Steve Jackson's Blog, page 53

May 26, 2024: The End Of Time?

As a writer and editor, I realize I'm having a hard time keeping up with recent history. By which I mean, I can conjure what life was like in – say – the 1950s, or the 1970s, or the 1990s with vivid clarity. But my brain breaks down totally when I try to recall what life was like in, say, 2004. Or 2014.

Part of that could be because period-piece history has a way of collapsing; when I think "the 1970s," my brain tends to conjure "earth-tone yellow-brown kitchens" alongside ABBA's "Voulez-Vous," even though there's nearly 10 whole years dividing those two. Nonetheless, I'd be happy if my brain could come up with what "something vaguely 2000s-y" felt like. It's felt like now for an awful long time.

I don't know if anyone else feels the same way, but if you have any writerly resources, period-piece recommendations, or other insight, I'd love to hear about it 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!

May 25, 2024: The Fantasy Trip Is At BGG.Spring

The BGG.Spring convention is now through May 27th at the Hyatt Regency DFW Airport, and we have some fun news. Our friend Nathaniel has organized Those About to Die, Salut You - The Fantasy Trip Tournament at 10:00am on Saturday for a chance to win some great prizes from Steve Jackson Games. You can sign up for this and other great events here. If you have a chance to participate, send us an email after and tell us all about your experience! 

– 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!

May 24, 2024: Off To UKGE

This morning I head to England for, among other things, the UK Games Exposition. My first visit! By all accounts, it's big and fun. I will be running the TFT adventure The Effigy of the Oil Wastes, participating in a couple of panels, and catching up with some old friends. I will also be doing some signings at the Catalyst booth. Look me up there, if you are in the neighborhood, or catch me elsewhere. I will be one of the ones wearing a "Steve Jackson" nametag . . .

– 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!

May 23, 2024: Inventory On The First Play?

Am I alone in taking inventory of new games as I open 'em? When I'm enjoying that new-game smell, I'll generally do a quick count of the cards, parts, etc., and compare them with the parts list in the game itself. If I'm really feeling my oats (especially if I'm the one who has to put the game away), I'll do an inventory after the game as well. If a game doesn't have a complete parts list, I'll often whip up my own before the game gets sequestered back into its cardboard home. There's nothing more frustrating than discovering one has lost a die, pawn, chit, or card a few months down the road, long after vacuum cleaners or free-roaming house rabbits have made a tasty snack of something irreplaceable.

I'm especially grateful when publishers provide detailed inventory lists. If I'm looking for a complete card list for (say) Munchkin 9 — Jurassic Snark , it's awesome to get it straight from the makers. But many games have robust-enough fan communities that such lists often exist in unofficial capacities via sites like BoardGameGeek. Regardless, I've avoided many future problems of lost-part woes with a few minutes of extra organization at the beginning and end of games.

– 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!

May 22, 2024: The Impossible Is Daily With GURPS Infinite Worlds: Atlantropa

Welcome to Atlantropa-1, a timeline where the mega-project to dam the Mediterranean and create 250,000 square miles for settlement came to fruition. And thus new land, new sources of energy, and new geopolitical problems became the norm.

Book your passage to an amazing world with GURPS Infinite Worlds: Atlantropa . This supplement includes the history, geopolitical situation, and near-future challenges faced by its residents. It also offers adventure ideas, hints of other worlds where Atlantropa came to be, and suggestions for how to add the setting to a GURPS Infinite Worlds campaign.

Whether you're admiring an incredibly ambitious global achievement, researching its unusual global challenges, or trying to diffuse a five-way Cold War, Atlantropa is your ticket to the improbable but amazing. Download it today, only from Warehouse 23!

– 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!

May 21, 2024: Dive Deep Into CARnage 2 With Videos, Podcasts, And More

CARnage 2 , the sequel to the first CARnage STL set, is now live on Kickstarter!  The files for CARnage 2 contain an unbelievable amount of new cars, terrain, accessories, and more, and they are compatible with all Car Wars 6th Edition games. We are excited to announce that the first stretch goal has been unlocked!  We previewed the venture on our Daily Illuminator last week, and now you can learn even more about this exciting project by watching the amazing videos below.  Several of our friends have hosted streams during which they painted cars from CARnage 2 , and we would like to share a few with you. The Band of Badgers, based in the United Kingdom, have already completed three streams, and one featured Will from the SJ Games team! They will also be hosting another one on May 23rd, and we highly recommend you check it out. The first two can be found here and here.  Diecast Media Network have been strong supporters of Car Wars for a while – they've already done an unboxing video for our Double Ace set, interviewed Randy and Jimmie, and reviewed Car Wars Companion . Their most recent video is about CARnage 2 , and it's great!  The good people at 20 Sided Gamified Podcast have also made a video about CARnage 2, and they've previously recorded plenty of podcast episodes featuring members of the Steve Jackson Games crew. You can listen to an interview with Randy and Will, or even listen to host Jared Fishman talk with Steve himself!  These are only three of the great content creators we have partnered with for this project. You can find a full list here on our CARnage 2 Kickstarter page.  Pledge levels start at just $1 to be a Spectator. If you'd like to purchase a Superfan Ticket for $1,000, you will have the opportunity to create your very own 3D-printable character along with the Steve Jackson Games team! At the time of publishing, just 2 Superfan Tickets remained!   CARnage 2 will be live for only a couple more days. Now is the perfect time to back the project so you can autoduel with all-new components!

– 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!

May 20, 2024: Mmmm . . . Playmats

There are certain parts of modern gaming that are commonplace nowadays but nearly unheard of when I started. Like playmats. I have dozens of the things, and just about any game we play – especially card games – has a playmat that we use each session. Sure, I could probably get away with one plain playmat for all my games, but where's the fun in that? It's great to have something different, thematic, and colorful each time we play.

We have a number of playmat options available at Warehouse 23. I selected The Fantasy Trip Spiral Arena as one to showcase because 1) the color red is awesome, and 2) it's a neat pattern but one that doesn't distract too much from most games.

Are there any other commonplace bits of gaming goodness you find indispensable nowadays that weren't around when you began gaming? Feel free to share your insights 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!

May 19, 2024: More Post-Game Possibilities

I recently shared a story about a post-game ritual of my wife's family. While writing that one, I thought of another possibility that's not quite as widely implemented, but has been done at our gaming table sometimes to decent effect: If you plan to enjoy an afternoon or evening of multiple games, with the expectation of doing several different ones during that time frame, then consider letting the loser choose the next game.

Of course, this simple idea requires consensus on the details. For example, most games have multiple non-winners, so there needs to be a way to pick the one who had the least successful rally (say, lowest level in a Munchkin game). And among a really competitive (?) group, you might have the odd situation of folks trying to lose worse in a game they know they can't win, which can skew the current game. But for the right group, "last place picks next game" is a quick-and-easy way to encourage game-group camaraderie.

If anyone uses this tip – or has their own! – I'd love to hear it 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!

May 18, 2024: Open Sauce Project

You know what's a quick-and-easy snack for the gaming table? Chicken nuggets – or "nugs," as those in the "stuffing one's face with breaded poultry morsels" industry put it. It's straightforward to toss 'em in the oven before the games begin, and later recover them during a quiet gameplay moment.

Why not see about whipping up a different sauce for each game session? This can be in addition to any staples that the table likes (barbecue sauce, hot sauce, chocolate syrup, etc. – does anyone read these parenthetical asides?). (Yes. Yes, we do. Eeeew. Gross. – Editor.) This doesn't need to be anything too exotic; literally mixing a commercial barbecue sauce with some teriyaki sauce can make something interesting. If there's a common gaming group, maybe swap around the creation duties. Give each session's sauce a special or themed name, and enjoy your nugs! Can I tempt anyone with some one-shot Wiz-War Wasabi Ranch?

– 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!

May 17, 2024: Lumberjills: A LARP About The WWII Women's Timber Corps

I've been fascinated with living history since my 3rd grade class went to Hale Farm and Village to learn more 19th century life in Northeast Ohio. So when I heard about Lumberjills , a LARP about a little known aspect of World War II history, I was intrigued.   Lumberjills is based on the Women's Timber Corps. During World War II, the British armed forces needed wood for everything from barracks to telegraph poles. Lumberjacks from America were brought to the Scottish Highlands to help harvest trees, but they couldn't keep up with the overwhelming demand. British women answered the call and learned how to fell trees, then process, mill and transport the resulting lumber. Lumberjills is based on first-hand accounts from the women who lived, loved, and found themselves during this time. Women's contributions were crucial to the war effort, and I'm always fascinated to learn how women fulfilled their duty to their country and community while men were at war. That's one of the reasons I'd love to try out Lumberjills and the other games in the War Birds Anthology by Moyra Turkington – it offers a means of connecting with a pivotal period in American and world history.  Of course, this may only happen if the Kickstarter reaches its goal. I plan to contribute to the project today – if you want to help support this unique game, you'll need to do so before the campaign ends on May 15.  (Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't remind you about our current crowdfunding campaigns! Munchkin Big Box wraps up on May 16, while CARnage 2 runs until May 23. If you've been thinking about backing them, don't delay!) 

– Katie Duffy

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!