February 13, 2011: Toy Fair Is In NYC And I Am Not

Ten years ago, if I missed a big show, it was probably because I was deathly ill. These days, if I'm not at a big show, it just means I'm doing something else. Phil, Will, and Andrew have NY Toy Fair under control. Their e-mail and tweets make me WISH that I were there - but only in the "Why can't I be twins?" way. Maybe next year I'll go, but right now I'm happy at home working on Munchkin stuff. Last night I finished the majority of the cards for the next Christmas booster and sent all the art specs to John Kovalic (who replied, "Shiny!") Tonight I'll finish the rest of the cards and hand it off to playtest. Then it's on to the Next Thing.

That Next Thing will be a review of the big-map big-box Ogre that we started on last year. Phil thinks he's conquered the print buying issues. His solution means I'll have to reorganize the rules again, but I can live with that if it gets the game out there. We want to have a distributor presentation for the GAMA Trade Show; this will be the biggest box we've ever shipped, and it won't be cheap in any sense. Think Munchkin Quest quality pieces (at least), and a lot more of them.

And oh, yes, I finished the Stakeholders' Report Thursday night, so you'll see it as soon as the page is built.

Toy Fair and Munchkin Zombies have kept our Twitter feed busy with comments and questions . . .

From @MattCaulder: "Is there plans to make a Christmas booster every Christmas?" Nothing is forever except cockroaches. So starting in 2014, we'll do a cockroach booster every Christmas instead. NOOO! That is not true! How about "As long as we keep thinking of holiday jokes, and you keep laughing and buying, we'll do them. If the funny doesn't come, we'll stop."

I am now expecting 20 tweets saying "I would so buy the cockroach game." I have one word for you. Gregor.

From @Thraug: "Is it too late to hope for a Munchkin boxed set?" Hail, Overlord Thraug! In our dimension, Munchkin already comes in boxes! Perhaps your cyborg tech-slaves can build an improved portal and transmogrify one into your plane of existence! But please do not send your mutant armies through to conquer us.

From @martinralya: "These days, I think of @SJGames as a card/dice/board game company first, and an RPG company second. Is that accurate?" Yes, that's completely accurate. We have two full-time GURPS  people, and the GURPS part of SMarsh and Nikki's work is the equivalent of more than a third full-time worker, but cards, boardgames, and dice games together have been outselling RPGs, for us, for several years.

From @wikimancer: (repeated questions about whether we might change the shape and size of the Munchkin box) I sure hope so, someday. I would like to see Munchkin in a travel edition, a boardgame edition, a pocket edition, a kids' playset . . . Muahaaaa. We shall be everywhere! One day you will see these and you will remember that I warned you, but it will be TOO LATE! But we are happy with the standard box the core sets come in and have absolutely no plans to change the box until/unless we change what goes in it. If yours does not meet your needs, maybe you could send it to Overlord Thraug . . .

And @zrealm asks about our plans for PAX East. The whole board/card/dice game development team will be there. Phil and I will do one panel that I know of. Our area will be completely given over to demos and the occasional signing. As is our preference at these events, we won't be selling things; we'll be sending fans to the hobby retailers at the show. Come see us!

-- Steve Jackson