Steve Jackson's Blog, page 92

May 13, 2023: Stakeholder Report

We have posted the Stakeholder Report for 2022. Executive summary: Still here, still making games, a couple of good wins and no awful losses. Check it out, and feel free to comment or ask questions on the linked forum thread!

– 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 12, 2023: Gen Con Event Wishlist Now Open

You heard right! We're headed back to Gen Con this year with some awesome events! Come learn to play the new edition of Wiz-War , or try out our new title,  Tabloids ! Maybe Car Wars is more your speed? Bring some CARnage to the Double Drum  Battle Royale! Into Munchkin ? We've got you covered with an amazing  Munchkin Mystery event featuring [FNORD]! You can find all of the events we plan to run here, and add them to your Wishlist.  We are stoked to be back at Gen Con and we hope to see you there! Event sign-up starts May 21 at noon Eastern time.It will fill up fast, so don't wait!

– Philip Villarreal

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 11, 2023: New GURPS On Demand On Kickstarter

We're currently Kickstarting five more classic GURPS supplements in the GURPS Print-On-Demand Extravaganza! As you probably already know, GURPS On Demand offers your favorite supplements in a physical format. They range from post-apocalyptic wastelands and steampunk cogs to modern shooting and fantasy magic, and with your support, we'll add five more titles to the POD lineup. True to GURPS  – if you can imagine it, we've written a book about it! These supplements are currently on offer:  GURPS After The End 1: Wastelanders GURPS After The End 2: The New World GURPS Steampunk 1: Settings and Style GURPS Tactical Shooting GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic Our GURPS On Demand line has a number of incredible titles already available in POD softcovers, and we'd love to add five more to this growing collection. This Kickstarter campaign ends May 15, so jump in now and expand your gaming horizons! 

– 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!

May 10, 2023: Munchkin Witches Now In Our Main Warehouse

After a successful Kickstarter campaign late last year and a lot of hard work by our team, the Munchkin Witches mini-expansion has (finally!) landed in Georgia and is being unloaded at our primary warehouse even as you read this! These 30 new cards are a great addition to any Munchkin game. To make things even more exciting for your game group, shuffle these cards into your decks and don't tell the other players. They can share in the surprise as the cards appear during the session . . . and you can snicker and giggle as the others at the table slowly figure out what you've done.

Evil witches are everywhere. Souring your milk, corrupting your files, sailing across the moon with a cackling laugh. What can you do? What you always do – kill them and take their stuff. Here are a dozen witchy monsters with Items and Curses to match!

– Phil Reed

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 9, 2023: May Deals On Warehouse 23

They say April showers bring May flowers, but Warehouse 23 will be showering you with deals and freebies this entire month! Since we have a few running at one time, let's break it down by deal. All of these promotions are happening right now and end on May 31 (or while supplies last). 

First off, we have a free pin with physical orders of $30 or more. Longtime fans know that we've offered a number of pins over the years, particularly at conventions. Now you can show your fandom on your favorite backpack, jacket, or lanyard! FREE! Pick your favorite pin from the eligible choices and add it to your order. The discount will be applied during checkout.

Next, we have a couple of deals for the Munchkin fans out there. Physical orders of $20 or more get a free copy of Munchkin Mighty Monsters! This is a light, fun little card game that takes minutes to learn and fits into any game night lineup. Plus, if you're keeping score, this means orders of $30 or more get both a free pin and Munchkin Mighty Monsters. Double the freebies! That's not the only Munchkin deal, though. With physical Munchkin orders of $10 or more, you'll get a Munchkin Mini-Expansion Promo Pack, chock-full of various promos for a variety of Munchkin themes.

We kept our RPG fans in mind, too! If you spend $20 or more on Pyramid PDFs this month, you'll get 50% off that purchase. This is perfect for folks keeping a digital library of supplements and is a killer deal that works for the entire Pyramid line. 

I want to reiterate that the physical deals and discounts stack. So if you buy $30 or more of physical items, and said order includes at least $10 worth of Munchkin, you would qualify for a free pin, a free copy of Munchkin Mighty Monsters, and the Munchkin Mini-Expansion Promo Pack. And of course, all physical orders on Warehouse 23 include free promo swag already! Get these deals all month long over on Warehouse 23!

– 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!

May 8, 2023: Groo: The Game Reviewed By Steffan O'Sullivan

With Groo: The Game coming to Kickstarter later this month, now is a great time to revisit this review by Steffan O'Sullivan from the distant past known as 1997. This review was first published in Pyramid #28 and is presented here as we prepare to pull the trigger and launch the new edition of Groo: The Game at Kickstarter. 

Please enjoy the review, and don't forget to follow Steve Jackson Games at Kickstarter to receive email notification when the project is ready for your support.

– Phil Reed

***Groo: The Game Review by Steffan O'Sullivan  

If you already know who Groo is: rejoice! More artwork! A fun game! Go buy it!

If you don't know, I don't have space to explain the wonderful zaniness that is Groo the Wanderer, star of a long-running comic book of the same name. The comic is by Sergio Aragonés, winner of the 1997 Reuben award (sort of a cartoonists' Hall of Fame award). Groo is temporarily on hiatus now, but there have been over 140 issues over the last dozen years, so go check out some back issues at a comic store.

Good news to both Groo fans and Groo novices is that this is an excellent game. While not a collectible card game, there is already one expansion set, which is also highly recommended.

On the plus side, the artwork is wonderful, the rules simple and clear, the replay value high, all your favorite Groo characters are there (except Bunta), there are enough special effects cards to keep the game exciting, and it's a blast to play – a mix of skill, luck and a lot of laughs.

On the downside, there is no mention of mulching, a serious omission.

The basic set includes 60 cards and seven dice, enough to play with up to four people. The dice stickers include pictures of Supplies, Labor, Kopins, Groo, Rufferto and pointing hands. (Sergio is a very visualoriented person, so pictures are used whenever possible.) The expansion set includes another 55 cards, which will allow you to play with up to six people (and makes it a better game regardless of the number of players).

There are six kinds of cards: Groo himself (only one of these, thank heavens!), Groo Effects, Events, Buildings, Troops and Wildcards. The object is to be the first to build a town worth seven victory points (each building card has a VP value). This is hard because: (1) the other players may send their armies to destroy your town-in-progress, and (2) Groo. In the comic books, any town Groo enters suffers some damage – it's just the poor soul's nature. While not malicious, he's very stupid and clumsy, and a jinx of the worst nature. So the Groo card is a hot potatoe (spelling appropriate to Groo's mentality level) which can wreak havoc on whatever town he visits.

Each player turn has six phases:Discard as many cards as you wish;Draw your hand up to five cards;Make one attack (optional)Roll the dice to determine Groo's movement and your resources, then allot your resources;Pass any unused resources to your left – that player uses what he wishes, then passes them to his left, etc.;Draw your hand up to five cards, and it's the next player's turn.Resources are required to bring certain cards out of your hand, shown on each card. You need Kopins (money) to build a Castle, for example, but Supplies to bring in The Minstrel (who can double your combat ability if you speak in rhyme). "Groo Head" resources allow you to play Groo Effects cards – when these are played, bad things usually happen to the town where Groo is currently located.

Phase five, above, is a wonderful innovation: pity the soul who rolls six Groo Heads and has Groo move to his town at the same time! You'll hear the other players gasp in admiration . . .

Most cards have a special effect listed at the bottom. This is very entertaining and keeps things from being a simple send- Groo-and-stomp game. The expansion set is very useful even if you don't play with more than four players: it adds a lot of variety in cards of all types (except Groo).

Combat is very straightforward: pick your attacking troops, the defender decides which troops will defend, figure any special effect bonuses, and subtract defense value from offense value. The result is the value of victory points (shown on buildings) the defender must lose. All troops which participated in the attack are then discarded. This simple mechanic allows you to whittle down someone near to victory, while preventing huge army buildups, the bane of certain other games.

This game is highly recommended – smooth, fast, fun play with wonderful artwork – what more do you want? And if your opponent draws a card, looks at the artwork for a few seconds, and bursts out laughing, you don't know whether he has the dreaded "Did I Err?" card (which shows a very embarrassed Groo watching townspeople fleeing from a town being destroyed by an avalanche he accidentally started) or a harmless card such as the Butcher, which simply has a very funny picture.

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 7, 2023: Top Sellers In March 2023

Our business office recently sent over the top sellers for March of 2023 and, as we've done from time to time, we thought it might be fun to share the top ten with all of you. As you can see, Munchkin and Munchkin Deluxe continue to dominate the charts, with a handful of new releases pushing their way into the top ten. You can find all of these today at your favorite local game store! Munchkin Munchkin Deluxe Calo's Book of Monsters Gelatinous Zombie Dice Munchkin Squids Munchkin Side Quests 2 Kitten Polyhedral Dice (Available in Various Colors) Munchkin Polyhedral Dice (Available in Various Colors) Munchkin 2 - Unnatural Axe – Phil Reed

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 6, 2023: What Happens Next?

As Steve mentioned in his April 3 Daily Illuminator post, I've stepped aside as the company's CEO to focus on my health, sanity, and personal projects. I'm going to do all I can to assist both Steve and Meredith as they keep many, many balls in the air, answering questions and generally providing my opinion and make recommendations as they navigate everything.

In addition to my role as the answerer to the "hey, how does this work?" questions, I'm also continuing my work in constructing and managing Kickstarter campaigns. This includes working with Steve and Meredith on scheduling new projects and staying in touch with the Warehouse 23 team to guarantee that fulfillment flows as smoothly as possible. It would be wrong of me to not remind you to please follow both the Steve Jackson Games and Warehouse 23 accounts to receive notice when we launch new projects.

On the "sanity and personal projects" side of things, I am still spending energy writing new game supplements, making music, and generally engaging my brain in as many creative projects as I can fit into a day. The best way to keep up with my personal creative works has to be following me on Kickstarter, where I take most new ideas, and checking out my publishing page at DriveThruRPG. I can honestly say that time spent writing brings me a happy calm that dramatically improves my mental state. I'm lucky that so many out there enjoy my work, and I plan to always do my best – both at the office and with my personal works – to give gamers as great a deal as possible.

So while things may have changed, I'm not vanishing or abandoning the team. I'm here, helping, and plan to assist for as long as Steve and Meredith have need of my experiences, skills, and talent.

– Phil Reed

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 5, 2023: GAMA Trade Show: Victory!

Last week, our team attended the GAMA Trade Show in Reno, where we met with retailers of all sizes and showed off several of our recent releases and upcoming new games. Our booth, demo, and sales crew did a phenomenal job, and I was proud of everyone's work and how incredible the booth looked. I didn't spend much time on the show floor – most of my energy was devoted to meetings – but each time I walked by, the booth was busy, and every single time, it looked amazing. Thank you to the crew for their hard work!

So. What games were we showing off at the convention? Groo: The Game , of course, which was played again and again at the demo events. Retailers were happy at how everything looked, and the time invested in the development and production of the game looks to have been well worth the effort. If you're interested in Groo , we're happy to report that it is (finally!) headed to Kickstarter later this month. With luck, we'll successfully fund and deliver the games before the holiday season. Tabloids . This new design by Steve was popular in playtests Retailer feedback tells us that we're on the right track, and this is likely to be a favorite party game for those who love poking fun at the world and today's crazed, unbelievable news cycles. You can learn more about Tabloids in this Daily Illuminator post. Wiz-War drew attention with the Phil Foglio art on the box and standies. Lots of people remembered the old editions of the game and were enthusiastic about a new one. This one is on the boat and will be shipping soon. Gelatinous , also now in a second edition, was a hit as always. The new packaging turned out excellently, and there's no denying the simple joy of rolling a handful of dice and racing the other players to build a green cube of ooze before anyone else.Thank you to everyone, from the retailers to the other publishers, who took the time to chat about the industry. This is a beautiful show, and we're looking forward to attending the convention at the new Kentucky location in 2024!

– Phil Reed

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 4, 2023: Want To Paint Our Cars?

We are going to need at least a half-dozen full-color Car Wars covers in the next year. Can you paint cars that don't exist yet, in scenes with explosive action? Are you fast and awesome? Are you a pro, or willing to fake it until you make it? Are you an AI? If your answers to the first three questions are YES and the last one is a big NO, please contact Sam Mitschke (sam@sjgames.com) and we'll see if we have something to talk about. Include links to relevant work, of course.

– 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!