Daily Illuminator

September 5, 2008: Illuminated Site of the Week: Actual Falsehoods

It's been observed that if you go to Wikipedia for your "facts," you're relying on the argumentative members of the general public to get things right. The beauty of The Arcana Wiki is that you're getting information about stuff that's already not real. The site is building up a storehouse of fantastic, unknown, or just plain entertaining information about people, places, and things. Some of these are imaginary, but there's real stuff, too - it just gets steeped in legend or boiled down to the most amusing bits. Use it for everything from writing fiction to developing your RPG campaign, and hey, you can even help write more of it. Just try to get your facts straight, okay? Otherwise people have to use Arcana's links back to Wikipedia and the irony might kill someone.
-- Jürgen Hubert

September 4, 2008: Politics

What I needed today, and did not get, was somebody to rub my neck and tell me that everything is okay.

If I could run for president on the platform that everybody would get that, I'd win.

"My fellow Americans. I have today established the cabinet-level posts of Secretary of Neckrubs and Secretary of Reassurance.
And it'll be all right."

Alas.
-- Steve Jackson

September 3, 2008: Things We Think About Games

"Don't try to make games something they're not. To borrow a phrase, it wastes time and it annoys the pig. Likewise, don't play Munchkin unless you're willing to be royally shafted by (and royally shaft) your friends, and if you ever have the opportunity in Illuminati to use the Girl Scouts to control everything, do it."

-- Wil Wheaton, from his introduction to Things We Think About Games

Another bit of fun at GenCon was Things We Think About Games, by Will Hindmarch and Jeff Tidball (with a foreword by Robin D. Laws and introduction by Wil Wheaton). Presented as a collection of knowledge and thoughts about games, including some "knowledge" that I completely disagree with, the book covers game design, game publishing, playing games, and pretty much anything the pair feels is important to games. Will and Jeff asked me to contribute, so I wrote one "thing" in the book (my thing was inspired by both reading and writing game rules and no, I won't tell you what set of game rules I had in mind at the exact moment that I wrote my "thing," so don't ask) which means that I can't be trusted when it comes to talking about the book. (Though it is a book that all gamers should own, if only so that they can put some thought into how they play games. This means that you should own a copy because you're a gamer. Right? Right.)

When Will and Jeff contacted me, one of the requests was for comments on the things they had written for the book. They didn't use a few of the short bits I sent them, so I'm going to post one of the unused bits here. (It's not good to let unused writing sit for too long, even my own mad rambling text.) I'll probably e-mail the other unused bits to someone random. (Is there a market for gamer spam? I'll have to research that.) Anyway, in response to the thing in the book titled "Take your turn, already," I wrote:

"Game Designers and Developers: This means you should, during playtesting, keep a very close eye on the length of time from when a player finishes his turn until the action comes around to him again. In a perfect world, each player turn will take one to two minutes, with total time between a single player’s turns lasting no more than five to ten minutes. Any longer than that and you risk losing players to the TV or another distraction. If individual turns are taking longer than one or two minutes, explore ways to allow simultaneous play or reduce the number of player options each turn."

I'm sure that there's no reason for me to explain why short player turns are important to a game. Each and every one of us has been in the game with so many options that the turns take five to ten minures each (and this really isn't fun when there are five other players). Think back to that game where you finished your turn and then ran off to the gas station for a snack -- "if I hurry, the guys won't have to wait more than a minute or two for me to get back," you thought to yourself -- and returned twenty minutes later just in time to . . . see the player to your left still taking his turn? Who wrote these rules?

Do you remember that rambling problem I mentioned? I'm doing it again. I'll go back to work now.

-- Phil Reed

I also picked this book up at GenCon. I don't write in books -- I'm something of a purist when it comes to the printed page -- but several of the comments had me scribbling retorts on the flight home. A couple of them ~~were just plain dumb~~ I disagreed with strongly, and a couple were genuine epiphanies. But every one made me think. As Phil says, this is a book all gamers should own.

-- Paul Chapman

September 2, 2008: The Ultimate Gaming Table?

At GenCon, many things fall into the "want, but out of budget" category. The king -- dare I say, the Sultan -- of that category was the gaming table offered by Geek Chic. They call it "The Sultan."

Drink holders, dice rolling trays, a dry erase board that's lit from below, and more nooks and crannies than you can shake a stick at. This thing is made of beautiful material, with a ton of drawers for organized storage, as well as a reversible cover for the white board -- felt on one side, wood or copper on the other. There are too many features for words; they really need a YouTube video tour of the thing.

I'm in love.

The price tag is ten grand, which is a darned sight out of my gaming budget, even if I did have a place to set it up (which I don't). But for that price, they deliver it to your door.
-- Paul Chapman

September 1, 2008: Closed For Labor Day

Thanks for checking the Daily Illuminator, but we're not in right now. Everyone is out of the office, in observance of Labor Day.

Which, perhaps ironically, involves doing less labor than normal. Unless you -- like me -- are at a convention, then "normal" is a laughable fantasy, a story told to children as you tuck them into their cots.

Man, I need to get off the road.

-- Paul Chapman

August 31, 2008: Woot! Lego Pirates Returning?!

Looks like somebody leaked some photos from a Spanish-language 2009 Lego catalog. They're on Brickshelf . . . specifically, in images 880 to 884 of this series. I see redcoats, too, and the nice "plaster over red brick" walls . . . My thanks to Wes Davis for the pointer! Looks like the pirate fleet may be in for some reinforcements.

Update: That link was dead a couple of days after I put this item in the queue. But I saw them! Really! Did the Forces of the International Lego Conspiracy get to them?

All of which only reminds me how terribly out of date the Pirate Game pages are. Is Munchkin Booty an excuse to take the time to revisit them? Arrrr.
-- Steve Jackson

August 30, 2008: First Review Of Munchkin Booty

At GenCon, we had only 154 copies of Munchkin Booty available for sale, and they were gone by 10am Saturday. One of the lucky buccaneers who snatched up a copy has already written a review!

The main shipment of this newest Munchkin game is headed our way now, and will be released October-ish.
-- Paul Chapman

August 29, 2008: Illuminated Site of the Week: Kind Of Redundant, Isn't It?

Unexplained Mysteries are the best kind. This site offers snippets of all that is enigmatic in the world, and lets visitors talk about it at the forums. Einstein's theories, ape "planning," and lawsuits between the Knights Templar and the pope . . . okay, so maybe some of this can be explained, but it should be an entertaining story regardless.
-- Andy

August 28, 2008: Labor Day Weekend Bonus Rule!

If you've got one of those elusive Munchkin Silver Pieces, you know that the rule governing its use in Munchkin changes every month. This month, for the long Labor Day weekend, there's a special bonus rule. This extra rule supersedes the normal August rule, but is only in effect from August 29 through September 1.

Make Someone Else Do The Work For You

Give the Munchkin Silver Piece to another player. That player must fight the monster you are currently fighting. If that player wins, he gets the level, but you get any and all treasure.

Also: We'll be closed on Monday, September 1 in observance of Labor Day.
-- Paul Chapman

August 27, 2008: Heavy Gear To Return To Roleplaying

Dream Pod 9 and Steve Jackson Games announced an agreement today for a new line of roleplaying products based on DP9's best-selling Heavy Gear.

"The world of Heavy Gear was always intended to support multiple gaming formats," said Robert Dubois, Licensing Manager for Dream Pod 9. "We've focused our efforts on the miniatures line, with Heavy Gear Blitz! We are overjoyed that a publisher with the experience of Steve Jackson Games is interested in continuing the RPG material."

The line will launch with a new edition of Heavy Gear, bringing the Silhouette mechanics to their fourth edition. This core game will contain everything needed to create characters and roleplay in the world of Heavy Gear. Further releases will update Heavy Gear's best-known places and personalities, bringing the story up to date with the miniatures line. New releases will explore military hardware, locations, factions, and the whole universe in greater detail than ever before. The line will primarily be released in PDF via e23.

Heavy Gear is set on the world of Terra Nova, over 4,000 years in the future. On this war-torn world, the elite armor units are giant humanoid battlesuits known as Gears. City-states battle for position within their leagues, the leagues battle for control of Terra Nova, and everyone battles against the malevolent Earth forces who are trying to retake their lost colony.

"Heavy Gear has the deep background and rich setting that brings excellent roleplaying," said Paul Chapman of SJ Games. "We're excited to be able to bring the world of Terra Nova to a new generation of gamers, and to support the fans that have been following it for the past decade."

The fourth edition of the Heavy Gear RPG will be released in 2009. Watch for updates at www.heavygearrpg.com.

For more information, contact Paul Chapman (paul@sjgames.com) at (512) 447-7866 x207.

August 26, 2008: More Conventions!

This weekend, you'll have not one but two opportunities to spot the rare Steve Jackson Games Staffer outside his native habitat.

I'll be at DragonCon with the Adventure Retail crew. We won't have Munchkin Booty, as we sold out at GenCon. We will have a couple of copies of GURPS Thaumatology in softcover, as well as bunches of the POD edition of the Dungeon Fantasy series, and Power-Ups 1: Imbuements as well!

Phil, Will, and Randy won't have anything to sell, but they will be showing off Munchkin Quest, Munchkin Booty, and a couple of other games at PAX. It's the first year any of our staffers will be attending the show, though we have some hardcore Penny Arcade fans in the office. If all goes well, we'll be ramping up our participation next year.

-- Paul Chapman

August 25, 2008: Looking For Lost Worlds?

Sometimes, digging through the crates in the Basement, you find what you're looking for. Sometimes, you find what you actually wanted, but didn't know existed.

For instance, when Excavation Team Theta ("The Brawling Bobbies" -- don't ask) came across GURPS Infinite Worlds: Lost Worlds, it was certainly a surprise -- a welcome surprise, to be sure, as any alternate Earths from Kenneth Hite are sure to be.

Well, except for the one he wrote about this Earth. We suppressed that one. But the rest are available from e23 right now!

-- Paul Chapman