Steve Jackson's Blog, page 80

September 10, 2023: In Praise Of The Nonsensical

A few years ago, our family delved into the Skull & Shackles campaign of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game . In it, the heroes play would-be pirates who go out on seafaring adventures. Because it's a card game, certain randomness is . . . err . . . in the cards. Having an aquatic theme, a nontrivial amount of sharks come up as random encounters. What made this so memorable for us is that – regardless of the location of the scenario – we always seemed to encounter sharks. At sea? Shark. Exploring an island? Shark. Working our way through an unfamiliar town? Shark. Climbing a tower? Shark.

The propensity of sharks to appear while we were climbing towers became the running joke in our campaign. We eventually concluded that a bard ally of the heroes was singing a song that summoned sharks. "Hmm . . . why does this tower have windows with fin-like openings on the side?" [Tuneless singing.] "Shark, shark, sharksharkshark, SHARK, shark..." [Shark appears, diving perfectly through the shark-finned windows, and starts attacking the heroes.] "STOP SINGING!!!"

I don't expect this anecdote to make much sense. It's quite probably a perfect "you had to be there" inside joke that enriches gaming tables. But we've grown to love these seemingly nonsensical moments in our games, and I suspect the ability for games to generate inside jokes and personal references is why it's such an enriching hobby. Even now, if something totally unexpected happens in one of our tabletop games, one of us will blurt out "Shark!" or start singing the Shark Song.

I hope you have your own anecdotes and incidents that have made your own gaming life that much more fun!

– 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 9, 2023: Quick Quest 9: Grand Opening Now Available On Warehouse 23

Your band of heroes has been picked to be part of a dedication ceremony at a new temple! It's an easy job . . . what's the worst that can happen?

[squints, checks notes] Oh. Oh my.

You'll need to read Quick Quest 9: Grand Opening to see how it sorts out . . . But it'll all be fine. Probably.

If you missed the successful Kickstarter earlier this year, Grand Opening is now live on Warehouse 23. You can get it as an instant download or in the tri-fold glory of its physical form. This one-and-done is fast and fun . . . you might even say it's grand!

– 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 8, 2023: Dragon Con Report From Jean

Dragon Con was as Dragon Con always is: loud and chaotic and exhausting and mad fun. At one point, the line for the vendors' hall was about 15 city blocks long (they wrapped it around a lot!) –​ I know because I stood in it. And even though I was working a lot of the time, I had a ton of fun. But you're not here to read about me admiring some amazing costumes (movie costume departments should have a discussion with some of the cosplayers), or buying entirely too many T-shirts, or even how good the chicken Alfredo at the Metro Cafe is. You want to read about our games.

I was in charge of running Wiz-War demos, using the lighted boards we built and the miniatures with Ben's amazing paint work from the recent Kickstarter.  Wiz-War is a great game for anybody –​ I had players ranging from people with recent experience to folks who had never heard of Wiz-War until they came to the demo. Players over 60 and under 16. A family that must have some interesting dinner-table conversations. All kinds of people. And it was wild and wacky as usual, with spells and counter-spells going off, people enjoying the sheer chaos of Rotate Sector (my favorite card), and . . . well, me spending most of an entire game trapped behind a Granite Cube because I never drew a card to get me out of there; I spent most of that game punching a wall.  Also, I got a backpack with programmable graphics/text in the vendor hall. Naturally, I set it up like this: Then, on Sunday, converging chaos led to me having to handle the Groo: The Game demo. I would have been less worried about that if I'd played Groo more recently than 20 years ago! But it came back quickly, and it was great fun. One thing that's really cool about Groo is how quickly fortunes can change. At one point in one of our games, I was a single victory point away from winning. The next turn (with some help from Groo, of course), I had one rather small building left. Ow! It would have been much cooler if I'd been the one to play the Groo card on an opponent, of course! But Groo is even fun when you lose.  Late pledges are still available for Groo until the 10th. The shipment is currently in transit from the printer; grab one before Groo sinks the boat! Then you won't be asking yourself "Did I err?"

– Jean McGuire

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 7, 2023: We're Hiring For An Art Director

Are you organized, artistic, and passionate about games? Then you may be the right person for our team, because SJ Games is hiring for an Art Director! This position can be remote, and is a full-time position. We're looking for someone who can:Administer the art process for all products.Work with the Production Manager, Managing Editor, and Line Editors to determine interior and cover art requirements.Track all art and graphic needs for each product and immediately consult with the Production Manager if any deadline for art or art specifications is not met.Check art specs provided by editors. Make sure they fit the needs of the product and are written in a way the artist can understand.Work with the Managing Editor and Line Editor(s) to determine cover requirements for each project. Work and correspond with artists to meet these needs.Specify art requirements and work with artists, checking comps and sketches, to make sure that art conforms to the specific instructions for the product and the general specifications, if any, for that game line.Negotiate contracts for covers and interior art; submit check requests for artist payments. Recruit new artists. Respond in a professional and timely fashion to all inquiries from would-be artists.Maintain complete and up-to-date files of artists we have worked with or may work with in the future.Return any physical originals of art after it has been used; file originals that are our property.Illustration, as time permits, if the Art Director is an artist.Assist with typography, layout, etc., when the above duties permit.Other duties as assigned.Qualifications: Bachelor's Degree in art or related field; or relevant work experience.Knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and other illustration and desktop publishing applications.Ability to work in a collaborative environment, but can work independently when the need arises.A strong sense of creativity and design.A love for board games and tabletop roleplaying games.If you think you're the right candidate, let us hear from you! We're always looking for exceptional individuals and you may just be the right fit. You can find these details on our Jobs page as well. Please send your application to hr@sjgames.com with an attached resume in PDF or Word format (be sure your first and last names are the file name). We look forward to hearing from awesome candidates! 

– Hunter Shelburne

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 6, 2023: Popeye Plays GURPS . . . Kind Of

Popeye is known for many things: being a sailor, being tough, saving Olive Oyl, and now . . . playing tabletop roleplaying games? Yes, indeed! In Popeye's recent Sunday adventure, he and the gang take on a dragon in  SURPS (Steve's Universal RolePlaying System). If that sounds suspiciously like GURPS , it should, as artist Randy Milholland is a longtime friend of and contributor to Steve Jackson Games. You may have seen his work on classic Munchkin cards like Rocks Fall and Everyone Dies from Munchkin Reloaded and Redneck Tree from Munchkin 3 – Clerical Errors . 

Thanks to Randy for the homage in such a legendary comic strip! We sure hope Popeye and friends will go on some future fantasy adventures in SURPS . . . 

– Hunter Shelburne

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 5, 2023: What Defines "Old-School"?

I'm a fan of retro computers. There's a certain thrill of getting a copy of Ultima IV working on a Commodore 128 hooked up to a humming CRT monitor. Perhaps, if I'm lucky someday and figure out where I can put it, I'll re-acquire an Apple IIgs and relive my high-school "don't get caught staying up at 3 a.m." youth.

But one aspect of the "retro" experience that's difficult for me to codify is: What the heck am I looking for?

The modern realm of retro computing has so many more conveniences compared to the original era: HDMI monitors and thumb drives sidestep the issues of boxy screens and deteriorating floppies. Drop-in upgrades can bring old Amigas and vintage Macs to speeds previously undreamt of. At the most extreme, many vintage systems can be replicated in their entirety via emulation on modern computers. But how much of that is the "real" experience? At what point does it become not old school?

I think about this in the tabletop gaming realm, and I'm quite sure what the best answer is. I'm a fan of The Fantasy Trip revival, which is obviously of the old-school era but is also steeped enough in the modern realm to make life "better" for the average gamer. I love my searchable PDFs and one-click purchasing options, and dice that don't feel like they were made of the crumbly plastic they use to glue straws onto juice boxes. And the modern world has ensured that these books just look better than their decades-past counterparts, with sharper print quality and higher production values.

The flippant observation is that it's the "spirit" that's important, but I'm not sure how to codify into words, outside of a broad "I'll recognize it when I feel it" platitude. All I know is that I do love The Fantasy Trip Legacy Edition , and I don't miss character sheets that were marine-rescue orange. I welcome you to offer your own insights on the forums for the Daily Illuminators!

– 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 4, 2023: Squishy Clay RPG Minis?

Mini Molds, on Kickstarter now, are hinged molds that turn any sort of soft clay (like Play-Doh) into table-ready roleplaying miniatures! The set includes four sculpts: a skeleton, a wolf, a goblin, and a bugbear. There are reward tiers for both the manufactured molds and   STL files to print your own molds! 

Here's the Wolf mold in action:



I'll leave the other adorable squishy miniature pictures over on their Kickstarter page, so you'll have to click over to see them. I love the cartoony style of these figures, and think they'd be perfect for running games for kids (not to mention fidgety adults) . . .

This campaign runs through September 14 – they've almost reached their funding goal, and I'm dying to see what other figures they've got up their sleeves as stretch goals, so go back it!

– Irene Zielinski

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 3, 2023: How Many Monitors?

A question for our fans: For those of you in the computer-desktop realm, how many monitors do you use?

For years I've been a two-monitor guy. One serves as my primary display, and the second one is my "TV or radio I've got on in the background" media-type monitor that I can extend my digital workspace to if need be. I've liked it well enough, but I always have that "grass is always greener" feeling, either from seeing folks with more monitors (letting me roleplay my "I'M BATMAN!"-type Batcave fantasies), or from seeing folks with just one big, beautiful monitor.

It's also difficult to navigate these feelings too much, since I'd hate to spend hundreds or thousands on a single monitor and go, "Ehhhh . . . not doing it for me."

I'm always looking for new productivity or quality-of-life improvements, so if you are open to share your own experiences, the forums for the Daily Illuminators is a great spot to offer insight. (And that goes triply so if you know or are Batman.)

– 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 2, 2023: Software Recommendation: Alfred

I've been on a Mac for years, and there's one piece of software that I use quite possibly more than any other. Currently on version 5, Alfred is a productivity booster that does . . . well, it's kind of hard to explain.

To backup a bit: I'm a child of the old DOS era (and, before that, Apple II). So I'm quite comfortable around what used to be called "command line software" – that is, software where you'd type in a command at a command line, and get a result.

Alfred is not that, exactly. However, it gives the power of the command line, by letting me access many features of my system directly from my keyboard. A few examples may help explain how I tap into the power of this app.

Let's suppose I'm trying to remember what the cover to the first edition of GURPS Fantasy Folk looks like. It doesn't matter what program I'm currently in; I simply use the key combination needed to summon the Alfred box (in this case, a double-tap of the "control" key with my pinkie). Then I type in "images gurps fantasy folk" (no quotes) and hit enter. Voilà! Google Image Search has opened in my preferred browser with "gurps fantasy folk" as my search result. (Funny story: While typing the previous paragraph, I did a Google search for "voilà" to see if/how it was accented, using "google voila"). If I feel the need to be particularly spritely, I can use the tab key to auto-complete typing "images" or "google" after typing "i" or "g".

Or let's say I want to search Warehouse 23 for the recently released GURPS Winged Folk . With a double-tap-control and then "w23 winged folk", the page has opened with my desired search.

Alfred does a lot of other things, too, such as text expansion (like turning "bbii" into " "), opening desired apps on my system with programmed shortcuts (double-tap-control "word" and I'm using Microsoft Word), hotkey opening apps, simple math (double-tap-control "1234*2.48" pastes the result "30615.6" into my clipboard), timers (I have a macro that lets me enter "timer 2h DINNER", which pops up a window after two hours to say "DINNER"), and much more.

As someone who hates disrupting their keyboard flow by reaching for a trackpad or mouse, Alfred is an incredibly useful app.

I bought a lifetime license years ago, then paid again to become a "Legendary Supporter" even though it didn't unlock any further benefits, because I use it so much and want to support them. According to the software's "Usage" statistics for my computer, since March 14, 2013, "Alfred has been used 199,061 times. Average 52.2 times per day." That's a lot. Alfred is free to use, although some features (such as custom searches) require unlocking via a payment. So if this sounds of interest, give it a try; I think you'll figure out right away if it "clicks" for you, but it's definitely the first thing I install on any new Mac system I set up.

– 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 1, 2023: Warehouse 23 Back-To-School Sale

Heading back to school? Don't forget your pencils, books, backpack . . . and games! During our Back-To-School Sale, you can save up to 20% on select games and merchandise. Share your love of Steve Jackson Games with the entire class!

Save 20% on select Pocket Box games and bundles, including the Classic Games Pocket Box and Car Wars Pocket Box Bundles . The Classic Games Pocket Box Bundle includes the uncommon Pocket Box games of the 80s, including Undead , Necromancer , One-Page Bulge , Raid on Iran , Kung Fu 2100 , and more. Our Car Wars Pocket Box Bundle lets you experience the freeways of the future – where the right of way goes to the biggest guns. Get big gaming fun in a small package!Need to fill in some downtime between classes? Check out our selection of individual Pocket Box games, card games, and dice games to find something that's fast and fun. Enjoy 10% off on titles like Hack & Slash , Zombie Dice , Deadly Doodles , Random Fun Generator , and Gelatinous . These games are easy to learn, fun to play, and great for small groups. In other words, they're perfect for playing with friends! You can also score10% off on dice bags that are perfect for game nights and backpacks alike. Get these deals and many more during the Back-to-School Sale, now through September 6. You'll be the coolest person in class! 

– Hunter Shelburne

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!