John Wick at Shadis magazine told me that they're on the lookout for articles about our hot new roleplaying game, In Nomine. Their e-mail address is Shadis2@aol.com.
We'd love to see some support for In
Nomine (or any of our other games, for that matter) in other
magazines -- so much so that we'll pay for it! See our
Matching
Payment Plan page for all the info.
-- Scott Haring
The big winners were "old out-of-print items," "GURPS items," and "SJ Games memorabilia." The chance to interfere with our upcoming products in your own perverse way scored almost as high, and if you check out the auction now, you'll see it's started . . .
Some of your suggestions were interesting . . . and will happen. Again, thanks!
-- Steve Jackson
-- Scott Haring
So we've created a Card Suggestion Web Page. On this page, you can input your ideas not just for INWO, but also for Dino Hunt and Knightmare Chess.
Submissions become the property of SJ Games. We don't offer to pay for
individual card ideas - not that many people expect it, but every so often
we hear from an optimist :-). If you have a whole game idea you
want to sell, please see our writers' guidelines.
-- Steve Jackson
And David Millians, in Games & Education, says "If you are teaching or
enjoying dinosaurs, this is the game you have been seeking!"
If you haven't seen Dino
Hunt yet, you owe it to yourself to give this game a look.
-- Scott Haring
Three complete sets will go to auction Real Soon Now.
About 150 Starter Sets will be available through Direct Mail. They should be in the
catalog by now. $12 apiece while they last fnord. Yes, the card back is in English -- you could put them in a deck if you knew what they said. No, we don't yet have a guide to the Polish edition; we need to find a Polish-speaking Secret Master on the net.
-- Steve Jackson
So either we're doing something right... or the Mind Reading Markup Language tags we added are working.
So thanks, and stay tuned. More evil plots are in the works.
-- Kira
Dear Ladies and Sir,
some days ago I acquired the GURPS Celtic Myth supplement. By now I have read most of it, and I wanted to tell you (and Mr.&Mrs.Walton, which at least Mrs.Walton is noted as a internet addict in the foreword of the book, even though I failed to find any email adress for her) that I was deeply impressed by the quality of the supplement.
There are some minor errors in it, which I assume, however, are most often due to usability in roleplaying games rather than to lack of knowledge.
Yours sincerely,
Raimund Karl Mphil.
Chairman of Brennos - Austrian Society for Celtic Studies
University of Vienna, Austria
Department of Prehistory
Things seem to have gone very smoothly while I was away. I'm grateful to Scott, Kelly and the whole crew for making that happen.
OrcCon was great. Those of you who live in the Bay area should really check out this con and its sister events. It wasn't just a card game show -- as a matter of fact, the boardgame auction was far bigger and hotter than the card game auction.
Yes, I visited Interplay while I was on the West Coast. Marathon six-hour negotiating session with the programmer who is now in charge of the FALLOUT project. Clearly all the original problems could be resolved; I made a lot of concessions because I want to save the project. The GURPS implementation they've created is *worth* saving. But their decision won't be made by the programmers. All I can say is "wait and see."
It was a busy trip. Other computer deals, with other companies on other games, are in the works. More as it develops.
It's good to be back . . .
-- Steve Jackson
Written by mainstay David Pulver, GURPS Bio-Tech gives complete rules for gene engineering, nanotechnology, and other science-fiction ideas for making people stronger, faster, smarter -- why implant chrome and steel when you can re-engineer the meat? Mother Nature was always more efficient, anyway.
There's also a discussion group for
GURPS Bio-Tech
comments at
io.games.sjg.gurps.bio-tech
-- post your comments and questions there. Have fun!
-- Scott Haring
The March issue of Comics Retailer (#60) is their annual Games Extravaganza issue. They cover the game industry year-round, but this issue puts special emphasis on it for the store owners who are the magazine's primary readers.
As I mentioned previously, they survey a bunch of game stores every month to report what's selling out there. Here's the skinny, for the month of December, 1996:
In "Trading Card and Card Games," the #1 game is -- surprise! -- Magic: The Gathering, selling nearly three times as much as #2, Star Wars. Wizards of the Coast accounts for 55% of the industry card game sales all by their lonesome. Our INWO is a regular on the list, #18 this month -- not bad considering nothing new for INWO has come out in over a year.
In "Roleplaying Games," the discrepancy is even bigger. AD&D is the top dog, selling almost six times as much as #2, Vampire. GURPS is a top-ten regular (#5 in December).
If you want to get a real inside look at the game industry, check out
Comics Retailer. It's fascinating stuff.
-- Scott Haring
Coming in to try to fill the void is Gene Seabolt, a recent Austin transplant from Tulsa, OK. Gene's a gamer from way back, and has years of newspaper experience -- plus he's pretty handy on the production side, too. You'll be seeing his name in plenty of books in the future . . . welcome aboard.
-- Scott Haring
Now I'm off for an 11-hour (agh) flight to LA, for OrcCon.
-- Steve Jackson
I had problems with a couple of features of the otherwise very impressive alpha version of GURPS Fallout. As I corresponded with Interplay staff about this, I got handed up the ladder but their responses remained puzzling -- and that is the most detail I'm going to give for now.
Just before leaving for Europe last week, I got a call from a reporter asking me to comment on the Interplay decision to drop GURPS. I told him this was the first I'd heard of it. Calling Interplay, and talking with the last man I'd corresponded with, I got first "We haven't decided that, where'd you hear it?," then "Well, we have been talking about it and somebody must have gotten the idea it was decided," and finally "Yes, we have decided to drop it, so sorry."
The statement on the Interplay web site, to the effect that this was a mutual decision of SJ Games and Interplay, is not true. Scott Haring tells me that no written correspondence from Interplay has YET been received at our office. We are not clear what their proposal to finish and release the game without the license entails, for us or for the game, and have absolutely not agreed to it.
I can't imagine how Interplay could take three years working on a GURPS. computer game, and then be able to create and install a completely dissimilar game engine in a few months. Nor have I read (or heard) any explanation of how they might plan to do that. So "no comment" on that for now, too.
I've been invited to meet with Brian Fargo, who I understand owns Interplay, when I'm in LA in a few days. I'll be very interested to see what he has to say. I hope we will be able to announce that this was a tempest in a teacup.
I'll admit -- I'm impressed. Knightmare Chess has gotten stronger and stronger every month. Thanks to all the fans who helped make it #1!
More interesting tidbits from Comics Retailer tomorrow.
-- Scott Haring
Steve left for Scotland yesterday. Before he gets back here to Austin (nearly two weeks hence), he'll also be stopping out in L.A. for OrcCon. And I'm sure he has some relaxing and touristing time built into his schedule somewhere, as well.
So that leaves the rest of us, well, large and in charge. We sent Pyramid #24 to the printer this week, and the Feast of Blades adventure for the In Nomine GM Screen is going off to the printer today.
More news as it happens . . .
-- Scott Haring
In the spirit of things, here's a firsthand look at hell on the web: Evil People, Inc. Make money fast, sell your soul on the web! (and read mail from other hopeless folks who did.) Or get a job in hell - they're hiring.
Disclaimer: SJ Games is not affiliated with Evil People, Inc., in any way. Really.
-- The Other Evil People
We're also taking a poll to find out what sort of items you'd most like to see in the auction.
Check out the auction page for the latest info!
There were three other guests -- Erick Wujcik of Teenage Mutant Turtles and Amber Diceless Roleplaying fame, Justin Achilli from White Wolf and John Curtis from Iron Crown. There were all sorts of games (including live-action Vampire and Amber), demos from all of the guests, and a game auction that made over $400 for the local Habitat for Humanity chapter.
One odd thing happened during the INWO event. In a head-to-head game, I and another player fought to a draw. The NWO card "Apathy" made it very difficult to take anything over successfully, and we were so busy beating up on each other that we both found ourselves with not enough groups left in our decks to reach victory. So I guess the world got off scot-free in that one . . .
-- Scott Haring
February 8 and 9 I'll be at Conpulsion 97 in Edinburgh. This will be my first trip to Scotland -- I'm looking forward to it. I will have some In Nomine with me, and they may just be the first copies to hit Europe.
The next weekend I'll be at OrcCon (horrors! they don't seem to have a web site!) in Los Angeles. I plan to eat sushi.
If you're going to be near either of those sites, look me up! If you're at
BOTH, we have to talk . . . .
-- Steve Jackson
Here's a collection of Broccoli pages for you to check out. Trust me, they're worth a look:
These are just a few of the Broccoli-oriented sites I've found on my sordid
web-wanderings. Enjoy!
-- Matthew D. Grau