Steve Jackson's Blog, page 4

September 19, 2025: Talk Like A Pirate Day Sale

In th' great American tradition of monetizing ARR most sacred holidays . . .

we be proud to present th' Warehouse 23 Talk Like A Pirate Day Sale.

Th' grand event be running right now, September 19th, through the 21st. All hands on deck!

As always, we wants yer doubloons, but fer this sale we be takin' 15% fewer of them than usual. Or, if ye be payin' in pieces of eight, seven of them will be close enough fer pirate work.

All kinds of piratey items, games, and coins be on sale. So do yer treasure chest a favor an' click here . . .

– Cap'n Evil Stevie

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!

September 18, 2025: Repurposing Accoutrements

There are a lot of games out there. If my math is right, my closet contains about 94% of them. All of them . . . all the games ever.

One of the fun elements of having a large library is that certain game bits can be repurposed from one game to another. What prompted this post was seeing people using the Dark Tower of Mordor-inspired dice tower from The Lord of the Rings: The Fate of the Fellowship as a thematic card holder for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game . It looks amazing.

We tend to use counters from one game to another to add some flavorful bling. Fantasy Flight Games' unified Arkham Horror line means we've swapped some figures between those games. Of course, I'll scavenge any cool six-siders for my GURPS games . . . and, decades before that, my beautiful multi-colored Torg 20-sider ended up being repurposed for other d20-using RPGs, back when swirly dice were a lot rarer. One of my long-term collecting goals (that I've been afraid to start) has been trying to track down a bunch of cheap  HeroClix  for pre-painted, "realistic" alternatives to the standard "chibi"-style  Marvel United  figures. 

What about you? Do you have any neat game bits that have found uses in other games? Let me know on the forums!

– 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!

September 17, 2025: Friends From All Squawks Of Life

According to a Financial Times article (which may or may not be paywalled . . . my browser keeps acting weird with that link), scientists have devised a way for parrots to communicate via the Internet. The 26 participating parrots would have video chats for up to three hours a day, and most of them had "favorite" friends that they liked to interact with most often.

I guess the only question I have is: If the birds can't get online for some reason, is that a parrot-y error? (I'm probably showing my late-1900s origins with that joke . . .)

– 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!

September 16, 2025: A Two-Ingredient Eggsperiment

I do most of the meal prep at home, so I'm always looking for new and interesting cooking techniques. When I came across José Andrés' two-ingredient omelet recipe (shown prepped by him here on TikTok), I literally dropped what I was doing (which was, um, messing around on the Internet) and tried it: one egg, one tablespoon of mayo, whisk, pour in a buttered dish, microwave about 40 seconds.

Thus, less than three minutes after seeing the recipe, I was eating the recipe.

It was really amazing! It certainly punched above its weight class as far as how much work it took (almost none!) compared with how much flavor it had (lots!).

If you prefer text over video and do an Internet search for "two-ingredient omelet," you'll see a number of articles commenting on the recipe. Here's one from Women's World almost at random. I agree with them that the base is easy enough, but it can benefit from toppings or extra bits. (I added some fake-bacon bits to mine the second time I made it.)

To tie this into gaming: It's a full near-meal that can be prepped in a couple of minutes, making it perfect for a mid-game break. Being quite affordable, you'll have more money for games! And, as French food, it's perfect as a snack, because – to the French – one egg is definitely un œuf.

– 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!

September 15, 2025: Jay Dragon At Auburn University

Last week I was extremely honored to stay at Auburn University as their visiting writer. Enormous appreciation and gratitude to Dr. Emily Friedman (who was recently appointed the Jean Wickstrom Liles Endowed Professorship of English) for bringing me to classes, organizing events, and giving me such a warm and compassionate welcome. I spent the week staying at the Pebble Hill Guest House, which was a fascinating and complex experience. I got to appear before four classes, playtest Seven-Part Pact with a group of academics, and be in conversation with Cameron Kunzelman, assistant professor at Mercer University and renowned games journalist and academic (which was recorded and uploaded on Youtube . . . with mediocre audio quality, as to be expected from an academic talk, but it was still a fantastic conversation).

I also took time while there to finally sit down with a modernist professor and learn more about the history of American Expressionism and connect that to game studies. This led me to finally finish drafting my manifesto. In it, I discuss a way of playing I enjoy and want to see more of in the world; something I call expressionist play. It comes out of my experience playtesting Seven-Part Pact and playing Triangle Agency . If you read it and bounce off of it – don't worry! It's not the only kind of game I make, or the only kind of game I'm interested in. Some of my favorite games are explicitly non-expressionist. But if you're interested in new ways to approach playing games, you might enjoy my article. I also wrote a sample game this week to explain the manifesto, The Exquisite Corpse Factory, which is available for access on my Patreon.

This weekend I'll be in San Francisco at Metagame Con!

– 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!

September 14, 2025: Easy Marble Effect Painting Tutorial

Here's one for you miniature painters out there. This article was planned to go along with the Wiz-War STL Kickstarter we ran in 2023, but other things came up and it just never happened. As the saying goes . . . better late than never.

This is one of those "easy-trick-anyone-can-do" tutorials. Well, anyone with an airbrush. It's certainly not my discovery, and I'd be happy to credit the pioneer of the technique, but I can't for the life of me remember the first time I saw it done. It's very likely the original use was for non-miniature related purposes.



I started by blasting a flat layer of a dark grayish-green on the base with the airbrush. Then, just to vary it up a bit, I sprayed on some bands of desaturated blue (AK Grey-Blue). (You can skip this second step and still get perfectly good results.)




Then I stretched some synthetic pillow stuffing across the base. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the optimal technique; you're going to want to give the stuffing a really good stretch to get all the little strands to line up the same way. Looking at the examples in the next pic should show you what I mean.




The first one is the only one I didn't redo. You can see how the marbled streaks run from upper left to lower right and appear more natural. The second is almost there, but the bottom left corner was a little too dark. The final two are just kind of a mess.




Obviously, some experimentation on paper beforehand will help reduce wasted time/paint. But it's so quick and easy to redo – you really could just jump right in. You might just nail it one!

And here's the whole Wiz roster on their nice marble bases. If you missed the campaign and have a 3d printer, you can grab the STLs on Warehouse 23.

– Ben Williams

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!

September 13, 2025: Munchkin Big Box Is Here!

Munchkin Big Box is now available on Warehouse23.com! Munchkin Big Box is indeed the biggest thing to ever come to the Munchkin universe. Inside the massive box, new players will find everything they need to get started, and long-time fans will be excited for the exclusive extras which can't be found anywhere else.

Upon opening your box, you'll begin with the core Munchkin set that started it all, plus 50 all-new cards and 40 blank, customizable cards, along with six expansions: Munchkin 2 – Unnatural Axe Munchkin 3 – Clerical Errors Munchkin 6 – Double Dungeons Munchkin Bosses Munchkin Side Quests Munchkin Quests 2 That is over 700 cards! Each one is illustrated by John Kovalic, Munchkin 's original artist, and he has even redrawn all cards that were first illustrated by other artists.

But the cards aren't all! You'll separate them with the 28 illustrated card dividers, and organize them for play on the two gameboards. Use the 12 upgraded wooden meeples, featuring Spyke and Flower, to track levels on the larger gameboard to avoid players sneaking up to Level 9 unnoticed. Roll the six 19mm dice, which come in a variety of colors, and keep track of both your combat level and the monster's combat level with two double-sided Kill-O-Meters.

For extra in-game bonuses, use one of five bookmarks, including a special one in memory of Munchkin Czar Andrew Hackard. And just for fun, wear your Spyke enamel pin and decorate your favorite notebook or water bottle with Munchkin stickers.

Munchkin Big Box is limited to a single printing, so take this chance to score a copy on Warehouse23.com, before they sell out forever!

– 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!

September 12, 2025: Time For Your Shots

Got both my flu and COVID shots today. I stack them when I can, on the theory that a short period of misery is better than two periods of mere discomfort. Your mileage may vary.

But I hope you are getting some kind of mileage. Specifically, I hope you are getting your shots. I know it's more difficult in some states right now - I had to get a freaking prescription for the COVID shot - but it's worthwhile, for both you and those close to you.

Post scriptum: Things are such a mess that some doctors don't know that their states are requiring prescriptions. How you deal with this depends on your relationship with your doctor. Good luck.

– 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!

September 11, 2025: Convoy Of Chaos

The next Autoduel Chronicles book is available to pre-order from Three Ravens Publishing. This one is an anthology of Car Wars stories – with an intro by long-time fan Wil Wheaton! That makes six in the series. Go, Ravens, go!

Here's the Amazon link. Hope you like it as much as I did! (The book, not the link. But I really like the link too.)

– 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!

September 10, 2025: A 90s Horror Cult Classic Just Got A Prequel Out Of Nowhere

The sudden appearance of a prequel for Event Horizon , a gruesome and imaginative sci-fi/supernatural horror mash-up from 1997, was not on my 2025 bingo card. It started to make a little more sense when I found out it's in comic book, rather than movie form.

Like so many innovative works, it wasn't appreciated in its time. Critics panned it, and it was a box office failure. While it has gained an increasing cult following over the years, it seems like no one in Hollywood is willing to bet on another film anytime soon. But IDW saw enough of a market to give us a comic.

Event Horizon Dark Descent , released late last August, promises to tell the terrifying story of the deceased first crew of the titular starship - specifically, how they got that way. Having bought and read issue #1, I can say it's already nearly as gory as the film – and they haven't even activated the gravity drive yet. There are still four more issues to go, so it'll be a few months before I can comment on how good the overall story is.

So if, like me, you're a fan of the movie . . . But, unlike me, you didn't know about the prequel . . . now you know. Bonus points if you caught the original in the theater like I did. And if you missed it and have a strong stomach, you can stream it, rent it, or buy it through multiple online platforms.

– Ben Williams

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!