Steve Jackson's Blog, page 84

August 1, 2023: Too Many Tabs!

Does anyone else have too many tabs open at any one time in their browser(s)? I remember how excited I was when tabbed browsing finally became possible, all those years ago. Oh, how the monkey's paw curled on that wish.

A lot of them are necessary; if I'm trying to find, say, the perfect GURPS supplement to recommend to new players, I need to have a dozen possibilities open at the same time. But often they remain open because I'm not sure I'm done with them, or I can't deal with whatever they're trying to tell me in the moment, or countless other possibilities.

I use a Chrome extension called Tab Count to try to keep my worst impulses in check, or maybe as some kind of "beat my record at Donkey Kong"-type score – and now I note that I have that Tab Count URL still open in my browser. I just don't learn . . .

If you want to commiserate – or perhaps point and laugh – feel free to offer up your own experiences and insight on the Daily Illuminator section of our 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!

July 31, 2023: The Future Gets Personal With Transhuman Space: The Pyramid Personnel

The future is back! Transhuman Space: The Pyramid Personnel presents to you a collection of NPCs, ready to use with your Transhuman Space campaigns. This assortment of NPCs – with GURPS stats, backgrounds, adventure ideas, and more – is teeming with transhuman potential.

Last seen during the HTML era of Pyramid magazine, all of these characters – from the multifaceted mind of Phil Masters – have been updated by Masters to GURPS Fourth Edition and released as an officially licensed offering.

Unlock the secrets of The Pyramid Personnel today, thanks to 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!

July 30, 2023: Find Your Fortune With GURPS Renaissance Venice: Merchants Of Venice

Venice – the richest city in Europe! Well, once upon a time, at least. This age comes alive again, thanks to GURPS Renaissance Venice: Merchants of Venice and its inimitable scribe, Matt Riggsby. Learn the tools of the trade (literally!), with details on the mercantile life and history, info on ships, new rules for emulating this exciting era, and more.

Revel once again in the historical corner of the cosmos we call the Renaissanciverse (we don't actually call it that), with GURPS Renaissance Venice: Merchants of Venice and 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!

July 29, 2023: Party Like A Roman With Caligula

Nunc est bibendum!* That may have originally come from a Roman ode, but we think it's fitting for our latest Kickstarter. Caligula is an adult party game inspired by Nomic and Quarters that involves making laws and tricking other players into breaking them. If a player violates a law, they have to pay a penalty with coins . . . or by taking a drink. Two special roles – the Fool and the Arbiter – add to the fun. Players can win by becoming richer than everyone else combined, or by a general consensus.  We have some fun stretch goals for Caligula that can help enhance your play experience:If we reach $5,000, we'll unlock a set of eight coasters and add them to pledges of $25 or more. Featuring the emperor on one side and the game's basic rule set on the other, these coasters are a great way to keep your furniture tidy and the rules close at hand.
 At $8,000, we'll unlock a Caligula shot glass featuring the emperor himself as illustrated by Munchkin artist Len Peralta. This shot glass is made of clear glass, rather than plastic or ceramic, and makes for a nifty display piece when not in use. This shot glass will also be added to pledges of $25 or more.The campaign for Caligula runs through August 10, so be sure to pledge soon!

– Katie Duffy *Now is the time for drinking! 

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!

July 28, 2023: . . . And Off To GameFest!

Because I am an idiot and like conventions – and like guesting at same – I accepted an invitation from the Dallas AnimeFest and GameFest to appear at their show. The only catch . . . it is now . The weekend after ConnectiCon. The weekend before Gen Con.

Feh! That is nothing! I can do conventions on three successive weekends. Watch me!

Seriously, watch me. The convention's web page is right here. If you are in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, come see me . . . Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, in the gaming area. We're going to play Car Wars and Wiz-War and who knows what else.

– 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!

July 27, 2023: Back From ConnectiCon . . .

This was my first visit to this Hartford, Connecticut event. It was clear that a great time was being had by all. Me included.

• Much, much gaming. I demonstrated Groo (a lot) and Tabloids and the upcoming new edition of Express . Jef Lord ran Car Wars . After a slow Friday night, the game room got busy Saturday and stayed that way! And that was just the general game room . . . there were also tournaments for Magic and other CCGs.

• Much, much magic. One of the other guests was Michael OJ, aka Magic Mike, and he did several close-up shows. He is good . Card magic, escapes, sleight of hand, and a mentalist act in which he gave me three books and predicted what WORD I would choose out of one of them. I do not know how he did that.

• Much, much cosplay and general fun. I'd say that at least one visitor in four was dressed up in some way. Maybe a lot more, ranging from "I threw this together in 20 minutes and it's cool" to "I spent the last two months on this and you'd better admire it or I will skewer you with this enormous foam weapon from a videogame you never heard of, and bathe in your pixelated blood."

• Much, much fun with Film Reroll . . . and I'll do a whole writeup on their show, with pix, after my brain unfreezes a bit. I was laughing so hard it hurt. If you don't want to wait for my review, you can follow the link, but trust me, I'll tell you the story soon . . .

• And much, much fan interaction. Way cool. Thank you for inviting me, ConnectiCon.

– 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!

July 26, 2023: Gen Con Approaches

As July turns to August, you know that means Gen Con is right around the corner! From August 3-6, Steve Jackson Games will be at booth #1401 at Gen Con, as well as running events every day in our event section. Many ticketed events have filled up, but there are still a number of tickets available for other demos. If a game you like is already filled up, you can always swing by the booth and ask us about it. We'll have standing demo tables in the booth to show off new titles such as  Wiz-War . 

Speaking of Wiz-War , this will be the first opportunity to purchase it since its successful Kickstarter funding! If you missed out on the project, or want another copy as a gift, this will be your chance to grab one. Or two!

We also want to call out a special event being hosted by Matt Forbeck: the Andrew Hackard Memorial Munchkin Game that will be taking place on Sunday. For years, the Forbecks would play an annual game with Andrew at every Gen Con, and they are hosting this event to honor his memory. There are still seats available, and having fun playing Munchkin is a great way to give tribute to our late, great Munchkin Czar. 

Come out and enjoy "The Best Four Days in Gaming" with us at Gen Con 2023!

– 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!

July 25, 2023: DEAD HORSE IS COMING.

Dead Horse is a unfiltered dreamscape of dread,
an unsettling melange of macabre,
a unified pastiche of peril.

Do I have your attention? Good. Listen up.

Dead Horse is a horror anthology zine from Disaster Tourism featuring TTRPG content, fiction, art, and more. Inside Dead Horse #001, you'll find over thirty artists' contributions around the theme of Unsettling Horror – 50+ pages of full-color magazine print. You can pre-order print and digital copies now.

I'm really excited about this one for a couple of reasons. First, I love having the chance to support my friends' work, and there are several folks I'm thrilled to see as contributors here. But beyond that, Dead Horse is paying everyone through profit share – once costs are covered, all profits are equally split among the contributors. So not only do I get to see familiar names in print, I get to know that every single copy is supporting dozens of artists!

Given the overall state of creative industries right now, it's as important as it's ever been to support independent publishers and artists. I think what Disaster Tourism is doing with Dead Horse is awesome, so let's make it a success!

– 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!

July 24, 2023: Introducing Katie Duffy, Marketing Manager

Hello! I'm Katie Duffy, the new(ish) Marketing Manager at Steve Jackson Games. I've been here since late May, so I wanted to take some time to introduce myself. I live in Northeast Ohio, close to both Akron and Cleveland. It's a great part of the country that has many things to offer, even if the sports teams have a habit of breaking our hearts. (Sorry – I'm a lifelong Cleveland baseball fan, and the sting of the 2016 World Series still lingers.)

I've been a fan of tabletop games for most of my life, starting with boardgames like  Mouse Trap, Monopoly,  and  Mall Madness.  I also have memories of playing a game called  Easy Money,  which belonged to my grandmother. Her copy was from the 1940s or 1950s, so I suppose I was into retro gaming before I even knew what that was!



I still enjoy playing boardgames, but my real passion is tabletop roleplaying games. My friends introduced me to  Dungeons & Dragons when I was in high school, and I haven't looked back since. During COVID, my husband and I started gaming online wth people we met through Worlds Elsewhere Theater Company. What was supposed to be a few short adventures has turned into two multi-year campaigns! Some of our players have also hosted their own game sessions, introducing me to systems like  Lancer, DIE,  and  Fabula Ultima.  Don't worry – my next campaign will be  GURPS -based!



When I'm not at work or creating characters, plots, or settings, I love to get out in nature by exploring trails in Northeast and Southeast Ohio (a great excuse to chronicle local flora and fauna with iNaturalist). My last big excursion was a trip to Hocking Hills with my husband, where we marveled at natural wonders like Cedar Falls, Ash Cave, and Old Man's Cave. The latter site provided inspiration for Jeff Smith, the author of the comic book series Bone .  We were literally walking through a fantasy landscape!

I also love music, and spend a decent amount of time at nearby record stores like the tiny-but-mighty Blackbird Records in Wooster, Ohio. Every summer, I try to make it to Blossom Music Center, the summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra, to listen to them play classical works or accompany films live. I even co-host a weekly radio show on bff.fm, a community radio station based in San Francisco. The show airs every Thursday from 4-6 a.m. Pacific, but don't worry – you can listen to it online anytime!

I'm so happy to be part of the team here at Steve Jackson Games. We have some exciting news coming up in the future, and I can't wait to share it with you!

– 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!

July 23, 2023: New Realms On Demand?

It's been just over six and a half years since the On Demand program started making out-of-print and hard-to-find GURPS books more easily and affordably available. The world of print-on-demand technology is constantly evolving, and options that were impossible or prohibitably expensive a half-decade ago are worth considering now. Because of technology improvements in meeting our quality expectations, we are starting to offer older scanned books (such as Man to Man ), and late last year we made color softcovers available for the first time.

So, what do you think about hardcovers?

We haven't looked into it too strongly, but it's an option that has become more feasible in recent months. We've already had one experiment with the Girl Genius Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game that has given us valable data.

If we explore this avenue, they wouldn't be cheap. It's hard to know what the numbers are until we start digging at them, but they'd involve a nontrivial amount of work, and I imagine they'd be of most interest to either collectors or those who really want the extra durability at the gaming table. But it does open up possibilities such as making old Third Edition supplements in that format that have never been available in hardcover.

This is still at the "poking the idea with a fork and see how appetizing it is" stage of consideration, but we're always open to feedback. So if you want to offer your insight – whether it's "hurry up and take my money" or something more nuanced – please let us know over 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!