Steve Jackson's Blog, page 8

August 11, 2025: Does Super Mario Bros. (1985) Have Rules?

I wrote a provocatively-titled article about Super Mario Bros., but more broadly about the nature of rules and materiality in videogames vs. tabletop RPGs. I imagine some number of you will come to an instinctive conclusion, which is okay! I hope you check out the article and find it interesting. A lot of it is building on the work of Markus Montola and Jaakko Stenros in The Rule Book (2024), which is available for free online and a truly phenomenal read.

– 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!

August 10, 2025: A Myst-Ified Archive?

As a computer gamer at the dawn of the CD-ROM era, I enjoyed more than my share of Myst – one of the few games to showcase what the new audio-video technology could do with its access to an unfathomable 600mb of readable storage.

If you, too, enjoyed your visits to the open-ended island (and its sequels beginning with Riven ), then I would humbly direct your attention to this video from The Video Game History Foundation, providing an overview of the archival footage from developer Cyan that made those games possible.

Then I'd recommend going to the archive linked in that video's description, with over 200 behind-the-scenes and promotional videos from the entire series. It's a fascinating deep dive into an almost-lost era of gaming production . . . and it's available for you to watch without tracking down red or blue pages.

– 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!

August 9, 2025: Will Talks Munchkin With The Tabletop Misfits

During Gen Con, our friends at The Tabletop Misfits stopped by the Steve Jackson Games booth to interview Munchkin Line Editor Will Schoonover about Munchkin Big Box .

Head over to their YouTube channel to hear the whole chat and see what's inside the very big box!

– 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!

August 7, 2025: Folklore Americana Correction

My post below originally said you had a couple of weeks to support. Incorrect! More like one day . . . Take a look now and don't miss out.

– Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: The Autodueling Continues . . .

. . . with the  Car Wars Pocket Box Bundle 2 ! Visit Midville and Black Lake to see its sights and colorful citizens, or take your chances in the Armadillo Autoduel Arena! Will you find glory or defeat? Find out by picking up this Pocket Box from Warehouse 23 today!

August 8, 2025: Meet The Munchkin National Champion!

We are thrilled to announce the winner of the Munchkin National Championships 2025 – Diana S.!

Road to Gen Con is a year-long tournament in which Munchkin enthusiasts around the United States compete for the title of Munchkin National Champion. Since last September, 22 regional qualifiers were held at various conventions. Players could enter at no cost, and the winner of each received a trophy, a complimentary 4-day badge to Gen Con, and entry into the first elimination round during the convention. At Gen Con, a multi-round tournament took place, and Diana triumphed as the ultimate winner. 

Congratulations from all of us at Steve Jackson Games!

– 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!

August 7, 2025: Folklore Americana

Our main Fantasy Trip artist, Rick Hershey, is also an indie publisher as Kids in the Attic. Rick has a BackerKit campaign going on right now for a roleplaying project, Folklore Americana . It looks very interesting. To quote . . . "a folk horror TTRPG set in the shadows of the Great Depression, where dead crops whisper secrets, folk heroes fade into myth, and the Devil himself rides the rails. Powered by a custom take on the Year Zero Engine." It's already made its goal, and you've got a couple of weeks to check it out and support. At the base level, you not only get a (more or less) 300-page rulebook, but also a 100-page sourcebook specifically for Session Zero.

This immediately brought to my mind the "John the Balladeer" stories by Manly Wade Wellman. John (we never learn his last name) roams the mountains armed with his silver-stringed guitar, his knowledge of hidden lore, and his willingness to face any sort of evil to help the people around him. The period is later than the game's setting; John was a Korean War veteran. But some things don't change.

– 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!

August 6, 2025: Pre-Order Munchkin: Not My Monkeys Today!

Pre-orders are now open for Munchkin: Not My Monkeys ! The expansion comes with 56 all-new cards full of ape-themed puns and can be easily shuffled into any fantasy-backed deck or your favorite core set.

While having a Monkey On Your Back is typically a dreadful occurence, the Munchkin version counts as Armor and gives you one extra Hand! Just watch out for the Curse! Devolution! card, which will make you quickly lose that Armor.

The Level 14 Chimpion is +3 if you're wearing a belt buckle in real life, and you won't want to lose the battle against him, because he'll dislocate your shoulder and make you lose a Hand item! If you're wearing the +1 Bonus Banana Slippers, you can discard them to automatically escape.

Visit Warehouse23.com or your FLGS to pre-order your copy! Shipping will begin the third week of August.

– 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!

August 5, 2025: D&D Dinos From Palaeo Games

At UKGE earlier this year, one of the very neatest things I saw was Dr Dhrolin's Dictionary of Dinosaurs , from Palaeo Games. It's a sourcebook for 5e DnD or 2e Pathfinder (these are two separate editions). I know . . . you have already seen a few sourcebooks this year.

This one is really cool. Permit me to elucidate!

Cool point number one: It is a very thoroughly researched guide to dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. And tbh, they had me at point number one, but it gets better.

Cool point number two: It is lavishly illustrated by Dr. Mark Witton, a noted palaeoartist. This is not some AI "draw me a dino" slop. This is the closest thing to reality that science can come at this moment in time, executed by a master of the craft.

Cool point number three: Not only does it have the expected DnD stats (size, hit dice, alignment, and so on) for each creature . . . but every one has a unique magic spell or ability. You don't have to use these, of course . . . but if your game leans toward the really fantastic side of fantasy, why shouldn't you be able to have a Microraptor as a familiar?

– 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!

August 4, 2025: Our Gen Con Cats Have All Found Good Homes

Gen Con distorts the space-time continuum such that its news comes nonlinearly. Thus – as one of the folks working the Steve Jackson Games booth this year at the beloved Indianapolis convention – I'm thrilled to report you all really love cats. In particular (purr-ticular), two cat-themed games worked together to escape our booth quickly.

We are pleased to announce that Purrfect Potions – the not-yet-officially-released game we had advance copies of – completely sold out by late Friday afternoon. And so did We Love Cats , which has been a perennial (purr-ennial) seller for us since its 2023 release.

Via first-hand experience, I can confirm that many who caught a glimpse of Purrfect Potions – with its delightful Naomi Lord artwork and "witches brewing potions with their feline familiars" premise – were also inspired to scoop up a copy of We Love Cats , the fast-paced game of kitten-y adoption.

Congratulations to Purrfect Potions designers Sam Mitschke, Randy Scheunemann, and Will Schoonover . . . and applause as well to Naomi Lord, for crafting artwork to inspire so many cats to leap into people's hands and find new homes. Your efforts have given us paws.

– 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!

August 3, 2025: Pyramid Bundle Of Holding Deals Conclude Monday

The Pyramid 1 and Pyramid 2 collections on Bundle of Holding have been so popular we've extended the sale! Through Monday, both sets of the tabletop gaming magazine from Steve Jackson remain discounted for over 90% off.

What will you get? Pyramid 1 includes issues 1-60, totaling just under 2,400 pages. Pyramid 2 features issues 61-122, with 2,368 pages. Each set costs only $49.95, with a retail value of over $1,110 for both compilations.

Visit Bundle of Holding to download yours and start reading!

– 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!