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.
History
Founded 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: SJ Games vs. The 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 was related to Operation Sundevil, a nationwide investigation of computer crime. 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. See GURPS Cyberpunk for more information on the raid and the ensuing case.
Best-known games
Card games
- Chez Geek, a card-game parody of Geek culture with many spinoffs and expansions
- 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
- Munchkin, a card-game parody of hack-and-slash roleplaying with many spinoffs and expansions
- Ninja Burger, a fast-paced ninja delivery card game
Board games
- Car Wars, futuristic battles between automobiles
- Frag, "a first-person shooter without a computer"
- Knightmare Chess, a chess variant played with cards
- Ogre, the classic simulation of future war involving a cybernetic armored juggernaut
- Ogre: G.E.V., a spin-off of Ogre focusing on futuristic but "conventional" infantry, artillery, and armor units
Roleplaying games
- GURPS, the Generic Universal Role Playing System
- GURPS Traveller, the version of Traveller for GURPS
- In Nomine, a game about Angels and Demons based on the popular French roleplaying game In Nomine Satanis / Magna Veritas
- Toon, the cartoon roleplaying game
Miniatures
- Ogre & G.E.V have also been published as in miniatures wargaming format.
External links
- Steve Jackson Games' official web site
- "Fantasy for Fun and Profit": an article about the company from the Austin American Statesman, April 18 1988
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