December 23, 2009: Now Shipping!

These items are available to your friendly local game store for ordering, and may already be on their shelves. Go! It's not too late for Christmas presents!

Chez Goth

Angst. Nookie. Roommates. Just another Friday night at Chez Goth.

This stand-alone game puts a new spin on the award-winning (and all too realistic) Chez Geek. You're still living with a bunch of roommates . . . but now you're a Goth!

Work at your dreary job. Spend your hard-earned money and precious time to accumulate Slack points . . . or collect Gloom when life turns against you. As it will! You can earn Slack for buying Clothes, Shinies, and Booze . . . or you can just Cough, Complain, or even Faint Dramatically, especially if you have an audience. And if you get very lucky, there might be some Graveyard Nookie in your future.

The second edition features a larger, sturdier box and includes Slack and Gloom counters and a die.

Yes, you can combine these cards with Chez Geek and have a house full of Goths AND slackers. Fortunately, it's just a game . . . isn't it?

112 cards, die-cut tokens for Slack and Gloom, a six-sided die, and a rulesheet, in a box. Stock #1396, ISBN 837654320181. $19.95.

Nanuk

Winter is coming. All the hunters boasted of their prowess, but you boasted the loudest. Now you have to deliver . . .

In Nanuk, each player bids for how long he can stay on the trail and how much he will bring home. Each boast must be greater than the one before, until one hunter refuses to raise the bid, saying "You're doomed!" Then the hunt begins. Will the hunt leader make good on his boast, or will the doomers be right? Every player decides secretly to help . . . or to let it fail.

Beware Nanuk, the great polar bear, who can end any hunt in failure. If you find an inuksuk, it will protect you -- once. If the hunt is successful, the hunters share the animals collected. But if the hunt fails, the doomers score instead.

Nanuk is a fast-playing, highly social game of bidding and bluffing for 5 to 8 players.

6.25” x 9.25” x 1.75” box, with 100 cards, a mounted gameboard, 17 chipboard counters, and a rulesheet. Stock #1422, ISBN 837654320358. $27.99.

+6 Bag O' Munchkin Babes

Official Munchkin Plastic Bag!

Extra bonus: free Munchkins -- now in the sex of your choice!

That's right, now we've got both Munchkins and Munchkin Babes in six colors -- the four colors found in Munchkin Quest, plus the purple and orange from Munchkin Quest 2 -- Looking for Trouble. You can get six Munchkin pawns, like those found in the initial set, or six female Munchkin pawns (planned to appear in a 2010 Munchkin Quest supplement, but ready to bash monsters for you now!).

The obvious thing to do is to keep the Munchkin pawns around for the day one is lost, or throw the Munchkin Babes into your Munchkin Quest box and use the correct pawn for whatever sex your character happens to be at that moment.

But if you're truly evil -- and your friends let you get away with it -- you'll show the world just what a munchkin you really are by using these pawns in other games.

In Munchkin

Any time you are entitled to go up a level -- or when you do something that WOULD earn you a level if you weren't already Level 9 -- you may, instead, place a munchkin pawn in front of you. In any combat, you may discard it for a 1d6 bonus. You may only have one in front of you at a time. Unless, of course, you "lose" these rules and tell the other players that you're allowed to have more. Six is a good number.

In Other Games

Because you're a munchkin, you may claim a munchkin advantage for using these pawns in ANY game. For instance:

• In any roll-and-move game, if you use the munchkin as your pawn rather than one that came with the game, then once per game you may add or subtract 1 space to the move you roll.
• In any game in which you start with money, then if you use the munchkin as your pawn, you start with 10% extra. Round up, of course.
• In chess, a munchkin pawn can move forward two spaces at any time.

If you create your own official rules for using the Munchkin pawn in other games, please share your rules with us at the Steve Jackson Games forums.

Six plastic female Munchkin Quest pawns, in six different colors, polybagged with a punched header card. Stock #5505, ISBN 837654320334. $5.99.

Munchkin Kill-O-Meter

Munchkins love it when the cards start flying. The best combats are the ones where potions, monster enhancers, and other bonuses keep the effective levels bouncing up and down! But keeping count can cause your brain to explode (which is all messy). Now you'll never have to stop and recount again!

With the Munchkin Kill-O-Meter, whenever a card hits the table, you turn the dials to keep track of your new total. Fiendishly simple. You can use it with any flavor of Munchkin, including Munchkin Quest.

The Kill-O-Meter comes with two special bonus cards (one for Munchkin and one for Munchkin Quest) -- and since the dials can be read from either side, we put munchkins on one side and monsters on the other. (And would you believe that making it two-sided let us REDUCE the cost? Printers are funny!)

One two-sided combat counter. Stock #5506, ISBN 837654320341. $6.99.
-- Paul Chapman