Daily Illuminator Archive for March 2006

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March 1, 2006:
One of the high points of my visit to OwlCon was seeing this great custom-made Dork Tower set created by Andrea Little and David O. Little . . . read article

March 2, 2006:
This is the latest release from Steve Jackson Games, now on the shelves of a game store near you: GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars The transition between the First Imperium, governed by the Vilani, and the Rule of Man, led by the Terran Confederation, has always been a pivotal era in Marc Miller's Traveller universe. Now, for the first time in any game system, Traveller players can explore this rich setting. GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars covers 200 years of war and change as the ancient Vilani Imperium falls to the upstart Terrans . . . read article

March 3, 2006:
The Difference Engine is finally finished. No, not the one at the Science Museum in London . . . that's old news . . . the LEGO Difference Engine . . . read article

March 4, 2006:
The GTS will be in Las Vegas in just a couple of weeks. Attending for us this year will be Director of Sales Ross Jepson, Marketing Director Paul Chapman, Warehouse 23 Manager Shadlyn Westrich, and several others . . . read article

March 5, 2006:
I'm going to recommend it anyway. I have been reading J . . . read article

March 6, 2006:
Woo. Serious character development taking place in Girl Genius . . . . . read article

March 7, 2006:
Most of my planned work for today got set aside, because a whole new batch of UltraCorps functionality suddenly got ready for initial testing, and that also meant documentation had to be created. Woot . . . read article

March 8, 2006:
It doesn't matter whether the glass is half full or half empty, as long as there's still some in the bottle. Hey, we take our enlightenment where we get it . . .-- Steve Jackson . . . read article

March 9, 2006:
Steve Henderson, one of the authors of RuneQuest and Superworld, died the morning of March 8 of a massive stroke. He is survived by his wife, Gigi, and their son, Alexander . . . read article

March 10, 2006:
Movie camp meets Martha Stewart. If you want to live the fantasy, call Creative Home Engineering and have them put an old-fashioned secret passage in your home . . . read article

March 11, 2006:
Next week is the GAMA Trade Show, our industry's largest place for publishers to spend some quality time with the owners and operators of your Friendly Local Game Store. Held at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, this week-long event puts the leaders from each of the distribution tiers in the same room, all for the purpose of educating retailers and providing direct feedback to the game companies . . . read article

March 12, 2006:
Our new office came with a beautiful flagpole in front, and the previous occupants kindly left the flags. And it's lighted at night, so normally they fly all the time . . . read article

March 13, 2006:
I was occupied on and off throughout the past week in page-proofing GURPS Bio-Tech, by David Pulver and David Morgan-Mar. I don't mean to be hyperbolic, but this is going to be an amazing book . . . read article

March 14, 2006:
Or, to be more precise, two cool things that Earth is doing with respect to Mars: (1) The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It's made it into Mars orbit; the hard part is over . . . read article

March 15, 2006:
Here's the story of a fellow who decided to test whether a torn-up and taped credit card application would be accepted. Spoiler: Of course it was accepted, otherwise this wouldn't be much of a story, would it? . . . read article

March 16, 2006:
The original UltraCorps design was massive . . . hundreds of players in a single game. But we now have a two- to six-player version in open alpha . . . read article

March 17, 2006:
Where does Great Cthulhu stand on the issues? How can you contribute to his campaign? . . . read article

March 18, 2006:
The next Munchkin stand-alone game will be . . . Munchkin Impossible. Hit the link for more info . . . read article

March 19, 2006:
Dennis Mize, one of Ral Partha's first sculptors and unquestionably one of our hobby's great talents, died at his home a few days ago. He lived alone, and the exact time and cause of death are not known . . . read article

March 20, 2006:
Pyramid Magazine is proud to introduce our newest column: "Infinite Crossroads," by Paul Drye (co-author of GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars and GURPS Traveller: Sword Worlds). This tour of the GURPS Infinite Worlds setting introduces a new hot spot each month . . . read article

March 21, 2006:
And it might strike pretty hard. It would appear that researchers at our own University of Texas are developing artificial muscles a hundred times as strong as natural ones, powered by alcohol and hydrogen . . . read article

March 22, 2006:
We drove to the airport and got on the plane, and unless something really unplanned and legitimately ironic happened, Chris and I are there now, at the Game Developers Convention. We are actually having (I hope "had" is the right word by the time you read this) our first GDC meeting in the Austin airport before getting onto the plane . . . that was the way the schedules worked out . . .) . . . read article

March 23, 2006:
Texas! But my, isn't it wonderful? . . . read article

March 24, 2006:
Kermit and company have covered other great works - Treasure Island, A Christmas Carol - but aren't there other genres and media they could be covering? . . . read article

March 25, 2006:
The PDF version of GURPS Banestorm has been posted to e23 – 240+ full-color pages of fantasy goodness for Fourth Edition GURPS! GURPS Banestorm updates the original Yrth of GURPS Third Edition Fantasy and Fantasy Adventures. It provides GMs with a complete world background – history, religion, culture, politics, races, and a bonus collection of 16 detailed, full-color maps from throughout the book - everything needed to start a GURPS campaign . . . read article

March 26, 2006:
So. Chris and I have returned from the Game Developers Conference, alive and reasonably intact . . . read article

March 27, 2006:
I've already pointed to a couple of the items on this list . . . but that leaves eight, plus a couple of honorable mentions, that were new to me, and maybe they'll be new to you too . . . read article

March 28, 2006:
It is our gleeful pleasure to announce that Munchkin will soon be available in yet another language: Portuguese! The publisher will be our Brazilian friends at Devir Livraria Ltda., who have already released Portuguese versions of GURPS and several of our other titles . . . read article

March 29, 2006:
It's big enough that the flyer I just proofread had to use very tiny type to get very short descriptions of all the Munchkin products onto one page. That's kind of cool for a little game that I drew up the cards for while on a flight to Phoenix . . . read article

March 30, 2006:
It's fun watching the top e23 products reach milestones . . . and we hit some more. The downloadable GURPS Character Assistant hit 900 a few days ago, and is already well past that . . . it will be our first thousand-seller soon, and there will be much rejoicing. GURPS Mysteries passed 700. Singapore Sling and Polyhymnia made it into the 200 club, and both Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering and In Nomine Superiors: Lilith are about to . . . read article

March 31, 2006:
It's a dream come true. All the relaxation offered you by a good night's sleep, now available just by sticking your head in between two different frequencies . . . read article

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