And this week's dream is from Stefan Jones, author of GURPS Unnight and GURPS Uplift. Looks like Stefan has been thinking about marketing too much . . .
-- Steve Jackson
A little learning is a dangerous thing, but a lot of learning about Cthulhu and company is downright hysterical. The file cabinets are filled to overflowing with dossiers, gossip and green ooze at S-P-O-N-G-E. They'll only tell you what you need to know if you join, and by then it's too late.
-- Suggested by Mr. Hanzan
In Nomine Hardback
This book contains the core rules for the In
Nomine roleplaying system. The setting is introduced by
two short stories, A Bright Dream
and A Dark Dream by author
Derek Pearcy. Character creation concepts are discussed, along with the game
mechanics, resource mechanics, essense, resonance, dissonance, and falling.
In Nomine also describes each of the
choirs of angels and bands
of demons, introduces 13 Archangels and Demon Princes, and discusses soldiers
of God (and Hell), ethereal spirits, celestial spirits, and the undead.
#3324, ISBN 1-55634-448-1. 208 pages. $26.95.
Superiors 4 (In Nomine)
From the ancient - Valefor (Theft) and Mammon (Greed) - to the modern - Vapula (Technology) and Fleurity (Drugs) - the most successful Demon Princes have preyed on man's hidden vices. (Especially Alaemon, Prince of Secrets.) Now In Nomine Game Masters can unleash these evils on their players.
In Superiors 4, discover what these Princes want - and why. GMs will get lots of adventure seeds to inflict on their players. Players will learn what it means to serve these Superiors - not just powers and dissonance (though that's there too), but what the subculture of each Word expects from its members, and how to stay under the Princes' radar . . . until the time is right to be noticed.
144 pages, #3323, ISBN 1-55634-442-2, $20.95.
Knightmare Chess 2nd Edition (reprint)
Chess will never be the same! Knightmare Chess is chess played with cards -
and what cards! Each card breaks the rules in a wild and unpredictable way,
giving the game more twists and turns than a roller coaster. A translation
of the popular French game Tempete sur l'Echequier by Pierre Clequin and
Bruno Faidutti, Knightmare Chess has 80 big, beautiful cards - each with an
individual color painting by Brazilian artist Rogerio Vilela.
#1321, ISBN 1-55634-332-9. $14.95.
Mmm-hmmm. One of these days.
Before too long.
-- Steve Jackson
-- Alain H. Dawson, Managing Editor
We just got our sample copies of the In Nomine hardback. Looks very, very nice . . . here's the cover art by Christopher Shy, who you'll be seeing a LOT more of soon. And look at the graphic treatment that Phil Reed did on the back, too.Important note: This is NOT a new edition. We fixed a few glitches and made a few minor updates, but if you have the In Nomine core rules already, you don't NEED this. Unless you missed out on getting a hardback the first time around, and you've worn out your softback . . . or unless you just love the cover :-)
The really neat thing is, this one is cheaper than the last hardback edition.
Applied Digital Solutions is watching your back -- and holding your hand.
Their Digital Angel may soon be implanted in citizens everywhere, carrying all their vital information in a whole new kind of "palm" pilot. Imagine: Your health, your safety, your finances, all in the palm of your hand. And you in the palm of theirs...
Thanks to everyone who sent suggestions. A cat is right out for me - I'm quite allergic to them. One correspondent did offer some ferret droppings, to terrorize them by smell - we'll give that a try.
Glue traps *ought* to work, but so far have merely annoyed one of them. He got out. I know, that's supposed to be impossible. These are BIG mice; the last one I got measured 13.5" nose to tail, and more than 6" nose to rump. And no, he wasn't a rat. I know the difference . . . These are just atomic horror midnight movie mice.
So I bought some rat-sized glue traps, and we'll see what happens.
And yes, I'm asking myself if there is a game in this, and if so, from whose viewpoint!
-- Steve Jackson
All our playtesting is done via the Web, and it's only open to Pyramid subscribers - for four cents a day, you can't afford not to help us polish our games. Subscribe to Pyramid today!
-- Keith Johnson
Our challenge now: to come up with an appropriate soundtrack for the day-long ride into orbit. We have only 50 years; there's no time to waste.
-- Steve Jackson
In this day and age of cloning, Judgment Day is tailor-made. Since Christ was so careless with his body and blood, The Second Coming Project is taking the DNA wherever they can find it and cranking out a savior. You can contribute - or find out more about the Biblical basis for these plans - at their site.
-- From multiple submissions
Yes, my garage and attic are plagued by Pinky's little cousins. A couple of them fell victim to the old reliable spring traps, but the survivors are definitely wiser . . . this morning I found their leavings right between two traps. I sense an editorial comment.
I'm not going to poison them; poison gets where you don't want it, and I sure don't want mice crawling into my walls to die. Gotta trap them, chase them away, or recruit them into the MIBs. Squeak.
-- Steve Jackson
But sometimes there's a happy ending. I have now spoken with R--------, who is the supervisor of W---------. In fact, she called me. The bottom line: she had finally seen my whole file and she was calling to say "Yes, there was a problem her e, how can I make it right?" So we talked . . .
She tells me that no, the technical employee who refused even to let me speak to his supervisor about the problem was NOT following Apple policy. That's a relief :-\
And she agreed to deal with the data-recovery issue. I am now crossing my fingers that it CAN be recovered.
I won't pretend to be pleased at the amount of difficulty it took to get to somebody with this attitude. But at least there WAS somebody with that attitude. So I won't give up on Apple.
Thanks again to everyone who wrote. Moral: Be polite, persistent, persistent and persistent.
-- Steve Jackson
Check out Bob's website, Songworm, for more info, lyrics, sample cuts . . .
There are also lyrics and samples at the MP3.com site.
-- Steve Jackson
You can see all the toys - multicolored, very cool - on this Yowie page. #23, of course, is the Killer Kangaroo. They got pretty wild with some of the names they gave the creatures, culminating in the
Demon Duck of Doom, but there's real paleontology behind the silly names. Not that I have a problem with silly names. Au contraire, mes amis . . .
-- Steve Jackson
On-line auctions are all the rage, and disturbingauctions has all the outrage. No reasonable offer is refused for some of the travesties listed on this site, mostly because any offer is generous indeed.
-- Suggested by Rev. Karl Musser
(Soon they'll be hunting us for food...)
We have a limited supply of Uncle Albert's Catalog from Hell, the classic
Car Wars supplement. Get them while they last!
-- Brendon
-- Shig the Unmentionable
Yet.
The nametags are written in very large type. Yea! I can READ them!
There's no Coke in the con suite. Pepsi products only. Feh.
There *is* a last-minute attempt being made to organize gaming programming. The problem now is that the relationship between what they phoned in to the con newsletter (while Alain and I were listening) and what the newsletter actually published was . . . well, there WAS no relationship. Thus, today's industry panel crashed and burned. Hey, I have done Worldcon newsletters; accidents can happen, but one of the rules is you don't deliberately screw around with people's news. So if you're by any chanc e reading this from Worldcon, plan on getting your gaming schedule info from the gaming division itself. (Steve said grumpily.)
On the other hand, the con's Internet facilities are wonderful. I'm typing this from one of fifty net-connected Macs that are here 24 hours a day for fans to check their mail and keep in touch - and there are another dozen ports for laptop connecti
ons. Well done.
-- Steve Jackson
As to Apple's Customer Service: I have been handed up to W-------, in the "Executive Relations" department. W------- is very polite, once we finally quit playing phone tag (W------ WON'T TALK TO ME by e-mail; she tells me that Apple's policy is to handle customer complaints like this by voice. [Welcome to the early 20th century !!!!!!!] On repeated requests, she gave me her fax number, and I gave her all the data in a long fax.)
W-------- has offered to cover half the cost of data recovery on the drive they yanked. I'd say we're about halfway toward a fair solution. Oh, here's a picture of the drive as it was returned to me. Is it normal for a technician to bend the pins every wh
ich way when a drive is removed from a machine?
W-------- also won't comment on the way I was treated initially. She acknowledges that I'm dissatisfied with my experience, and she says she is willing to apologize (which is almost up there with a real apology). But she refuses to comment on whether M---
-----, in particular, was following Apple policy. She'll send a note to his supervisor, but will it recommend execution or promotion? She's not saying. As I told W--------, this really bothers me. When one of my employees fails to follow policy and injure
s somebody, I *tell the customer* that that was not our policy. (And if they DO follow policy and the policy was bad, the customer gets an apology and an acknowledgement that the policy is broken and will be fixed.) What's so hard about that?
Grrrrr.
-- Steve Jackson
