Steve Jackson Games Daily Illuminator

October 31, 1996

Monsters!

We've prepared a special treat for you this Hallowe'en - Monsters! Well, Prehistoric Monsters anyway. One of our Secret Illuminator Newshounds sent us this article from Pearson's Magazine, (circa December 1900) and we thought we'd share. I'm partial to the giant sloth (pictured here).

-- Bob (Mr. Scary) Apthorpe

October 30, 1996

Hallo, Dino Jagd!

The German translation of Dino Hunt was released at the Essen toy and game fair. It is called Dino Jagd. It's different in one important way, to be attractive to the German market . . . it has a gameboard, instead of separate Time Tracks and Energy Tracks. And, of course, it's all in German . . .

For more information, contact the publishers, Pegasus Games (pegasus@pegasus.de).

-- Steve Jackson

October 29, 1996

GURPS Alternate Earths Authors At Windycon

This just in - Ken Hite and Michael Schiffer (authors of GURPS Alternate Earths) are going to be on several panels at Windycon next week.

Mike and Ken will be on "The Alternatives of Alternate Universes" panel, which is scheduled for noon on Sunday, and probably the "Generic Alternate History Panel" at 5PM on Saturday.

Windycon runs from November 8th to November 10th in the Chicago area so if you've got the time, drop by.

-- Bob Apthorpe

October 28, 1996

Klutziness Online!

Klutz now has its own website. These are the people who published "Juggling for the Complete Klutz" years ago, and expanded into a whole line of thoroughly neat, fun how-to books for both kids and adults. I like them :-) and they get a lot of my money every year.

Anyway, you can hit the Klutz pages at (surprise!) http://www.klutz.com/. If you have kids, or childish adults, on your Christmas list, this is a place to look.

-- Steve Jackson

October 26, 1996

Dinosaurs Got Feathers?!

A brand-new dinosaur find from China is the best evidence yet that some dinosaurs had feathers. Did you see the 'Feathers' card in Dino Hunt? If not, you need more boosters . . .

See our Dino Hunt news page for more information!

-- Steve Jackson

October 25, 1996

Hellenic Archaeology?

Okay, not quite but pretty close. In search of tasteless animating gifs, we stumbled across the Trojan condom homepage. It's a fairly tasteful site (well, about as tasteful as you can be for a condom manufacturer, anyway). And as you would expect, there are a few surprises. Trojan manufactures an incredible number of brands of condoms. Less than the number of GURPS books we've published, but still a surprisingly large number.

We didn't find any disturbing animatiion but we did find a Trojan screen saver so we weren't completely disappointed. Besides, they were giving away free stuff so we didn't leave empty-handed.

Hmm. I'm sure there was a better way to phrase that. . .

-- Bob Apthorpe

October 24, 1996

Multiplayer Knightmare Chess Variant Rules Now Online!

Just when you thought it couldn't get any stranger, someone has thrown yet another wrench in the works. Steffan O' Sullivan has put together three- and four-player variants of Knightmare Chess that are sure to weird out chess purists everywhere. So break out your chess sets and spread some chaos right now!

-- Bob Apthorpe

October 23, 1996

Radioaktywne Monstrum?

What the... ?

No, it's not a typo, its some preliminary films for the Polish version of INWO. We got a sneak peek at the films recently and had a good time trying to translate the Polish titles into their English equivalents.

-- Bob 'Dobre Piwa!' Apthorpe

October 22, 1996

HorrorCon a Booming Success!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending HorrorCon in San Antonio. Better yet, Steve had entrusted me with the care of his voluminous collection of Ogre miniatures. Many thanks to Larry Fausnacht of LSHM for running the Ogre Minis demo and for the other support from the LSHM team.

And while I'm thanking people, I have to mention the great work that the staff of Frontier Games did for running continuous demos of Knightmare Chess. Hopefully, I'll see those guys at the Chessex Southwest show next week. Only this time I'll bring reinforcements ("Yeah, we gots yer In Nomine RIGHT HERE!" <whack!>).

Finally, I'd like to thank Al Griego of HorrorCon for everything and I mean everything. He did a great job of pulling everything together and we really look forward to working with him again.

Enough back-patting. I have to get back to work on my LARP rules for live-action Lunch Money...

-- Bob Apthorpe

October 21, 1996

Compendium II Sails to the Printer

It's true - GURPS Compendium II went out the door Saturday. It's at the printer, being folded, spindled, bound, and gagged for your continued amusement. The lovely and talented Susan Pinsonneault and I did some last-minute index reconstruction which hopefully has made it much easier to use. If you don't believe us, check out the entry under nudity, bulletproof and you'll be convinced.

-- Bob 'Fully-Clothed Yet Nigh-Invulnerable' Apthorpe

October 18, 1996

Derek Needs A Vacation!

While not feverishly sculpting In Nomine, Derek Pearcy makes time to appreciate the wonders of nature. So we weren't surprised when Derek told us about the Minnesota New Country School Frog Project.

We thought this was pretty cool - kids get to go out and experience the animal kingdom in a natural, hands-on kind of way. Luckily, they've decided to explore the world of the frog instead of something a little less friendly like the wolverine.

As we read on, however, we began to think Derek needs a vacation - badly!. These kids found more than they bargained for - hideous, mutant frogs with missing eyes and extra limbs! With an evil cackle, Derek scampered away to continue work on In Nomine, leaving us with web browsers chock full of teratogenetically altered amphibian freaks.

He needs a vacation.

-- Bob Apthorpe

October 17, 1996

Giant Moth Abducts Webmaster!

Okay, so that's a big lie. I've been here all the time; I'm just checking to see if anyone's paying attention.

Here's the story, last weekend I hit the road, traveling to the bustling metropolis of Baton Rouge to meet with some old friends, have a couple beers, and retrieve yet another load of my personal effects. After a delightful seven-and-a-half hour journey along Interstate 10 I finally made it to The Sportsman's Paradise - Louisiana (also known as The Land That Evolution Forgot). The seafood! The cajuns! The Truckstop Casinos!

I took a deep breath. The air was just as I remember it - laden with pollen, humidity, and methyl ethyl ketone. After bidding my friends adieu, I beat it the hell back to Austin. While few sights compare to the nighttime skyline of Baton Rouge (no, that dramatic lighting is not a bustling downtown, it's a king-hell Exxon refinery...), I knew it was time to leave.

Since my return, I've been rifling through my e-mail, mucking about with unseen portions of our website, and generally keeping a low profile. Don't worry, though - I've got my can of Mothra-B-Gone, so at least I'll be safe from some of the more popular giant moths...

-- Bob Apthorpe

October 14, 1996

GURPS Autoduel Delayed Until December

Unfortunately, GURPS Autoduel, Second Edition has been delayed by about two months from its original October release date due to the discovery of a few incompatibilities with Vehicles -- that's one of the dangers of publishing related works close together. Look for a happier, more compatible Autoduel in December.

-- Bob Apthorpe

October 11, 1996

GURPS is Doomed!

Or perhaps that should be Doom has been GURPSed. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Jeffery Keown and company, the classic game of visceral slaughter has been brought into the GURPS universe.

Check out our list of links to more fan-authored GURPS material.

-- Bob Apthorpe

October 10, 1996

Steve Hits The Road

I'm going to be traveling for the next couple of weeks. Today I'm off to Spokane, for InCon. It runs Friday through Sunday . . . if you're around Spokane, come by and play Dino Hunt with me. The con information number is 509-482-5288. It's being held at Spokane's Red Lion Motor Inn.

I get back to Austin Monday night, and will be on the ground for about 12 hours, most of which I would like to spend sleeping but who am I fooling? Then I fly to NYC for the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology meeting. I'm going to (a) talk to museum store people about Dino Hunt, and (b) thank, face to face, a lot of the people who helped me get the science right. And, no doubt, (c) attend some cutting-edge presentations on dinosaur science and visit the American Museum of Natural History.

Envy me.

-- Steve Jackson

October 9, 1996

GURPS Site Gets A Facelift!

You might have heard a lot of grinding and sawing recently. That was the sound of the GURPS site being broken up into cleaner, bite-size chunks. This overhaul was long overdue and it's by no means finished - please bear with us as we shuffle and collate our existing content and add a whole lot more. Hopefully, things will be easier to find and everyone will be kept up-to-date on the latest GURPS news.

-- Bob Apthorpe

October 8, 1996

SJ Games Welcomes Stephen Dedman!

We're delighted to welcome GURPS Dinosaurs author Stephen Dedman to our offices today. He's visiting the U.S. for a couple weeks, chasing down game conventions, signing books and engaging in mayhem the way only Australians know how.

-- Bob Apthorpe

October 7, 1996

Evil Stevie in England

This is a slightly belated report on my last trip to England. I was a guest at Contraptions, in Northampton. For the photos, we can thank my congenial and demented host, Mark Tingley.

The weather was beautiful for Contraptions; it rained. To a refugee from the Great Texas Drought, this was a Big Deal. But we had a fine day for a side trip to Hever Castle beforehand. Hever is a very pretty pile of rock, notable as the childhood home of Anne Boleyn and for the single monstrous goldfish in the moat, which I am sure is often responsible for the disappearance of unattended children.

[Steve] This was an adult convention; the average attendee had probably been playing for more than ten years. I only saw one Magic card during the whole weekend; it appeared in the auction, and the winning bidder burned it. Overheard from various RPG tables: "This is the place to come if you want to eat human flesh" . . . "He was the best Salome I ever saw" . . . "Now, figure out how many orgasms that was" . . . "Of course, if the battery goes dead, the demons can get you."

I got to play games. Not just demonstrations . . . though we played a lot of "you catch it, you keep it" Dino Hunt . . . but Other Stuff. Like Settlers of Catan (with the German cards that you have to take on faith because nobody can read them), and even Stellar Conquest. It's been ten years since I played SC. I won, too, gloat gloat. And I did a panel, and listened to a couple more.

[Hever] After the convention, I got to do a bit more looking around. We visited London's Guild of Melee and Magic one evening. Really big group . . . meets in a pub about three nights a week, and fills it up. This was card night: mostly Magic, a bit of INWO and Rage. So we showed off Knightmare Chess and Dino Hunt. Grin.

That was fun. Next stop: Spokane, in just a couple of weeks, for InCon.

-- Steve Jackson

October 4, 1996

G.O.A.T. Tracks...

G.O.A.T. (Gamers of Austin, Texas) are putting on a convention this weekend at the Ramada Inn South, Ben White at Banister. If you're in the neighborhood, please drop by!

I'll be there, as will Sales Manager Matthew Grau and Steve Jackson hisownself, and we'll be running Knightmare Chess, Dino Hunt and INWO. Sunday at 10am we'll have our first ever Knightmare Chess tournament -- bring your 150-point decks, ready to go.

See you there!

-- Scott Haring

October 3, 1996

GURPS Vehicles Rolls Out The Door!

In what can only be described as an event of great import this week, the Second Edition of GURPS Vehicles began shipping. Not of it's own accord (which would be quite a feat), but with the assistance of our able-bodied shipping department - people familiar with vehicles of all sorts.

So trust the professionals and track down a copy of GURPS Vehicles right away!

-- Bob Apthorpe

October 2, 1996

Dino Hunt Named Hot Pick For 1996

Games, Crafts, Hobbies & Stuff has named Dino Hunt one of its Hot Picks for 1996. Out of the dozen games named, Dino Hunt was one of only two new releases.

-- Bob Apthorpe

October 1, 1996

Please Pass The Futo-Maki!

Got a hankerin' for anago and ebi but handcuffed to an Xterm? There's a way out - point your web browser at Wade's Virtual Sushi Bar and dig in!

Simply place an order, wait a little while as Wade's virtual sushi chefs perform their magic, and when everything's ready you get a lovely presentation of your order complete with chopsticks, soy sauce, ginger and wasabi.

Now if only they had their virtual liquor license, I'd be halfway into a delicious (and big) bottle of Sapporo...

-- Bob "ICHIBAN!" Apthorpe

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