August 16, 2010: Miniatures And Y2K

Space Gamer #33 was released two weeks ago, so last week the release was obviously Space Gamer #34. Where #33 focused on play-by-mail, #34 includes articles on miniatures -- advance painting tips, a survey of minis manufacturers (current as of December 1980), and a Designer's Notes article from the artist behind Cardboard Heroes. Of course, if fiction is more your thing, there's a short story by Hugo Award-winner Timothy Zahn. I understand he's written a few Star Wars novels as well.

And since we don't throw Space Gamer issues out there all alone, GURPS Y2K also hit the digital shelves. When this book was originally released, fear of the Y2K bug was all too real. For most GURPS players, however, the real attraction was the chapter titled "The Survivors" by SJ himself. It seems he'd been talking about writing on that topic for years, and Y2K gave him the perfect opportunity. A number of other authors kicked in words on the "OMG teh world is ending!!1!!" theme, with names like Punch, Hite, Pulver, Ford, Schroeck, Haring, and Masters. Luckily the apocalyptic predictions never came true, or else this book would have never made it to PDF.

(I wonder: if we run a search/replace we could turn GURPS Y2K into GURPS 2012. Hmm -- I wonder how many times we can end the world?)

-- Paul Chapman