Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games (SJG) is a
game company that creates and publishes
role-playing,
board, and
card games. It was founded in
1980 by
Steve Jackson.
|
Car Wars and Illuminati are two of SJ Games' greatest successes. |
Founded in 1980, six years after the birth of
Dungeons & Dragons, and before the height of
role-playing games, SJG created several role-playing and strategy games with
sci-fi themes. SJG borrowed and expanded upon ideas pioneered by strategy game companies such as
Avalon Hill and
TSR. Despite these similarities, SJG had a unique feel all their own and became popular with their releases. SJG's early titles were all
microgames initially sold in
ziploc bags, later in similarly sized plastic shell cases. Games such as
Ogre,
Car Wars and
G.E.V (an
Ogre spin-off) were popular during SJG's early years.
Today SJG publishes games of various varieties (
card games,
board games,
strategy games) and genres (
fantasy,
sci-fi,
gothic horror); they also publish the book
Principia Discordia, the sacred text of the
Discordian religion.
Raid
Main article: Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service
On
March 1 1990, SJG's offices in
Austin, Texas were raided by the
U.S. Secret Service. The manuscript for
GURPS Cyberpunk was confiscated although this was merely coincidence and not the actual purpose of the raid at all. The raid is often thought to have been related to
Operation Sundevil, a nationwide investigation of computer crime, however Sundevil was based in Arizona and the Steve Jackson Raid was coordinated out of Chicago. More than three years later, a federal court awarded damages of $50,000 and attorneys' fees of $250,000 (amounts in
USD) to SJ Games, ruling that the raid had been careless, illegal, and completely unjustified.
Cyberpunk popularizer
Bruce Sterling discussed the affair in his book
The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. The case also helped motivate the formation of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Card games
*
Battle Cattle The Card Game, a card game, compatible with the Car Wars card game, based on the Battle Cattle miniatures system
*
Burn In Hell, an educational game centered around collecting 'circles' of historical and contemporary people's souls sharing common characteristics
*
Car Wars: The Card Game, a card game version of the Car Wars miniatures system
*
Chez Geek, a card-game parody of
Geek culture with many spinoffs and expansions
*
Chez Goth*
Chez Greek*
Chez Grunt*
Chez Guevara*
Chez Dork, a card game centered around geeks collecting the objects they obsess over
*
Cowpoker, a card game partly based on poker mechanics with a central theme of old west cattle ranchers
*
Hacker, a modern-day card game based on the mechanics of
Illuminati*
Illuminati, a conspiracy game, the original game on which
INWO was based
*
INWO, Illuminati: New World Order, the trading card game of world domination
*
Illuminati Crime Lords, a mafia-based variation on Illuminati which combines gameplay elements of the original Illuminati and INWO
*
King's Blood, a Japanese card game originally published by Kadokawa Shoten
*
Munchkin, a card-game parody of hack-and-slash roleplaying with many spinoffs (all able to be mixed with the original) and expansions
*
Ninja Burger, a fast-paced ninja delivery card game based around the Ninja Burger website
*
SPANC, short for Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Cat Girls, a light-hearted competition between starship crews of cat girls in search of toys and loot
*
Spooks, A Halloween-themed card game where players try to get rid of cards from their hands
Board games
*
The Awful Green Things From Outer Space*
Car Wars, futuristic battles between automobiles
*
Frag, "a first-person shooter without a computer"
*
GreedQuest, a light, randomized romp through a simple dungeon to gain loot
*
Knightmare Chess, a
chess variant played with cards
*
Ogre, the classic simulation of future war involving a cybernetic armored juggernaut firing nuclear weapons. Designed by jackson, and originally published by
Metagaming Concepts*
Ogre: G.E.V., a spin-off of Ogre focusing on futuristic but "conventional" infantry, artillery, and armor units
*
Proteus, a chess variant using dice to represent normal chess pieces
*
Snits, two classic
Tom Wham games, Snits Revenge and Snit Smashing
*
Strange Synergy, a simple but complex game where teams of warriors battle with a different set of powers each game
*
Tile Chess, a multiplayer chess variant which can be played without a chess board
*
XBugs, a combat game where futuristic bugs are represented by colorful tiddly winks
Roleplaying games
*
GURPS, the
Generic Universal Role Playing System*
In Nomine, a game about
Angels and
Demons based on the popular
French roleplaying game In Nomine Satanis / Magna Veritas*
Killer (game), a variation on the assassin game
*
Munchkin RPG, a series of
D20 supplements based on the Munchkin card game
*
Toon, the cartoon roleplaying game
*
Transhuman Space, a near-future science fiction setting spanning the Sol system
*
Tribes, players play
cave men (and women) trying to protect and nurture their descendents
Miniatures
*
Ogre & G.E.V have also been published as in miniatures wargaming format.
Computer games
*
Ultracorps An online space strategy game originally developed by VR-1
*
Steve Jackson Games' official web site*
"Fantasy for Fun and Profit": an article about the company from the Austin American Statesman,
April 18 1988
