Daily Illuminator Archive for March 2009

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March 1, 2009:
One of the cool things about working at a company that makes games and toys is that we sometimes order up a prototype of a nifty thing, just because we can. For instance, our Chibithulhus have been so popular that Phil decided to order a bigger one . . . read article

March 2, 2009:
Last week's e23 release was The Lair of the Fat Man, an adventure for GURPS Fourth Edition. It's got a big fat villain, stolen military secrets, and a team of agents drawn from four major intelligence agencies . . . read article

March 3, 2009:
Who doesn't need more books? Well, unless your bookshelves are overflowing, you can never have too many reference books when you're preparing for a campaign . . . read article

March 4, 2009:
Today is GM's Day, honoring all the gamemasters out there, running one-shots, multi-year campaigns, and everything in between. In celebration, e23 has uploaded a huge block of new classics later today. GURPS Classic: Horror (for Third Edition) . . . read article

March 5, 2009:
On Monday, March 9th, we will be closing the e23 website from approximately 12am - 3pm CST (GMT -6) in order to do some maintenance on the site's billing systems. During this time, customers will not be able to access the site, place orders, or access their file libraries . . . read article

March 6, 2009:
This week we're hosting Steve and Leanna Cole, and Steve Petrick, of Amarillo Design Bureau. Shop is being talked, stories are being told, and no evil plans of any kind are being hatched . . . read article

March 7, 2009:
If you're familiar with XKCD and a coder geek, you're likely already familiar with the infamous "sudo make me a sandwich" joke. If not, go read the strip . . . read article

March 8, 2009:
Well, not so much attacks, as "gets built." (Construction seems to be a theme around here lately, doesn't it?) After much deliberation, and a bit of searching, we now have a very nice place to meet, or eat lunch, or just enjoy a sunny day . . . read article

March 9, 2009:
Yep, more construction news. If you're looking for your normal Monday morning e23 announcement, I've got good news and I've got bad news . . . read article

March 10, 2009:
After a week of downtime, Warehouse 23 is back online. Some of the construction projects are still "in progress," but things have settled enough for the shipping table to be used . . . read article

March 11, 2009:
One of the recent upgrades we've made to e23 is a . . . Ok, I have no idea what Jimmie and Thomas did . . . read article

March 12, 2009:
Upright banners are the best piece of convention equipment since the fatigue mat. They're portable, can be set up by one person, and are eye-catching . . . read article

March 13, 2009:
If your house is infested with demons, the Paranormal Clergy Institute, an offshoot of the Catholic Church, warns you not to take them on yourself . . . that is, unless you've taken their courses. They're all free, unless you want to buy Bishop Long's book . . . read article

March 14, 2009:
Did you know we have a news page specifically for Munchkin? Well, now you do . . . read article

March 15, 2009:
As you may recall, we recently ran a survey asking about your plans for gaming purchases. The results were interesting, and we thought we'd share them. 41% felt you were going to be about the same this year, financially speaking. 27% felt you would do better, and 24% felt like this year would be worse . . . read article

March 16, 2009:
Subway stations. Well-traveled hubs of commuter traffic or fell pits of Cimmerian gloom? You make the call . . . read article

March 17, 2009:
Liz Danforth is one of my very oldest friends in gaming. She was the illustrator for my second game, Melee, and in all the years since then we've managed never to fall completely out of touch . . . read article

March 18, 2009:
Where do old pyramids go when their time on Earth is done?  This one indulged in one last bit of farewell mind control, channeling itself through Richard Kerr. By energizing the latent powers of his brain and reflecting the resultant highly tuned cerebral rays off a piece of conveniently located space junk (and here you all thought that satellite collision was an accident), it was able to reprogram the genomes of all the hamsters in the northern 40% of Utah . . . read article

March 19, 2009:
The following items have been received by the warehouse and shipped off to our distributors. Your friendly local game store should be seeing them any day now! Munchkin Booty 2 - Jump the Shark Jump the Shark . . . or you're fish food! . . . read article

March 20, 2009:
Reverend Bob Larson, who appeared in the four-episode TV series The Real Exorcist, doesn't have to come to you to help you with your personal case of demonic possession - he can send you his material on DVD. Hold on . . . almost three days worth of viewing? . . . read article

March 21, 2009:
After weeks of hard work, our new webmaster, Russell, has given us a snazzy new Munchkin web design. It should be much easier to find all your favorite Munchkin loot on the new pages, and you might even turn up some stuff you hadn't heard about before . . . read article

March 22, 2009:
I have not been to MisCon for years, and I miss it. Very, very fun convention in beautiful Missoula, Montana . . . read article

March 23, 2009:
Some days, I just want to fill the Daily Illuminator with FNORDS. In any publishing venture, you need to work months, sometimes years, ahead . . . read article

March 24, 2009:
If you visit our new World of Munchkin page, you may notice that the Munchkin Dude from the Munchkin cover looks a little different. We decided that after eight years of squinting and the worst overbite in recorded history, we'd get him fixed up . . . read article

March 25, 2009:
Okay, maybe that wasn't the best joke I've ever had, but I needed something appropriate for Pyramid #3/5: Horror & Spies. I couldn't rightly title the entry "Buy Our Book If You Find Its Contents Pleasing, Don't Buy It If You Are Not Amenable To Such A Product." For one thing, that's way too long . . . read article

March 26, 2009:
This was our first bluebonnet of the year. It popped up a couple of weeks ago beside the back door . . . read article

March 27, 2009:
From the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" Department, the Egyptian government is fighting a new urban legend: killer text messages. It seems that a newspaper reported a man south of Cairo receiving a strange text, then promptly dying of massive and messy brain hemorrhage . . . read article

March 28, 2009:
Augmented reality -- the overlay of computer information onto real-world objects -- is quickly becoming a reality. See, for instance, Wikitude: an app for Google's Android platform that gives you information on over 350,000 points of interest as you look at them through the phone's camera screen . . . read article

March 29, 2009:
I wish that I got to Perth more often . . . there's a store that I'd like to visit. Where is that darned teleporter when we need it? . . . read article

March 30, 2009:
Legend has it that a mind is a terrible thing to waste. A good sentiment . . . read article

March 31, 2009:
The guys over at Tribe (Austin's newest FLGS, and the only one on the south side of town) pointed me at Fiddler's Hearth, an Irish restaurant near downtown Austin. They run a "game night" each Tuesday, with a room set aside for board and card games . . . read article

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