On February 1, the crew consisted of Bonnie ("Xiang Wen," a.k.a. "Wu Xie Zhi"), Marc ("Anabel Windsor," a.k.a. "Abigail Wilson"), and Torsten ("Qoqa Ramazanov," a.k.a. "Zoya Petrovna Sidorov"). Martin ("Zhu Zhang," a.k.a. "Harold Lee") didn't jet back from Japan for the game, while Mike ("Vincenzo Calliente," of many aliases) was simply AWOL.

And the GURPS played on. That's a good thing for a game to do, really. Particulars include:

• The rough PDF of Pyramid #3/16: Historical Exploration was reviewed – although not by me, personally. Except that I just had to sneak a peek: stuff on specific alternate timelines and cities, and on Vikings . . . general advice on cultures, customs, and languages . . . oh, and at least one legendary site. Cool!

• My edit of GURPS Low-Tech Companion 1-3 moves on. I'm just shy of 92% by page count, now. I spent a lot of time looking at the rules for designing buildings this week, as well as the sections on transportation networks. The simulationists are going to be quite happy, I think.

• GURPS Plant Magic, by Scott Maykrantz, headed into playtest this week, and things are very active. Somewhere in there, I fired off a short bit of additional material to Scott. It had to do with fungi, which aren't plants but which tend to get treated as such by wizards. Mmm, spores.

• Peter Dell'Orto (peterdellorto ) submitted the first draft of his latest item. No, I can't tell you what it is. But it, er, involves flipping out and being totally awesome.

On January 25, we once again had Bonnie ("Xiang Wen," a.k.a. "Wu Xie Zhi"), Marc ("Anabel Windsor," a.k.a. "Abigail Wilson"), and Torsten ("Qoqa Ramazanov," a.k.a. "Zoya Petrovna Sidorov"). Martin ("Zhu Zhang," a.k.a. "Harold Lee") was, of course, out of town . . . and poor ol' Mike ("Vincenzo Calliente," of many aliases) was still dealing with a cold.

I was asked nicely in e-mail whether I would post character sheets for the PCs and recurring NPCs in my campaign. As I said to my friend, I'd rather not. By virtue of the Company's recruiting policy, nobody in the campaign has those kinds of secrets from one another . . . but there are character elements that some of the players want to keep hidden for reasons of comic relief, emerging character interactions, etc. – and of course my NPCs have a few quirks of their own that I'd like to keep under wraps. However, it wouldn't hurt to give "qualitative" character sheets that show who's best at what, in a relative sense.

January is all but over – woah! Is there anything to report? Well . . .

• We released GURPS Spaceships 7: Divergent and Paranormal Tech, by David Pulver. This one is really cool . . . unless your spaceships are all very pedestrian, you'll want it. If they're remotely weird, you'll need it. And hey, it has rules for zombie spacecraft.

• We reviewed the rough PDF of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns, by Jason "PK" Levine (peekitty) and Loren Wiseman. Barroom brawls, strange brew, cloaked strangers, and a bunch of ready-to-go taverns with floor plans shall be yours in a matter of weeks.

• I'm at 82.8% by page count on my edit of GURPS Low-Tech Companion 1-3. The biggest chunk of my time this week was spent on rules for materials and crafting. If you really want to know how long it takes to make a sword and how much the metal costs, you're going to love 3.

• We're seeking playtesters for GURPS Plant Magic, by Scott Maykrantz. But don't take my word for it; read the official call.

Everything else is secret (but that ninja-related project I mentioned is sneaking along nicely).

The evening of January 18, we had Bonnie ("Xiang Wen," a.k.a. "Wu Xie Zhi"), Marc ("Anabel Windsor," a.k.a. "Abigail Wilson"), and Torsten ("Qoqa Ramazanov," a.k.a. "Zoya Petrovna Sidorov"). Martin ("Zhu Zhang," a.k.a. "Harold Lee") was across the Pacific, while Mike ("Vincenzo Calliente," of many aliases) was still dealing with the leftovers of his cold, so Torsten and Marc called out Vinnie and Zhang's actions when Qoqa and Anabel weren't in the scene.

1-22-2010. Hm, boring. Needs more numerals. As for GURPS . . .

• We released Pyramid #3/15: Transhuman Space. It includes articles by setting creator David Pulver and current line editor Phil Masters. Fans of Transhuman Space will definitely want this. The templates, floor plans, etc. would be pretty useful for any near-future sci-fi game.

• Nikki created the rough PDF of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns, which is currently in review. It's looking pretty cool, and it isn't just a bunch of taverns and NPCs (although you get those, too). Expect rules for brawls, interesting beverages, even playing innkeepers as PCs.

• My edit of GURPS Low-Tech Companion 1-3 is at the 74% mark by page count. The slow progress is due in part to last-minute work on the above item, but mostly to making the stats for water vehicles and cannon agree between GURPS Low-Tech and GURPS Low-Tech Companion 2. Tech books – you gotta love 'em.

• Several first drafts are currently in various stages of review or revision, including drafts by people named Maykrantz, Pulver, Riggsby, and Vortisch.

For our January 11 session, we had Bonnie ("Xiang Wen," a.k.a. "Wu Xie Zhi"), Marc ("Anabel Windsor," a.k.a. "Abigail Wilson"), and Torsten ("Qoqa Ramazanov," a.k.a. "Zoya Petrovna Sidorov"). Martin ("Zhu Zhang," a.k.a. "Harold Lee") was still in 名古屋市, while Mike ("Vincenzo Calliente," of many aliases) had a cold that he thoughtfully decided not to share with us. Since the only three PCs in the "scummy dive" scene were Anabel, Qoqa, and Wen, this worked. However, it was a brief scene, so this is a short recap!

January 2010 is already half gone. Foom! What do we have to show for it?

• We released GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners, by Phil Masters. Real munchkin dungeon delvers don't do hard work themselves; they conjure demons, elementals, undead, etc. to do it for them. Even GMs who don't allow lazy PCs like this will find the included templates wonderful for scary NPCs, and the mini-bestiary a useful source of monsters.

• We reviewed the rough PDF of David Pulver's GURPS Spaceships 7: Divergent and Paranormal Tech. Yes, the title has changed. The content hasn't changed; we just wanted a more accurate title. That should be out within mere weeks.

• My edit of GURPS Low-Tech Companion 1-3 is at the 67.7% mark by page count. After poring over giant siege towers and big ships, I've finished GURPS Low-Tech Companion 2 and moved on to GURPS Low-Tech Companion 3. Cassava, anyone?

• Steven (waitingforgo) and I worked out the final tweaks to the revised e23 Wish List. If you're a writer, please take a look!

Much like last week, this one was filled with minor steps forward on a dozen other things about which I am forbidden to speak. I will only hint that one might involve ninjas; another, pirates; and a third, crusaders. Not all at once, sorry.

On January 4 – our first game session of 2010 – we had Bonnie ("Xiang Wen," a.k.a. "Wu Xie Zhi"), Marc ("Anabel Windsor," a.k.a. "Abigail Wilson"), Mike ("Vincenzo Calliente," of many aliases), and Torsten ("Qoqa Ramazanov," a.k.a. "Zoya Petrovna Sidorov"). Martin ("Zhu Zhang," a.k.a. "Harold Lee") was off in 名古屋市, eating yummy food and complaining about how cold the houses are.