Well, my actual website is now fully operational. I assure you, it is quite deadly. A lot of the content from this blog has been copied over there already, not sure if I'll move the rest or not.
Right now we have a couple of articles, weekly columns, bi weekly webcomic. Soon we'll have some videos up there too. So go there... go there now. Add it to your favorites. Share with your friends.
Please... I beg of you. For the love of all that is good, visit my site. Now back to the old and out of date blog you've somehow found:
I took a break from updates yesterday since I was shifting to an earlier time slot at work, I also couldn’t think of anything to update since I was tired and busy. How did karma repay me? Someone stole my tickets to the hockey game last night.Good times.
But here we are on a Tuesday morning, 3 sleeps between now and PAX East, and we’re returning to our regularly scheduled programming. Today’s topic, one of the esteemed PAX East vendors: Steve Jackson Games.
To me, Steve Jackson Games are pure college nostalgia. Back in college, there was a plethora of geeky distractions, table top RPGs a few times a week, an arcade that you could get to without going outside (attached to a bar), laser tag down the street, even a bi-weekly Vampire larp, oh yeah… there was some classes involved too, I wouldn’t know too much about that though, I didn’t go very often. Even with all that going on though, there was still an absurd amount of time that needed to be killed off during any given day (there would probably have been less time to kill if we went to classes). That’s where SJG came in.
Founded in 1980, they specialized in mini-games, often just using cards and a few tokens to track points or character locations. These games were highly portable, originally sold in 4x7 ziploc bags, and later in 4x7 pocket boxes. The gameplay of these microgames fell somewhere in between traditional card and board games, and more complex “German style” games (ala Settlers of Catan). Not overly complex, easy to pick up, but with a little more strategy involved than a game of Sorry!
Oh sure, SJG published some traditional tabletop games, using the very competent self-designed GURPS (Generic Universal Role Playing System) mechanics, which was a universal (duh) system designed to be adapted to any setting. Fun side bar: They even released GURPS versions of existing properties; you could play World of Darkness GURPS, Hellboy GURPS, Deadlands GURPS, etc. I will admit that I never played GURPS myself, but I’m told by reliable sources that it’s a good system. GURPS is not why SJG holds a special place in my heart though.
As I’ve already alluded to, the microgames were the draw. My first SJG was Car Wars. An old beat up deck from a time possibly before I was born, every card dog eared, held together by browned scotch tape would hold a world of car combat, and by the unofficial rules, as the newest player of the game, I was fresh meat. I think I was destroyed in about 10 minutes. This was standard fare amongst my friends; the new guy playing Car Wars was ganged up on by the other 3 players, sort of a Car Wars hazing. However, I was hooked, the next day; I wanted to play Car Wars.
Sooner or later, someone would show up with a new SJG. The Awful Green Things from Outer Space was a favorite (and I’ve since found out it was an old favorite, originally published in Dragon magazine in 1979), followed by awesome games like Illuminati and the still popular Munchkin. You know that jerk that you might’ve gamed with in college? The guy who was all about the loot and occasionally even screwing over other party members (I’m referring specifically to tabletop Munchkins here)? Well, even though you’d be a dick if you played like that in a tabletop, in the card game it was the whole point. It was tons of fun, tweaking the rules to equip a great-axe and a chainsaw at the same time against an unstoppable gazebo? Hells yes. Behavior that was frowned upon became ok, just for this one game. There was also the entertaining Ninja Burger, where you played burger delivering ninjas! Did it make sense? No! Was it fun? Yes! And who can forget 4 hour long games of Knightmare Chess?
Steve Jackson was even kind enough to publish a set of rules for the sure-to-get-you-in-trouble-with-school-administration game Killer (or Assassination by any other name). In my extended group of friends a game of Killer could start off with 20-30 people, and sign ups were done anonymously, so you never knew who was even in the game, let alone who might be after you, add into the mix that we were all going to school, gaming, drinking and generally hanging out with each other? A healthy dose of paranoia was injected into our daily lives (“Oliver never comes out drinking with us, what gives? Oh my God he’s gonna kill one of us!”).
But of all the SJGs that we played, there is a game that holds an even more special place in my heart, a sub-chamber within the previously mentioned special place already reserved for SJGs: Chez Geek. A game where you played a group of geeky friends living in an apartment building, trying to slack off as much as possible by: hanging out at cafés, playing video games, playing RPGs, sleeping in the middle of the day, watching B movies, getting drunk… THIS GAME WAS MY LIFE!! There was not a single character in the game that didn’t have a real world counterpart (even negative status characters like the Chode Warrior… we knew that guy! He could eat your girlfriend if he hung around too long!). It was a little strange, as we grew up and graduated or otherwise moved on from college, and we all started getting our own places instead of living in overcrowded apartments, the game’s popularity sort of dwindled amongst the crew. Did we grow out of it? Or does it just remind us of better, simpler times? Or maybe it reminds us of how shitty living below the poverty line with roommates you used to be friends with but now can’t stand because their goddamned cat wrecked you new coat and they stole your booze and their friend has been on the couch for 3 days!?
Maybe it’s that one.
No matter what though, Steve Jackson and his (relatively) humble gaming company has provided me with countless hours of entertainment, and even though I played most of them in another time in my life, I will definitely swing by their booth to see what sort of new stuff they’re pumping out these days that is just as entertaining as the stuff that I was into back in college (that Nanuk game looks pretty cool!). Seeing them on the list of merch guys also made me toss my old basic deck of Chez Geek into my bag too.
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