The ArchDean of Illuminati University announced today the release of IOU T-shirts (proceeds will go to purchase more furniture for the Faculty Lounge. FNORD). These shirts are available now from Pegasus Publishing. These are the same people who brought you the Eye in the Pyramid shirts, which are still available from our catalog.They also have some Eye in the Pyramid logo hats and will soon have In Nomine t-shirts. As well, the In Nomine jewelry is still available. Pieces include Angelic and Infernal crosses (in pendants and keyrings) and most Choir logos (not only the Malakim as some had thought due to a previous post).
Keep your eye out for more products as we continue in our effort to make you the best-dressed gamers on Earth (or Planet Krishna, we're not picky). -- Micah Jackson
In the organizers' own words: "IVCMS provides an international forum for the presentation, discussion and extension of research into these darkly powerful pseudosciences and dangerous technologies which fall beyond the scope of conventional science and good taste.
"The purpose of the conference is to promote a general understanding of mad topics within the broader scientific community, to encourage new researchers to dabble with things best left alone, to attract commercial sponsors to the potential benefits of mad science in the business world, and to replace the old drooling maniac stereotype of the mad scientist with a new drooling maniac image which is more appropriate to the modern era. "
(1) Direct Mail. Melinda de la Torre has been single-handedly responsible for keeping a lot of customers happy. Now we have to find a way to fill her shoes. This is a full-time job requiring both computer skills and people skills. Take the order, process it for shipping, make sure the customer is satisfied. Plus a LOT of extraneous and random "other duties as assigned." Resumes should go to brendah@io.com.
(2) Assistant to the President and Head MIB. Laz Zanger got here and redefined the job, and now he has to go. Aieee. Basically, this is half "executive assistant" and half "convention liaison." Requires both executive-assistant skills (this is a real business, and without a good assistant I'm crippled) and knowledge of gaming and fandom. Resumes should go to me - sj@io.com.
(3) Computer Guru. Not a staff position, and not full-time; we need to contract for 10 to 20 hours a week of skilled mostly-Macintosh troubleshooting in our offices. Resumes should go to kellyrs@io.com.
-- Steve Jackson
We got the advance copies of two new releases from the printer this week . . .
GURPS Bio-Tech is a sourcebook for all kinds of biomechanical modifications for characters, NPCs, and even monsters -- and with the stuff in this book, it will be harder and harder to tell the difference! Gene splicing, smart drugs, nanotechnology, transplants, cloning, cryonics -- GURPS Bio-Tech covers the medical breakthroughs of the next century, some of which are happening today!
Also back from the printer is Pyramid #28, featuring a GURPS Black Ops adventure, a Paranoia - Call of Cthulhu crossover and tons more.
We'll get the main shipments of these items Monday, and they'll go out right away. Look for them on your store shelves in early February.
-- Scott Haring
"The Call of Computer", the Paranoia/Call of Cthulhu crossover adventure featured in Pyramid #28 has a support page, written by the author, Joshua Marquart. The URL to the page is http://w3.one.net/~joshdm/paracoc.html and features some strange pictures, a history of the adventure's creation, tips from people who have run the adventure, and supplementary "add ons" to extend the adventure.
Yes, the world would have fallen into evil hands dozens of times if
not for the Caped Crusader, and when we make OUR move, we'll have to deal with him. Visit this site for the most up-to-date info about Batman Classic.
-Submitted by Max Minkoff (mminkoff@juno.com)
-- Steve Jackson
Pyramid fans will recognize the proprietor of one of the weapon shops. It's your ultra-violent buddy Bruno. "You should not be messink vith Bruno. Just buy der veapon and go bug somevun else."
-- Steve Jackson
While this is basically a card game with score sheets, there's a lot of roleplaying. At the beginning of the game, every player draws cards to see if his character is male or female, straight or gay, Hopelessly White or Desperately Minority, and Working Class / Upper Class / Hereditary Academic. The professors on the tenure committee, each with his own prejudices, will treat different candidates in different ways. And some cards can be played only by women, or only by minorities . . . This is a Very Nasty Game that pulls no punches. We had a great time.
Most of the fun comes from card-reading and roleplaying. While some strategy is possible, most of the decisions are "Do I play this bad card on the person it will hurt the most, or on the one who is most in the lead?" and "Do I use up my "Writing" cards on articles quickly before they can be stolen, or save up for a book?" And the rules as written take most of the Writing cards out of play, which can leave some players with NO chance to win; we decided that when you complete a book, all ten of those Writing cards go into the discard stack for recycling.
So a bit more testing would have helped. Still, WAY fun. If you have friends in academia, who don't take their lives too seriously, spring this one on them.
I didn't name the designer above, because no designer is credited! This suggests to me that the guilty party is in fact a resident of academia who knows that anonymous satire is the safest kind. Works for me . . .
-- Steve Jackson
We started off with Pit, which is an old classic that I had never, ever played. Great fun. There are no turns, and a round lasts for about two minutes of everyone yelling at each other. No table talk in this game! The only drawback is that the cards change hands so much and so quickly that a deck wears out really fast. Hmm . . . perhaps from the publisher's point of view that's a feature. Anyway, we'll be playing that one again, for sure.
Then we played a hand of James Earnest's Give Me The Brain, from Cheapass Games.. In this game, everyone is a zombie, working at a fast food place, and while most of your jobs require no brains, a few do . . . and you all have only one brain between you . . . Simple play, but it works just fine. A lot of the fun is reading the cards, especially the illustrated ones. The hilarious, disgusting art is by Brian Snoddy, and Austin MIB cell leader Liz Zanger owns all the originals and will no doubt support herself in luxury for decades by reselling them one at a times.
Then we tried Survival of the Witless, but I'll make you wait till tomorrow for that report.
-- Steve Jackson
If you are in or around Houston and want to talk about this, either for one day or for more of the con, send e-mail directly to me - sj@io.com.
-- Steve Jackson
Congratulations to David Pulver, who had two books in the top ten (and his GURPS Reign of Steel was 11th). Likewise to S, John Ross for GURPS Warehouse 23 and a big chunk of GURPS Black Ops. And a big pat on the back to the In Nomine team.
So when you play a record backwards, you hear the Devil. And when you look at a web page backwards, you get . . . Never mind. There are people in Oklahoma who would get very worried if we kept going. This site has nothing to do with That Guy Down Below. As far as we know, that is. It
just loads URLs backwards, pictures and all!
- Submitted by Jayson Howell (jayson_howell@stream.com)
-- Steve Jackson
Like the headline says, we sent GURPS
Russia to the printer. It's a cool book that covers medieval
Russia through the reign of Peter the Great in 1725, with cossacks and
wolves on the frozen plains and all that stuff. You'll like it.GURPS Russia is also a bit of a departure for us -- a book that will only be available direct from us, either from our Direct Mail department or at conventions. This isn't a harbinger of doom for distributors and retailers or anything -- we just thought that a more esoteric title like Russia needed this special treatment.
GURPS Russia is a fantastic book, probably S. John Ross' best work for us yet. In particular, its discussion of fantasy Russia has great gaming potential. But we have found out the hard way that "historical" titles don't sell well in stores. Still, we really like this book . . . so we're printing 2,000 copies, and they will only be available directly from SJ Games. You can reach our Web catalog at http://www.sjgames.com/catalog/. If this goes well, maybe we'll publish other "straight-to-you" titles . . . books that won't work in standard distribution (we're thinking of adventures, for instance) but are too good to ignore. We'll see.
"According to my forensic anthropologist, the common assumption for biomechanics simulations is 8-11 lbs., depending on age (8 for a child, 11 for an adult)."
So now I know. And now you know too. And no, don't ask which project involves tossing heads around. All will become clear soon.
-- Steve Jackson
A government packet documenting the discovery of various examples of falsified data. All of the documentation has been falsified.
-- Steve Jackson
(Cue theme music) It's the Monty Python scheme to take over the world, you festering gob of hamster vomit! (Okay, well, no offense meant.)
- Submitted by Seth Cohen (sacohen@umabnet.ab.umd.edu)....
Then somebody asked about the translation, and everybody got out their dusty Latin textbooks (like there are any other kind . . .), and the debate began.
The consensus seems to be that we got it wrong, slightly. Of course, in Latin, slightly is all it takes to screw up the meaning. So in the name of Latin correctness, we're changing the name of the book to Liber Reliquarum, which is closer to "The Book of Relics" than the original.
This change shouldn't affect the ship date or much of anything else about the book, but we thought you'd like to know. It's also an interesting example of the sorts of things we think about around here to bring you the very best in gaming products . . .
-- Scott Haring
So . . . time to ask the Illuminated brain-trust for help again. Is anyone aware of a good period, public-domain or clip-art line drawing of such a scene? You would be amazed what the computer art wizards can do with the right B&W picture – but we have to have something to start with.
-- Steve Jackson
While SJ Games publishes an edition of the Principia, this is NOT a plug for our book (note lack of link . . . ). Here's what's going on. We have it on fairly reliable authority (the net being what it is, and he himself being a rather private sort of person) that Kerry Thornley is seriously ill.
This would be a very good time, if you enjoy the Principia, to order a copy of Thornley's own edition, published by his own "IllumiNet Press." Purple-and-gold cover, very pretty, with some material not found in other editions. It's $10 from PO Box 5381, Atlanta GA 31107. Again, this is a good time to send some support, and some good thoughts, his way.
Here's his own website. Here's one for his book Zenarchy. And here's IllumiNet Press. Finally, here's a web page dedicated to Thornley, created by one of his friends.
– Steve Jackson
New Year's resolutions? Well, the first one has to be KEEP TO THE SCHEDULE. I don't think we need a second one.
New Year's predictions? (gazes deeply into crystal ball) I predict . . . an interesting year for the whole hobby. Fasten your seat belts; the ride may be bumpy.
-- Steve Jackson
NATURE'S HARMONIC SIMULTANEOUS 4-DAY TIME CUBE! You just thought the day had 24 hours. Now we all know better. Gene Ray, Cubic, says "I will give $1,000.00 to any person who can disprove 4 days in each earth rotation."
- Submitted by Stefan Jones
One year closer to the millennium, ushering in either a) a new era of prosperity, wisdom and peace; b) chaotic upheaval and strife; c) more of the same. Keep watching those signs from the Secret Masters . . .
And Happy New Year.
-- Scott Haring
