Steve Jackson Games and Dark Horse Comics announced an agreement Wednesday for a roleplaying game based on the hit “Hellboy” comic series."I've always felt that Hellboy and his little 'world' would be a natural for a roleplaying game," said Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. "I'm excited that it's actually happening and very pleased to be working with the people at Steve Jackson Games. They seem very concerned about doing the whole thing right and I'm happy to be helping out."
The Hellboy Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game will be graphic-novel sized and will be a complete game, as well as a fan guide to the world of Hellboy . . . as seen from the inside. It will feature a brand-new short story by Christopher Golden, author of the new “Hollow Earth” Hellboy spinoff.
In the game, players will take the roles of agents of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, including Hellboy himself, Abe Sapien, and original characters created by the players . . . solving occult mysteries, beating up demons, falling from great heights, and saving the world from Things Man Was Not Meant To Know.
Golden, who will also be helping to assemble the game’s background material, said “Steve Jackson Games always do a nice job and I'm happy to be involved . . . The world Hellboy exists in should provide a million cool adventures for gamers. If they survive that long.”
The first Hellboy RPG release will be in stores in August. Authored by Phil Masters (GURPS Atlantis, GURPS Discworld) and Jonathan Woodward (GURPS Ogre), it will use the award-winning GURPS system, already featured in over 150 different roleplaying sourcebooks.
Suggested retail will be $24.95; ISBN 1-55634-654-9.
For more information, contact Philip Reed (phil@sjgames.com) at (512) 447-7866.
Those who can't make the chat can read the press release here Thursday morning.
GURPS Religion
Back in print! Everything you need to delve into the mysteries of creation and divine power. Players can create gods from fantasy and myth, or design their own pantheon. Also covers design of clerical characters and rules for the magical powers granted to the faithful.
176 pages. Stock #6510, ISBN 1-55634-202-0. $28.95.
GURPS Vehicles Expansion 1
Time for a tune-up! David Pulver's long-awaited supplement for GURPS Vehicles has dozens of vehicular design options and components. Create supercavitating submarines that race through the ocean at Mach 1, monstrous cybertanks invulnerable to anything short of a nuclear weapon, and elegant spacecraft that ride the solar winds on magnetic sails. There are plenty of options for mundane vehicles as well, with expanded rules for building everything from historical sailing ships to combine harvesters.
32 pages. Stock #6541, ISBN 1-55634-601-8. $8.95.
Transhuman Space
In the last decade of the 21st century, advanced biotech and interplanetary colonization have transformed our solar system into a setting as exciting and alien as any interstellar empire. Pirate spaceships hijacking black holes . . . sentient computers and artificial "bioroids" demanding human rights . . . nanotechnology and mind control.
Transhuman Space is the core book of a new "hard" science fiction series, created by David Pulver and written by the top GURPS authors. More Transhuman Space books will appear through 2002 and 2003.
208 pages. Stock #6700, ISBN 1-55634-652-2. $29.95.
GURPS Traveller: Heroes 1 - Bounty Hunters
First in a series of mini-books that spotlight interesting professions for adventure! GURPS Traveller: Heroes 1 - Bounty Hunters gives templates for character design, and goes into detail about the risks and rewards of hunting criminals for money. Campaign ideas and adventure seeds are included, along with several completely worked out characters. This book will jump-start lots of GURPS Traveller adventures!
32 pages. Stock #6880, ISBN 1-55634-613-1. $8.95.
Ogre Miniatures: Ogrethulhu Set 2 - Spawn of Ogrethulhu
When the Ogrethulhu started EATING its victims, the fleeing survivors thought they had seen the depths of horror. But the madness had barely started. Because soon the pods on the monster’s back began to swell. Then they burst wetly, and the victims emerged . . . unthinkably changed.
The Ogrethulhu creates its own infantry support from its victims! The Spawn are packaged in a reusable plastic box. . . 72 infantry figures of 12 different and disgusting types. These monstrosities are somewhat larger than normal infantry, giving sculptor Richard Kerr more scope for his twisted imagination . . .
Boxed set. Stock #10-2702, ISBN 1-55634-604-2. $19.95.
Friday morning, Dilbert met "M.T. Suit." Same name, and drawn the same way, as one of the cards for the new Unnatural Axe supplement to Munchkin. If this had come up even a week sooner I might just have changed the card, but the set goes to the printer in a few days . . . John Kovalic has already done the art . . . and he's on vacation now and not available for changes.
So we'll just leave it in. We didn't steal it from Scott Adams and he didn't steal it from us. Great minds run in the same gutter.
If you'll recall, we featured the Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide site in last week's Illuminator. It caused a flood of inquiries, and it should come as no surprise that so deep a topic has proponents everywhere. The mother site chimes in, as does the Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division. But as steamed as they are, they aren't without critics: DHMO: Your All-Natural Friend tries to douse the flames of ignorance with their decidedly staunch support of this misunderstood compound.
-- Suggested by David Levi
Coming up next month: BricksWest, February 16-18 in Carlsbad, California. This is not a game con . . . it's a Lego con! I have never been to a Lego con before, and I'm really honored (okay, really GLEEFUL) to have been invited as a guest. Those of you out there who are either Lego geeks or interested in the Pirate Game should hit the BricksWest page and register to attend, and I'll see you there. There will be a LOT of cool Lego stuff going on there. And the hotel is a 5-minute walk from Legoland California!
Second, this July . . . Origins. More on this as it develops, but, yes, you heard right, I will be running the Pirate Game at Origins in Columbus, Ohio. The con dates are July 4-7. Exact day of the game has not been set yet.
The WDH 1.2 is available for download in PDF format (176kb). Or, if you'd prefer, here's a brief summary of the changes between Versions 1.1 and 1.2.
Now expect to read scare stories in the tabloids and the Rifkinite press, all about the evil gene-meddlers who are creating spiders the size of goats to lurk in the darkness and SUCK YOUR BLOOD. Baaaaaaaaa!
Finally there's a coalition to Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide. This "invisible killer" is everywhere, killing houseplants, destroying the landscape, and threatening humanity. Can nothing stem the tide? Your contributions can help.
-- Suggested by Jayson Howell
Celebrate this milestone by subscribing
today! And if you're already a subscriber, buy another subscription and
stick your computer in a plastic bag to preserve what's sure to be a
collector's item issue. Or something like that . . .
-- Steven Marsh
No kidding. In a recent press release about their "Star Wars" license, WotC said:
"Another unique feature of Garfield's game design is the use of dice for conflict resolution."
What would we do without these guys to show us the way?
We have an immediate and urgent opening for a bookkeeper who is familiar with the MAS200 (formerly known as MAS90) system. We really need someone who already knows the MAS system, not someone who "has used another one and they're all the same." This is a full-time job, 9 to 5 or similar, in Austin.
If you qualify and are interested, click on my signature below and drop me a line.
-- Steve Jackson
One of the biggest problems remains the eligibility system, which keeps many releases from even being considered for an award. Specifically, each company is now permitted to pre-nominate one, and only one, product in each category. A company that has more than one quality product in the same category must choose which one to support. Now, this is fine with some companies, who want to put a big push behind one product. It's not so fine with those who think every product should have its fair chance.
This year, when the award committee finally (in December) announced that this year would use the same system that last year did, there was protest on the Academy mailing list. But committee members responded that it was "too late" to discuss anything for this year's awards.
The committee has a new chairman, Mike Stackpole, but he has not posted on the Academy list in quite a while. Weeks, at least. Last year I recommended writing to Rick Loomis, the GAMA president if you had a problem with the awards situation, but you wasted your time. He made it clear to me, and the others on the mailing list, that (a) he had gotten a whole lot of responses and resented the time it took him to send out his form-letter reply, and (b) at the same time, he hadn't gotten enough responses to make him reconsider the issue. He didn't say how many responses it would take. And of course, he's not elected by YOU.
So what can you do? Why am I wasting MY time typing, if the President of GAMA considers your input a nuisance, and the committee goes from "guidelines aren't up yet" to "too late to discuss!"
Two things:
(1) Don't take these awards seriously until there is a serious structural change. Right now it's just like an election in the old USSR: everyone is free to cast a ballot, but nobody except the GAMA President and his appointee, the committee chair, decides how the election is run. Members of the Academy have NO say in the management of the awards.
(2) If you helped create a game product in 2001, or if you KNOW anyone who did, you should use the poorly-publicized escape clause in the current nomination system. Although companies are limited in what they can nominate, a CREATOR can also make a nomination. (This is the committee's reply to all charges of unfairness. If it were well publicized it could make a difference. Problem is, they have never made any visible attempt to get this info to anyone but publishers, who are not passing it on to their writers, and to the small number of individuals who are Academy members.) Go to this site. You can put something on the ballot there if you helped create it.
SPREAD THE WORD. The deadline is January 15. Yes, I wish I'd written this a week ago; I was hoping that the Awards Committee chair would post something, anything, on the committee mailing list. But I heard from several people last year who would never have known they could nominate their own work if I hadn't posted my rant. So it's up to me again this year.
Creators do NOT have to depend on their publisher to nominate their work. You can do it yourself.
SPREAD THE WORD. It's not quite too late.
So the next time you hear people talking about a federal asteroid-tracking program, say "Good investment."
For more details, see the CNN story.
These are available only from Warehouse 23, and only for the next three weeks. This time, instead of printing a certain amount, we'll have a three-week preorder period (ending January 27, 2002) and only enough copies to cover those orders will be made. There will be 3-4 weeks between the end of pre-orders and when the books actually ship. As always, feel free to contact us with questions or comments.
If you think you can do a better job of mixing the soundtrack to a Bruce Lee chop-sockey flick than the crew, you're welcome to try, but as I Know Where Bruce Lee Lives will prove, the results end up sounding the same no matter who does it. Kiiaaii!
-- Suggested by Tom Bolenbaugh
This is a pilot effort in which words associated with a special field of interest - in this case, science fiction - are published online so that fans can help find citations showing the first use, and continuing uses, of those words. If this sounds interesting, read more and do what you can to help. I just sent them a couple of continuing-use citations to "uplift," including of course GURPS Uplift.
-- Steve Jackson
It's just the skeleton of an idea, but it seems to be more than enough to keep you occupied. Now if only they had a snappy intro to catch your attention...
-- Suggested by Fred Wolke
I am pleased to report that the stack of manuscripts is currently at zero. I hear the whistling sound of three more scheduled to hit me before the end of the week, and probably at least one more next week, but that is then, and this is now, and being caught up even on one little thing is so sweet.
-- Steve Jackson
Poor Harry has another problem. A cineplex in Seattle fouled up and started to show an R-rated film to a theater full of kids and moms who thought they were going to see "Sorcerer's Stone." Whoops . . . Here's the Seattle Times story.
I thank you all for your companionship and support.
-- Steve Jackson
