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A while ago you had the chance to ask Steve Jackson, founder and editor-in-chief of Steve Jackson Games, about the numerous games he's created, his efforts to digitize those games, and what to do when the Secret Service shows up at your office. Below you will find his answers to your questions. External influences
by Martin Blank

When I was young, I played games from SJG, TSR, Palladium, R. Talsorian, ICE, FASA, and a bunch of one-off studios I can't remember now. Some of the systems worked really well, some required some tweaking, and others were essentially unplayable. But it was easy to see links between systems. Despite the occasional legal threats, there seemed to be a lot of borrowing each other's ideas. Palladium clearly was influenced by TSR (and I think they've admitted that the first version of their rules was essentially heavily modified D&D rules), and R. Talsorian's old D10/D6-based system seemed to have some influences from FASA. When you're designing a game, what external influences help shape the game? How far can you adopt someone else's ideas before you have to start worrying about lawyers getting involved, and has that changed as the pen & paper RPG has waned in popularity?

Jackson: (1) External influences are much more likely to affect theme than they are mechanics. I might very well say "OMG, must do zombie game now." I am very unlikely to say "Oh, must do worker-placement game with octagon-square net map and triangular cards."

(2) I think that if you are "adopting" ideas, your own shame should kick in long before the lawyers get involved. Unless somebody out there thinks they own, say, the whole idea of "hexagons," or "robots." Which is to say IANAL.

(3) I don't know.



When will gurps be digitalized?
by Anonymous Coward

And where did you find a willing programmer?

Jackson: Good question. Willing for what? :)



GURPS 3d6 Mechanics (Balance)
by CrashNBrn

Have you ever considered officially rebalancing|changing the GURPs mechanics that rely on 3d6 rolls? It has been my experience over the years, when trying to use the GURPs ruleset directly (with no house-rules) that the way the skills/stats interact - at least as far as nearly automatic success is concerned... is quite broken (easily) for non-super players with attributes 14-15+. Compare to say, HERO, which doesn't have an automatic-success problem so much as an overly obtuse|complex modifier issue.

Jackson: Not really. Sorry it's not working out for you. Works for me, and apparently most players. Some GMs find that a degree of near-automatic success in routine tasks (routine for the PCs, that is) is important to get on with the game. GMs who think they are not supposed to use house-rules to customize the game to their exact wishes . . . those GMs are not following my authorial intent, which is Make It Yours.



Online Presence
by Catiline

As visible in your official company FAQ, you had run a ISP as well as other online services (I seem to recall there having been some manner of MOO/MUSH service for running online games), well in advance of most other RPG publishers. Furthermore, you run your own digital store (e23) rather than using through the DriveThruStuff platform used by the rest of the tabletop industry, and made PDF copies of your books available for purchase before the other "major" industry players (Fantasy Flight, Pinnacle, WhiteWolf, and WotC). How much of this decision was strategic—based on a firm belief this was "The Way of the Future"—and how much was it exploratory / risk-taking? In hindsight, what decisions for your online presence would you have made differently?

Jackson: A lot of it was both, and in hindsight, I would have done it more and hired more specialized help to help me do it more, better. Short answer to long question.



From Ideas to Products...
by Anonymous Coward

My son has "like 3000" ideas for new munchkin cards. Any advice for a budding young game designer about getting started/self-publishing/submitting ideas to existing publishers like SJG?

Jackson: Read our page here. A lot of the information on there is very general. Kickstarter is your friend, depending on how old you are. If your son is 12, it would be YOU doing the kickstarter. I suggest you not go there.



Car Wars MMORPG?
by Anonymous Coward

Would you ever consider creating a truly unique car wars video game as a 3D, first person shooter, MMO, RPG? I've thinking something with the open world and economy of Eve, but with the same kind of game play as GTA5, in a persistent MMO world, but using cars and trucks, in a post-apocalyptic world, where the players can live out their Max Mad fantasies, but still have to deal with the complexities of designing and building their cars with the flexibility that that board game had. I've been waiting my entire life since childhood to see a truly epic car wars game, and have been continuously disappointed. Only the original apple game inspired me, but with today's tech, I think it's now achievable.

Jackson: Love to do it. Could not do it with the team I have - we are a boardgame company.



OGRE Simulation Game?
by qeveren

Similar to the Car Wars question above, I've wondered if a multiplayer OGRE sim has ever been considered. First person combat where every gun is firing nukes... I mean, come on! Who wouldn't want that?

Jackson: Considered, OF COURSE. Negotiated, more than once. Finished, never.



Copyright
by jdavidb

Steve, I read that you consider yourself a "small-l libertarian." These days a lot of libertarians have come to oppose copyright law, or else favor severe reforms for it. As a publisher, game designer, and libertarian, how do you feel about the subject, and do you feel that these various roles are in tension with each other? On a related note, in junior high school I bought GURPS Cyberpunk from a friend, only to later find out that that friend had shoplifted it from a bookstore. I've always regretted that. Do I owe you guys some money?

Jackson: Sorry, that would be a looooong essay question. My short inflammatory answer is "Anyone who opposes all copyright protection is wrong." However, I don't agree with infinite protection. Let the writer, artist, musician, whoever, make a good living. Even a great living :) But indefinite corporate control of rights is not something I agree with.

No, we got paid. You owe the store some money.



Metagaming MicroGames
by zoward

While cleaning out my closet a few weeks ago, I came across a stack of Metagaming micro games. I played these with friends from high school over thirty years ago, and we really loved them (they actually got more playtime in our gaming group than some of the larger Avalon Hill titles of the time). While the well-known Ogre and GEV were in there, I still have some old lesser known titles like WarpWar, Invasion of the Air Eaters, Sticks and Stones, and Holy War. Have you considered re-releasing some of the better titles from the old Metagaming catalog?

Jackson: With the exception of Ogre and G.E.V., which I bought back from them, I have no rights in anything from the Metagaming catalog.



Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret
by puddingebola

Bruce Sterling's the Hacker Crackdown seems to indicate or imply that the reason for the Secret Service's raid on your business was that a hacker under investigation was also a fan of your cyberpunk role playing game. The agents involved didn't have a clear understanding of the line between his notes on actual computer hacking and his notes involving the role playing game. You must have been confused when Federal agents knocked on your door and confiscated the computers from your business. How long did it take you to piece together what had happened, and do you feel like you got adequate compensation for your time and trouble?

Jackson: I've told this story often, and the best place you can find material, with far more immediacy of expression, is in The Hacker Crackdown itself and in the documents here.



Munchkin Crossovers You'd Love To Do
by Jason Levine

My boys and I love playing Munchkin. Recently, my oldest got Munchkin Adventure Time. Being big fans of both, we loved playing it. This led me to wonder: Assuming you could get licensing for any ONE franchise (e.g. Star Wars, BTTF, LOTR, Harry Potter, etc), which would you make into a Munchkin game?

Jackson: Oh, wow. I am a geek, I'm sometimes a very typical geek, and I like all that stuff, and you're asking me to name ONE franchise. You are a mean person and the Gerbil of Regret will bite your toes. But then I don't have to answer the question you asked, muauaua. So here's a list.

• STAR WARS - awesome. Just awesome.
• BTTF - lacks obvious strong substitutes for classes and races.
• LOTR - I think I'd use the classic races and classes. I wonder if a "Bored of the Rings" license is available.
• Harry Potter - Four Houses, yay! Lots of magic foes! Lots of puns! Gender swapping! Death!
• Batman - No list of awesome franchises can be complete without Batman.
• Bacon - No list of awesome foods can be complete without bacon. But combining bacon and Batman is a challenge.
• Warcraft - duh, if only.

A while ago you had the chance to ask Steve Jackson, founder and editor-in-chief of Steve Jackson Games, about the numerous games he's created, his efforts to digitize those games, and what to do when the Secret Service shows up at your office. Below you will find his answers to your questions. External influences
by Martin Blank

When I was young, I played games from SJG, TSR, Palladium, R. Talsorian, ICE, FASA, and a bunch of one-off studios I can't remember now. Some of the systems worked really well, some required some tweaking, and others were essentially unplayable. But it was easy to see links between systems. Despite the occasional legal threats, there seemed to be a lot of borrowing each other's ideas. Palladium clearly was influenced by TSR (and I think they've admitted that the first version of their rules was essentially heavily modified D&D rules), and R. Talsorian's old D10/D6-based system seemed to have some influences from FASA. When you're designing a game, what external influences help shape the game? How far can you adopt someone else's ideas before you have to start worrying about lawyers getting involved, and has that changed as the pen & paper RPG has waned in popularity?

Jackson: (1) External influences are much more likely to affect theme than they are mechanics. I might very well say "OMG, must do zombie game now." I am very unlikely to say "Oh, must do worker-placement game with octagon-square net map and triangular cards."

(2) I think that if you are "adopting" ideas, your own shame should kick in long before the lawyers get involved. Unless somebody out there thinks they own, say, the whole idea of "hexagons," or "robots." Which is to say IANAL.

(3) I don't know.



When will gurps be digitalized?
by Anonymous Coward

And where did you find a willing programmer?

Jackson: Good question. Willing for what? :)



GURPS 3d6 Mechanics (Balance)
by CrashNBrn

Have you ever considered officially rebalancing|changing the GURPs mechanics that rely on 3d6 rolls? It has been my experience over the years, when trying to use the GURPs ruleset directly (with no house-rules) that the way the skills/stats interact - at least as far as nearly automatic success is concerned... is quite broken (easily) for non-super players with attributes 14-15+. Compare to say, HERO, which doesn't have an automatic-success problem so much as an overly obtuse|complex modifier issue.

Jackson: Not really. Sorry it's not working out for you. Works for me, and apparently most players. Some GMs find that a degree of near-automatic success in routine tasks (routine for the PCs, that is) is important to get on with the game. GMs who think they are not supposed to use house-rules to customize the game to their exact wishes . . . those GMs are not following my authorial intent, which is Make It Yours.



Online Presence
by Catiline

As visible in your official company FAQ, you had run a ISP as well as other online services (I seem to recall there having been some manner of MOO/MUSH service for running online games), well in advance of most other RPG publishers. Furthermore, you run your own digital store (e23) rather than using through the DriveThruStuff platform used by the rest of the tabletop industry, and made PDF copies of your books available for purchase before the other "major" industry players (Fantasy Flight, Pinnacle, WhiteWolf, and WotC). How much of this decision was strategic—based on a firm belief this was "The Way of the Future"—and how much was it exploratory / risk-taking? In hindsight, what decisions for your online presence would you have made differently?

Jackson: A lot of it was both, and in hindsight, I would have done it more and hired more specialized help to help me do it more, better. Short answer to long question.



From Ideas to Products...
by Anonymous Coward

My son has "like 3000" ideas for new munchkin cards. Any advice for a budding young game designer about getting started/self-publishing/submitting ideas to existing publishers like SJG?

Jackson: Read our page here. A lot of the information on there is very general. Kickstarter is your friend, depending on how old you are. If your son is 12, it would be YOU doing the kickstarter. I suggest you not go there.



Car Wars MMORPG?
by Anonymous Coward

Would you ever consider creating a truly unique car wars video game as a 3D, first person shooter, MMO, RPG? I've thinking something with the open world and economy of Eve, but with the same kind of game play as GTA5, in a persistent MMO world, but using cars and trucks, in a post-apocalyptic world, where the players can live out their Max Mad fantasies, but still have to deal with the complexities of designing and building their cars with the flexibility that that board game had. I've been waiting my entire life since childhood to see a truly epic car wars game, and have been continuously disappointed. Only the original apple game inspired me, but with today's tech, I think it's now achievable.

Jackson: Love to do it. Could not do it with the team I have - we are a boardgame company.



OGRE Simulation Game?
by qeveren

Similar to the Car Wars question above, I've wondered if a multiplayer OGRE sim has ever been considered. First person combat where every gun is firing nukes... I mean, come on! Who wouldn't want that?

Jackson: Considered, OF COURSE. Negotiated, more than once. Finished, never.



Copyright
by jdavidb

Steve, I read that you consider yourself a "small-l libertarian." These days a lot of libertarians have come to oppose copyright law, or else favor severe reforms for it. As a publisher, game designer, and libertarian, how do you feel about the subject, and do you feel that these various roles are in tension with each other? On a related note, in junior high school I bought GURPS Cyberpunk from a friend, only to later find out that that friend had shoplifted it from a bookstore. I've always regretted that. Do I owe you guys some money?

Jackson: Sorry, that would be a looooong essay question. My short inflammatory answer is "Anyone who opposes all copyright protection is wrong." However, I don't agree with infinite protection. Let the writer, artist, musician, whoever, make a good living. Even a great living :) But indefinite corporate control of rights is not something I agree with.

No, we got paid. You owe the store some money.



Metagaming MicroGames
by zoward

While cleaning out my closet a few weeks ago, I came across a stack of Metagaming micro games. I played these with friends from high school over thirty years ago, and we really loved them (they actually got more playtime in our gaming group than some of the larger Avalon Hill titles of the time). While the well-known Ogre and GEV were in there, I still have some old lesser known titles like WarpWar, Invasion of the Air Eaters, Sticks and Stones, and Holy War. Have you considered re-releasing some of the better titles from the old Metagaming catalog?

Jackson: With the exception of Ogre and G.E.V., which I bought back from them, I have no rights in anything from the Metagaming catalog.



Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret
by puddingebola

Bruce Sterling's the Hacker Crackdown seems to indicate or imply that the reason for the Secret Service's raid on your business was that a hacker under investigation was also a fan of your cyberpunk role playing game. The agents involved didn't have a clear understanding of the line between his notes on actual computer hacking and his notes involving the role playing game. You must have been confused when Federal agents knocked on your door and confiscated the computers from your business. How long did it take you to piece together what had happened, and do you feel like you got adequate compensation for your time and trouble?

Jackson: I've told this story often, and the best place you can find material, with far more immediacy of expression, is in The Hacker Crackdown itself and in the documents here.



Munchkin Crossovers You'd Love To Do
by Jason Levine

My boys and I love playing Munchkin. Recently, my oldest got Munchkin Adventure Time. Being big fans of both, we loved playing it. This led me to wonder: Assuming you could get licensing for any ONE franchise (e.g. Star Wars, BTTF, LOTR, Harry Potter, etc), which would you make into a Munchkin game?

Jackson: Oh, wow. I am a geek, I'm sometimes a very typical geek, and I like all that stuff, and you're asking me to name ONE franchise. You are a mean person and the Gerbil of Regret will bite your toes. But then I don't have to answer the question you asked, muauaua. So here's a list.

• STAR WARS - awesome. Just awesome.
• BTTF - lacks obvious strong substitutes for classes and races.
• LOTR - I think I'd use the classic races and classes. I wonder if a "Bored of the Rings" license is available.
• Harry Potter - Four Houses, yay! Lots of magic foes! Lots of puns! Gender swapping! Death!
• Batman - No list of awesome franchises can be complete without Batman.
• Bacon - No list of awesome foods can be complete without bacon. But combining bacon and Batman is a challenge.
• Warcraft - duh, if only.

A while ago you had the chance to ask Steve Jackson, founder and editor-in-chief of Steve Jackson Games, about the numerous games he's created, his efforts to digitize those games, and what to do when the Secret Service shows up at your office. Below you will find his answers to your questions. External influences
by Martin Blank

When I was young, I played games from SJG, TSR, Palladium, R. Talsorian, ICE, FASA, and a bunch of one-off studios I can't remember now. Some of the systems worked really well, some required some tweaking, and others were essentially unplayable. But it was easy to see links between systems. Despite the occasional legal threats, there seemed to be a lot of borrowing each other's ideas. Palladium clearly was influenced by TSR (and I think they've admitted that the first version of their rules was essentially heavily modified D&D rules), and R. Talsorian's old D10/D6-based system seemed to have some influences from FASA. When you're designing a game, what external influences help shape the game? How far can you adopt someone else's ideas before you have to start worrying about lawyers getting involved, and has that changed as the pen & paper RPG has waned in popularity?

Jackson: (1) External influences are much more likely to affect theme than they are mechanics. I might very well say "OMG, must do zombie game now." I am very unlikely to say "Oh, must do worker-placement game with octagon-square net map and triangular cards."

(2) I think that if you are "adopting" ideas, your own shame should kick in long before the lawyers get involved. Unless somebody out there thinks they own, say, the whole idea of "hexagons," or "robots." Which is to say IANAL.

(3) I don't know.



When will gurps be digitalized?
by Anonymous Coward

And where did you find a willing programmer?

Jackson: Good question. Willing for what? :)



GURPS 3d6 Mechanics (Balance)
by CrashNBrn

Have you ever considered officially rebalancing|changing the GURPs mechanics that rely on 3d6 rolls? It has been my experience over the years, when trying to use the GURPs ruleset directly (with no house-rules) that the way the skills/stats interact - at least as far as nearly automatic success is concerned... is quite broken (easily) for non-super players with attributes 14-15+. Compare to say, HERO, which doesn't have an automatic-success problem so much as an overly obtuse|complex modifier issue.

Jackson: Not really. Sorry it's not working out for you. Works for me, and apparently most players. Some GMs find that a degree of near-automatic success in routine tasks (routine for the PCs, that is) is important to get on with the game. GMs who think they are not supposed to use house-rules to customize the game to their exact wishes . . . those GMs are not following my authorial intent, which is Make It Yours.



Online Presence
by Catiline

As visible in your official company FAQ, you had run a ISP as well as other online services (I seem to recall there having been some manner of MOO/MUSH service for running online games), well in advance of most other RPG publishers. Furthermore, you run your own digital store (e23) rather than using through the DriveThruStuff platform used by the rest of the tabletop industry, and made PDF copies of your books available for purchase before the other "major" industry players (Fantasy Flight, Pinnacle, WhiteWolf, and WotC). How much of this decision was strategic—based on a firm belief this was "The Way of the Future"—and how much was it exploratory / risk-taking? In hindsight, what decisions for your online presence would you have made differently?

Jackson: A lot of it was both, and in hindsight, I would have done it more and hired more specialized help to help me do it more, better. Short answer to long question.



From Ideas to Products...
by Anonymous Coward

My son has "like 3000" ideas for new munchkin cards. Any advice for a budding young game designer about getting started/self-publishing/submitting ideas to existing publishers like SJG?

Jackson: Read our page here. A lot of the information on there is very general. Kickstarter is your friend, depending on how old you are. If your son is 12, it would be YOU doing the kickstarter. I suggest you not go there.



Car Wars MMORPG?
by Anonymous Coward

Would you ever consider creating a truly unique car wars video game as a 3D, first person shooter, MMO, RPG? I've thinking something with the open world and economy of Eve, but with the same kind of game play as GTA5, in a persistent MMO world, but using cars and trucks, in a post-apocalyptic world, where the players can live out their Max Mad fantasies, but still have to deal with the complexities of designing and building their cars with the flexibility that that board game had. I've been waiting my entire life since childhood to see a truly epic car wars game, and have been continuously disappointed. Only the original apple game inspired me, but with today's tech, I think it's now achievable.

Jackson: Love to do it. Could not do it with the team I have - we are a boardgame company.



OGRE Simulation Game?
by qeveren

Similar to the Car Wars question above, I've wondered if a multiplayer OGRE sim has ever been considered. First person combat where every gun is firing nukes... I mean, come on! Who wouldn't want that?

Jackson: Considered, OF COURSE. Negotiated, more than once. Finished, never.



Copyright
by jdavidb

Steve, I read that you consider yourself a "small-l libertarian." These days a lot of libertarians have come to oppose copyright law, or else favor severe reforms for it. As a publisher, game designer, and libertarian, how do you feel about the subject, and do you feel that these various roles are in tension with each other? On a related note, in junior high school I bought GURPS Cyberpunk from a friend, only to later find out that that friend had shoplifted it from a bookstore. I've always regretted that. Do I owe you guys some money?

Jackson: Sorry, that would be a looooong essay question. My short inflammatory answer is "Anyone who opposes all copyright protection is wrong." However, I don't agree with infinite protection. Let the writer, artist, musician, whoever, make a good living. Even a great living :) But indefinite corporate control of rights is not something I agree with.

No, we got paid. You owe the store some money.



Metagaming MicroGames
by zoward

While cleaning out my closet a few weeks ago, I came across a stack of Metagaming micro games. I played these with friends from high school over thirty years ago, and we really loved them (they actually got more playtime in our gaming group than some of the larger Avalon Hill titles of the time). While the well-known Ogre and GEV were in there, I still have some old lesser known titles like WarpWar, Invasion of the Air Eaters, Sticks and Stones, and Holy War. Have you considered re-releasing some of the better titles from the old Metagaming catalog?

Jackson: With the exception of Ogre and G.E.V., which I bought back from them, I have no rights in anything from the Metagaming catalog.



Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret
by puddingebola

Bruce Sterling's the Hacker Crackdown seems to indicate or imply that the reason for the Secret Service's raid on your business was that a hacker under investigation was also a fan of your cyberpunk role playing game. The agents involved didn't have a clear understanding of the line between his notes on actual computer hacking and his notes involving the role playing game. You must have been confused when Federal agents knocked on your door and confiscated the computers from your business. How long did it take you to piece together what had happened, and do you feel like you got adequate compensation for your time and trouble?

Jackson: I've told this story often, and the best place you can find material, with far more immediacy of expression, is in The Hacker Crackdown itself and in the documents here.



Munchkin Crossovers You'd Love To Do
by Jason Levine

My boys and I love playing Munchkin. Recently, my oldest got Munchkin Adventure Time. Being big fans of both, we loved playing it. This led me to wonder: Assuming you could get licensing for any ONE franchise (e.g. Star Wars, BTTF, LOTR, Harry Potter, etc), which would you make into a Munchkin game?

Jackson: Oh, wow. I am a geek, I'm sometimes a very typical geek, and I like all that stuff, and you're asking me to name ONE franchise. You are a mean person and the Gerbil of Regret will bite your toes. But then I don't have to answer the question you asked, muauaua. So here's a list.

• STAR WARS - awesome. Just awesome.
• BTTF - lacks obvious strong substitutes for classes and races.
• LOTR - I think I'd use the classic races and classes. I wonder if a "Bored of the Rings" license is available.
• Harry Potter - Four Houses, yay! Lots of magic foes! Lots of puns! Gender swapping! Death!
• Batman - No list of awesome franchises can be complete without Batman.
• Bacon - No list of awesome foods can be complete without bacon. But combining bacon and Batman is a challenge.
• Warcraft - duh, if only.

A while ago you had the chance to ask Steve Jackson, founder and editor-in-chief of Steve Jackson Games, about the numerous games he's created, his efforts to digitize those games, and what to do when the Secret Service shows up at your office. Below you will find his answers to your questions. External influences
by Martin Blank

When I was young, I played games from SJG, TSR, Palladium, R. Talsorian, ICE, FASA, and a bunch of one-off studios I can't remember now. Some of the systems worked really well, some required some tweaking, and others were essentially unplayable. But it was easy to see links between systems. Despite the occasional legal threats, there seemed to be a lot of borrowing each other's ideas. Palladium clearly was influenced by TSR (and I think they've admitted that the first version of their rules was essentially heavily modified D&D rules), and R. Talsorian's old D10/D6-based system seemed to have some influences from FASA. When you're designing a game, what external influences help shape the game? How far can you adopt someone else's ideas before you have to start worrying about lawyers getting involved, and has that changed as the pen & paper RPG has waned in popularity?

Jackson: (1) External influences are much more likely to affect theme than they are mechanics. I might very well say "OMG, must do zombie game now." I am very unlikely to say "Oh, must do worker-placement game with octagon-square net map and triangular cards."

(2) I think that if you are "adopting" ideas, your own shame should kick in long before the lawyers get involved. Unless somebody out there thinks they own, say, the whole idea of "hexagons," or "robots." Which is to say IANAL.

(3) I don't know.



When will gurps be digitalized?
by Anonymous Coward

And where did you find a willing programmer?

Jackson: Good question. Willing for what? :)



GURPS 3d6 Mechanics (Balance)
by CrashNBrn

Have you ever considered officially rebalancing|changing the GURPs mechanics that rely on 3d6 rolls? It has been my experience over the years, when trying to use the GURPs ruleset directly (with no house-rules) that the way the skills/stats interact - at least as far as nearly automatic success is concerned... is quite broken (easily) for non-super players with attributes 14-15+. Compare to say, HERO, which doesn't have an automatic-success problem so much as an overly obtuse|complex modifier issue.

Jackson: Not really. Sorry it's not working out for you. Works for me, and apparently most players. Some GMs find that a degree of near-automatic success in routine tasks (routine for the PCs, that is) is important to get on with the game. GMs who think they are not supposed to use house-rules to customize the game to their exact wishes . . . those GMs are not following my authorial intent, which is Make It Yours.



Online Presence
by Catiline

As visible in your official company FAQ, you had run a ISP as well as other online services (I seem to recall there having been some manner of MOO/MUSH service for running online games), well in advance of most other RPG publishers. Furthermore, you run your own digital store (e23) rather than using through the DriveThruStuff platform used by the rest of the tabletop industry, and made PDF copies of your books available for purchase before the other "major" industry players (Fantasy Flight, Pinnacle, WhiteWolf, and WotC). How much of this decision was strategic—based on a firm belief this was "The Way of the Future"—and how much was it exploratory / risk-taking? In hindsight, what decisions for your online presence would you have made differently?

Jackson: A lot of it was both, and in hindsight, I would have done it more and hired more specialized help to help me do it more, better. Short answer to long question.



From Ideas to Products...
by Anonymous Coward

My son has "like 3000" ideas for new munchkin cards. Any advice for a budding young game designer about getting started/self-publishing/submitting ideas to existing publishers like SJG?

Jackson: Read our page here. A lot of the information on there is very general. Kickstarter is your friend, depending on how old you are. If your son is 12, it would be YOU doing the kickstarter. I suggest you not go there.



Car Wars MMORPG?
by Anonymous Coward

Would you ever consider creating a truly unique car wars video game as a 3D, first person shooter, MMO, RPG? I've thinking something with the open world and economy of Eve, but with the same kind of game play as GTA5, in a persistent MMO world, but using cars and trucks, in a post-apocalyptic world, where the players can live out their Max Mad fantasies, but still have to deal with the complexities of designing and building their cars with the flexibility that that board game had. I've been waiting my entire life since childhood to see a truly epic car wars game, and have been continuously disappointed. Only the original apple game inspired me, but with today's tech, I think it's now achievable.

Jackson: Love to do it. Could not do it with the team I have - we are a boardgame company.



OGRE Simulation Game?
by qeveren

Similar to the Car Wars question above, I've wondered if a multiplayer OGRE sim has ever been considered. First person combat where every gun is firing nukes... I mean, come on! Who wouldn't want that?

Jackson: Considered, OF COURSE. Negotiated, more than once. Finished, never.



Copyright
by jdavidb

Steve, I read that you consider yourself a "small-l libertarian." These days a lot of libertarians have come to oppose copyright law, or else favor severe reforms for it. As a publisher, game designer, and libertarian, how do you feel about the subject, and do you feel that these various roles are in tension with each other? On a related note, in junior high school I bought GURPS Cyberpunk from a friend, only to later find out that that friend had shoplifted it from a bookstore. I've always regretted that. Do I owe you guys some money?

Jackson: Sorry, that would be a looooong essay question. My short inflammatory answer is "Anyone who opposes all copyright protection is wrong." However, I don't agree with infinite protection. Let the writer, artist, musician, whoever, make a good living. Even a great living :) But indefinite corporate control of rights is not something I agree with.

No, we got paid. You owe the store some money.



Metagaming MicroGames
by zoward

While cleaning out my closet a few weeks ago, I came across a stack of Metagaming micro games. I played these with friends from high school over thirty years ago, and we really loved them (they actually got more playtime in our gaming group than some of the larger Avalon Hill titles of the time). While the well-known Ogre and GEV were in there, I still have some old lesser known titles like WarpWar, Invasion of the Air Eaters, Sticks and Stones, and Holy War. Have you considered re-releasing some of the better titles from the old Metagaming catalog?

Jackson: With the exception of Ogre and G.E.V., which I bought back from them, I have no rights in anything from the Metagaming catalog.



Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret
by puddingebola

Bruce Sterling's the Hacker Crackdown seems to indicate or imply that the reason for the Secret Service's raid on your business was that a hacker under investigation was also a fan of your cyberpunk role playing game. The agents involved didn't have a clear understanding of the line between his notes on actual computer hacking and his notes involving the role playing game. You must have been confused when Federal agents knocked on your door and confiscated the computers from your business. How long did it take you to piece together what had happened, and do you feel like you got adequate compensation for your time and trouble?

Jackson: I've told this story often, and the best place you can find material, with far more immediacy of expression, is in The Hacker Crackdown itself and in the documents here.



Munchkin Crossovers You'd Love To Do
by Jason Levine

My boys and I love playing Munchkin. Recently, my oldest got Munchkin Adventure Time. Being big fans of both, we loved playing it. This led me to wonder: Assuming you could get licensing for any ONE franchise (e.g. Star Wars, BTTF, LOTR, Harry Potter, etc), which would you make into a Munchkin game?

Jackson: Oh, wow. I am a geek, I'm sometimes a very typical geek, and I like all that stuff, and you're asking me to name ONE franchise. You are a mean person and the Gerbil of Regret will bite your toes. But then I don't have to answer the question you asked, muauaua. So here's a list.

• STAR WARS - awesome. Just awesome.
• BTTF - lacks obvious strong substitutes for classes and races.
• LOTR - I think I'd use the classic races and classes. I wonder if a "Bored of the Rings" license is available.
• Harry Potter - Four Houses, yay! Lots of magic foes! Lots of puns! Gender swapping! Death!
• Batman - No list of awesome franchises can be complete without Batman.
• Bacon - No list of awesome foods can be complete without bacon. But combining bacon and Batman is a challenge.
• Warcraft - duh, if only.

Since starting his own company in 1980, Steve Jackson, founder and editor-in-chief of Steve Jackson Games, has created a number of hits, starting with Car Wars . . . followed shortly by Illuminati, and later by GURPS, the "Generic Universal Roleplaying System." In 1983, he was elected to the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame - the youngest person ever so honored. He has personally won 11 Origins Awards. In the early 90's, Steve got international press due to the Secret Service's invasion of his office. The EFF helped make it possible for SJ Games to bring suit against the Secret Service and the U.S. government and win more than $50,000 in damages. His Ogre kickstarter a couple of years ago brought in close to a million dollars. His current hits are Munchkin, a very silly card game about killing monsters and taking their stuff, and Zombie Dice, in which you eat brains and try not to get shotgunned. His current projects include a variety of Munchkin follow-ups, and the continuing quest to get his games translated into digital form. Steve has agreed to put down the dice and answer any questions you may have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one per post.

Since starting his own company in 1980, Steve Jackson, founder and editor-in-chief of Steve Jackson Games, has created a number of hits, starting with Car Wars . . . followed shortly by Illuminati, and later by GURPS, the "Generic Universal Roleplaying System." In 1983, he was elected to the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame - the youngest person ever so honored. He has personally won 11 Origins Awards. In the early 90's, Steve got international press due to the Secret Service's invasion of his office. The EFF helped make it possible for SJ Games to bring suit against the Secret Service and the U.S. government and win more than $50,000 in damages. His Ogre kickstarter a couple of years ago brought in close to a million dollars. His current hits are Munchkin, a very silly card game about killing monsters and taking their stuff, and Zombie Dice, in which you eat brains and try not to get shotgunned. His current projects include a variety of Munchkin follow-ups, and the continuing quest to get his games translated into digital form. Steve has agreed to put down the dice and answer any questions you may have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one per post.

Imagine game designer Steve Jackson and a bunch of friends building Lego trains and tracks and scenery, including buildings and other props. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? The group calls itself the Texas Brick Railroad. A lot of members have children, so their meetings tend to be family affairs. Plus, as they're doing here, they often display their train sets at public events where -- yes -- their trains attract children like crazy. This video shows off both current Lego trains and some of the classic, no-longer-sold Lego trains that members have collected over the years, including the highly-prized monorails. There's a transcript, but face it: This is basically visual material, and worth checking out on a computer or handheld that runs Flash if your normal one doesn't. (We've requested an upgrade from Flash-only video, but don't hold your breath. It might be a good while before we get it.)

Steve Jackson Games occupies a special place in the history of gaming, not only for publishing some of the best-known tabletop games ever published, especially their distinctive microgames, but the company's failure to roll over in the aftermath of an FBI raid more than 20 years ago led to the creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Since 1980, Steve Jackson and company have been publishing games -- and a magazine, and even a book. The company is based in Austin, Texas, so while I was at SXSW, I had a chance to meet up with SJG's Chief Operating Officer and Managing Editor, Philip Reed, who gave a quick overview of what's new on the table. (Har har.)

Steve Jackson Games occupies a special place in the history of gaming, not only for publishing some of the best-known tabletop games ever published, especially their distinctive microgames, but the company's failure to roll over in the aftermath of an FBI raid more than 20 years ago led to the creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Since 1980, Steve Jackson and company have been publishing games -- and a magazine, and even a book. The company is based in Austin, Texas, so while I was at SXSW, I had a chance to meet up with SJG's Chief Operating Officer and Managing Editor, Philip Reed, who gave a quick overview of what's new on the table. (Har har.)

Steve Jackson Games occupies a special place in the history of gaming, not only for publishing some of the best-known tabletop games ever published, especially their distinctive microgames, but the company's failure to roll over in the aftermath of an FBI raid more than 20 years ago led to the creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Since 1980, Steve Jackson and company have been publishing games -- and a magazine, and even a book. The company is based in Austin, Texas, so while I was at SXSW, I had a chance to meet up with SJG's Chief Operating Officer and Managing Editor, Philip Reed, who gave a quick overview of what's new on the table. (Har har.)

An anonymous reader writes "The former Illuminati Online domain, IO.com, has been sold, and all existing customers will lose all services associated with the domain. A 1990 Secret Service raid on Steve Jackson Games, then owner of the Illuminati Online BBS and later the IO.com domain led to the creation of the EFF and was an important milestone in the fight for online rights. While the domain has been sold in the past, the services offered to customers always remained unchanged. However, this most recent sale, to an unnamed party, will result in all services being dropped on July 1, and people will lose email addresses, web pages, and shell accounts that many have had for 15+ years." Bad news for me — io.com was my first real ISP, and I was hoping to see if I could revive the account.

An anonymous reader writes "The former Illuminati Online domain, IO.com, has been sold, and all existing customers will lose all services associated with the domain. A 1990 Secret Service raid on Steve Jackson Games, then owner of the Illuminati Online BBS and later the IO.com domain led to the creation of the EFF and was an important milestone in the fight for online rights. While the domain has been sold in the past, the services offered to customers always remained unchanged. However, this most recent sale, to an unnamed party, will result in all services being dropped on July 1, and people will lose email addresses, web pages, and shell accounts that many have had for 15+ years." Bad news for me — io.com was my first real ISP, and I was hoping to see if I could revive the account.

Running a table-top roleplaying game is, to put it mildly, a challenge. A prospective Game Master (or Dungeon Master) has to utilize interpersonal communications, mathematics, creative writing, acting, and endless stores of patience in order to successfully draw a group of players into a gaming experience. With that in mind, most wise DMs use every tool they can lay their hands on to make the job easier. Wizards of the Coast's sequel to the Dungeon Master's Guide may just be the toolkit you've been looking for. Read on for my impressions of WotC's Dungeon Master's Guide II. Dungeon Master's Guide II author Jesse Decker, David Noonan, Chris Thomasson, James Jacobs, Robin D. Laws pages 288 publisher Wizards of the Coast rating 8 reviewer Zonk ISBN 0786936878 summary A worthy successor to the D&D core book with advice for the starting DM. Like all gaming communities, the table-top community is filled to the brim with nit-picking critics. WotC has gotten a lot of flack for churning out books that are filled with prestige classes, feats, and spells ... and not much else. While I think they're doing much better of late on that front, if you've found this to be your experience this book will convince you there is more than just numbers to the west coast wizards.

DMG II is a deeper mirror of the first Dungeon Master's Guide. Each chapter in the first book is reflected in the sequel, providing more explanation and a deeper look at the subject matter showcased in the original. In addition to mechanics, which was the primary focus of the first Guide, the DMG II examines the process of running a Dungeons and Dragons game by breaking it into discrete elements.

The first few chapters of the second Guide are entirely devoted to the experience of the game from the Dungeon Master's side of the screen. Like another good book on the subject, Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering , DMG II goes into the psychology of the rules arbiter by laying out what will likely be required from you in your role as DM. The Guide also goes inside the heads of players to offer up to the reader possible motivations for a player coming to the gaming table.

From the broad scope of running a game, the book focuses in on the campaign and adventure specific levels. An examination of campaigns covers a large amount of terrain, starting with game styles and character creation suggestions, and ending up in a discussion of the medieval-renaissance flavor of the default Dungeons and Dragons setting. Adventures as discrete entities get something of a short shrift in the book, with heavy discussion of iconic adventure settings taking up most of that chapter. If you've ever wanted to run a battle in the sky, this tome has what you need. The adventure chapter does have a few worthwhile tips on incorporating material from outside sources into your own campaigns, making a Dungeon Magazine subscription more tempting than it might otherwise be.

Beyond the basics, the mission of the second DMG seems to be to allow DMs with a limited amount of time maximum flexibility. Where the original title had pre-generated NPC statistics to utilize, the second book has chapters on making NPCs more interesting, ways to integrate your players more fully into the campaign world, and an entire mapped out and catalogued city for you to insert into your game. The character chapter includes a system for allowing players to run their own businesses. It abstracts out a good number of factors, keeping the focus of the game on fun and adventure while allowing players to put down roots and make some money. While more realistic campaigns may not find it worthwhile, the average dungeon-crawl will benefit from a small business run using these rules. Similarly impressive is the canned city, Saltmarsh. Saltmarsh is a good-sized town, with plots aplenty and several interesting adventure opportunities spread throughout the different districts. Like the campaign chapter, the city of Saltmarsh gives a window into the standard setting that a first time DM might not otherwise have available.

For a veteran Dungeon Master, there are a few gems that stand out as making this book worthwhile. The sections on Saltmarsh, the business system, and the various tips on tweaking your gameworld (including suggestions for creating prestige classes) would all be handy to have at your fingertips. Newer Dungeon Masters should not miss the opportunity to take a look at this book. The chapters on pacing, performance, and campaign preparation are very well written and will provide some much needed advice for someone just cutting their teeth. Players need not apply. The information a Player would get from this book is simply not worth the money to pick up, unless you're planning on getting into the DM gig.

Wizards of the Coast has created a worthy successor to the original Dungeon Master's Guide. Providing a deeper examination of the original tome's content and a reflection on the performance art that is DMing, to new DMs the DMG II is definitely worth the price-tag.

You can purchase Dungeon Master's Guide II from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Ant writes "And I thought I had seen it all from DOOM world. Nope, there is a boardgame! It is for 2 to 4 players, playable in 1 to 2 hours, based on the groundbreaking DOOM 3 computer game by id Software. Seen on Blue's News." There's also Frag, which IMHO isn't a very good boardgame. The Doom game looks like it might work, though.

Matthew Skala writes "This article from the Boston Globe describes the 'What's The Diff?' program, in which U.S. students and teachers can win prizes by learning to endorse the MPAA's version of copyright law. They're using volunteer labour from Junior Achievement - not an organization I would have expected to see doing this kind of thing. I guess I'll have to move its card over in my mental Illuminati: New World Order game."

Grizzletooth writes "According to GamingReport, at the GAMA tradeshow in Las Vegas today, Steve Jackson Games announced they will release the 4th edition of the GURPS pen-and-paper role playing game. The Steve Jackson Games site has updated its official GURPS page to reflect this announcement." For those not in the know, the GURPS FAQ page explains: "GURPS is the 'Generic Universal RolePlaying System.' It starts with simple rules, and builds up to as much optional detail as you like. The basic rules system is designed to be playable in any background: fantasy or historical; past, present, or future."

Grizzletooth writes "According to GamingReport, at the GAMA tradeshow in Las Vegas today, Steve Jackson Games announced they will release the 4th edition of the GURPS pen-and-paper role playing game. The Steve Jackson Games site has updated its official GURPS page to reflect this announcement." For those not in the know, the GURPS FAQ page explains: "GURPS is the 'Generic Universal RolePlaying System.' It starts with simple rules, and builds up to as much optional detail as you like. The basic rules system is designed to be playable in any background: fantasy or historical; past, present, or future."

Robotech_Master writes: "Citing financial difficulties (stemming from a CFO who apparently didn't keep the books in sufficiently good order), Steve Jackson has announced the layoff of 13 employees from Steve Jackson Games today. (Long-time Internetters will recall that the FBI raid on SJG was one of the first causes celebre of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.)" Update: 07/07 12:32 PM by michael : It was the Secret Service, not the FBI, of course. We've had several stories mentioning the raids on the Illuminati Online bulletin board and SJG.

An AC sent in a link to a Jane's article about unmanned fighter aircraft, including some designed for carrier operations. (See older story.) Funny, everyone always thought it would be the tanks that were unmanned.

WhiteRabbit writes, "According to their Web site, March 1, 2000 is ten years to the day since the Secret Service raided Steve Jackson Games... for publishing a cyberpunk-style role-playing game supplement. This was one of the first cases in which the Electronic Frontier Foundation became involved. More info at this page."

William Tanksley writes "Anyone here remember the Illuminati card game? It seems that Steve Jackson Games got enough complaints about the horrid MagicTheGathering-clone version they'd released, and they're finally releasing an updated, full-color version of the original game."