Daily Illuminator Archive for October 2009
October 1, 2009:
If you've been reading the Daily Illuminator for a while, you know that when the printer finishes the print run, they send a couple of representative samples to us. This occurs at the same time the games are being loaded onto whatever method of bulk conveyance we've arranged . . .
October 2, 2009:
Ah, we've made it past Labor Day weekend, thereby putting the convention season behind us . . . Or not, as I look at the calendar . . .
October 3, 2009:
We at SJ Games are always happy to see Munchkin
get mentioned on the Web, and this webcomic made our collective week. Thanks to Alina Pete for a great laugh . . .
October 4, 2009:
The Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle last month was a ton of fun, with the tabletop games, the exhibits, and the panels. If you're like me, you're hating the idea of waiting another eleven months to experience that frenzy again . . .
October 5, 2009:
It's true. Really, the only robots worth your time are the ones you can climb inside and drive around . . .
October 6, 2009:
gets played out there in gamer-land, more people are being moved to write reviews. BoardGameGeek in particular has a couple of excellent ones . . .
October 7, 2009:
Are your games safe? We thought they were, but back in 2007 there were a series of product recalls that led the U.S. government to give us a new law (Public Law No: 110-314), commonly known as the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act . . .
October 8, 2009:
At GenCon, one question we were surprised to receive was, "Where can I buy one of those attractive, strong, PINK Munchkin Fairy Dust
shirts you buff specimens of masculinity are sporting?" To which our sad reply was, "You can't; we printed just enough for the booth workers. Sorry."
Full disclosure: this was not strictly true . . .
October 9, 2009:
We'd call them sculptures, but they look more like they were born than built. No, it's not some creepy statue that looks eerily alive, it's a series of creepy statues that look eerily like a steampunk engineer's scrapheap took on a life of its own and went for a job interview . . .
October 10, 2009:
I'm on my way to Boston (for both work and
pleasure). I'll spend time going over upcoming games with one of our printers -- we have a couple of games that require special components and it's going to be easier to "show and tell" than it will be to trade hours of phone calls -- and then I'll hit a few game stores . . .
October 11, 2009:
Super-Secret Ninja Detectors have alerted us that the newest edition of Ninja Burger
has arrived in our warehouse! Of course, we only detected the delivery, but not the actual ninja . . .
October 12, 2009:
By now, you've heard of Revolution!
, seen pictures of the components, and read reviews and session reports. But where did the game come from? . . .
October 13, 2009:
I'm starting to get the sneaking suspicion that David Pulver really likes sci-fi. I can't point to any one thing, of course, but this nagging feeling is there . . .
October 14, 2009:
Of course you are. While we can help you out when it comes to Cthulhu-themed games (Munchkin Cthulhu
is ready for action right now and Chez Cthulhu
is heading your way), and we even have an assortment of Chibithulhu
plush toys, I'm afraid that you're going to have to venture into the wild to find a wide variety of Cthulhu toys . . .
October 15, 2009:
As the release of the Vorkosigan Saga Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game
draws near, we prepare with another batch of previews. These three answer the question, "What if I don't know the worlds of Miles as well as I'd like?" This book has you covered, my friend . . .
October 16, 2009:
We've been trying out this variant Munchkin
rule and figured we'd throw it out for y'all to play around with. At the start of your turn, draw a face-down Door card ("Listening at the Door") . . .
October 17, 2009:
Next week, I'll be headed over to Germany -- the town of Essen, specifically -- for SPIEL '09. Just another convention? . . .
October 18, 2009:
On Friday, October 30th we'll be donning costumes and breaking out the dice -- it's our annual Halloween Game Day! Those lucky enough to be in the Austin office will be playing games all day, so don't expect quick replies via email . . .
October 19, 2009:
Once upon a time, there was a game about a land that was having a terrible time. In this land, the oil was drying up, food was in short supply, and things were generally looking pretty grim . . .
October 20, 2009:
Over the past couple of weeks, you've seen note in this space about two events staffers attended: the Diamond/Alliance Summit and RinCon. At first glance, one may be tempted to say, "A convention is just a convention, right?" Alas, you'd be wrong . . .
October 21, 2009:
This week, I'll be attending SPIEL '09 in Essen, Germany. As much as I'd like to provide on-the-spot coverage of the event, I'm not crazy enough to think I'd be able to get a look at more than a quarter of the 450,000 square feet of games, demos, and tournaments . . .
October 22, 2009:
One of the highlights of PAX '09 -- for the Steve Jackson Games crew, at least -- was getting to see our Munchkin
mascot play Rock Band. We recently obtained covert surveillance footage of this event and have made it public, thanks to the good folks at YouTube . . .
October 23, 2009:
When we got our first actual packs of Fairy Dust
and Waiting For Santa
, we noticed that our cards were showing some curl starting a day or so after opening them. That's not uncommon in new packs of cards, and we were not concerned . . .
October 24, 2009:
The Cryptid Zoo: A Menagerie of Cryptozoology is quite a mouthful, but if you don't want to become a mouthful for some bizarre, unidentified entity you may wish to bookmark this site. (That way you can be eaten by an identified entity.) . . .
October 25, 2009:
No, we haven't released GURPS Evil Clowns
(maybe we should . . .), but with Halloween upon us, you might be up for some suitably spooky GURPS.
Ken Hite's GURPS Horror
is still a work in progress, but there are Other Options . . . First, you'll need a setting . . .
October 26, 2009:
With the release of Pyramid #3/12: Tech and Toys
, I think I can safely stop referring to the "new" version of Pyramid
as "the new version of Pyramid
." It's a year old, so it gets to be just Pyramid
, now. What's in this issue of Just Pyramid
? . . .
October 27, 2009:
As we told you on Friday, the new Munchkin
mini-expansions, Fairy Dust
and Waiting For Santa
, have cards that are curling, even inside the packs. After further discussion, we have decided that these cards fall so far below our standards that our only option is to recall them . . .
October 28, 2009:
Max Brooks hit a cultural nerve center with The Zombie Survival Guide
, the undead tongue-in-cheek . . . well, it's a guide to surviving zombie outbreaks. His follow-up, World War Z
, was equally fantastic . . .
October 29, 2009:
A recent dig through our vaults uncovered some previously lost files related to the original production archives for GURPS Greece
and GURPS Wizards
. Turns out someone had wedged the discs between some discarded copies of the 2179 Farmer's Almanac and the robot head of Jimmy Hoffa.We pulled them out, dusted them off, and worked a little PDF magic on them! . . .
October 30, 2009:
Today is our traditional Halloween Game Day! We'll be playing games, eating way too much sugar, and trying to navigate the office with costumes on . . .
October 31, 2009:
The housing market is low - lower, in fact, than you think. Pandemonium Real Estate has listings for all the best properties in the Underworld . . .
Daily Illuminator Archives