December 20, 2010: Going Out With A Blast

The brains behind e23 releases will be busy with sugarplums and candy canes the last two weeks of the year, so Thursday was the last upload of the year . . . and they made up for the time they'll be missing with seven books!

First up, it's time for a new Pyramid! 3/26 is subtitled Underwater Adventures. It features two aquatic adventures, two submerged locations, one race of undersea creatures, and a collection of new rules for underwater combat. Basically, if your campaign is near the coast or below the ocean's surface, this issue has something for you.

Next is a Christmas present for Car Wars fans. As we've said many times, nearly everything we've published in the past will eventually appear on e23's digital shelves. Easy things, like books from the last decade or two, will show up sooner rather than later. Many Car Wars products were laid out by hand or include many large, hard-to-scan maps (or both). They won't be popping up as quickly. But each year we try to get something released for the autoduelist. This year, it's The AADA Vehicle Guide and Car Wars City Blocks 2 -- a whole bunch of cars and some good places to wreck them in!

(Don't forget the two companion pieces: Car Wars Expansion Set 6 - The AADA Vehicle Guide Counters, which puts infinitely-printable chits in your hand for each vehicle in The AADA Vehicle Guide; and Car Wars City Blocks, the first in the City Blocks series, with another 32 tiles to form an enormous city.)

Need more classic Steve Jackson Games books? How about GURPS Classic: Best of Pyramid 2? Culled from the most requested articles of the print run of Pyramid, this volume contains the fan-favorite "Unlimited Mana" rules in their original form, 13 weird-yet-wonderful things from the basements of Warehouse 23, and three settings (including my personal favorite, "The Hole" by Jeff Koke). On top of this, you'll find four adventures and seven locations from the Terra Incognita series -- locations weird enough to hang a single encounter or an entire campaign on. Unless you were lucky enough to be a subscriber back in the day, these classic articles have been very difficult to find. Now's your chance to delve into the goldmine of ideas for yourself! (And if you do have a complete collection of the print magazine, you can't beat the search times on a PDF!)

If that wasn't enough classic material for you, we also uploaded In Nomine: Ethereal Player's Guide. If you're playing one of the so-called "neutral" spirits in an In Nomine campaign, you'll want this book for unique Song affinities, and advice for playing a native of the realm of dreams. If you're running that campaign, you'll want ideas for other creatures from mankind's collective unconciousness. This is, after all, the place the ancient beings who used to be worshiped have hidden themselves . . . what else have they hidden here? Either way, this book will be invaluable.

But wait, there's more! The Munchkin's Guide To Power Gaming brings the full power of munchkinism to any roleplaying game. This very, very silly book shows you how to kill the entire party, even when you're not the GM. It's a classic thesis on how to min-max your character, what elements to ignore (things like "personality" and "plot"), and what bribes are appropriate. Of course, the application of any of this advice may have adverse effects on the quality of the pizza the others in your group bring, and may increase the amount of backstabbing and "Oops, I forgot to pick you up tonight." Use this book with care (and a tongue firmly in your cheek)!

Finally, you didn't think we'd forget Space Gamer, did you? Yes, #52 is out this week, with support for Ogre, Traveller, The Fantasy Trip, and gaming historians. The fiction in this issue is an Ogre story by Mike Stackpole, who went on to write some novels set in a galaxy not very close. As usual, there's also a full compliment of news and reviews from 1982.

It's a huge list of stuff, but since they're the last new e23 releases for the year, it'll last us all until the New Year. Happy holidays!

-- Paul Chapman