Nature (well, several PhDs published in nature) declares that current AI/LLM tools meet the criteria for AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). I think there are some semantic arguments, but I (basically) agree.
Michael Rosenberg is on the short list of “best (bridge) card play technician in the world.”2 He’s been presenting some of his notes on card play and I’ve literally never heard of some of these rules, but they make total sense. There Are Many Situations. (This is deep stuff, Rosenberg says its all theoretically correct but even most of his national+ caliber partners don’t play it. I think I understand the 87xx example and some of the others).
What Happened to Amazon3 — How culture changes. (I heard a quote a few years ago that resonated with me. “Culture is what you let people get away with” (or “Culture is what you tolerate.” If you no longer tolerate well-intentioned failure, you won’t get innovation). After that I skimmed some of the author’s other articles and came upon an interesting and I think correct take on Iron Man — The Suit was Never the Point
My oldest (not the TaoLing) was actually a test baby at Duke’s Psychology Dept. for some experiments, and so was presented with very cute “B.S.”, “M.S.”, and “Ph.D” degrees (all in “Baby Science”) which sadly did not help her resume. There is no point to this footnote, I just find it adorable. ︎
Arguably, he is the entire list, although partially that’s because Bob Hamman is over 80. ︎
I added this link to the list before seeing that Amazon had lost $~400M in market cap over the last week or two. ︎
GURPS at 40: Steve Jackson Reflects on Building Gaming's Most Ambitious System When I told Steve Jackson that three of my gaming buddies started arguing about GURPS combat mechanics just from hearing I'd be interviewing him, he laughed. "That sounds about right," he said from his home in Atlanta. After four decades in game design, Jackson has heard it all when it comes to GURPS: the love, the hate, and everything in between.
It was 1986 when Steve Jackson Games launched GURPS (Generic Universal RolePlaying System), making a promise that seemed impossible: one system for every game. Now, with hundreds of supplements and a devoted global fanbase, GURPS has arguably delivered on that promise. But how do you actually build something universal? And what would Jackson change if he started over today?
"I Thought Polyhedra Were Unnecessarily Complex" The heart of GURPS is its 3d6 roll-under system, which was pretty radical back in the mid-80s. While other designers were embracing weird dice and complex mechanics, Jackson went the opposite direction.
"I thought that polyhedra were unnecessarily complex," he tells me, and then adds: "I still think that."
It's a surprisingly firm stance from someone whose system has grown to accommodate everything from space opera to medieval fantasy. But Jackson's logic is sound; "There are some very good systems that use polyhedra, but they use them in simple ways."
The 3d6 choice wasn't just about simplicity—it was about accessibility. Jackson wanted something that felt natural to players without requiring a math degree. "The core rules are very straightforward," he insists. "If we just wanted to sit down and go through a dungeon in GURPS? Oh, I could have you running in 30 minutes."
Thirty minutes. For a system that's notorious for being crunchy. Jackson seems to enjoy this contradiction.
The Complexity Guy Who Built Something Simple Here's where Jackson gets interesting. "I'm a complexity guy," he admits without hesitation. "I like wheels within wheels. And when I write a game, the first draft is always longer than the final draft."
So how does someone who loves complexity create something that can teach new players in half an hour? Jackson's secret is layers.
"GURPS is a crunchy system," he says, completely matter-of-fact about it. "Completely fair. It's not as crunchy as some people want to make out, because the core rules are very straightforward. But there are specialist rules for many, many subjects. And those can get really crunchy."
The genius is in the modularity. You don't need to know the vehicle design rules to fight goblins. You don't need the time travel mechanics to run a detective story. But if you want to design a custom starship or solve temporal paradoxes, the rules are there.
Jackson calls it a "Catch-22 effect". "Now that there are that many supplements, people think it has to be crunchy", he states. The system's success created its own reputation problem.
"Eventually They Shut Up" When GURPS launched, Jackson faced the obvious question: how can one supplement cover "every game"? His response captures his dry sense of humor perfectly:
"It was very funny when the game first came out, people said: 'Well there's only one supplement, how can it be for every game?' And then a couple of years later: 'Well there are only six supplements, how can it be for every game?' And then a couple of years later: 'Well there are only twenty supplements, how can it be for every world?' But eventually they shut up."
The proof was in the execution. GURPS didn't just promise universality—it delivered, supplement by supplement. Each new book stress-tested the core system against different genres and scenarios.
Jackson lights up when talking about GURPS Time Travel, which he co-wrote with John M. Ford. "He was a wonderful man to work with. And it came out very, very well. Much of it is an homage to the work of H. Beam Piper, one of my favorite science fiction authors."
It's these personal touches that make GURPS more than just a mechanical exercise. Each supplement reflects genuine passion for its subject matter.
Learning from SPI (and Translating to English) GURPS didn't emerge from nowhere—it built on the tradition of detailed simulation games, particularly those from Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI). But Jackson learned from SPI's biggest weakness.
"The Ogre rules are very heavily influenced by SPI," he explains. "But they are translated to English, which makes a difference." That last bit gets a laugh out of both of us. Anyone who's wrestled with SPI rulebooks knows exactly what he means. "SPI's rules were famously difficult to interpret," Jackson continues. "I have no idea how many hours I spent on their games when I was in college."
Those frustrating hours became Jackson's design school. He took SPI's mechanical sophistication but wrapped it in clear, unambiguous language. It's a lesson more game designers should learn.
What He'd Change Today After nearly forty years, Jackson has clear thoughts on where GURPS could improve. When I ask what he'd simplify in a ground-up redesign, his answer comes immediately: "Character creation. Social skill interaction. I think those are the big ones."
Character creation in GURPS is incredibly flexible, but it can overwhelm newcomers with options. Social mechanics, despite multiple supplement treatments, never quite achieved the elegance of combat resolution.
But Jackson isn't rushing into a fifth edition. "I don't like to do a revision until it's time," he says. "There are games that are revised every few years. And sometimes that's because the first job was sloppy and sometimes it's because there's a grab for money. I would rather people not say either of those things about me."
Italian Fans and Global Appeal Jackson has fond memories of visiting Lucca Comics & Games years ago, where he met dedicated Italian GURPS fans. "The Lucca show is just overwhelming," he recalls. These days, Lucca has grown even more massive, but Jackson's experience there highlighted something important about GURPS: its international appeal.
Italian GURPS fans are "extremely dedicated," as I can personally attest. There's something about the system's comprehensive approach that resonates with European gaming culture, where detailed simulation games have always found appreciative audiences. Jackson's relationship with global gaming communities shows how GURPS succeeded not by being generically universal, but by providing tools flexible enough for any group's specific needs.
The Long Game When I ask about GURPS' future, Jackson stays characteristically measured: "I'm never going to say no to a Fifth Edition. But I certainly can't say yes right now. As long as people are playing GURPS, there's new ideas coming up."
It's this patience that has kept GURPS stable while other systems chase trends through frequent revisions. Jackson built something that could grow organically rather than requiring constant overhauls.
Looking back on our conversation, what strikes me most is Jackson's consistency. The same design philosophy that drove the original 3d6 decision still guides GURPS today: build something simple enough to learn but powerful enough to handle whatever players throw at it. "I try to look at my own work and figure out what I did," Jackson reflects when discussing GURPS' enduring success. After forty years, he's still figuring it out, and that curiosity might be the real secret behind GURPS' longevity.
This article includes exclusive materials from the Museum of Games Ireland and Steve Jackson Games archives. All images and documents used with permission and proper attribution included.
www.mogi.ie
This interview was conducted for Il Gioco in Tavolo podcast. Full video available at Youtube Video
Agent Avenue is a two player game with bluffing and psychological play. You are spies hiding in an innocent neighbourhood. You need to find and catch your opponent before they catch you. Well, that is how the story goes. In terms of practical implementation, you and your opponent race around a circular track, starting opposite from each other. Your goal is to run fast enough to catch your
Had a small group and so I played two games of Attika, which is an excellent two player game. Some people (not me) like it with three, but nobody (that I know) likes it at four. Reminscent of Hex or Go, a ‘connection’ abstract but you also are managing resources (cards and more importantly tempo) to try to get all your pieces down. If you make a connection its an auto win, so you mainly exploit it by threatening when it will be expensive for your opponent to block. Fast and on my fifty by fifty list.
For the last 10+ years, Stonemaier Games has invested a lot of up-front time, resources, and love into our products, completing production before we sell to customers on our 4 regional webstores (followed by shipping soon afterwards, then a retail release a few weeks after fulfillment is complete).
This method has proven to serve our customers incredibly well, with 3 circumstantial exceptions:
It’s a guessing game as to how many units we send to each of our fulfillment centers (US, Canada, Europe, and Australia/NZ/Asia), so sometimes we have sold out of a product in one region but not another. Customers then need to make a back-in-stock request and wait for the reprint (or buy from their local store, as many units are reserved for retail distribution).
Even with our extensive oversight process, mistakes can slip through to the first printing of a product.
Our launches primarily reach those who follow Stonemaier Games in some capacity, directly or indirectly.
With this in mind, I was both impressed and intrigued that Gamefound is introducing a new feature called Express Crowdfunding. In their words: “Instead of collecting pledges and waiting months or years to deliver, Express Crowdfunding allows creators to gather shipping details and begin fulfillment while the campaign is still live.” When the initial printing sells out, Express shifts into accepting preorders for a second printing.
I think this is fantastic, as it directly addresses what I believe is the biggest issue with modern crowdfunding: uncertainty. When a creator launches an unfinished product, they pass the burden of uncertainty onto their backers.
Express asks creators to finish and produce some quantity of their product before launching. Yes, there’s risk in that, and I understand why creators old and new have to choose how they mitigate that risk. That’s where Express shines (in principle–we won’t see it in action until Labyrinth Chronicles launches on Tuesday): You can make a smaller print run of the game up front so some customers can receive it within a few weeks of launch, then within the same campaign you can gather preorders from everyone else.
I confirmed with Marcin at Gamefound that the pre-produced games can have a variety of variants (different versions, languages, or quantities at fulfillment centers). A creator could offer a different price for a pre-produced version than a second printing if they wish, and backers can choose between the two. StretchPay doesn’t apply to the pre-produced games, and so Express may not work as well for games priced at $100+.
In my opinion, this is a strongly backer-focused option, and I’m curious which other creators will try it first. If you do, please let me know so we can talk about it.
Does this intrigue me for a future Stonemaier launch? Just a little bit, particularly for #3 on my above list. However, part of our method is that we not only get products to customers soon after launch, we also get them to retailers soon after launch fulfillment. In fact, we saw with Expeditions that it doesn’t serve retailers and their customers well when there’s a big gap between launch fulfillment and retail fulfillment.
Also, we’ve taught early adopter consumers over many years that our webstore is the place to go to get our games, and our Champion program is built around the Shopify platform. Our webstores sync up perfectly with our fulfillment centers, and we’ve invested heavily in the webstores with significant results ($5.3m in net consumer webstore sales in 2025).
So while we likely won’t try Express, I applaud the innovation.
Quick notes on other crowdfunding innovations:
Gamefound has also implemented Endgame, which lets backers extend a campaign as long as it continues to receive pledges. This can help with stretch goals and give more backers access to lower campaign pricing before late pledges begin. Marcin notes, “it is also just a fun experience for an engaged community,” which I can see.
Kickstarter offers creators the option to provide “secret rewards” as a way of showing appreciation to certain backers. I learned about this from the creator of the Sugarworks project. I can see this as a nice way to offer a lower price to people for whom you’re particularly grateful.
What do you think about Express, Endgame, and secret rewards from a backer or creator perspective?
I ran away from a battle. I’ve been running ever since
Peter reviews the Sultanate Faction Battlegroup for Armoured Clash by Warcradle Studios.
The final Armoured Clash faction is here, the Sultanate, and it’s certainly impressive how much Warcradle has released for this excellent epic scale game over such a short period of time.
Making high quality tabletop gaming content at the EOG takes time and money. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter or making a donation so I can continue this work! Thankyou!
I recently had the chance to sit down with The Op Games and get the detailed lineup of 2026 titles! I believe I counted 16 games, which don't even include the long list of Co-Branded Mass Market titles. Here are some highlights.
▪️ To kick it off, Flip 7: With A Vengeance just released. With the massive success of Flip 7 and Flip 7, we should expect to see a whole lot more flavors of this hit game.
The deck of cards now spans to thirteen 13's in Vengeance. You will also find new special cards, including steal, swap, discard, flip four, and more.
In Flip 7: With A Vengeance, there's only one 1 card, two 2's, three 3’s, etc., plus a bunch of special cards that can cut your points in half, steal any card, or force an opponent to draw four cards! Are you the type of player to play it safe and bank points before you bust, or are you going to risk it all and go for the bonus points by flipping over seven in a row? Press your luck meets strategy in this addictive card game where no one is ever really safe. The hard-boiled sequel to the award-winning, instant classic, Flip 7.
In the cooperative game TEMBO, you will lead a herd of elephants on a thrilling journey of survival across the savanna. Reaching your destination is the only way to win - yet the path is full of challenges. You will need to search out food and water, navigate shifting terrain, and avoid the fierce lions that roam the land.
No two journeys are ever the same. Each game offers new challenges, demanding careful planning and constant communication to guide your herd safely to victory.
Frenzy Falls is a quick and exciting card game for 2-6 players. Each round, players take turns adding Waterfall cards facedown to rows of cards called Pools. Cards are then revealed in order, triggering various effects that shift cards between pools. The goal of the game is to score points by having the most influence icons showing on your cards when a pool’s value hits 10 or higher and overflows. This will also send your opponent’s cards cascading down into other pools, causing chain reactions!
▪️ Get ready to test your dexterity skills in Cats Knocking Things Off Ledges. Not only are you building a tower of ledges, but you are knocking off your cat toys from them. Two separate instances where you will have to demonstrate your dexterous techniques. This game has already been released.
In Cats Knocking Things Off Ledges™, players take turns building a wobbly tower of platforms, placing their cats, and batting toys off the edge to score points based on how far they fall. But watch out - if the tower tumbles, you score zero!
Earn extra points by landing on specific platforms, and race to be the first to reach the highest score.
[ImageID=9286877 mediumrep]
(photo uploaded by Alexander Varela, The Op)
▪️ Winter chill got you down? Hummingbirds will lift you up with its colorful table presence. Already available for sale.
Hidden sand timers in Hummingbirds are how players will score points. Without the use of a clock to track time, you have to gauge how long each timer has been running before using your hummingbird to look at it. If the timer has expired, you are good to collect points for that color timer. If you look and the timer is still running, you will lose your positioning and a point token from your stash.
Time is on your side. Better to be safe than sorry!
(photo uploaded by Alexander Varela, The Op)
This has been only a small handful of games that The Op is releasing in 2026. Several hobby games are planned, and even more family and party games are on the horizon to be excited for.
Irish Gauge is a game about developing the train network in Ireland. It is an open information game. It is an investment game, and almost but not really a stock-control game. Players invest in railroad companies and hope to make money as the companies they are invested in do well. You don't own companies. You only own shares in them. It sounds a little like 18XX games, but this is much
Concept I think we can all agree that global pandemics suck. But for all the misery that came out of COVID-19, there were a few small bright spots, and one of them was the inception of Siberian Manhunt.
By the end of 2020, we were deep into our third lockdown in Berlin, and my wife and I had burned through all of our light, two-player games. We yearned for something meatier, but something that could still be finished in a single evening since our board games and dinners shared the same real estate.
At the time, I was reading Louis L’Amour’s classic novel Last of the Breed, a harrowing adventure about a U.S. Air Force test pilot captured by the Soviets in the late ’80s. A Native American and a survivalist, he escapes his captors and flees across the unforgiving Siberian wilderness with the KGB in pursuit. It’s a ripping good yarn, and I highly recommend it.
“Someone should turn this into a movie,” I told my wife one evening before bed. “Or a Netflix series. Or a board game.”
Bingo.
That night I lay awake in bed, staring at the darkened ceiling, puzzling out the rules of my nascent brainchild. Naturally, it would be a two-player game: a fugitive on the run from the Soviets. It would need to be asymmetrical, with the Fugitive dealing with the daily trials of life on the run while the Government carried out the titular manhunt using almost unlimited Soviet resources, albeit with a few communist inefficiencies to keep things interesting. And finally, a manhunt practically demands hidden movement; after all, the Soviets wouldn’t necessarily know where the fugitive was. Once I scribbled down the basic framework of the rules, I fell asleep thinking about fleeing through the Taiga. It was not my most restful night.
Prototype I got to work on a prototype the next day. This was not my first rodeo, so I applied a few lessons learned from my previous (unsuccessful) forays into board game design:
1) Write down all the rules in Excel and try to numerically balance the game there as much as possible.
2) Don’t waste time with artwork at the early stage. The game has to work mechanically first.
3) Avoid physical prototypes in the early stages, as the printing and crafting can become expensive and/or slow the development process. I used Tabletop Simulator (TTS) for all my early playtests.
My first map was built from Google Maps screenshots of the Baikal region of Siberia. I overlaid roads and towns using real geography as a guide, then added numbered locations that the Fugitive and Government agents would move through.
(Top) The prototype map board used Google maps screenshots stitched together vs (bottom) the final version of the map
The rest of the prototype used assets pulled from the internet and tweaked in my go-to tool for quick and dirty graphics design: Paint.Net. Assets could be uploaded onto my Google drive and imported into TTS. From there the playtest → update components → playtest iteration loop was super short, allowing for a quick convergence of the game design.
(Left) Prototype Encounter cards vs (Right) the final versions
Game Design Although Siberian Manhunt would be asymmetrical, the basic game loop would be the same for both players:
Recover energy → Spend energy on actions → Clean-up
Where the roles diverged was in the actions themselves. I wanted the Fugitive’s experience to feel authentic: always on the move, low on supplies, unsure who to trust, and increasingly desperate. Their turns revolved around hidden movement, scavenging for food and equipment, hunting, crafting, and interacting with locals and wildlife. The Fugitive secretly recorded their exact locations, while a Hidden Movement Track publicly logged how far they’d traveled since they were last seen.
The Fugitive’s player board, with card slots for a character card, clothing, footwear, backpacks, etc.
Each turn began with an Encounter card, allowing me to introduce narrative challenges. A Wilderness Deck provided animals to hunt and craft components, while an Urban Deck supplied equipment from towns. Energy would be recovered in different ways. In the wilderness, the Fugitive regained only one meager point of energy per turn. In towns, however, they recovered fully — making towns tempting, useful, and potentially very dangerous if the locals decide to report them. The Fugitive could also eat food to boost their energy at any time (meat could be obtained from hunting, but would need to be cooked or else the Fugitive would face a parasite risk).
The Government’s role was simultaneously more concrete and more abstract than the Fugitive’s. The Government had physical pawns on the map; little KGB officers scouring the countryside for an elusive Fugitive. These pawns could move and search, attack the Fugitive if they found him, or capture him if two KGBs could get to the Fugitive’s location at the same time. Agents could also be upgraded into elite Yakut Trackers, who moved faster and could race across the map much like the Fugitive. At the start of each turn, the Government’s energy would be reset to be equal to the number of agent pawns on the map.
The Government player board, with 3 rows of Government assistance cards and 3 character cards
But the real engine of the Government was the Assistance Deck–resources from the central Soviet Government which provided powerful, one-time effects to help the KGB track down the Fugitive: aerial searches, checkpoints, helicopter transports, propaganda campaigns, and, most importantly, new recruits. Recruit cards added more pawns to the board and permanently increased the Government’s available energy: more pawns = more energy = more actions.
To model the attitudes of the local population, I initially created a Manhunt Deck filled with Loyal Communist and Silent Citizen cards. Each time the Fugitive entered a town, a card was drawn. Silent Citizens kept quiet while Loyal Communists immediately reported the Fugitive’s position. The Fugitive’s decisions influenced the deck’s makeup: heroic behavior added Silent Citizens, while killing and pillaging produced enthusiastic informants. Government actions, such as interrogations or propaganda campaigns, could also shift the balance. Eventually, I replaced the deck with a draw bag, which proved far more practical than reshuffling a deck many times per game.
(Left) The initial "Manhunt deck" (TTS version) vs (Right) the final "Manhunt bag"
While I made some adjustments to the game mechanics (e.g. converting the Manhunt deck to the Manhunt bag, creating a market of Government assistance cards instead of just a draw pile, etc.), they stayed fairly consistent throughout the game’s development. Most changes involved balancing the game (see below) and fully fleshing out the experience for both players.
Finding artists was surprisingly easy. I wanted a realistic, painterly look and searched portfolios on BGG and ArtStation for artists who could achieve that style. I found the cover of Stroganov particularly compelling and reached out to its artist, Maciej Janik. After a TTS playtest, he was enthusiastically onboard with Siberian Manhunt and ended up becoming the lead artist. I found the rest of the team the same way: Natalie Henderson, Radu Paul Mazanac, and JD Rodriguez. Each artist was relatively specialized (e.g. portraits, animals, propaganda-style artwork, map, etc.) so I ended up with more artists than I originally planned. Their styles were compatible though and the final product had a fairly consistent look and feel.
Theme Thematically, I wanted to avoid using Louis L’Amour’s kidnapped test pilot plot. I initially considered making the Fugitive an escapee from a Soviet gulag, but Maciej rightly pointed out that the gulag system was horrific, and the game wasn’t about that. I turned instead to the Gary Powers U-2 incident. In 1960, Powers’ spy plane was shot down over the USSR. He survived, was captured, and spent nearly two years imprisoned before being released in a prisoner exchange.
Francis Gary Powers posing with his U-2
What if he’d escaped immediate capture and gone on the run instead? That question became the heart of Siberian Manhunt. The Fugitive became a U-2 pilot, downed behind enemy lines and fleeing into the wilderness on foot.
Later, I met Francis Gary Powers Jr., son of the famous U-2 pilot, who provided wonderful historical insights—and told me that Louis L’Amour had been a family friend, and that Last of the Breed was inspired by his father’s experience. In a small but satisfying way, it felt like Siberian Manhunt was closing a loop.
Gary Powers Jr. and I at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin
Balance Balancing the game proved surprisingly challenging. In theory, it should have been straightforward: make food more plentiful to help the Fugitive, or add more Recruit cards to help the Government. In practice, everything affected balance: encounter difficulty, map density, town placement, card effects, and more.
I initially aimed for a perfectly even 50–50 win rate. It turned out that an even balance produced dull games. When the Fugitive was too strong, they disappeared into the map for an anti-climactic win. The sweet spot ended up being a 40–60 win ratio in favor of the Government. That intentional imbalance created tense games where the Fugitive was constantly under pressure.
The balance during each game shifts too. The Government begins in a weak position with just one lonely KGB agent on the board. The Fugitive also starts out weak but can quickly grow stronger with equipment from nearby towns. As the game progresses, however, the Fugitive is gradually worn down by life on the run while the Government recruits more agents and grows steadily stronger. By the time the Fugitive reaches the border region, wounded and low on supplies, the Government is usually at peak power, leading to tense, climactic showdowns just short of the Chinese border.
The final version of Siberian Manhunt
The game was extensively playtested, first on TTS and later in physical form. Every playtest was valuable, right up until the feedback started contradicting itself. For example, one regular tester hated crafting and wanted it removed entirely. Others loved it and wanted more. At that point, I just had to trust my gut and make the game I wanted to play. And hundreds of plays later, I still enjoy it, especially how each session organically creates a unique, often cinematic Cold War survival story.
Conventions and Kickstarter We took Siberian Manhunt on the road, demoing it at SPIEL ’23, UK Game Expo ’24, and SPIEL ’24. The theme made it somewhat of a niche game, but those who appreciated the Cold War and survival vibes embraced it enthusiastically. In February 2025 we launched Siberian Manhunt on Kickstarter. The campaign was a lot of fun, with great backer interaction and plenty of lessons learned. Because the game was essentially complete before launch, with manufacturing by LongPack Games already lined up, we were able to move into production by June and wrap up fulfillment in November.
Demoing Siberian Manhunt at UKGE ‘24
I’m now hard at work on the sequel-expansion, Manchurian Manhunt, which explores what happens when the Fugitive crosses the Chinese border and the chase gets bigger, faster, and even less forgiving.
Anmelden
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