Their "Less Than Art" CD is one of those that – to the despair of those around me – I can play over and over all day. (It's bad enough when I do it with REM or something else that people have heard of, or with ambient. When I do it with Weird Stuff, well, 5-point Odious Personal Habit.)
At any rate, these guys can make me laugh and cry in the same song, which is a pretty good trick. The music's pretty good too. The production quality isn't always 100%, but it's better than garage . . . it works.
If you want to hear them for yourself, you can actually download entire tracks from their fan site.
Hey, what can I say? I hear good stuff, I want to share.
-- Steve Jackson
When I'm on the road, I sometimes turn on the hotel TV just to see what I'm missing. Usually, not much. European MTV is kind of cool, but you can't get it over here . . .
But technology advances, and I've finally admitted to myself that if I had a TV, I could hook up a VCR or DVD and catch up on some of the good films I've missed. Plus anime, ohhhhh, yes. So I'm TV shopping.
And I'm blatantly asking for advice, because if I'm going to break down and buy a vidiot box, I think I'd like to go all the way and get one of those big-screen guys. And I don't know anything about what's good, bad and ugly in TVs, let alone big ones.
So if somebody out there has expertise to share . . . you build those things, or sell them, or your hobby is home theater and you Know Everything . . . I'd be most grateful for a few clues. Thanks!
-- Steve Jackson
There are many fighters in the War between Heaven and Hell. There are also mortals who are unaware of the battles that rage about them – but this might change at any moment.
The Liber Servitorum contains over 120 angels, demons, ethereal spirits and humans, completely described with both character stats and story backgrounds, for use with the In Nomine system. Game-Masters can use them as NPCs, or give them to players for a quick start.
Also included are tips and guidelines for getting and maintaining Roles and for creating and controlling Servants.
Stock #3314, ISBN 1-55634-369-8. $19.95.
You’ll brief national leaders on the latest crisis; scheme and sweat to ram a workable plan through the entanglements of bureaucracy; face a ruthless foe at point-blank range with no margin for error. Your life, the lives of others, the interests of your homeland . . . all depend on your skills, courage and judgment.
GURPS Special Ops puts you into this world. All the violent action - and all the planning, organization and coordination necessary to bring off an operation successfully - are in your hands.
GURPS Special Ops has been out of print for several years. This completely revised edition covers the new nations and alignments of the post-Soviet era, and updates the rules for creating special-ops soldiers with the new GURPS template system.
This is a reprint; GURPS Special Ops has been unavailable for several years.
Stock #6029, ISBN 1-55634-366-3. $19.95.
Alien invaders, things slithering in sewers and alleys by night, dark plots by paranormal cabals -- all these and more lurk in society's shadow. To them, we are nothing more than food or slaves. If the world knew, it would go mad.
Our only defense is the Company, which takes conspiracy from theory to practice. As one of its recruits, you'll endure five years at the hellish Academy, where only the best of the best graduate and failing grades become tombstone inscriptions. The survivors become killers as dangerous as their prey, sworn to keep the secrets that would destroy society.
Odds are you'll die in style. Your job is to take as many of them with you as you can.
Black Ops takes cinematic roleplaying to the edge and over the top! Out of print since August 1998, this is another "by popular demand" reprint.
Stock #6081, ISBN 1-55634-366-3. $19.95.
Those bastards down at the
Disgruntled Postal Workers Zone have a situation on their hands. Just look at the photo on the front page. This site has true news stories of postal mayhem, Disgruntled? buttons, cartoons, and postal fiction.
Some people have time to kill on their hands.
- Submitted by Michel Bélanger
So we're home and warm. Hope you are the same. Happy holidays, everybody.
-- Steve Jackson
"There is one and only one important step needed to solve the Y2K problem. It is necessary to assign blame, so that we can all put thi"s behind us and move on.
For the good of humanity, help us decide who is to blame for the Y2K problem. Please nominate one person. The winner will be designated "The Person Responsible for the Y2K Problem." This individual will be tortured and executed on January 1, 2000, and again on January 1, 2001. The festivities will be televised live on every broadcast network, and on the Internet (Y2K bug permitting).
"You decide. Who is The Person Responsible for the Y2K Problem? Please send your vote to marca@chem2.harvard.edu."
"Ex-Mouseketeer guilty of stock fraud, perjury"
Run. Save yourselves. It's too late for society.
-- Steve Jackson
The Specs: Logo should be a 72dpi JPEG, up to 500 pixels wide and between 100-200 pixels high. Use a black background. The logo should say "Warehouse 23", and must be easily readable.
The Deadline: 10pm CST, Monday January 4, 1999. Send your entry to sjg@pyramid.sjgames.com; attach the image as a MIME attachment.
The Fine Print: All submitted logos become the property of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. We may use it as we wish - including displaying it online.
GURPS Magic Items also describes the eldritch shops that sell these wonders, with a complete and realistic guide to the economics of enchantment in a medieval fantasy world, including profiles of the typical enchanter, enchanter's patron, and magical merchant.
This is a reprint; GURPS Magic Items has been unavailable for several years.
Stock #6038, ISBN 1-55634-190-3. $19.95.
Stock #6606, ISBN 1-55634-373-6. $19.95.
This is the ultimate sourcebook for psi powers. It includes a complete world backgroun - and the GM can use it as a resource for campaigns in any background. It includes:
Unified Rules - the psi systems from GURPS Basic Set and GURPS Supers combined into a complete, official whole.
New Abilities - including Mindswitch, Combat Teleport, psychic vampirism and cyberpsi.
New Rules - featuring gestalts, group minds, latent psis, ghosts, psionic combat and poltergeists.
Psionic Technology - two chapters of psionic equipment, including psychotronic weaponry, dreamscanners and psionic computers - even psionic starship drives!
Campaign Advice - on smoothly integrating psi into other GURPS worldbooks, or designing your own psi campaign.
Complete Campaign Background - in which powerful psis struggle with secret government agencies and globe-spanning conspiracies in a world eerily like our own . . .
This is a reprint; GURPS Psionics has been unavailable since May 1998.
Stock #6040, ISBN 1-55634-196-2. $19.95.
The folks at the Interdimensional Travel Agency, publishers of
Alternate History Travel Guides, have put together The 1st Interdimensional Beer Tour along with their other extremely useful guides to alternate timelines. Also at this site are ITA Travelogues, Timeline Travel on $25 a Night, Newswires from Alternate Worlds, plus numerous excellent suggestions for places to stay, eat and drink in the multiverse.
Read up on the Governor's Mansion in Australia, the 56th State. Visit the burned out shell of the Winter Palace in 1996 Tsarist Russia. Travel with confidence with the ITA's superb advice.
Make your reservations today!
-- Suggested by Mark Ridley
That's right, John Kovalic's wildly popular Dork Tower comic strip will be a monthly feature of Pyramid, starting January 1! Dork Tower is the painfully true-to-life stories of a group of gamers trying to enjoy their hobby and live normal lives, all at the same time. It doesn't always work . . .
"I'm thrilled to have Dork Tower in Pyramid," editor Scott Haring said. "John actually offered it to us first, several years ago, but circumstances conspired against us at that time. Now Pyramid is the home of Dork Tower, and we're never letting it go, unless John goes Hollywood on us or joins a cult or something."
The first Dork Tower appears Friday, Jan. 1, 1999. Kovalic will continue to draw Murphy's Rules on the other weeks of the month.
Subscribe to Pyramid today!
An update: the BBC has another story about the vehicular flamethrowers...
complete with photos! (Thanks to Stephen Gingell for pointing this one out)
The Sacred Disorder of the Enigmata (a faithless, enigmatic alternative to modern day religious conformity) has finally revealed the teachings of the long-forgotten Saint Eural, patroness of charlatans, fakes, quacks and cosmetic surgeons.
Here you can find such things as the Apocryphal Psalm of Eural, Meet the Saints, The Enigmatist's Prayer, Confess Your Conformities, and Who Needs Faith When You Can Have a Coupon?
Become a member of the Disorder.
Suggested by Father Ratbite
Illuminati won the Origins Award for Best SF Game of 1982, and is still regularly played, even though no copies have been available for years. What's it about? Secret conspiracies are everywhere! The phone company is controlled by creatures from outer space, the Congressional Wives have taken over the Pentagon, and the Boy Sprouts are going door-to-door to smash the IRS. Two to six players compete to grab powerful groups and increase their wealth and power. No ploy is too devious, no strategem too low.
Stock #1305, ISBN 1-55634-384-1. $34.95.
Stock #2100, ISBN 1-55634-370-1. $19.95.
Stock #6504, ISBN 1-55634-184-9. $19.95.
-- Steve Jackson
Check out Basement Full of Books, which lets readers get in touch with the authors who have books to sell. It has links to dozens of authors, including Vonda McIntyre, Pat Cadigan, Harlan Ellison, David Brin, C.J. Cherryh and Ursula LeGuin -- all who would like to sell some of the books that they have bought back from their publishers. A good source for out-of-print hardbacks . . . brand new and signed . . . and usually at far below the original cover price. A good deal all the way around.
Alternative book distribution strikes again! (Thanks to Robert Herneson for pointing this one out.)
-- Steve Jackson
Having done all the damage I can do to sales (and, kidding aside, I learned a lot), I am handing that off to Gene Seabolt, who will also be taking over the Marketing Director hat. I'll be spending more time thinking about computer games. Yes, that's a hint. No, I'm not explaining yet.
-- Steve Jackson
Our direct mail staff will get some vacation time over the Christmas holidays. We haven't set the schedule yet . . . it may just be alternate days or something like that. We will absolutely NOT let your direct mail orders pile up until January, but it may take an extra day or so to process orders received between December 18 and January 3.
The good news is that Celeste Hollister, who we lost in the layoff a few months ago, was still available . . . and she starts Monday. Welcome back, Celeste!
And we press onward through the fog . . .
-- Steve Jackson
The folks at Disinformation have created an searchable index of alternative news sources for the purpose of bypassing the corporate media sources. Current topics include: Jack Chick (those Christian tract comics you find everywhere), Space Migration, Neo-Fascist youth cults, and Bar Codes. Each topic has an excellent collection of rated web sites associated with it. Just clicking through the Chick Christian Comix parodies alone was well-worth the time.(Yes, we've linked to them before, but never given them the Illuminated Site of the Week award. So here it is.)
– Submitted by Glenn Crawford
The new printing of Deluxe Illuminati goes to press very soon; we will ship it in February, if all goes well. (It's being printed by a plant in China and assembled in Hong Kong, or maybe it was the other way around. An experiment; cross your fingers.)Here's an advance look at some of the cards; in this edition, they're full-color, with graphic design by Jack Elmy.
Actually, someone else was wearing the target when the best kill of the day was made. The Evil-Stevie-of-the-moment stopped to talk to the convention's Chainmail Babe, and all his guarding MIBs stopped to, errr, supervise. And while everybody was distracted, an assassin just walked right up and BANG.
Anyway, check out the scenario rules here and see what you think!
-- Steve Jackson
