Daily Illuminator

November 19, 2008: Woo! We're All A-Twitter!

Yep, we've joined the 21st century and opened a Twitter account. You can see the feed on our front page, right between the Warehouse 23 news and the search box. If you have a Twitter account, you can follow us by clicking here.

Don't worry about the stereotypical "I'm bored" posts, though. There are so many cool things going on right now that we'll be lucky to have a single moment of boredom for the next year. We'll tweet from BoardgamegeekCon this week, from playtest sessions, from that glorious moment when we open the proof copy of Munchkin Quest 2 . . .

Various staffers will be posting from wherever they are (I so wish we'd gotten everything set up before Phil and SJ went to Essen!), each with their own voices. We'll sign each entry, so you know who to look for when you read "Anybody else standing in the Convention X registration line?" or who to blame for a particularly painful pun.
-- Paul Chapman

November 18, 2008: Christmas Comes Early

Want an early Christmas present? We're auctioning off our proof copy of the Christmas Chibithulhu. But act fast -- the bidding ends Tuesday November 18, around 3pm Central time.

If you miss out on the auction, don't worry! Warehouse 23 is taking preorders on them right now, and will be shipping them out in time to give as holiday gifts.

-- Paul Chapman

November 17, 2008: Giants

Last week, the digital shelves of e23 saw not one, but two giant-sized releases.

First, Fantasy Set 8 - Giants from the Cardboard Heroes series features . . . you guessed it: giants! 15 towering humanoids to fee your foe fum, if you will.

Second, perhaps not a literal giant, but certainly one that dominates its particular niche of our hobby: GURPS Classic: Traveller. This is the book that launched the GURPS Traveller line for GURPS Third Edition. In addition to more mechanics than you can shake a stick at, these 179 pages contain one of the best primers on the Traveller history and mythology ever published. Whether you're a Traveller grognard or just a space opera junkie, this book is a must have.

-- Paul Chapman

November 16, 2008: Shipping In February

Frag Gold Edition

Game starts. Enemy in sight . . . Frag him! Grab his stuff! Run! Get a bigger gun! Grab some armor! There he is again! Frag him! Run . . . you're hit! You're down. Respawn! Grab a weapon! Start again!

Frag is a computer game without a computer -- a "first-person shooter" on a tabletop. Move your fighter and frag your foes. Draw cards for weapons, armor, and gadgets. Move through the blood spatters to restore your own health! If you die, you respawn and come back shooting!

The new Gold Edition offers upgraded components: a two-sided solid gameboard, plastic figures, erasable character cards, and 18 (!!) dice, to roll really BIG attacks.

Boxed game with 112 cards, six plastic pawns, 18 dice, six erasable character cards, one dry erase marker, and a two-sided color gameboard. Stock #1901, ISBN 978-1-55634-774-0. $49.95.
-- Paul Chapman

November 15, 2008: Harvest Time!

A semi-common question from those who have seen Chibithulhu has been "Where did you get those?"

The surprising answer: Our orchard, seen here.

The green Chibithulhu crop was great, and the fruits are available through friendly local game stores everywhere. The pink harvest was quite small -- the sugar and spice we used as fertilizer on those trees didn't interact well with the soil. As a result, we only had enough Pink Chibithulhu for Warehouse 23.

These plushes were our first experiment with PNA (Plushonucleic Acid) manipulations. Although the fruits are excellent, the trees seem to be growing in non-Euclidean directions. So get 'em while they're available -- they're great Christmas gifts!

(And speaking of Christmas . . . we've discovered that if you freeze these fruits, they turn an adorable white. We happen to have a subzero containment center, and should have a batch of these holiday-theme plushes ready for Warehouse 23 near the end of the month.

-- Paul Chapman

November 14, 2008: No Ogre 6e In 2009

We are closing in on a final schedule for 2009, and Ogre 6th Edition is not on it.

This makes me very unhappy, but I agree with the decision. There are two problems:

First and worst, we set a very high goal for the quantity and quality of boards and pieces. Think of it as the Designer's Edition . . . We'd have to compromise on this goal in order to bring the game in at a reasonable price, and right now printing costs are going up, not down. We will keep working on it, but we're not going to leave the game on the schedule when we don't know yet how we can do it. (This approach may work for GM on the Volt car, and we wish them lots of luck, but we're not going there. And remember, we made more money last year than GM did.)

Second, we are understaffed on the admin side. Until we can hire at least one more experienced game editor, print buyer, or development manager, we'll continue to generate ideas faster than we can get them to you.

-- Steve Jackson

November 13, 2008: Who Are We?

If you've ever wondered "just who are all these people, anyway?" then we've got a treat for you. Our brand-new Staff Profiles page gives you a peek into the personal tastes and backgrounds of those fine folks who put together the games you enjoy.

Reading through the entries, it's like a core sample of geekdom. Writers and editors? Check. IT professionals? Yep. Lead pushers and minis painters? Four of those. Roleplayers and board/card game addicts? Unsurprisingly, yes. Video games? Of course, and even a shout-out to a VIC-20 for extra geek points.

-- Paul Chapman

PS from SJ: Checking posted photos: pirates 3, ninja 0. Go pirates. Arrrr.

November 12, 2008: Sneaky Ninja!

One main battery: $87 bazillion.

Two secondaries: $37 zillion.

One missile rack, with four internal missiles, and two external missiles: $497 bajillion.

ECM powerful enough that attackers cannot combine fire unless they're attacking from an adjacent hex: Priceless.*

* Technically, the Ogre Ninja is only $14, and the newly revised and recently released Ogre Miniatures is only $9.95. So while not "priceless," they're a heck of a lot easier on the wallet than actual cybertank weaponry. Or my credit card bill, even.

Plus, if you already have a copy of Ogre Miniatures, all you need is the Ogre Miniatures Update, which is free -- so that's getting closer to "without price."
-- Paul Chapman

November 11, 2008: Munchkin Quest: The Great Unknown

Munchkin Quest has rooms, and doors, and monsters, and gold, and all kind of STUFF. We created it as a game, but we realize now it's a high-quality Dungeon Crawl Kit.

So . . . what can you do with it? We had a lot of ideas, but you know what? We're not telling. We're not even going to give you a hint. We don't want our ideas to get in the way of yours. We started off calling this a "scenario contest," but no . . . you might come up with a neat idea that's not a scenario. Let your imagination go crazy.

What kind of vaguely gamelike thing can you do with your Dungeon Crawl Kit?

It can use all, some, or none of the MQ rules. The only limitation is: you must restrict your components to what's in the Munchkin Quest core set, plus the things everyone has around the house (pencil, paper, kiwi fruit, Van de Graaf generators, and so on).

Send them to greatunknown@sjgames.com. We'll read through them and find our favorites. If we use your idea you'll get credit and a copy of the product. The entries that make us laugh the most, regardless of actual usability, will get recognition, and their creators will be showered with appropriately themed gifts.

All submissions become property of Steve Jackson Games. Entries must be submitted before January 5, 2009. Please use a Rich Text Format (.rtf) for any attachments.

No, you don't need to use the title "The Great Unknown" -- feel free to come up with any title you'd like. (Although it is an awesome title.)

-- Paul Chapman

November 10, 2008: Age Of Gold!

Nothing to do with the California gold rush of 1849, but GURPS Thaumatology: Age of Gold does sparkle. Written by the author of GURPS Thaumatology (now shipping!), Age of Gold is a campaign setting filled with pulp alchemists, cowled crime fighters, and two-fisted men of adventure, with strange magics and their wielders roaming the shadows.

Phil Masters has taken many of the options and rules from Thaumatology and build a world around them, mixing Golden Age supers with pulp action into a frothy brew of magic and mayhem. Whether you're looking for your next campaign, or a worked example of Thaumatology's various magical systems, Age of Gold is the potion you need.

-- Paul Chapman

November 9, 2008: Geeking On Board Games

Have we mentioned that we'll be at BoardGameGeekCon this month? Seems like we have, but the mists of time occlude my vision. (Yes, you mentioned it back in May. Get glasses - ed.)

As the hour approaches, it behoves us to remind you, gentle reader, that despite its name, BoardGameGeekCon does not restrict itself to boardgames. Yes, we'll have Munchkin Quest in the house, as the kids are saying these days. And we'll have prototypes of Revolution, The Stars Are Right, and [FNORD] available for playing and commenting on. But there will be card games like Munchkin, there will be games of dexterity like Pitch Car (an office favorite), and there will be games which defy description -- carnivals of chits and cards and dice and counter boards.

There will also be a certain retail element to the show. Our part of said element will include copies of Munchkin Quest and perhaps Munchkin Quest 2 -- Looking for Trouble -- we'll see -- but assuredly big stacks of those card games we love so much, like Deluxe Illuminati and Chez Geek.

Stop by and visit us!

-- Paul Chapman

November 8, 2008: I Guess You Were Waiting For That

We've sold out of our first shipment of Munchkin Quest. All 15,000 copies have arrived, been counted, and were shipped right back out to distributors and retailers.

Now, we're not "out" out -- we have another shipment arriving in a week or so. And you should be able to run out and buy a copy, as the folks we sold them to are putting them on the shelves of their stores Real Soon Now.

But . . . wow.

-- Paul Chapman