Steve Jackson's Blog, page 397

January 14, 2015: Steve's New Jersey Tour

If you're going to be in New Jersey on February 12, have I got a treat for you! Steve Jackson, our fearless leader, will be visiting three New Jersey stores on the 12th, and if you stop in you might be able to say hi and get some stuff signed!



Here are the details:



4:00-5:30 p.m.: Elite Battlegrounds. 299 Rt. 22 East, Green Brook , NJ 08812.



6:00-7:30 p.m.: The Only Game In Town. 211 West Main Street, Somerville, NJ 08876.



8:00-9:30 p.m.: The Fallout Shelter Comics, Games, and Collectibles. 320 Raritan Avenue, Highland Park, NJ 08904.



– Brian Engard



Warehouse 23 News: Push The Limits, With GURPS!



With great limitations come great power and possibilities, and that's never been truer than with GURPS Power-Ups 8: Limitations . Create amazing abilities that do exactly what you want, gain canonical clarifications to tricky situations, and get new options that make the impossible more affordable than ever! It's all a download away, and only from Warehouse 23!

January 12, 2015: Upcoming Appearances

We've got some great conventions and events we're going to be showing up at over the next couple of months!



PAX South is from January 22-26. Stacy and Rhea will be there!


Do you like boats? Are you going to be on JoCo Cruise from January 31-February 8? So will Steve, Monica, and Andrew!


New York Toy Fair is February 14-17; Steve, Phil, and Ross will be there.


Around the same time, February 13-15, a whole bunch of us will be at Munchkin World NYC! Yay!
– Brian Engard



Warehouse 23 News: Saddle Up For GURPS Adventure!



Grab your cowboy hat, your six-shooter, and your moral compass; it's time to go west! Pyramid #3/74: Wild West has options, rules, ideas, and campaign information that's GURPS gold for any Old West adventurers. Download this issue separately or as the first issue of a subscription – all from the crazy saloon of Warehouse 23!

January 13, 2015: The Munchkin Comic Sold Out!

The Munchkin comic from BOOM! Studios went on sale last week. This week it sold out. They're working on a second printing.



We love our fans so much.



– Brian Engard



Warehouse 23 News: Download A Deluxe Autodueling Experience



Yes, it's a virtual boxed set of a game from last millennium about a world set in the future, but Car Wars has always been about logical chaotic mayhem. Stop by Warehouse 23 to download the Car Wars – Deluxe Edition (or the upgrade set if you already own the Car Wars Compendium ) . . . then drive offensively!

January 11, 2015: SJ Games On GeekMom

GeekMom did an article on Board Games for Newbs, and she mentioned three of our games: Dino Hunt Dice , Zombie Dice , and Castellan . Thanks, GeekMom!



– Brian Engard



Warehouse 23 News: Enter The World Of Yrth!

The Banestorm  made Yrth a dangerous and interesting place, with villages taken whole from medieval England, France, and the Far East as well as from other planets and dimensions. Now humans battle elves, dwarves, and each other in this magical land. This book provides GMs with a complete world background - history, religion, culture, politics, races, and a set of 16 detailed, full-color maps - everything you'll need to start a GURPS campaign. Available from Warehouse 23 in hardcover or PDF.

January 10, 2015: On Hearthstone

I'm a little late to the party, but I tried Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft over the break and now I'm totally addicted to it. I've always been one of those people who likes the idea of collectable card games but has had trouble getting into one for some reason or another. Even Magic: The Gathering , which is an excellent game, has a few elements that push me away from it.



Hearthstone solved that for me. Here are a few reasons, in no particular order, why I'm digging the game so much:



It's free to play. This means that you get the basic cards that you need to play the game by playing the game; you unlock them as you gain XP. This ends up being quite a few cards that you don't have to pay for, and it gives you more than enough information to decide whether the game is for you or not.


It's simple, elegant, and has a lot of emergent complexity. There are two kinds of cards: spells and minions. You only play cards on your turn. Mana comes at a fixed rate, so you don't run into the problem of having not enough (or too many) resources. Despite the game's simplicity, it leans way into exceptions-based rules, and the cards have a lot of interesting abilities that interact with each other in cool ways.


It dangles carrots. You complete quests by playing the game, which earns you gold, which you can use to buy more cards or enter into the Arena (which gets you cool prizes).


It's quick. A match takes maybe thirty minutes at most, and there's a turn timer, so a single turn will only take a minute or two tops.


It's easy to find an opponent. Finding an opponent at roughly my skill level has always been really challenging in other CCGs. Most people I play are way out of my league, and I wind up getting thrashed again and again without having a lot of fun. Hearthstone's matchmaking system means I can jump into a game anytime I want, guaranteed to play someone at roughly my skill level.


It's entirely virtual. This is great for someone like me, who doesn't want to clutter up his living space with even more cards.
– Brian Engard



Warehouse 23 News: What Will You Risk To Change The World?



Unknown Armies 2nd Edition  brings back the acclaimed occult RPG, jam-packed with new art and largely rewritten. Start out in the Street as an outsider to the world of Magik or go Global and plot against your rivals. Background material is divided so the GM doesn't have to worry about players reading something they shouldn't. Available in hardcover or PDF from Warehouse 23 .

January 5, 2015: Skanky Panky

No, it's not the name of a game or a dance. Skanky Panky is a fun track from Canadian DJ Kid Koala (Wikipedia entry) and my very first introduction to the song was on a compilation album, Revive the Soul. The CD classifies the song as "lounge," or maybe "downtempo," or even "nu jazz," but I'm going to list it under the "really fun to listen to" category. Seriously, give Skanky Panky a shot . . . and then visit the official Kid Koala website for more great music.



– Phil Reed



Warehouse 23 News: Get A Grip!



Get a grip on your problems – literally! GURPS Martial Arts: Technical Grappling adds an extensive system for all manner of pins, grapples, and restraints. This download is within your grasp, but only from Warehouse 23!

January 6, 2015: What Does 2015 Hold For GURPS?

From where I sit, 2015 looks like it could be a great year for GURPS ! We streamlined our internal approval processes for new products and for art, and we're finally out from beneath the treads of Ogre . I might even be able to open the doors to proposals from writers outside our inner circle before long. Yet promises are never wise in the publishing business – with authors, editors, production artists, illustrators, proofreaders, and several levels of marketing and technical support involved, each facing deadlines, all it takes is a round of the flu to set something back by months. With that in mind, here are some educated guesses.



First off, gamers waiting for the second edition of the Discworld Roleplaying Game should see their patience pay off. The book has received most of its art and had its proofing pass. I see nothing standing in the way of a release before too terribly late in 2015. If I were a betting man, I'd say "sometime in the middle two quarters of the year."



Then there's ongoing support of existing series. We have a GURPS Powers item by Bill Stoddard in production. Bill is also working on a new GURPS Social Engineering volume as I write this. We can expect three GURPS Dungeon Fantasy supplements, too: one by Peter Dell'Orto, another by Matt Riggsby, and a third by Christopher Rice and Antoni Ten Monrós.



And then there are the projects that have to remain nameless. That isn't because we're cruel, but because we prefer to curb rumors about new series names and titles that would need so much explaining that we'd have to make promises we can't keep. Goodies in this category include Elizabeth McCoy's latest effort (which is kind of GURPS Space -related), an item that Matt Riggsby just finished work on (which will mesh nicely with GURPS Social Engineering: Pulling Rank ), and two Transhuman Space volumes from Phil Masters.



Off in the land of even wilder speculation, David Pulver continues to plug away at GURPS Vehicle Design , so that isn't out of the running. There's at least one big surprise item coming from Jason "PK" Levine, and it probably isn't what you think (that's what "surprise" means). And hopefully between reviewing and approving all this stuff (that's what "streamlined" means), I might get to write something . . . GURPS Zombies support would be awesome, and I still have lots of good GURPS Dungeon Fantasy ideas. I guess we'll see.



But all of this could change in an instant! So keep your eyes on the GURPS News (updated quarterly, more or less) and my blog (updated weekly).



– Sean Punch



Warehouse 23 News: Gunplay, As You Like It



If you want to make your GURPS guns as realistic as possible, you need GURPS Tactical Shooting . If you want to make your two-gun slides across a marble floor totally awesome, you gotta get GURPS Gun Fu . Download either (or both!), only from the armories of Warehouse 23!

January 7, 2015: The Super Secret Show

Not long ago, we did the Steve Jackson Games Super Secret Show, a 7+ hour livestream full of interviews, play sessions, and Q&A with our staff. If you didn't catch it while it was running, the whole thing is on YouTube.



We had a lot of fun doing the show, and the folks who watched and participated were great. We got some fantastic questions, and we learned a lot about how to do an event like that. Though a livestream of that length is going to be a rarity at best, it's entirely possible that we'll do another live event in the future, because that one was so much fun!



– Brian Engard



Warehouse 23 News: Getting To The Point



We've got options that make GURPS faster and easier than ever! Snag GURPS Power-Ups 7: Wildcard Skills for quick-to-use mega-skills, or build custom characters without points using "Pointless Slaying and Looting" from Pyramid #3/72: Alternate Dungeons . Getting either is easy . . . but only when you download them from Warehouse 23!

January 8, 2015: ChupacabraCon Is This Weekend!

We at Steve Jackson Games love conventions! They're a great opportunity for us to get out there and meet you, the fans, and play games with you. The problem is, we just aren't able to go to every con out there in an official capacity.



ChupacabraCon is a local convention here in Austin, and in its second year. It's getting bigger, and a lot of industry guests are showing up. I went last year and had a great time, and they invited me to come back again this year. It's only fifteen minutes from where I live, so how could I refuse?



As a company, Steve Jackson Games isn't officially attending ChupacabraCon. That said, we are sending a MIB or two to demo some games for you, and more than one SJ Games staffer (myself included) will be there in an unofficial or semi-official capacity. If you're in the Austin area (or will be) and want to meet some of us (or some other great guests!), drop on by!



– Brian Engard



 



Warehouse 23 News: That's The Way (Uh-Huh, Uh-Huh) I Vike It!



Do something different during these cold months – go a-viking! Use GURPS Classic: Vikings to add details to adventures inspired by "An Age of Sails" and "The Vikings in the Atlantic" from Pyramid #3/16: Historical Exploration . These downloads are always available for sail from Warehouse 23!

January 9, 2015: PAX Australia Revisited

At PAX Australia last fall, I had the pleasure of talking to many lovely people about Munchkin , SJ Games, and gaming in general. Among the people I got to speak with were the chaps from The Dice Man Cometh, and they've posted the podcast where we talked. My piece is in episode 47 and starts around the 15-minute mark.



My apologies to Trent and the rest of the Dice Men for taking so long to post this – it's amazing how busy the end of the year can get around here.



– Andrew Hackard



Warehouse 23 News: Need A Quick Munchkin Fix?



We've got you covered with Munchkin Loot Letter ! It comes with everything you need to play and is available in a clamshell or boxed version.  



Grab a copy from Warehouse 23 today!