|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 Recent Posts
IT HAS ARRIVED! If you have one on preorder, it will ship to you within the next week. if you didn't get one on preorder, you can still get one now, we have plenty to go around. And if you're going to Origins or GenCon, we'll have them there. But at last, at long, sweet last, they are HERE! Huzzah! Phil (mildly sore and quite stinky from unloading the skids...)
I listen to whatever my iPod is delivering to my system at the moment. Ahh, sweet, sweet iPod, oh how I worship thee... However, for daily listening here at the palatial Paizo estates, I dial up www.woxy.com, a radio station I used to work for and my personal favorite for over 20 years. The terrestrial station went off the air in May 2004, but the same jocks and music live on thanks to the interweb. Go, sign up, listen, join, love! Trust me, you'll love it!
We don't get any more information on the titles offered than you see there, so I'm afraid I can't help you much. What you might want to do is ask Bandai (or whoever the publisher is) directly, referring to the title and/or stock number, and maybe someone at their customer service may know. I know, it's weak, but that's the best I've got :-)
Great googly moogly. The samples of each box showed up today (packed with a fantastic selection of English chocolates, MMMM KINDER EGGS!!) We promptly got to unwrapping and playing with the games. WOW. You guys have GOT to get this game. We haven't played it yet to see how the rules are, but for bit-feel-factor alone, they are simply spectacular. The main box is just overflowing with rubbery-plastic figures, some of which (the skellies with nets) are the most awesome sculpts I've ever seen in injection molding. The PC figs all represent the iconic D&D 3.5 characters, and all the figs are a bit bigger than yoru standard D&D Miniatures figs, but they would certainly do in a pinch. The critters and terrain, for that matter, would probably work very well on a regular D&D table. The expansions are equally friggin' awesome. The forest one has a four-part druid fig, but the ice one has a clear plastic ice dragon that is just too cool for words, you really have to see it to believe it. More terrain and game bits in the box, in case you don't want to play the rules. We have plans to get a game going later this week, perhaps as early as tomorrow. As soon as we play we'll report back, but as of right now everyone in this office is just blown away with this thing. If you want one too, better get your preorder in fast, because we'll be ordering the load of them at the end of this week. We'll be setting aside a chunk to sell at conventions this year, so there won't be many left over if you didn't preorder it. So get yours now! :-) You can find them here!
GenCOn Indy is the king granddaddy of all caming conventions. It is Mecca for us geeks :-) This is the 39th year for GenCon, and promises to be the biggest and best one to date. Over 30,000 people attend four days of 24/7 gaming goodness, the show floor is something like 90,000 sq ft of game stuff for sale, the shows and events and seminars and all of it... If you've never been, it's hard to describe just how wonderful it really is. GC SoCal is much smaller and more sedate, with about 6,000 people attending last year IIRC. It's still a helluva show, but nothing comes close to GenCon. Well, maybe Origins, in Columbus the week before July 4, but that's my personal bias speaking :-) www.gencon.com www.originsgames.com
That's right, I needs me some volunteer booth help for Origins, GenCon Indy, GenCon SoCal, maybe DragonCon (still undetermined if we'll be there, but maybe) and KublaCon! Read on, fellow traveller... WHAT'S ALL THIS, THEN?: If you are a.) local to one or more of these shows and b.) already planning on attending, and would like to be an Official Paizo Booth Monkey, you and I need to talk. I need at a minimum three, maybe as many as six monkeys for Origins and the two GenCon shows, the rest I'll figure out as they get closer. THAT'S ME, WHAT DO YOU NEED?: What I need is booth staff, mainly to demonstrate the Compleat Adventure scenarios, show off Item Cards, talk up the Shackled City and DRAGON Compendium books, tell people how great the magazines are and, when you're done, point them to the cash registers conveniently located at the north end of the booth. To this end, I need folks who are WELL VERSED in all or many of the Paizo products! I won't have much time to train you on what they are and how they work, I need you to come pre-equipped with working knowledge of the goods so you can run quick demos, give concise descriptions, answer basic questions and point them to the cash registers. Have I mentioned we'll be selling a LOT of stuff at the booths this year? Ching! I'M IN! WHAT DO I DO: If you meet the above description, drop me an email at phil@paizo.com, and title it BOOTH MONKEY so my filter will catch it and route it properly. Only one email will do, it's not a drawing - the more times you enter, you are less likely to win! Simply tell me who you are, where you are, what shows you'll be attending, and how deep your knowledge is of our stuff. Be honest, don't fluff it up - I'd rather you tell me straignt-up that you have memorized the Age of Worms and don't know the Item Cards at all, than have you lie to me and tell me you know it all about everything we make. I'll read through the emails and contact folks I think we can use, and let everyone know quickly when I'm done. GREAT! WHAT DO I GET?: I want to make this crystal clear: Paizo WILL NOT FLY YOU to ANY show! Period! I'm looking for what I consider to be "local" help, or someone who is already going to the show anyway on their own dime and doesn't mind helping us out for a few hours a day. In exchange, if you NEED it I will put you in a room (yes, with three other souls, but a room nonetheless), I will get you an exhibitor badge, and I will clad you in appropriate Paizo t-shirt action; I will throw random peanut butter sandwiches and lukewarm soda at your gaping maw, and I will work you like simpering orcs at the booth during exhibitor hall hours! What you do when you're not volunteering with us is your business - feel free to wander the halls, get into games, hang out at the bars, whatever makes you happy, just as long as you're back at the booth the next day for your assigned shift. (important legal bit)
Our convention volunteer cooridnator, Michelle, will arrange times for you to help us out and times for you to be free and wander the hall or do your own thing, but we must insist that if you agree to help during certain hours, you actually show up and work! Michelle is NOT pleasant when she's angry, you don't want to see her when she's angry... This convention season promises to be a gargantuan one for the Paizo crew. We've never quite done conventions like we're going to do them this year, so there's bound to be growing pains. But if you're passionate about our products, and genuinely want to lend us a hand, we'd love to have you! Thanks! - Phil
That's right, I needs me some volunteer booth help for Origins, GenCon Indy, GenCon SoCal, maybe DragonCon (still undetermined if we'll be there, but maybe) and KublaCon! Read on, fellow traveller... WHAT'S ALL THIS, THEN?: If you are a.) local to one or more of these shows and b.) already planning on attending, and would like to be an Official Paizo Booth Monkey, you and I need to talk. I need at a minimum three, maybe as many as six monkeys for Origins and the two GenCon shows, the rest I'll figure out as they get closer. THAT'S ME, WHAT DO YOU NEED?: What I need is booth staff, mainly to demonstrate the Compleat Adventure scenarios, show off Item Cards, talk up the Shackled City and DRAGON Compendium books, tell people how great the magazines are and, when you're done, point them to the cash registers conveniently located at the north end of the booth. To this end, I need folks who are WELL VERSED in all or many of the Paizo products! I won't have much time to train you on what they are and how they work, I need you to come pre-equipped with working knowledge of the goods so you can run quick demos, give concise descriptions, answer basic questions and point them to the cash registers. Have I mentioned we'll be selling a LOT of stuff at the booths this year? Ching! I'M IN! WHAT DO I DO: If you meet the above description, drop me an email at phil@paizo.com, and title it BOOTH MONKEY so my filter will catch it and route it properly. Only one email will do, it's not a drawing - the more times you enter, you are less likely to win! Simply tell me who you are, where you are, what shows you'll be attending, and how deep your knowledge is of our stuff. Be honest, don't fluff it up - I'd rather you tell me straignt-up that you have memorized the Age of Worms and don't know the Item Cards at all, than have you lie to me and tell me you know it all about everything we make. I'll read through the emails and contact folks I think we can use, and let everyone know quickly when I'm done. GREAT! WHAT DO I GET?: I want to make this crystal clear: Paizo WILL NOT FLY YOU to ANY show! Period! I'm looking for what I consider to be "local" help, or someone who is already going to the show anyway on their own dime and doesn't mind helping us out for a few hours a day. In exchange, if you NEED it I will put you in a room (yes, with three other souls, but a room nonetheless), I will get you an exhibitor badge, and I will clad you in appropriate Paizo t-shirt action; I will throw random peanut butter sandwiches and lukewarm soda at your gaping maw, and I will work you like simpering orcs at the booth during exhibitor hall hours! What you do when you're not volunteering with us is your business - feel free to wander the halls, get into games, hang out at the bars, whatever makes you happy, just as long as you're back at the booth the next day for your assigned shift. (important legal bit)
Our convention volunteer cooridnator, Michelle, will arrange times for you to help us out and times for you to be free and wander the hall or do your own thing, but we must insist that if you agree to help during certain hours, you actually show up and work! Michelle is NOT pleasant when she's angry, you don't want to see her when she's angry... This convention season promises to be a gargantuan one for the Paizo crew. We've never quite done conventions like we're going to do them this year, so there's bound to be growing pains. But if you're passionate about our products, and genuinely want to lend us a hand, we'd love to have you! Thanks! - Phil
That's right, I needs me some volunteer booth help for Origins, GenCon Indy, GenCon SoCal, maybe DragonCon (still undetermined if we'll be there, but maybe) and KublaCon! Read on, fellow traveller... WHAT'S ALL THIS, THEN?: If you are a.) local to one or more of these shows and b.) already planning on attending, and would like to be an Official Paizo Booth Monkey, you and I need to talk. I need at a minimum three, maybe as many as six monkeys for Origins and the two GenCon shows, the rest I'll figure out as they get closer. THAT'S ME, WHAT DO YOU NEED?: What I need is booth staff, mainly to demonstrate the Compleat Adventure scenarios, show off Item Cards, talk up the Shackled City and DRAGON Compendium books, tell people how great the magazines are and, when you're done, point them to the cash registers conveniently located at the north end of the booth. To this end, I need folks who are WELL VERSED in all or many of the Paizo products! I won't have much time to train you on what they are and how they work, I need you to come pre-equipped with working knowledge of the goods so you can run quick demos, give concise descriptions, answer basic questions and point them to the cash registers. Have I mentioned we'll be selling a LOT of stuff at the booths this year? Ching! I'M IN! WHAT DO I DO: If you meet the above description, drop me an email at phil@paizo.com, and title it BOOTH MONKEY so my filter will catch it and route it properly. Only one email will do, it's not a drawing - the more times you enter, you are less likely to win! Simply tell me who you are, where you are, what shows you'll be attending, and how deep your knowledge is of our stuff. Be honest, don't fluff it up - I'd rather you tell me straignt-up that you have memorized the Age of Worms and don't know the Item Cards at all, than have you lie to me and tell me you know it all about everything we make. I'll read through the emails and contact folks I think we can use, and let everyone know quickly when I'm done. GREAT! WHAT DO I GET?: I want to make this crystal clear: Paizo WILL NOT FLY YOU to ANY show! Period! I'm looking for what I consider to be "local" help, or someone who is already going to the show anyway on their own dime and doesn't mind helping us out for a few hours a day. In exchange, if you NEED it I will put you in a room (yes, with three other souls, but a room nonetheless), I will get you an exhibitor badge, and I will clad you in appropriate Paizo t-shirt action; I will throw random peanut butter sandwiches and lukewarm soda at your gaping maw, and I will work you like simpering orcs at the booth during exhibitor hall hours! What you do when you're not volunteering with us is your business - feel free to wander the halls, get into games, hang out at the bars, whatever makes you happy, just as long as you're back at the booth the next day for your assigned shift. (important legal bit)
Our convention volunteer cooridnator, Michelle, will arrange times for you to help us out and times for you to be free and wander the hall or do your own thing, but we must insist that if you agree to help during certain hours, you actually show up and work! Michelle is NOT pleasant when she's angry, you don't want to see her when she's angry... This convention season promises to be a gargantuan one for the Paizo crew. We've never quite done conventions like we're going to do them this year, so there's bound to be growing pains. But if you're passionate about our products, and genuinely want to lend us a hand, we'd love to have you! Thanks! - Phil
I am curious what is meant by the ugly Americans in Norway. It wasn't Norway-specific, nor did it refer to any one specific person or incident. "The Ugly American" is a general term for tourists from our country who go to another country and in general act like total asshats. They are loud, obnoxious, demand everyone speak their dialect of English, refusing to even learn the simplest of languages, wear American flag clothing around and parade their patriotism in the most inappropriate places, and in general act like arrogant SOBs to anyone they come across who won't take their dollars and give them exactly what they want. It's amazing that more of our European cousins don't cut us out of the will (and Australian, too, they really don't like Yank tourists down there much) for the way some of our citizenry act when outside our borders. Although, according to this fascinating article, we're not the only ones any longer: http://www.poppolitics.com/articles/2001-05-08-american.shtml
Mine's easy. It's the name I found on the license I took from the dead hobo's wallet. It may or may not have been his actual ID, by that point it was much too hard to tell for sure. Although his shoes didn't fit, the warm smell of his tattered sweatshirt stayed with me for years... As for the avatar, well, we don't yet have one of a large, imposing long-haired and bespectacled fellow wearing a kilt and a smile, so I had to go with the chick. That, and I feel pretty.
Heh, books. Don't talk to me about books. When I moved out here from Ohio in March, I had to lug everything I owned in one bigass Penske truck. Fully one THIRD of it was books. The small house I'm renting miraculously has built-in bookshelves in every room, otherwise I'd have nowhere for my stuff. We took a rough count a couple weekends ago, and the estimate was around 1,800 novels or non-gaming books of all flavors (mostly hardback, a few hundred paperback, all genres), about 1550 RPG and other gaming books (including miniatures rules, historicals books, etc.), over 650 board and card games, 4,500 or so music CDs, just shy of 600 laserdiscs (stop giggling, I love 'em) and about 200 DVDs. To say nothing of my 20-year collection of DUNGEON, DRAGON, National Geographic, Car & Driver and numerous others. I now have 18 bookshelves in my house packed to the gills, and could probably use three or four more. Sad, ain't it? :-)
Remember earlier when I said I had far too many gamer T-shirts in my closet? Forget I ever mentioned that. With the introduction of our newest clothing line from Pegasus Publishing, I hereby swear that I shall rip every remaining non-geek shirt from my closet and replace them with these beauties! The Pegasus line is totally geeky, and is loaded with much gamer-related content, like GMs Don't Kill Characters and the ever-popular I Rolled a 20... Suck It! T-shirt. And for the more cerebral among us, there are many nifty designs found nowhere else and often containing things only you and your coworkers (or fellow students) will grok, like Yes, It Is Rocket Science, English Doesn't Borrow and the insanely hot Mad Scientists Union tee! Even the ladies will find something of laugh value, such as These Aren't the Breasts You're Looking For and Yes, They're Natural (Twenties). Finally, can anyone resist another Cthulhu shirt? Madness, I say! And—best of all—they come in the entire gamer-geek size range from Gamer Large (the label says "XXXL") all the way down to Gamer Small (aka "Large") Gamer Tiny (that is to say, "Medium"), so now gamer girls and really, really skinny gamer guys can play too!
I'm actually looking into that, and the new manufacturer (check today's blog when it posts here soon) is bringing in all the sizes - Gamer Tiny, Gamer Small, Gamer Medium, Gamer Large and Gamer Huge (which translate to medium, large, XL, 2XL and 3XL in the real world...) If there's demand here for the smaller sizes, we will definitely get them in from OffWorld Designs and anyone else I buy shirts from! Keep up the good feedback!
Hey gang, feel free to cut-n-paste the body of my original blog text above into any email you may wish to send to friends, or to any other RPG or gaming related board you may frequent. Spread the word far and wide, and let everyone know about these surveys, for they shall make us stronger, faster, better.... We thank ye fer yer support!
Today I'm taking a brief break from shilling the neatest, coolest games in the world, and I'm asking for your help. Yes, I'm talking to you, there in your comfy computer chair, sitting at your desk, sipping Mountain Dew! Listen up; there will literally be a test at the end.... Paizo and the entire game industry are in need of your input. Paizo has just launched a survey for Dragon and Dungeon so that we can learn more about our readers and their interests. We strive every month to bring you the very best the game industry has to offer, but every so often we have to ask you straight up, "Hey, how we doin'?" To show our thanks for your time, we'll enter you in a drawing to win a HUGE PILE OF PAIZO STUFF! Not a bad way to spend ten minutes! Take the Dragon and Dungeon survey! Coincidentally, another industry survey—one having a much broader scope and depth than our humble questionnaire—was just launched. Ohio State University's School of Communication, in partnership with the Game Manufacturers Association and the Wargamer, is doing a survey of game players to gather information about what kinds of games you like and why you buy them. This information will go to every manufacturer and publisher, so it will help the entire industry make the games you want, and make them better! So help us all bring you better games by going to http://www.gamesurvey.org/ and taking the survey. Gamers of all ages and interest levels are encouraged to participate in both surveys, so please feel free to forward this information to all your gaming friends and encourage them to participate in both! The more people who take each survey, the more accurate the results, so spread the word far and wide! The paizo.com staff, and the game industry as a whole, would like to sincerely thank you for your time spent answering both of these surveys. And in the case of our in-house questionnaire, there's also the chance of winning big prizes! Sweet!
Someone recently told me that I had far too many gaming-related T-shirts in my closet. I beg to differ: the classic black tee with something funny on the front never goes out of style, right? Our good friends at Offworld Designs certainly think so. They've gone and done it again, sending us a huge batch of designs fresh from their twisted minds. Consider: Ketchup Dragon, Killer Bunnies: Lord of the Bunnies, 1337 Eye Chart, Cthulhu at the Brokeback Mountains of Madness, and (my personal fave) killin ur d00ds. All shirts are available in Gamer Tiny, Gamer Small, Gamer Medium and Gamer Large (known to the common textiles industry as L, XL, XXL and XXXL)! For good measure, Offworld also sent us a restock of the most popular shirts we sell, including AC/HP, cephaloPod, Roll the Dice and Will Game for Food! Don't be left out in the hateful burning bright sun this convention season—get covered by a gamer tee!
I burn through a passport ever six or seven years, because I fill the old one up. I've been to over 100 countries now, and knock more off the list every year. Yeah, I love to travel :-) I lived in Norway for a couple of years, waaaaay back when, and "went native" while I was there, so I got to see The ugly American more times than I care to remember.
We have samples on their way of the core game and both expansions (which are available now, and you can order them from us BTW), so as soon as they show up we'll tear into them and issue a full report. I agree, it was a very bizarre thing that they shipped them all to the UK, so naturally there are too many for the demand there. We hope to fix that here :-) So far, these things are going like wildfire, folks have been ordering them nonstop since I posted the blog the other day. Between this and the Q-Workshop dice, we're really hopping around here lately!
Sometime in Earth's future, after a Golden Age of peace and technological advancement, the face of the planet is decimated by the return of magic and the Coming of the Rifts. Cities fall, civilization collapses, billions of people perish, and portals to a thousand alien worlds open across the face of the planet... For nearly 20 years, the fine folks at Palladium have brought us tales from the land of the Rifts Megaverse that crosses and combines every genre—science fiction, fantasy, horror, the supernatural, superheroes, dimensional travel, magic, monsters, and more! If you've never explored the Rifts roleplaying world, now's the perfect time! Hundreds of books, miniatures, novels, art collections, Rifter magazines, and more are in stock and ready to expand your gaming experience. The mind reels at the sheer volume and scope of the available titles and subject matter: anything and everything you'd ever want to play in a post-apocalyptic world is right here!
Seriously, folks - this thing is amazing. If you aren't familiar with it, it's a board game that contains no roleplaying, but allows up to four adventurers (using the core D&D 3.5 classes and their art etc.) to go up against the "evil Dungeon Master" who controls the mobs and the loot. 11 scenarios in the core game, many others in the two expansions. The weirdest thing is, Hasbro US decided not to release it here, believing that it would cause confusion with the D&D RPG brand in this country - so they sent it to the UK, where it's done very well. I managed to get a line on a big pile of these things, and I'm telling ya, they are WELL worth the money! Check them out here if you haven't seen them already: http://paizo.com/store/brand/dungeonsDragons/boardGames Very, very cool stuff, that I thought should be brought to your attention :-)
Seriously, folks - this thing is amazing. If you aren't familiar with it, it's a board game that contains no roleplaying, but allows up to four adventurers (using the core D&D 3.5 classes and their art etc.) to go up against the "evil Dungeon Master" who controls the mobs and the loot. 11 scenarios in the core game, many others in the two expansions. The weirdest thing is, Hasbro US decided not to release it here, believing that it would cause confusion with the D&D RPG brand in this country - so they sent it to the UK, where it's done very well. I managed to get a line on a big pile of these things, and I'm telling ya, they are WELL worth the money! Check them out here if you haven't seen them already: http://paizo.com/store/brand/dungeonsDragons/boardGames Very, very cool stuff, that I thought should be brought to your attention :-)
Do not wait that long. I am not kidding. These things are selling like wildfire, I've never seen the likes of it. We will most likely be completely sold out of ALL the sets that we ordered before they even arrive here in Seattle, as well as a good chunk of the singles. So if you're on the fence about these, time to get down off said fence and get your pre-order in, because these things are impressively popular!
Gang, I gotta tell ya - the more I play with these, the cooler they are. I mean, seriously, they just rock on toast. Sure, the boosters will have some randomness to them - but like someone here said recently, as a DM, I don't want to give my characters the exact same item next week (or next campaign) that I gave them out of this deck. As a PC in two campaigns, I have to agree - me want new and different shiny, not same old shiny hand-me-down from some other character. Plus, I've just seen the art from the new cards, and again...rock, toast, repeat! Seriously, seriously cool stuff here.
Oh, and for those interested in attending, info on the con can be found at www.originsgames.com. I'm on the board of directors of the Game Manufacturers' Association (GAMA) that owns and runs the show, so I kinda know a little bit about it :-) 20,000 people and all the games you could ever wish to play. Four days of fun in Ohio, hope to see y'all there!
The Poles have been oddly quiet this week, but I'm workin' it, my man, workin' it as hard as I can! I love those things too, can't wait to get the whole line in here and see hwo they do. Soon, soon, I swear! It's in their hands right now... As for the rest of you, keep the good ideas coming! We love to hear about neat cool stuff to sell on the site, so if you see something, drop us an email and let us know. We'll do our level best to get it up there for you to throw your quatloos at! We love quatloos...
Good news, faithful townsfolk! The Crystal Caste "D'OH!" dice are in fact real, and are in fact on their way to our shores even as we speak. We will, of course, be carrying them here in the store, and most likely playing them here in our in-house games as well. I mean, honestly, who wouldn't use these gems? I am also working with the fine folks at Crystal Caste to come up with perhaps a promotional thing we could do with these very dice. Nothing set in stone, mind you, but we're discussing it now and as soon as I have something to report, you'll hear it here first! Phil
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
