Steve Jackson's Blog, page 444

September 23, 2013: You Need Arenas!

How jam-packed was the classic Car Wars Arena Book ? It had no back cover text . . . because that space was filled up with useful counters! Newly released to e23, this supplement includes 14 arenas. Three are ready-to-print, while 11 are drawn at a quarter-sized scale, waiting for you to sketch on any oversized map sheets you have. Taking advantage of the digital realm, the three full-sized arenas are offered as single-page versions (for those with access to gargantuan printers) and split versions (for those with more traditional home printers). Each arena also includes events and tactics held there . . . and did we mention the counters? With Car Wars Arena Book , you've got over a dozen ways to earn fame and fortune – all with ample and convenient parking!



– Steven Marsh



Warehouse 23 News: For When You Have To Get There Yesterday...



The Roadrunner will take you there!



Able to carry up to three squads of infantry and is worth 6 points (sans infantry).



Also available in Combine Set 6.



Get this and other Ogre Miniatures HERE!

September 21, 2013: Mind Control Experiments

Apparently students at the University of Washington have successfully created an interface that allows one person to give mental commands to another. It's nowhere near as insidious as it sounds, despite superficial similarities to Orbital Mind Control Lasers found in the  Illuminati card game. The long and the short of it (according to this Verge article) is that one person was watching the live feed of a simple video game but didn't have the controls to said game. He would think about tapping the spacebar to input commands, those thoughts would be transmitted across campus, and would finally be interpreted by someone else's brain such that that other person would fulfil the commands successfuly, without ever seeing the video game in question! Pretty awesome, right?



– Brian Engard



Warehouse 23 News: Take Your Story To The High Seas!



In Once Upon a Time , players tell a story together using cards that show fairytale elements and endings.



Now you can add daring pirates and seafaring elements to your story.



Grab Once Upon A Time: Seafaring Tales and sail the high seas!

September 20, 2013: Metric Tonnes Of Ogre . . . Literally!

Some fun math for you, courtesy of the inestimable Eric Dow and Loren Wiseman:



Each container of Ogre Designer's Edition contains 860 copies of the game. Each game weighs approximately 28 pounds.



So, each container weighs 860x28 = 24,080 pounds. That's nearly 11 metric tonnes per container.



We're getting three containers in by close of business today. That's nearly 33 metric tonnes of Ogre. And we'll be getting even more after that.



So, if you ever hear one of the staff talking about having a metric ton of Ogre (perhaps at our upcoming launch party), not only are they not exaggerating, but they're actually understating the situation quite a bit.



(Loren is fond of pointing out that this only seems like a lot, until you take into account what a real Ogre would weigh.)



– Leonard Balsera



Warehouse 23 News: Hear The Cry Of The Banshee!



As it rains fire down upon the advancing Ogre.



The Banshee Missile Tank is the same model that was included in Combine Set 5 .



Each Combine Missile tank is worth 6 points.



Get this and other Ogre Miniatures HERE!

September 19, 2013: Munchkin Pathfinder: Reviewed

On the fence about Munchkin Pathfinder ? You should go check out this review, by Paizo user cartmanbeck. This guy bought a copy of Munchkin at Target eight months ago and has been playing it non-stop ever since. The fact that he's willing to write a lengthy review about one of our games to boot is . . . well, it's pretty awesome!



– Brian Engard




Warehouse 23 News: Tell Your Own Fantastic Tales...



Once Upon a Time is the award-winning storytelling card game that encourages creativity and collaborative play.



This is a game for all ages – all you need are basic reading skills, a healthy imagination, and friends or family to enjoy playing with.



The 3rd Edition features new artwork, a revised cardlist, a redesigned box and a simplified rulesheet.

September 18, 2013: Will You Uncover Big Secrets . . . Or Help To Conceal Them?

A roleplaying game often works best when it has a big story to wrap the campaign around . . . and what's bigger than a nice, juicy conspiracy? That's the hook for Pyramid #3/59: Conspiracies , the latest issue of Pyramid.



This issue features GURPS grandmaster Sean Punch's expansion of the GURPS Action line, with new options and lenses that help you model a secret-filled action movie. The magazine also provides a collection of GURPS lenses for those who fight to uncover the truth, as well as a set of GURPS rules from Jason "PK" Levine for modeling poker and other high-stakes games (perfect for shadowy back rooms). And a guy we met in a garage told us this issue also includes a selection of ready-to-use conspiratorial elements, including drones, a population-control group with an Earth-shaking secret, and a cryptic fanzine worth killing for.



Don't let Pyramid #3/59: Conspiracies pass you by, or you might miss what's "really" going on. Pick up this issue individually, or start your subscription today and learn the truth every month!



– Steven Marsh



Warehouse 23 News: Stability, Structure And Support



Brown is the color of material security and the accumulation of material possessions.



So it goes great with Munchkin !



Help secure your treasure with the Munchkin Level Die (Brown with White Ink) .



The "10" space has been replaced with a Munchkin head so when you win everyone knows you are the ultimate Munchkin .



This is only one of six Munchkin Level Dice .

September 17, 2013: Nashville!

Andrew and I are in Nashville this week for secret meetings and tasty food – hey, it would be wrong to skip the food, right? – and with hard work I fully expect our talks to lead to something very special for Munchkin fans . . . but it's way too early to start talking about that so I'll instead distract all of you with the news that Munchkin Pathfinder is making its way across the ocean and is set to arrive in stores next month.



As for what's coming next year? Well, that's still a secret.



– Phil Reed



Warehouse 23 News: Infantry!



You need them to take and hold ground, and now your Paneuropean force can field them in the numbers you want.



Paneuropean Set 7 contains forty-eight squads to cover all your assets, plus 24 Heavy Weapons squads to add teeth to the crunchies!



All together, this set adds 192 points to your army.



Get this and other Ogre miniatures HERE!

September 16, 2013: Munchkin Legends Now In Target Stores

Some cool news from the Munchkin front:



A while ago, we posted that Munchkin Legends was available at target.com , and would soon be available in Target stores.



"Soon" is now! There's probably one close to you.



In case you missed the announcement, Munchkin Legends is a new core set that adds mythological monsters and treasures to the tried-and-true Munchkin monster-slaying, treasure-claiming, buddy-backstabbing gameplay. It's our first Munchkin core game published as a collaboration (between Steve and the inestimable Andrew Hackard), and gave Andrew and John the opportunity to bring their inner history professors out to play, so we're pretty proud of this one. We hope you like it, too.



– Leonard Balsera



Warehouse 23 News: Culture From Feudal Japan



Taught the way of Bushido and the loyalty of the samurai, the Katana Kat Samurai in Full Armor .



The armored samurai is the core of any serious Katana force.



Get this and other Off the Wall Armies miniatures at Warehouse 23 .

September 15, 2013: Where Old Games Go To Live

Lenny pointed me toward this Escapist article, and boy, howdy! is this thing awesome! PlaGMaDA, which is perhaps the best acronym ever concieved by human beings, is a living archive of old RPG material. I'm not talking about actual published games here; those things are already out there. What PlaGMaDA (Play Generated Map and Document Archive, in case you were curious) seeks to do is compile as many play-generated artifacts (maps, character sheets, and so forth) from peoples' home games as possible, and to preserve them for future generations to enjoy. 



As someone who plays RPGs, I find this pretty awesome. I've got piles of old play documents in my closet at home and I've thrown away piles more to make room for . . . well, for other stuff that clutters my closet. I'm sure you're in a similar situation if you play RPGs at all. That there's a place to send these things, where they can live on as a record of games past, is amazing. Timothy Hutchings, the man behind PlaGMaDA (I dare you to say it without grinning) has done something really special here.



– Brian Engard



Warehouse 23 News: Invest In Silver!



Expand your portfolio with the Munckin Level Die (silver with black ink) .



The "10" space has been replaced with a Munchkin head so when you win everyone knows you are the ultimate Munchkin .



This is only one of six Munchkin Level Dice .

September 14, 2013: GURPS On Gaming Ballistic

Douglas Cole over at Gaming Ballistic has an extensive interview with Sean Punch, the line editor for GURPS . Among other things, they discuss GURPS ' strengths, weaknesses, and quirks, compare and contrast it to other systems out there, talk about realism, and discuss the Rule of Awesome. It's a good interview; go watch it!



– Leonard Balsera



Warehouse 23 News: Stick Figure Mayhem!



Have you ever had the urge to start beating some know-it-all who really deserved it, but were held back by those frustrating social boundaries?



Let's Kill may help relieve that urge.



You play a psychotic killer bent on murdering the most people you can with anything you can get your hands on.



Get the attention of the media and see how far you can go.



Let's Kill features distinctive stick figure art and gruesome humor, and is intended for mature audiences.

September 13, 2013: Numerology For Your Brain

Numerology teaches us that the number 13 has mystical significance. Or maybe it doesn't; I don't know. At any rate, a lot of people seem to think that the number 13 is unlucky in some way, but what they don't know is that you can cancel that luck (you know, the luck that you'll be having today, on Friday the 13th), with additional occurrences of the number 13! That's not just me talking, that's proven fact !



So where, you might ask yourself, do you get additional number 13s? Funny you should ask! As it happens,  Zombie Dice  costs $13.13 and has a stock number of 131313! By pure happy coincidence, it also comes with 13 dice, and you need to eat 13 brains to win. Need a few more? Check out  Zombie Dice 2: Double Feature ; the stock number there has two more 13s in it. Zombie Dice Deluxe has two more, and is awesome. The Zombie DIce t-shirts don't have any 13s in them, but their mere proximity to  Zombie Dice can protect you if you wear them.



Don't take my word for it. Go read about the science behind it!



– Brian Engard



 



Warehouse 23 News: Beer. Nookie. Roommates.



It's just another Friday night at Chez Geek .



Set up house with your friends – for as long as you can stand them.



Get a job – they're all bad.



Spend money and your precious spare time to accumulate Slack points.



What other game gives you points for sleeping?!



Chez Geek House Party Edition available now at Warehouse 23 .