February 8, 2023: Tabloids Is Coming

I often get the question "Once you have an idea for a game, how long does it take to finish?" And the answer is that . . . it depends. Cthulhu Dice was mostly finished over the course of a long afternoon stuck at the Missoula airport. Munchkin worked (mostly) on its first draft, and was fully playable in less than a month.

Tabloids took more than 20 years.

No, I didn't spend that whole time designing it. I wrote it up and made cards; the initial playtests went well – and then it just wasn't the time for a game like that. I got it out every few years, looked at it, stripped out unnecessary mechanics, added more headline words, and still didn't publish it.

But now, finally, here it comes! This is a game in which you use word cards to piece together an attention-grabbing headline for a supermarket rag. That basic idea has been done before, though I didn't know that back when I started. But Tabloids has a couple of gimmicks that make it more fun, and a judging system that owes a lot to Apples to Apples and its ilk.

We brought it out at FnordCon and people liked it. So we scheduled a few office playtests and everyone had fun. So its time has come round at last! The current plan is to Kickstart it in March or April for a late 2023 release, at $19.95 (there are over 300 cards, with more planned as stretch goals).

MIRACLE PLANT CURES COUNTRY STAR'S CANCER.  CALIFORNIA WEREWOLF SPOTTED FROM HELICOPTER.  I'm just saying. After all these years, you deserve to know the truth!

-- Steve Jackson

(NOTE: We haven't decided if Tabloids will get a wide release post-Kickstarter or limited release, so we're unsure of which Kickstarter account we'll use for the crowdfunding stage. Please follow both Steve Jackson Games and Warehouse 23 on Kickstarter so that you don't miss Tabloids, regardless of which decision we make. -PR)