Once a week -- sometimes more -- the dev team sits down to discuss our current projects and upcoming games. Many of these discussions involve new Munchkin supplements, which shouldn't surprise anyone, but we also spend quite a bit of time on completely new games. What I love most about these meetings is the interaction between the dev team members. Randy, for example, always looks for ways to break the game, while Steve looks for ways to better tie the theme to the mechanics (and sometimes toss out a mechanic in favor of a more thematic mechanic). I think Will's in the meetings just to argue with me and tell me when my ideas are bad. I would be upset with him if he wasn't right a lot of the time.
Development meetings are fun.
-- Phil Reed
Warehouse 23 News: Your Family Misses You
Must every game you play involve knights and wizards slaying dragons and taking their stuff? Or space marines and psis killing aliens and taking their stuff? Or investigators and cultists slaying absolutely nothing at all because they've all long since gone mad - mad! - from discovering the true nature of the universe? Must they all? Of course they mustn't. So break out Ticket to Ride. Why? Your gramma can play it, your children will get it, your family will be a family again. And isn't that what Halloween's all about?
Yes, it's that time again. Time for the production department to dive into craft projects as we prepare for another convention trip. The smell of glue, the cutting of paper, the folding and twisting and mutilating of cardboard until all of the various bits and pieces turn into game prototypes . . . I love watching game prototypes come together. (Especially since I'm not the one in the trenches dealing with the actual craft portion of the process.)
In just a couple of weeks Steve and I will leave for Essen, Germany, where we'll spend four days surrounded by happy gamers. (And where I'll probably buy so many games that I find myself trying to fit more into my suitcase than it was designed to carry.)
-- Phil Reed
Warehouse 23 News: Warehouse 23 Top Ten
Warehouse 23 has posted an updated Top 10 Page for September. Check it out, and see what all the cool kids are buying . . .
We've posted the rules (in PDF) for Munchkin Quest. If you want to start learning the game before it hits stores, and we know that you do, then this is the tool you have been waiting for. I'm especially proud of the component list and the organization of the rules. (Hey, is that a glossary? With page references? Awesome!)
-- Phil Reed
(Postscript from SJ: Phil is ALLOWED to be proud of the glossary and the rules org, because the glossary was his idea and largely his writing. The rules organization, as published, bears little resemblance to my original draft, and the change is all for the good. Will and Randy also contributed a great deal to this part of the development.)
Warehouse 23 News: Surprisingly Euclidean
The Call of Cthulhu: Official Dice Set isn't just scary. The Call of Cthulhu: Official Dice Set isn't just cool. It's scary cool. We wouldn't suggest you let your gaze linger upon them too long, however, lest you find yourself driven mad - mad! - by their swirly, squiggly bits. Mad!
October 3, 2008: One Munchkin Quest Case . . . In My Office!
Munchkin Quest, as you know, is the project that has eaten our brains (and time) for several months. Once you hold the box in your hands, and look at the amount of stuff inside, I'm confident you'll understand why this has been such a massive project for us. The good news is, we're almost at the end of the process. A single case of Munchkin Quest, as you can see in the photo, was delivered to us and immediately broken apart and distributed to those who most need a copy right now. Even though that case looks huge (which it is), it only holds six copies of the game.
Munchkin Quest, on the boat and slowly making its way to our warehouse, is the game that's going to give our shipping guys some exercise. Sorry, guys, but all that stuff requires a big box.
-- Phil Reed
Warehouse 23 News: Ooo, A Blasphemous Tome. Fun!
Halloween draws nigh, so it's time to start checking under the bed and in the closet for the stuff you don't believe in for the other 11 months out of the year. Or, you can just give in to the madness. We don't mind either way. We will, however, recommend Call of Cthulhu: The Klarkash-Ton Cycle if you're looking for some good old-fashioned nightmare fuel.
Maker Faire -- that collection of battlin' robots, flinging homemade catapults, and dancing soda sprays -- is coming to Austin in about two and a half weeks. At least a couple of folks from the office will be in attendance, but what to see?
If you've attended a Maker Faire in the past, let us know what exhibits are "can't miss." Is LN2 ice cream really worth the hype? How far back should we stand from the Eepybirds? Will cluster computing create Skynet?
If you're one of the 400 or so exhibitors, why not plug your activity/ware/act over in our "Geeks Rule!" forum?
-- Paul Chapman
Warehouse 23 News: Genurai? Samuenie?
Legend of the Five Rings: Legend of the Burning Sands. Yes, children, it's samurai vs. genie time. Scherezade ain't got nothin' on this.
This is playtest night, and from all the way down the hall I can hear the ringing cries:
"Doom!"
"You're all doomed!"
"DOOOOOM!!"
We haven't announced this game yet, and all I'm going to tell you about the title is that it's not Doom.
But it's definitely a bit of a departure from anything we've done before. And it's fun.
-- Steve Jackson
In honor of National Scary Things Month, we're going to try and sell you the Munchkin Cthulhu: Cultic Combativeness T-Shirt now. Buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy! You know you want to, so just do it. Doooooo it. Come on. On. Give in. Come oooooon. You only live once, y'know. Unless . . . uh, yeah, unless you buy this shirt. Then, who knows? You might live again! That could be all horrory and stuff. Buy our scary shirt already!
September 30, 2008: That Cat Has Already Fallen Billions Of Light-Years
I have no current recollection of whether I have ever linked to xkcd.
But Monday he blew me away, so: linkage. Randall Munroe's strip usually makes me snicker. Occasionally it makes me cry a bit. One expects this from Broadway, perhaps, but we're talking about a webcomic.
Sometimes . . . like today . . . it is just boggling. The observable universe, on a log scale.
I hope he decides to sell this as a poster.
-- Steve Jackson
Later post script: Happy, happy, it IS available as a poster.
Warehouse 23 News: Not To Be Confused With The Red Dagon Inn
All too often the events of an adventurer's life that take place above sea level are given only cursory attention. You went through all the trouble to get all that loot, so now what? It's not like any rational human being (or demihuman being) would exit one hole in the ground and walk straight into another. There's an interim. A downtime. A party party. This rare look into the drunken social lives of heroes is the domain of The Red Dragon Inn 2. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it turns out they're just as violent outside the dungeon as inside.
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