Steve Jackson's Blog, page 419

May 29, 2014: Munchkin Panic At Print!

As announced back in March, our friends at Fireside Games have created Munchkin Panic , a new game that combines the Castle Panic excitement with the world of Munchkin . I've played the game a few times now and can happily report that Anne-Marie and Justin at Fireside created a wonderful blend of the two games . . . and even better is that the game is now at the printer! And since Fireside is printing Munchkin Panic with Grand Prix International – the same rep we use to print all of our Munchkin titles – I know the quality will be fantastic.



Munchkin Panic is expected in stores this fall, so keep an eye on the Daily Illuminator for word when the game has shipped.



And if you're at Gen Con in August there may be a surprise waiting for some of you . . .



– Phil Reed



Warehouse 23 News: Duck And Cover!



Frag Gold Edition is a first-person shooter without the computer – grab weapons and upgrades, restore your health, move around the board, and frag your opponents.



And if you get fragged yourself, just respawn and start over!



Don't forget the  Frag: FTW expansion, which comes with a new double-sided map that can link to the original and that provides nearly ten square feet of arena. You'll also have more cards for additional fragging mayhem!

May 28, 2014: Munchkin Legends 2 Delayed

We really wanted  Munchkin Legends 2 to come out earlier, but things happen.  Legends 2  will release in August of 2014. The  Munchkin Legends 2 Launch Kit , for retailers, will release in July of 2014, which means you may be able to get the expansion at your FLGS a little earlier than its official street date.



– Brian Engard



 



Warehouse 23 News: Imagine A World Where Myth Is Real.



Faeries and demons roam free, causing mayhem and corrupting the weak. 



But you are a Magi. Along with your allies and servants, you have delved into the deep. You have unlocked secret powers and created vast wonders.



Take a step into the medieval world of Ars Magica .



Everything you need to start can be found in the 5th Edition Core Rulebook .

May 27, 2014: Small Package, Big Fun

Mini Car Wars , the quick-to-learn, easy-to-play version of the car combat classic, is back in print and available at Warehouse 23! The rules are pared down, but it is still the crash-and-burn Car Wars you know and love, with everything you need (except a pencil and some dice) at a low, low price. Mini Car Wars is a Warehouse 23 exclusive, so pop on over and pick one up!



 



– Scott Haring



 



Warehouse 23 News: Bag It With Pride!



Be the despair of your gaming group with the Munchkin Dice Bag .



This awesome item comes with an even better bonus – a rule printed right on the back.



Available from Warehouse 23 .

May 26, 2014: Memorial Day Closure

We're closed today in honor of all who have given their lives in the service of our country. We'll be open again tomorrow.



– Brian Engard



Warehouse 23 News: Are You Afraid Of Your Dreams?



One family certainly is in the expansion to Cthulhu Gloom .



Unpleasant Dreams brings the Dreamlands to your table and adds 55 new cards.



Can you survive the creeping chaos of Nyarlathotep?



Available from Warehouse 23 .

May 24, 2014: More AADA Guides Available Virtually On Warehouse 23

Our nonstop digital biker gangs have been digitizing more classic AADA guides and uploading them onto Warehouse 23. Fans of Car Wars and GURPS Classic: Autoduel should direct their PDF-perusing apparatus to the following guides:



• AADA Road Atlas V4: Australia
• AADA Road Atlas V5: The Midwest
• AADA Road Atlas V6: The Free Oil States



Each guide includes a history of the region, a look at locales of interest, a trove of campaign advice, and even mini-scenario ideas and a full-fledge adventure. Whether you're looking at the relative calm of the land down under, the post-grain ganglands of the Midwest, or the frenetic folks of the Free Oil States, you're sure to get the edge you need to survive another day. Download them now, only from Warehouse 23!



– Steven Marsh



Warehouse 23 News: Get Quirky With GURPS Like Never Before!



The grand GURPS guru Sean Punch is back, with a guide to the little things that mean a lot. GURPS Power-Ups 6: Quirks has nearly 200 quirks (many customizable) that will define your heroes like never before. Download it now, only from Warehouse 23!

May 25, 2014: Two Thousand!

Way back on September 7, 2002, I told y'all how we'd finally reached 1000 in our system of assigning a sequential number to almost every single thing we print (and sometimes things we end up NOT printing; that's life).



Why bring this up 11 and a half years later? Because we just reached 2000 in our system of . . . well, you know.



Unfortunately, G-2000 is smack in the middle of a batch of reprints, which isn't exciting at all, except that it means we're continuing to sell games, which is pretty exciting on its own. (To save y'all asking, G-2000 is a reprint of Munchkin 2 – Unnatural Axe .) However, we think you'll be very interested in both G-1997 and G-2005, the two new items closest to G-2000 in our job list. And what are they? That would be telling.



Incidentally, I didn't discuss this back in 2002, but we do have other job number sequences. E-numbers are for digital projects, and that list is rapidly approaching 1000 itself. P-numbers are for short-run print jobs, what would be print on demand if we had a POD machine. M-numbers are for certain marketing projects that need to be tracked separately. And X-numbers are for . . . well, you aren't cleared for that, are you?



– Andrew Hackard



Warehouse 23 News: A Classic Returns!



Wheels turning, gears grinding, and bullets flying are a part of the fun in Mini Car Wars .



Grab your dice, then a copy of this – that's all you need to start playing Car Wars .



Available exclusively from Warehouse 23 .

May 23, 2014: Crowdfunding Focus: Munchkin Bricks

This one is very near and dear to our hearts. You may or may not be aware of this, but Steve is an avid collector and fan of LEGO® products. He also kind of likes  Munchkin , or so I've been told. So when Crazy Bricks approached us about doing a  Munchkin -themed set of toys compatible with LEGO®, Kre-O®, Kubrick®, Character Building®, Si-Dan® and Friends® bricks, we jumped at the chance! Enter  Munchkin Bricks , a brand new Kickstarter project to make this crazy dream come true!



Oh, and when you back the project you can even get an exclusive  Munchkin  card!



– Brian Engard



 



Warehouse 23 News: A Malignant Heart Beats In The Jungle.



KanUk - a kosan orc from the Mythical Ages of Nyambe-tanda - was long ago bound into the body of an undead dire lion.



Now the wards around him have failed and it is up to you to stop him before the jungle suffers from his undead touch.



Nyambe: Dire Spirits is a d20 System adventure for 1st-level characters and provides an introduction to Nyambe: African Adventures .



Get your copy from Warehouse 23 today!

May 21, 2014: H.R. Giger – Thank You For All The Thrills

The Swiss surrealist and Oscar® winning Alien-designer H.R. Giger, who died on May 12 at the age of 74, was one of the most influential artists of pop culture as a whole, and of our own geek culture in particular.



When I saw the Alien movie in the 1980s I instantly – like so many others – became a huge fan of his work. In my opinion the groundbreaking Alien design was as important for the horror genre as was Star Wars for science fiction.



While Giger is best known for his design of the various development stages of the Alien and the unique look of the Alien movies, he also did other designs for movies like Poltergeist II, Species, or the German movie Kondom des Grauens, which is an adaption of Ralf König's comic book.



Other examples of Giger's huge influence are related to music: he did remarkable album covers for rock and punk artists like Magma, Debbie Harry, and Celtic Frost; and Giger's inlay of the Dead Kennedys' Album Frankenchrist resulted in a trial that nearly drove the very important record label Alternative Tentacles into bankruptcy. An example of the countless artists Giger's biomechanical style inspired is the album cover for Sepultura's Chaos A.D.



Giger also was important for gaming: usually I do not play computer games, but for Giger I made an exception: I played the Aliens vs Predator computer game on my PC a lot, and also spent weeks solving the mysteries and exploring the otherworld of Darkseed , which is full of H.R. Giger's art.



I was lucky to see some Giger originals when a huge Hieronymus Bosch exhibition was shown in Antwerp, Belgium, and I can tell you the experience of one of his works in full size – almost 10 feet in height – is both an amazing and a frightening experience. The fine details and layers of his airbrush technique make the paintings look real and alive: I can remember very well the horror I felt when one night I saw the second face in Giger's painting Li for the first time.



Thank you for all the thrills and inspiration, Hans-Ruedi. Your unique style will be with us forever and will definitely continue to inspire many of us!



Bonus: Here are some pics of the more rare Giger-inspired stuff I own that I would like to share with you: an Alien egg incense stick, the cover of my copy of Darkseed, an Alien sculpture, an Alien sculpture mirror, and a candleholder. And two more pieces of art a friend of mine designed: a cupboard and a motorcycle tank.



– Birger Kraemer







Warehouse 23 News: Toast Your Fallen Comrades!



Or your defeated enemies with one of our Ogre Shot Glasses .



We've got one for Combine, Paneuropean , Black Rose Mercenaries and the classic Ogre supertank silhouette !



Available exclusively from Warehouse 23 .

May 22, 2014: Crowdfunded Space Rescue!

The International Cometary Explorer probe was the first spacecraft to fly through a comet's tail. It has been out of commission for a while because NASA ended its funding. It's still up there, though. It seems to be functional, and it's about to orbit close enough to Earth that it could receive new commands . . . except this probe dates back to the 1970s and nobody expected it to be around this long. NASA no longer has the equipment to talk to it!



Enter a team of private space fans, using the appropriately-named crowdfunding platform RocketHub. They started this crowdfunding project (which ends tomorrow!) to get the ICE back on mission, chasing comets. We backed them because we think space exploration is pretty cool, and important if we, as a species, are going to continue to learn more about the universe around us.



In the time between our decision to back this project and now, they went from "we might not make it" to full funding. Woot! But they're still $12,000 short of a stretch goal that will let them do better science by renting time on NASA's Deep Space Network. If you also think space exploration is cool, shoot them some support!



– Steve Jackson



Warehouse 23 News: Turn The Car Wars World Upside-Down?



Hit the land down under for over-the-top autoduelling action! AADA Road Atlas V4: Australia includes info, campaign ideas, and an adventure for Car Wars or GURPS Autoduel . Visit the land where everything is out to kill you, with this downloadable classic that's only available at Warehouse 23!

May 19, 2014: Origins 2014

We've got some special stuff planned for Origins this year. Not only will we be in attendance, running demos and selling games and hanging out with our fans, but we're also going to be bringing the Munchkin Tavern to Origins this year! For those who don't know what the Tavern is, here's the rundown: last year at Gen Con, we took over the top floor of a bar in Indianapolis, served a Munchkin -themed menu, played games, sold merch, and had dinners with fans. It was a blast, and we wanted to expand what we were doing with it.



So, at Origins this year, we're doing the Tavern like we did at Gen Con (we're taking over the Boulevard Bar, downtown), but we're also taking over a floor of the Crowne Plaza Downtown and turning it into a  Munchkin -themed inn! Now you can get your Munchkin on 24 hours a day at Origins! If you want more specific details about how all of this works, check out our Tavern page.



Oh, and you should totally stop by our booth because we're going to have a scavenger hunt and a prize wheel; you'll be able to win awesome swag, and you might even win the chance to have dinner at the Tavern with some of our special guests!



– Brian Engard



Warehouse 23 News: Scurvy Sea Dogs!



Furry Pirates has everything you need to start your adventure on the high seas.



Feel the wind on your fur as a Furry Sapien, be a bear, weasel, dog, rat, cat, beaver or even a kangaroo!



Available from Warehouse 23 .