Steve Jackson's Blog, page 398

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!

January 4, 2015: The Name's The Thing

All game designs start somewhere, with an initial constraint that drives the beginning of development. Sometimes, you think of a mechanic with a strong hook and build around that. Sometimes, you have a certain presentation or aesthetic in mind, and design something to go with it. Sometimes, you have a handful of components you want to use, and you figure out how to make them work together.



For the Chez Geek expansion I designed, what I had was a name.



Slack to the Future .



It came from an initial conversation with Andrew Hackard, dug deep into my brain, and stayed there. I didn't know if that was going to be the final title, but I knew that it encapsulated everything that was on my mind regarding new content for Chez Geek . The advancement of technology has fundamentally changed the way we slack, and I wanted to make that phenomenon part of the game. Social media wasn't a thing when the original game came out, cell phones weren't as prevalent and couldn't do as much, and it was much harder to find pictures of cats.



Armed with this name, and the idea it gave rise to, many of the cards came naturally. We got to make lots of Internet-related jokes, poke some good-natured fun at the realities of crowdfunding, and slip in some essential components of the slack life that we can't believe we'd left out (like Free Beer!).



In the end, we never came up with a better title, and the original stuck. I'm glad, because without the name, I'm not sure it could have come out as well as it did.



I hope you enjoy Slack to the Future as much as I enjoyed making it.



– Leonard Balsera



Warehouse 23 News: It's All About Style



Fighting styles enhance your campaigns with new abilities, background details, and adventure motivations. For fantasy fighting options, pick up GURPS Martial Arts: Yrth Fighting Styles ; for science-fiction hand-to-hand (or cyberarm-to-tentacle) possibilities, turn to Transhuman Space: Martial Arts 2100 . Warehouse 23 is your only digital dojo that makes these possible!

January 1, 2015: Incoming Missive

You are instructed to have a good new year. The world has not yet ended; you're welcome.



– The Secret Masters



Warehouse 23 News: Hidden Heroes



As you complete your Cardboard Heroes collection of ready-to-print minis, be sure to snag Space Gamer #61 and Space Gamer #63 , which each contain a sheet of ready-to-color Cardboard Heroes . Warehouse 23 is the one-stop shop of exclusive awesomeness!

January 2, 2015: D&D 5e And Me

The new edition of D&D has been an interesting journey for me.



I've had a long on-again-off-again love affair with D&D ; it's one of the games that's made a real, lasting impact on my life, but there have been plenty of times when I've made a conscious break from the game in order to pursue things that were more to my tastes. When D&D Next was announced, I managed to get into the very early friends and family playtest, and I liked what I played quite a bit. It was simple, fluid, flexible, and a great deal of fun.



But as the playtest wore on and new versions came down the pipe, I started to feel that distance growing again. They were ditching a lot of the mechanics I liked from the early draft, and grafting on mechanics that I wasn't crazy about. And then it was awesome again all of a sudden, and then they changed it to something less awesome, and so on and so forth.



When WotC finished the game and announced the release of the books, I made the choice not to buy them. "This game isn't for me," I said to myself. "It's going to be great for a lot of people, but I'm no longer in the target audience, and that's okay."



And then our very own Miranda Horner showed me her Player's Handbook , and I flipped through it. I was skeptical about some stuff, but there was a lot to like in it, too. So I took a chance and I picked up my own copy, and I started to read it.



And I was excited about D&D again.



For those who know me, you know what a big deal that is. It's been a long time since I've really been excited about D&D , but this new edition makes me feel like a kid again, opening a book that's full of possibility and magic.



Skip ahead a couple of months, and I'm running my own campaign. We're playing in Eberron, and it's a game full of intrigue and adventure. There are magical explosions, corrupt political figures, aerial battles over the streets of Sharn, frantic chases through crowds of bystanders, immortal psionic assassins. This is D&D as I remember it, D&D as viewed through the lens of my childhood. It's exciting and engaging and magical.



So thank you, Wizards of the Coast. You've given me my D&D back.



– Brian Engard



Warehouse 23 News: More Action, With GURPS!



Take your GURPS Action adventures to the future with "Transhuman Action!" from Pyramid #3/15: Transhuman Space, or to the pulp-era past with Pyramid #3/8: Cliffhangers . There's no time to waste; download them now, exclusively from Warehouse 23!

January 3, 2015: Great Weapons For Good Victorians And Bad Outlaws

Wild West marshals and outlaws, Colonial Africa big-game hunters, and Victorian and Edwardian detectives all have one thing in common: They need weapons to get their jobs done. To outfit intrepid adventures of the mid-19th through early 20th centuries accurately, turn to GURPS High-Tech: Adventure Guns .



This catalog presents an assortment of popular handguns, shotguns, rifles, machine guns, cannon, and other weapons and accessories, including game stats and details on historical and fictional usage. Polished with the level of armed acumen you've come to expect from Hans-Christian Vortisch – author of the GURPS High-Tech: Pulp Guns series – High-Tech: Adventure Guns ensures your Royal agent, steampunk sportsman, or Western bounty hunter will never be without the best firearms again. Download it today, only from Warehouse 23, and get nostalgic for the '90s! (The 1890s, that is . . .)



– Steven Marsh



Warehouse 23 News: More Than A Roar



Breathe life (and stats) into red dragons of Cardboard Heroes: Fantasy Set 13 – Dragons with the beautifully illustrated and thoroughly descriptive GURPS Dragons . Either treasure hoard is a download away, only from Warehouse 23!

December 29, 2014: Munchkin In 2015

On the cusp of 2015, let's look ahead and see what's coming up for Munchkin over the next 12 months!



In January, we'll be releasing Munchkin Love Shark Baby , our Valentine's Day booster with incredibly cute art by Katie Cook.


Also in January, BOOM! Studios starts publishing the monthly Munchkin comic book. We've been busy looking over stories and art and we think you'll really enjoy what the talented folks at BOOM! will be sending you each month. Plus, the first printing of each issue includes a Munchkin card that won't be available anywhere else! (at least for quite some time . . .)


February brings us Munchkin Kobolds Ate My Baby , based on the very silly RPG by 9th Level Games. Munchkin KAMB is illustrated and designed by John Kovalic!


Of course, February also brings us Munchkin World NYC, our little popup store just off of Times Square. We're hoping to see lots of y'all there! (If you haven't signed up yet for the Munchkin Invitational, you still have a couple of weeks, but don't wait . . . you might forget, and that would be awful!)


This summer, we'll release Star Munchkin 3 (whose title we aren't quite ready to disclose) and Munchkin Steampunk . Our production team has been working hard coloring Phil Foglio's art for this set and it's going to be a stunner!


Munchkin Apocalypse: Judge Dredd will be coming later in 2015. We had to put it aside for a bit to work on some other things, but we definitely expect to see it next year.


Our pals at USAopoly will release Munchkin Adventure Time 2 – It's a Dungeon Crawl! this spring and are working hard on more great Munchkin fun for later in 2015.


We haven't forgotten about Munchkin Smash Up (AEG) and Munchkin Gloom (Atlas Games), either . . . look for more announcements about these games soon!
Of course, this doesn't come close to everything that's planned for Munchkin in 2015, but we have to have some surprises, right?



– Andrew Hackard



Warehouse 23 News: Discover The Top Quirk?



The holidays are a time when many are brought face to face with quirky loved ones. Don't go in unprepared! With GURPS Power-Ups 6: Quirks , you'll have a great catalog of ways to give yourself character. You can only download it from Warehouse 23!

December 30, 2014: 2014: A Whole Lotta Games!

In the final days of 2014 I think it is a good time to look back and see how we did. Quite nicely, and all of the staff deserve a serious "thank you!" for all of their hard work keeping the games flowing. Throughout the year we released a total of 27 new titles through distribution and reprinted over three dozen titles. More game-filled containers than I can count were delivered to our primary warehouse – thanks, PSI, for warehousing and processing all of the games! – and it felt like every week we were solving some minor headache or other. It's all worth it, though, because at the end of the day we can sit back and smile; hey, we're making games and having fun! It sure beats working in the agriculture industry.



To see what was shipped in 2014 check the New Releases page, which also includes digital releases and Warehouse 23 exclusives that are not part of the 50+ titles shipped to stores. Yeah, it was a very busy year.



What's next? Keep watching the Daily Illuminator, because 2015 is coming together strong and we have a few completely new (and not yet announced) games on the way . . . as well as Steve's latest big release, Munchkin Steampunk ! 



– Phil Reed



Warehouse 23 News: Save 50% On Dungeon Crawl Classics, While You Can!



Time is running out for the 50% off sale on all digital downloads from Goodman Games! The sale ends on December 31. Get amazing dungeon-delving adventures, creepy Call of Cthulhu supplements, and more. Save big, now, at Warehouse 23!

December 31, 2014: A Gamer Geek In The New Year

I blinked. That's the only thing I can think of. I blinked, and the year went by. Last time I really checked, I was out taking picture of bluebonnets, but here it is, December 2014, and with a new job here at Steve Jackson Games, I've been thinking about gaming. Not just gaming through this year, but how much it's influenced my life.



I haven't spent my whole life gaming, but it's been close. My mom made my older brother include me in a D&D campaign when I was 7, and with a few breaks here and there, I've been playing steadily ever since.



I have wonderful memories of time spent with friends around a table piled high with character sheets, dice, pencils, and snacks. I have memories of driving across half of Southern California to play GURPS , or Rifts , meeting at Denny's or Carrow's to play until the wee hours of the morning. Some days those games were the only things I looked forward to: a group of friends who got my weirdness when I was sure I was the strangest thing going.



I have memories of playing a D&D module with my husband while in Germany after his second deployment to Iraq, laughing and throwing dice while downing delicious German drinks and schnitzel and telling "There I Was" stories, comparing our deployments, and dragging real-life patrol experience into our games.



When I have time, I knit dice bags for friends who play, because everyone needs a new dice bag, don't they? Actually, I just finished knitting a new dice bag for me while sitting on a range during annual training for the Texas National Guard and geeking out about the games I was playing . . . to the utter confusion of the soldiers around me.



Although I never did get into World of Warcraft or Diablo or a LOT of the other computer games my friends did, I am an avid Star Wars: The Old Republic player. Our Friday night guild runs are full of laughter, (probably highly inappropriate) humor, and lots of stories.



Even now, outside of my job at Steve Jackson Games, gaming is huge part of my life. We have hundreds of board feet of shelves, all dedicated to roleplaying games of various flavors. My beloved husband is currently running an Exalted game, and we break out Munchkin Panic on date nights.



Gaming has been so much to me. A time to laugh, to be angry, to vent, to giggle, to save the world, to conquer great evil and do great good, to gather with folks who have come to mean the world to me, and just enjoy a pastime together.



So, pass me my dice and let's roll up some new characters! It's been a great year and I'm looking forward to the next one!



– Jennifer Atkinson



Warehouse 23 News: There's A Method To Our Magic



Enhance your GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic experience with the options in Pyramid #3/66: The Laws of Magic , which features two articles ("Alternative Ritual Path Magic" and "Ritual Path Specialists") that would each make a mini-supplement's worth of awesome for your Ritual Path magic. Download it only from Warehouse 23 – presto!

December 28, 2014: Panic At The Dungeon!

If you've already played Munchkin Panic , you know that it's a great blend of the friendly cooperative monster-slaying of Fireside Games'  Castle Panic with the deadly monster-slaying of Munchkin . We can't say enough good things about Anne-Marie De Witt's work blending these two games (as well as the hard work of everyone at Fireside, of course!) and we're thrilled that it's on so many gamers' holiday lists.



If you haven't already played Munchkin Panic . . . what ARE you waiting for?



– Andrew Hackard



Warehouse 23 News: The Most Magical Time Of Year



Elevate the magic of your sword-and-sorcery campaign from a hodgepodge of unrelated spells to something distinctive, with GURPS Magical Styles: Dungeon Magic . Join the Guild of Iron Mages, the Wizards of the Mirrored Gaze, and many more arcane schools. Download it only from Warehouse 23 today – like magic!