the idea that you would play the monsters in the Munchkin dungeon. After all, in order for a Munchkin to rise to the top, many many innocent monsters have to die. However, I found that there wasn't a lot of depth of story with this. Everybody laughs when they see the Wraith of Khan, but you don't want to actually spend an hour telling his tragic story.



Then I realized that Munchkin Gloom wanted to be about the losers of the game - all the adventurers who go into the dungeon but don't succeed. Anyone who's ever played an RPG has stories of the time they Fatally Fumbled, or Triggered a Trap, or for that matter Dated the DM. In Munchkin Gloom you're telling the story of the worst dungeon delve every - the adventure in which everything that can go wrong will.



Michelle Nephew: Basically, we met up at a tavern and decided to go adventuring together! Seriously, though, the Atlas Games crew and I were having dinner with Phil Reed and Steve Jackson at the Munchkin Tavern at Gen Con. John Nephew and I had the idea for Fairytale Gloom in our heads, and were thinking about other Gloom tie-ins when the "you've got your chocolate in my peanut butter!" moment happened. We've cooperated with Steve Jackson Games in other things as far back as the mid-90s, so the chance to do a new project together appealed to all of us.



Where did the inspiration come for the design on this game?



Keith Baker: I didn't want to add a lot of new rules or complication to the game, but I also wanted to find SOMETHING that would help define it as Munchkin Gloom. Mechanically, there's two elements. One of the critical things that defines Munchkin is backstabbing your friends. Gloom isn't designed with this sort of interactive treachery in mind. I compensated for this by shifting a lot of traditional Gloom effects to hurt other players . . . so an effect that would be "Draw 2 cards" in traditional Gloom is "Draw 2 cards from the hand of the player to your right" in Munchkin Gloom. The other effect is Events that are automatically triggered when you draw them, which is a way to bring in some of the chaos of curses from classic Munchkin.



Michelle Nephew: In terms of graphic design we wanted something that preserved a Gloom-y feel while blending it with John Kovalic's Munchkin styling. I think John hit just the right tone.



What was your favorite part of working on Munchkin Gloom?



Keith Baker: Usually I'm restraining my love of puns; for Munchkin Gloom I had to push it to my limits! Beyond that, it was fun to think about everything that could go wrong in a traditional adventure . . . and also to think about my favorite elements of Munchkin. For example, I love the character Ted, the Super-Munchkin; "He's a Noble Half-Vampire Half-Werewolf Eagle Knight Elite Wizard-Ninja Pathfinder with a French Accent." I wanted to come up with the most ridiculous character you could possibly make with all the sets at your disposal.



Question from @darthbaldy on Twitter: 1st, love the game! 2nd, are Spyke, Flower, etc. in the game?



Keith Baker: No, we decided to come up with a unique cast of characters for Munchkin Gloom. But you may notice a few familiar faces that John snuck into the Event cards . . .



Munchkin Gloom is available now at your favorite local retailer. If you don't have an FLGS you can order Munchkin Gloom today at W23.Thank you @darthbaldy and everyone who participated on Twitter for your questions!



– Rhea Friesen



Warehouse 23 News: Autoduelling Comes Home!



We've brought back the fast-paced Car Wars: The Card Game for 2015. Grab a car and get to work destroying your competition with flamethrowers, missiles, and machine guns. Last car running wins! Get your copy from Warehouse 23 today.

August 27, 2015: I Love I Hate Zombies

Not long ago, BoardGameGeek released I Hate Zombies , a quick card game designed by Kevin Wilson. When I dropped by our temporary Orange office today, I Hate Zombies was on the table. So, duh, I played. And I love I Hate Zombies .



It's for 2 to 12 (!!) players. The components are big, easy-to-read cards illustrated by Robb Mommaerts. The mechanic is RPS, but as Sam said after we played, rock-paper-scissors was never so much fun. Each card represents a potential zombie survivor, and they all have special powers - most of them involving the RPS mechanic and sly references to the card's character, like the businesswoman who kills zombies by throwing paper at them.



In a nice twist, the zombies are the active players, deciding who to attack, while the human players just defend. But everybody gets decisions, constantly, since RPS is a mind game, and tweaked RPS with new symbols or changed values like the Businesswoman's, played rapidly, is . . . no longer trivial. But the whole thing is over in 10 or 15 minutes, and then you can start over and kill more zombies. Or eat more humans, as the case may be.



If you love to hate zombies, this is a great warmup game, and I look forward to trying it with a maxed-out 12 players.



– Steve Jackson



Warehouse 23 News: A New System For GURPS?! It's Like Magic!



Behold the power of sorcery – innate magical power a wielder can access quickly, safely, and repeatedly. It can be yours, with GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery . Summon this volume into your digital library today, only by visiting Warehouse 23!

August 26, 2015: USAopoly Goes "Behind The Scenes" With Munchkin Zombies: The Walking Dead

As we recently announced, the latest release from our partners at USAopoly, Munchkin Zombies: The Walking Dead , is now in stores. This 56-card tuckbox expansion for use with Munchkin Zombies brings the world of Skybound's The Walking Dead comic book to your game table, giving you twisted new cards like Sliced and Diced! and Bucket of Feet and new monsters including Rick and Michonne.



If you would like a peek at the guts of this latest Munchkin Zombies expansion, you should read USAopoly's "Behind the Scenes of Munchkin Zombies: The Walking Dead Expansion," posted at their blog. They've posted an overview of the set – including 13 sample cards! – to whet your appetite as you wait for your next game session. Carl and The Governor certainly look like tasty monsters . . . just watch out for your opponents playing Feeding Frenzy and horning in on your kill.



Grab Munchkin Zombies: The Walking Dead at your FLGS today, or order a copy direct from Warehouse 23. Your game group will thank you.



– Phil Reed



Warehouse 23 News: Give Your Ars Magica Game A Faith Lift



The Provençal Tribunal comes to life in your Ars Magica games, with Faith & Flame . See how these less-restrictive magi forge their paths in the world, and how they can inspire your own stories. Get it in hardcover form or as a download from the wizards at Warehouse 23!

August 25, 2015: Fan Expo Canada!

Fan Expo in Canada is one of the biggest geek conventions in the northern hemisphere and, this year, Andrew Hackard the Munchkin Czar and CEO Phil Reed will be attending the convention as gaming featured guests. More than that, though, they'll be doing signings, panels, and all sorts of great stuff while they're there. The list of events (which is subject to change) is:



Basic Kickstarting & Crowdfunding with Phil Reed


Publishing Your Own Tabletop Game with Phil Reed


Steve Jackson Games: Behind the Pyramid with Phil Reed and Andrew Hackard


Advanced Kickstarting and Crowdfunding with Andrew Hackard


In the Game of Boards You Win or You Roll Again with Andrew Hackard


State of the Game Industry with Phil Reed
– Brian Engard



Warehouse 23 News: Presto! New Magical Prospects For Your GURPS Games!



Arcane innovations are at the tip of your fingers, thanks to Pyramid #3/82: Magical Creations ! In this latest issue of Pyramid, you'll unleash new potion-making possibilities and character options for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy , rules for relics in GURPS Monster Hunters , magic items suitable for any campaign, and much more. Download it individually, or subscribe today for this issue and more months of magic – only from Warehouse 23!

August 24, 2015: Len Peralta Illustrates Star Munchkin Guest Artist Edition!

I have had the distinct pleasure of working closely with the very talented Len Peralta. He has worked with us before, lending his talent to the Munchkin: The Guild booster. You may also know him from the fantastic Geek a Week podcast, his recent comic Exterminite , or any number of other nerdy projects he's lent his talent.



Watching a set go from art notes to full illustrations is always entertaining, but watching an old favorite get totally different art was an absolute blast. Our main directive to Len was to have fun with the set and it's very clear that he did. His mutants are hideous, his creatures are definitely from the darkest depths of space, and his lasers are very shiny. Not only was he having fun, but he would turn over art and any requested changes at a speed that made my hands hurt. You too can have your face melted off by the awesome that is Star Munchkin Guest Artist Edition here. Once that heals, you can pick up your copy in March 2016!



– Devin Lewis, Munchkin Editorial Assistant/Playtest Coordinator



Warehouse 23 News: Take Over The Galaxy In Style With Star Munchkin Deluxe!



The Munchkins are back – and they're in space! Now they're Mutants, Cyborgs, and Cat People grabbing Lasers, Vibroswords, and Nova Grenades. Are you ready to fight Fanged Fuzzballs and the Brain In A Jar? Star Munchkin Deluxe is the Star Munchkin you know and love, but with a board and standies for even better door-kicking action! Get yours at Warehouse 23!

August 23, 2015: Self/Less Soundtrack Is Spectacular!

Self/Less didn't get the greatest reviews (IMDB), but the soundtrack – by Antonio Pinto and Dudu Aram – is fabulous! I discovered this a few weeks ago, and I had lots of time during the flight home from Gen Con to absorb all 20 tracks on the album. The music is an excellent backdrop for driving, working, or reading, and even though the Soundtrack Geek review describes the album as "bleak coldness," there's something about the haunting, disturbing sounds that speaks to me.



The Soundtrack Geek review also describes the soundtrack as "dark minimalism" – that sounds awesome to me! – but if I had to get descriptive about the music echoing inside my skull while I listen to the album, I would go with "harmonic dissonance."



Check our Exercise, the fifth track on the album, for an idea of what to expect. If you enjoy this, there's a strong chance you'll find yourself loving this soundtrack as much as I do.



– Phil Reed



Warehouse 23 News: Master Has Been Blue Lately



It's just not the same now that all lands known to evil have been conquered. As a lieutenant in Master's army, it falls to you to cheer him up. But then it hit you: What better way to cheer Master up than a cheerleading competition? What could possibly go wrong?



Play Three Cheers for Master , a quirky new card game from Atlas Games, and build the most impressive tower of war-hungry minions to win Master's heart, now on Warehouse 23!