Attention All Operatives, Black Suit Division: Be on the lookout for
one Donna J. Kossy, founder and curator of the so-called
Kooks Museum. The
material displayed therein could not possibly have come from any other
source than our own Facility 23. Her cavalier, dismissive attitude
toward the ideas put forth by these so-called "kooks" is a mocking slap
in our Illuminated face; clearly she intends to blackmail us by trotting
the truth out in full view. Standard removal protocols apply.
More info on the storm can be found at
Austin360 and at
Citysearch Austin.
-- Kira
![[ cover art ]](/pyramid/pub/26/img/cover.jpg)
We got Issue #26 of
Pyramid Magazine off to the printer at the end of last week. We held the magazine for as long as possible, hoping for some breaking news on the TSR sale to Wizards of the Coast, but no luck.Issue #26, by the way, is the July/August issue. It will be in game stores right at the beginning of July and in subscriber's hands around the same time (though with bulk mail, it's tough to make exact promises -- issues have sometimes been delivered much later, and there's very little we can do about it). The difference between when we write something in May and when you read it in July (or even August) is called our "lead time," and it's the bane of all journalists.
And depending on when something happens, the lead time can be even longer. For example, two of our big news stories in this issue came out of the GAMA Trade Show, which happened back in March! There's a two-month window between issues, so if something happens in the front part of that window, that means it could be even longer before you get to read about it.
But that's enough grousing. This issue of Pyramid has a fantasy murder mystery scenario, Designer's Notes of a different sort for In Nomine, an adventure for Deadlands, and all our other regular features, including the hottest Industry News our lead times will allow . . .
And if anything happens on that TSR - WotC thing, we'll have the whole story for you in the next issue -- in September.
-- Scott Haring
Things are getting better all the time, but there's still a long way to go. The women who are already in the hobby are also working hard to get more females into gaming, too. A group supporting this goal has sprung up on the Internet -- check out the Women In Gaming web page.
-- Scott Haring
Steve's still traveling; he just finished with MisCon this weekend, and is now off to Chicago for the Museum Store Expo along with Micah and Woody, where we hope to sell lots of Dino Hunt to (big surprise) museum stores and the like. Hopefully the dino-frenzy surrounding Lost World will help with that. Dino Hunt is really a great game; if you've never played it, and you like dinosaurs, you owe it to yourself to try it out.
A few of us did attempt to go see Lost
World yesterday, but it
was sold out well into the evening, so we saw
The Fifth Element instead.
Consensus: a good, fun movie, even if the ending was predictable.
-- Kira
The May 26, 1997 issue of Newsweek has a two-page story called, "Magic's Kingdom," that tells the story of WotC and Magic: The Gathering, using the opening of their first Game Center and the announced acquisition of TSR as hooks.
It's a reasonably positive piece, though the writers did take a shot or two. And there's a nice picture of WotC CEO Peter Adkison and Magic designer Richard Garfield. Newsweek is available on newsstands everywhere, so check it out if you're interested.
-- Scott Haring
![[ award ]](/pyramid/img/origins.jpg)
Got this pretty certificate in the mail the other day . . . Pyramid magazine has been nominated by The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Sciences for an Origins award for Best Professional Magazine. Thanks, guys . . .The fancy certificate is just the beginning. The folks on the Academy board (and I'm one of them) are working hard to improve the visibility and prestige of the awards. One of the things we're planning is a much fancier awards presentation, with some of the convention guests participating, and a reception afterwards for the winners and Academy members. We've got lots of other ideas, too -- stay tuned.
For more on the Academy and this July's Origins game convention, visit the GAMA web site.
-- Scott Haring
Every so often a portion of the Radical Christian Fringe starts frothing
at the mouth about rock music and evolution theory. Naturally, they're
closer to the truth than even they realize; it wouldn't do for our
wicked plans to be revealed by someone who might actually be taken
seriously. Grab your Bible (but don't read it! They hate that)
and jump over to Dial-the-Truth
Ministries, where you'll learn the truth behind the Clinton health
care plan and the fiendish plot of Jimmy Buffett.
Moving in to stem the tide is Carol Burrell, who is taking care of things while we decide what sort of permanent solution to implement (well, as permanent as anything is around here, anyway . . . ).
Artists with questions (or portfoloios -- we're always looking for new talent!) should contact Carol.
-- Scott Haring
Rick just got his MBA from the University of Texas here in Austin, and is a vital cog in our ongoing plans for world domination. More details on those plans as we come up with them . . .
I'm now trekking around central Utah, looking at dinosaur fossils and
tracks. Friday I'll be in Missoula for
MisCon.
More later!
-- Steve Jackson
No. Seriously.
For the low price of $595, any kid (ages 10-17) can spend five days in Seattle, learning the finer points of Magic play and deck design. The kids stay in dorms on the University of Washington campus, and all meals are provided. Kids also get some recreational opportunities (Mariners baseball games, canoe trips, that sort of thing), some free time in WotC's new Game Center, plus $150 worth of Magic cards.
Wizards of the Coast is putting these camps on in conjuction with U.S. Sports Camps, who have a lot of experience at running this sort of thing, except probably never for a card game before.
This is the point where I'm supposed to make some sort of snide or sarcastic comment, but I just don't have it in me. I'm flabbergasted. And amazed. And maybe just a tad envious. What will these guys think of next? There might be a contest in that question somewhere . . . stay tuned.
-- Scott Haring
This week's Interesting Warehouse 23 Submission came from John Sowerby (John.Sowerby@uni-bayreuth.de):
"A large bent thing, with a groove at the end."Hey, it made US laugh . . .
Please take a moment to visit our In Nomine Survey and answer a couple of quick questions about your game. We appreciate it!
-- Scott Haring
So you think you Get It, do you? And you're trying to prove it by
throwing together a web page with a few pithy non-sequiturs, some
quotes from the Principia Discordia, and yet another retouch
of the ray-traced Sacred Chao? Well, that's just great. Come register your
site on the Ring of
Fnords, the Discordian Webring, so that we can better keep an
all-seeing Eye on you and determine how much of a threat you pose.
Compliance is mandatory.
Following that, I get to do a few days of badlands-wandering and museum-crawling. Dinosaur country out there, you know . . .
Then I head to Missoula, Montana for MisCon. That's always a really fun event. I have many fond memories of MisCon, and you're not cleared for ANY of them . . .
After that, I'll meet Agent Micah in Chicago for the Museum Store Expo, and we'll see how many more museum shops we can get Dino Hunt into.
By then, I'll be ready to come back. Thus is balance maintained in the universe . . .
-- Steve Jackson
* There was no visible damage to the doors or other equipment
* No candy was stolen from anybody's desk
* The thief clearly knew just what he was looking for.
Thank you, O Burglar. Just remember not to push Ctrl-Alt-Splat-fnord, OK?
-- Steve Jackson
The weather here has finally turned beautiful. Everyting is blooming; the days are warm; the nights are just slightly cool. Life is good.
We have a small number of the
AADA pins back in stock. They're $4.50
each, available in silver/black (stock #9004A) or gold/red (stock
#9004B), and you can order them through our online
catalog (in the Car Wars section).
Agent Forinash wins an old Marvel no-prize that we happened to have lying
around; Class Three Bragging Rights; and the approval of the Secret Masters.
Our keeper-of-the-IllSotW is Shig the Unmentionable. He has claimed, on several occasions, to have held positions of power in such groups as the Illuminati, the Discordian Society, and the Department of Education; on other occasions he has claimed to have had no contact with any of those groups whatsoever. Both possibilities are equally staggering.
Illuminated Site of the Week - May 9, 1997
No catalogue of Web weirdness could possibly begin with any other site than HyperDiscordia. Like Saturday Night Live, HyperDiscordia has been around long enough to be considered an institution. But unlike that albatross around Lorne Michaels's neck, HyperDiscordia is still relevant and funny, and knows when to end a sketch. It's easily the best introduction to Discordianism this side of a steel spike in the ear.
-- Shig the Unmentionable
And if a search engine wasn't enough . . .
we've now got a page which will show you the pages on our site which
have been recently updated -
in this case, updated within the last 5 days. This page is automatically updated every night, so it's always current, and you can
see what we've been working on but not talking about fnord . . .
-- Kira
Anyway, HASTUR has its own
web page with lots
of sample vehicle designs and some neat graphics, so you should check it out.
--Scott Haring
We've also added a bibliography of all
Ogre-related articles from Space Gamer, Mecha
Press and Pyramid. We plan to add many of
these articles to the site in the coming months.
-- Steve Jackson
