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February 28, 2002: GURPS Fourth Edition?

We are considering a fourth edition of GURPS and we need your input. If you play GURPS, or buy GURPS supplements to use with another game, then please take a few minutes to take our poll!
-- Sean Punch

Warehouse 23 News: Blur the Line Between the Real World and the Wired World

Serial Experiments lain is the first Ultimate Fan Guide from Guardians of Order, a combination of anime resource book and Big Eyes, Small Mouth roleplaying supplement.

February 27, 2002: Now Shipping!

The following items are now shipping, and should be available at your friendly local gaming store:

Chez Geek 2/e
Beer. Nookie. Roommates. Just another Friday night at Chez Geek, the fun new card game that lets you set up house with your friends -- for as long as you can stand them. Get a job at the beginning of the game, and spend money and time to accumulate Slack points. You can have a party, hang out with friends, dodge losers, and play with the cats. Borrow from your roomies so you can have snacks while you watch TV. What other game gives you points for sleeping? Just look out for the car alarm. Drink, party, and sleep late as you pursue Slack points to win the game.

Just remember, when your roommate and his S.O. keep you up all night: You can't throw them out. They live here.

110 cards in a tuck box. Stock #1329, ISBN 1-55634-476-7. $16.95.

Frag Deadlands
The fast-moving "first person shooter" boardgame... mutated into the Weird West! This is a complete game combining the award-winning Deadlands background with the fast, fun Frag rules. Play as a magic-using huckster, an undead Harrowed gunslinger, or a Mad Scientist . . . frag your foes on the main street of Doomtown, and hang them on the gallows!

Boxed game with full-color cards and gameboard. Stock #1342, ISBN 1-55634-606-9. $34.95.

Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering
Has your game got the blahs? Are your players spending more time thumbing through your book collection than hunting down clues, more energy heckling one another than in crushing their cruel foes? Never fear, o beleaguered Game Masters, for Robin D. Laws, noted game designer (Feng Shui, Hero Wars, Dying Earth, Rune) and columnist for Dragon magazine) is here to help.

Know your players! Analyze your system! Build your campaign! Design adventures! Prepare to be spontaneous, and improvise like a fiend!

Whether you're a beginner or an experienced roller of the polyhedrals, the insights in this book will improve your Game Mastering faster than you can say, "Roll for initiative!"

32 pages. Stock #3009, ISBN 1-55634-629-8. $9.95.

GURPS Horror 3/e
Horror has always been one of the most popular GURPS settings. This new Third Edition has been revised and updated by Kenneth Hite. It replaces the old historical settings with three brand-new campaign frames designed specifically for horror play. The focus is widened from supernatural horror to include psychological, cosmic, conspiratorial, and other subgenres. And many monster types are given racial templates so they can be used as PCs! With all new illustrations by Christopher Shy, this book will terrify players in new and unexpected ways . . .

128 pages. Stock #6004, ISBN 1-55634-453-8. $22.95.

GURPS Vehicles Expansion 2
Back to the garage! This second supplement for GURPS Vehicles includes a truckload of new components and design options. Want to go faster? Add smart tracks to your tanks, X-wing rotors to your helicopters, or grav drives and tachyon sails to your starships. Under attack? Protect your vehicle with collapsed-matter armor or a custom-designed force field.

If high-tech isn't your cup of tea, GURPS Vehicles Expansion 2 also covers a warehouse of weird science and steampunk technologies suitable for anachronistic settings, from ether sails to perpetual-motion engines! Vehicles Expansion 2 requires GURPS Basic Set, Third Edition and GURPS Vehicles, Second Edition.

32 pages. Stock #6542, ISBN 1-55634-602-6. $8.95.

Transhuman Space: Orbital Decay
This book presents a research station in Earth orbit . . . a great setting for all kinds of campaigns . . . and a sinister mystery for characters to solve. Why has the station gone silent, where did all the bio-tech researchers go, and what’s that clawing at the airlock door . . . ?

32 pages. Stock #6705, ISBN 1-55634-576-3. $8.95.

GURPS WWII: Hand of Steel
Set Europe ablaze with the special forces of WWII! Enter the world of the Commandos, Rangers, Brandenburger, and other special units as they undertake training nearly as dangerous as combat . . . then embark upon some of the war's most perilous and important missions! Includes unit histories, descriptions of special equipment, and much more!

32 pages. Stock #8002, ISBN 1-55634-592-5. $8.95.

Ogre Miniatures: Paneuropean Set 7 - Battlesuit Battalions
Infantry! Every army needs them to take and hold ground, and now your Paneuropean force can field them in the numbers you want. 48 squads to cover all your assets, plus 24 Heavy Weapons squads to add teeth to the crunchies! All together, this set adds 192 points to your army.

Boxed set. Stock #10-2207, ISBN 1-55634-492-9. $19.95.

Warehouse 23 News: The Old Ones and Their Minions

Written for the Palladium Fantasy RPG, but compatible with the entire Megaverse, Old Ones includes O.C.C.s, R.C.C.s, over fifty different cities and towns, world history, and GM and player advice.

February 26, 2002: Chat With Steven Marsh!

Tonight on Pyramid, we'll be having not one but two chats with the editor, Steven Marsh. At 7 p.m. CST, Steven will be having a general "State of the Pyramid" chat. At 9 p.m., he'll be having a chat specifically for Pyramid writers -- and those who want to be! Revised writer's guidelines for Pyramid will be posted at some point before this chat. If you aren't a Pyramid subscriber, why not check it out today?

Warehouse 23 News: It's Almost Here

Warehouse 23 is now accepting preorders for Eden Studio's GURPS Conspiracy X, which is finally at the printers and should be out in March.

February 25, 2002: The Top 11 “Star Wars” Pants Lines

Simple game. Take any line from a “Star Wars” film and replace one word with “pants.” Alter grammar to fit if need be. If you find this amusing, there are sites out there (like this one) with hundreds of them. But here are the best 11 . . .

Warehouse 23 News: Adventure Awaits

Find top quality d20 adventure with the Penumbra line, including: In the Belly of the Beast, The Tide of Years, Maiden Voyage, The Last Dance, and The Ebon Mirror.

February 24, 2002: GURPS Character Builder Support!

We've posted the first batch of support information for GURPS Character Builder, including a technical FAQ and an upgrade to version 2.2. Go here to look at what's available. Some of the information requires you to be a registered user first; you'll need your primary e-mail address and the code from the inner CD ring.

Coming soon -- downloadable data sheets for several books, along with instructions on submitting your own sheets for posting here.
-- Andrew Hackard

Warehouse 23 News: The Palladium Weapon Series

Weapons & Armour and Weapons & Castles are the first titles in a series of small sourcebooks, for use with any game system, that present historically accurate data and information about ancient weapons from around the world.

February 23, 2002: You Do Your Own Dirty Work

Illuminated Site of the Week: The only thing more worrisome than a grand worldwide scheme plotted by mystic forces beyond understanding is a lazy bunch of forces that want you to do all the legwork. The Degree Confluence Project wants to find and photograph every intersection of lines of latitude and longitude. Why do they need this seemingly benign information? And why aren't they willing to deal with the ones in the ocean? Just what are they trying to hide?

-- Suggested by Brian C. Smithson

Warehouse 23 News: The wind, the rain, and the flame are my allies!

The Magic of Rokugan is not merely a force to be conjured - each spell, each artifact, each bit of magic is alive with its own will and desires. This book brings greater depth to the magic of the shugenja class, elaborating on the strange magic of the Legend of the Five Rings campaign setting.

February 22, 2002: Off To Dublin!

By the time this posts, if I'm calculating correctly, I should be about to land in Dublin, Ireland. I'm a guest at Leprecon - not to be confused with the Phoenix, AZ con of the same name. The Dublin event is a gaming convention of great antiquity . . . now in its 23rd year, it's older than many attendees.

This ought to be fun. There will be a big Ogre game, using miniatures. And I'm taking brand-new printouts of the current state of Car Wars, so there will be much playtesting.

And this time I'll try not to bring back the Irish Flu . . .
-- Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: New Minis

The individual miniatures for Last War Set 1 - Convoy and Ogrethulhu Set 2 - Spawn of Ogrethulhu are now available.

February 21, 2002: Austin Area Car Wars Playtest

Want a sneak preview of Car Wars, 5th Edition? Live in the Austin area? Paul Chapman, CW Line Editor, will be running a demo session at Dragon's Lair on Burnet today and tomorrow, 4-6 pm.

The game is faster, bigger, and easier to play than ever. Fast to learn, fast to set up, and fast to play!

Whether you're a veteran of the arena circuit or have only played Car Wars: The Card Game, get a first look at the new rules before they're released.


February 20, 2002: Haagenti Is Behind This, I Know It . . .

The Demon Prince of Gluttony must be very happy with the way this kind of event is going. Now, what other mortal sins can we make into competitive sports?

Warehouse 23 News: Don't Touch the Dice

The ever-popular Knights of the Dinner Table are back in Knights of the Dinner Table, Issue 64 and KODT: Illustrated, Issue 11.

February 19, 2002: Or Maybe It's All Coincidence

But it looks like Bob the Angry Flower has been playing both Munchkin and Illuminati. Possibly at the same time.

Warehouse 23 News: A Battle So Big

It takes six books to cover it. The Coaltion Wars: Siege on Tolkeen series for Rifts recounts a truly epic struggle that is almost bursting with adventuring possibilities.

February 18, 2002: LotR: The Novelization

When Revolution SF published Lord of the Rings: The Novelization, they got hate mail, and set off spasms of outrage on various boards and bloggeries, because "don't you morons know it ALREADY is a novel?"

But none of MY readers is too simple-minded to detect gross satire. Right. Right?
-- Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: Meet the Global Village Idiots

A collection of Dork Tower strips from various printed and online periodicals, Livin' La Vida Dorka celebrates the techno-geek life and puts the "pulse" back into "obsessive compulsive."

February 17, 2002: Now In Playtest

Pyramid subscribers may already be aware that the playtest for Silver Age Sentinels, by Guardians of Order, has begun. Head over to the Pyramid playtest area to check it out!

If you're not a Pyramid member already, you may see fit to subscribe, and get in on this and other playtests.

- Sage

Warehouse 23 News: A Roleplaying Game of Survival and Heroics

In Palladium's no-holds-barred Systems Failure, civilization has collapsed and is dominated by an inhuman foe from another world. It's up to the off-color, off-kilter, and sometimes just plain crazy characters to make it free again.

February 16, 2002: Writer's Guidelines Updated

After a lengthy period of neglect, the SJ Games Writer's Guidelines have been updated to reflect how we're actually doing things. If you're one of our authors or editors -- or you'd like to be! -- this page, and its subpages, are gospel.
-- Andrew Hackard, Managing Editor

Warehouse 23 News: Fifteen Cults, Churchs, and Cabals

A Penumbra roleplaying supplement that can enhance any fantasy campaign, Touched by the Gods is filled with information on religious and secular orders, and the deities lurking behind them.

February 15, 2002: Chew the Fat

Illuminated Site of the Week: The advertising world is thick with ads from the meat and dairy boards and their respectable ilk, but the often overlooked fat faction seldom gets a fair hearing. The British Lard Marketing Board would like to weigh in and beg of you your precious consumer dollars. Anyone who subsists off glutinous snacks knows fat is what keeps most food companies afloat.

-- Suggested by Matt Nailon

Warehouse 23 News: The Ways of the Weird West

Take your d20 game into the Weird West with Deadlands: D20 and its supplements Horrors O' The Weird West, The Way of the Gun, and The Way of the Huckster.

February 14, 2002: Snails On Speed

Munchkin has spawned its first filksong, courtesy of Bob Schroeck. And now, without further ado . . . Snails On Speed. Take it away, Bob!

Warehouse 23 News: Let's Get Down to Business

Explore the Solar System's harshest environment and the enigmatic Merchant Guild in Mercury Planet Sourcebook, for Jovian Chronicles.

February 13, 2002: You, Too, Can't Be A Wizard

While the "Magic-Is-Real-And-Harry-Potter-Teaches-It!" loonies are a very easy target indeed, you may still enjoy reading The Escapist to find out about the fun he had in testing their theories. And, being a kinder and gentler person than me, he didn't use the term "Taliban" even once. Or "inbred moron," for that matter. Good for him!

(Wizard hat. Dog hair on a stick. Yummy spider. Chortle.)

Warehouse 23 News: A Foxy Bounty Hunter

Sanguine Productions has published the first Ironclaw novel, Scars, featuring a red-fox bounty hunter named Danica.

February 12, 2002: A Hugo For GURPS Cabal?

If you agree that Kenneth Hite's GURPS Cabal was something especially noteworthy, and not just to game fans . . . consider nominating it for a Hugo Award this year. If you are a member of the 2002 Science Fiction Convention, you can nominate online. You'll need your Progress Report handy; it has a secret code number on the back . . .

It would appear that the appropriate category is "Best Related Work."

And if you ARE a Worldcon member, look me up in San Jose . . . we'll be doing a lot in the gaming room.
-- Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: Places To Go, People To See

A collection of ready-to-use locations for D20 fantasy campaigns, Backdrops details each location in a two-page spread that includes a map and descriptive text.

February 11, 2002: Your Passport, Please!

For GURPS Cliffhangers, we'd really like to find some old (circa 1920) passport or visa stamps. We haven't located a source. If you have an old passport among your treasures, or if you know of an online source for such stamps, could you advise heather@sjgames.com? Thanks!

Warehouse 23 News: They Ran Out of Room in Rifts Canada

So Quebec got its own book. The Coalition Army and Free Quebec are facing off and Rifts Free Quebec provides history, weapons, and other information for both sides.

February 10, 2002: Bitten By Giant Ants

As we make progress on salvaging our accounting system, we occasionally learn something we didn't want to know.

In this case, it's about the Giant Ants miniatures set. It's got a lot of stuff in it . . . too much. It turns out we were losing money on every one we shipped to distributors. The ants are too numerous, or too big. If we cut the set down to three ants instead of six, that's not much of a horde . . . and we can't very well shrink them. So this one is going out of distribution.

So if you see one in the stores, grab it and think kindly of us . . . and if you want one and can't find it, we will still sell the set and the individual ants in Warehouse 23, where we can still make a profit on it.

Warehouse 23 News: Dying Earth Lives

It's been awhile, but there are two new releases for the Dying Earth RPG: Cugel's Compendium of Indispensable Advantages and The Excellent Prismatic Spray Volume 1 Issue 3, neither of which any discerning roleplaying game participant would pass over.

February 9, 2002: Volunteer Coordinator Job Opening

Almost all our demonstration and convention work, and a great many of our "fan support" projects, depend on volunteer efforts . . . time and talent donated by game enthusiasts who want to give something back to the hobby. And sometimes we don't do a good enough job of welcoming and coordinating those efforts.

We're now looking for a Volunteer Coordinator. This would be paid contract work; we're thinking about 10 hours per week at $10/hour. We would prefer a candidate who had at least 20 hours per week free, in case things work out so well that we want to authorize more time.

While it would be great to find an Austinite for this, we know the work can be done from anywhere on the Internet. The ideal candidate will be a skilled administrator and "people person" who is familiar with our line and enthusiastic about it, and has prior experience in managing volunteers. Inquiries or resumes should come to my attention at sj@io.com. Do not attach files; paste material into the body of the letter. (Yes, this is a test; can you follow simple instructions?)

Warehouse 23 News: Instant Adventure

The titles in the Instant Adventure Series for Legends & Lairs are high-quality, inexpensive adventures that are filled with detail yet customizable enough to fit into any campaign.

February 8, 2002: This Could Drag On

Illuminated Site of the Week: No one told us instability in the Middle East was going to cost us irreplaceable archaeological evidence of the existence of dragons. Dragons Unlimited does what it can to preserve the lineage of these magnificent beasts, but as this story shows, any movement for a dragon habitat is fighting an uphill battle.

-- Suggested by Ken Ransom

Warehouse 23 News: Anthropomorphic Fantasy Roleplaying

Enter the world of Zhongguo, where Dragons and Phoenixes live among Cats, Rats, Dogs, and dozens of other races . . . Jadeclaw is the brand new Asian flavored furries roleplaying game from Sanguine Productions.

February 7, 2002: GURU Update

Denis Sarrazin has updated his freeware GURPS character editor, GURU.

The main program, as well as the latest patch can be found on our game aids page, along with various other nifty tools.

Warehouse 23 News: Go Down Under, Rifts Style

Written by a native Australian, Rifts Australia brings the island country into the Rifts Megaverse with everything from high-tech city-states to Dreamtime menaces.

February 6, 2002: More Promotions

Further promotion and new-responsibility info: Congratulations and thanks to all.

-- Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: The Deep Blue Sea

The essential resource for aquatic campaigns and high fantasy adventure, the Seafarer's Handbook, for Legends & Lairs, is packed full of new feats, skills, classes, races, magic, rules, and colorful locales.

February 5, 2002: I Guess We Know What HE Plays . . .

Yesterday's installment of Illiad's net-strip User Friendly includes an Ogre box . . . look closely . . .

Warehouse 23 News: Where Honor Is A Force More Powerful Than Steel

Rokugan and Creatures of Rokugan make the exciting and popular Legends of the Five Rings setting available to any d20 campaign.

February 4, 2002: What They're Saying

Check out the 3D Action Planet review of the new Frag supplement, Death Match. They liked it :-)

Warehouse 23 News: Sartar Rising, Part 1

Fresh off the press from Issaries, Barbarian Adventures is the first volume in the Sartar Rising series for the Hero Wars RPG and provides historical information, adventures, and Narrator resources.

February 3, 2002: Stack Overflow! You Have No Honor!

As if speaking Klingon weren't enough, here's a project to create a Klingon programming language.

Warehouse 23 News: Dr. Lucky in Space!

Save Doctor Lucky on Moon Base Copernicus is a brand new expansion for the popular Cheapass boardgame Save Dr. Lucky.

February 2, 2002: Stepping on Each Other's Feet...or Toes

Illuminated Site of the Week: They say Texas is big, but that doesn't explain how the dedicated men and women of The Texas Bigfoot Research Center don't keep running into our old friends from the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization. They share the same interests and the same stomping grounds, but each seems to be blazing its own trail instead of following in the other's footsteps. Perhaps they cover more ground that way.

-- Suggested by Craig Woolheater

Warehouse 23 News: Top 10 for January

Check out Warehouse 23's best selling items for January on the Warehouse 23 Top 10 page.

February 1, 2002: Hellboy Fallout

The day after the announcement, the Hellboy website was down for a while . . . hope that wasn't our fault for sending too much traffic.

We made the very first announcement in the new Pyramid chat auditorium, built by Kira. This is a very nice facility, specifically designed to make chats with our special guests a little quicker and less spammy. Come check it out the next time we announce a chat . . .

And Wednesday night set a new record for attendance in the Pyramid chat area . . . at one point it was up to 138.

For those who missed the whole thing, check out the Hellboy RPG page.
-- Steve Jackson

Warehouse 23 News: Rifters, Rifters, Everywhere

We've added a whole swath of Rifter issues, including 8, 9, 9 1/2, 13, 14, and 17.

Past columns

Steve Jackson Games
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