1 Number of people wearing the costume at any one time: One.

2 Number of different sets in which Great Cthulhu has appeared: Three. So far.

1 Deadlines got their name in Roman times, when emperors expected their speech-writers to have their impromptu remarks ready no later than one hour before it was time for the unscheduled speech. The only way for a writer to keep his job – and his head – was to write quickly and accurately, thus using his pen to hold the sword at bay. Or so Steve tells me, and he’s my boss, so I believe him completely.

2 Game Design Tip: Start all development meetings five minutes before lunch.

3 Sometimes people have the mistaken impression that Steve and I just sit around playing games all day. That is wildly inaccurate. I try to set aside at least an hour each workday for something besides games, and I think Steve may be up to two hours. We hope you appreciate our sacrifice.

4 I may be confusing elementary school with college. It was a long time ago.

5 Okay, me. I’m not proud.

6 Well, it does now.

7 My parents are so proud.

8 On second thought, it’s exactly like freelance editing. (Just ask Our Humble Editor.)

9 Usually prefaced with “WTF,” which I am told stands for “What’s That From?” or possibly “Why’s That Funny?”

10 Sure, we’ll call it that.

11 Also massive pains in the butt. Just like real butt pain, however, they keep us from getting too comfortable.

12 Pro tip: Stash wet wipes in your playtest kit. Convention-center nacho-cheesesauce product makes the cards in your spiffy prototype much harder to shuffle. Card sleeves are a must.

13 With the exception of the occasional guest card and the even rarer exception of the entire set drawn by another artist, John has drawn every Munchkin card to date. That’s more than 5,000 game illustrations drawn by a single hand, and we have hundreds more in the works as I write this. Plus, John has drawn illustrations for Illuminati: New World Order, Chez Geek, and even some non-SJ Games games. He’s been drawing a comic strip turned comic book turned webcomic, Dork Tower, for well over a decade now. Oh, yeah, he designs games, too. And he does all this while he and his wife, Judith, raise a delightful young daughter. Between you and me, I think he’s a cyborg.

14 As far as I know. It occurs to me, however, that I’ve never seen him and Aquaman together. . . .

15 Mario Puzo, call your agent.

16 Some fans have told me that anyone could do what John does. Maybe one or two of them actually could . . . but I’m not holding my breath. That’s kind of like saying that anyone who owns Garage Band could write a symphony.

17 We do a surprising amount of research – or at least Wikipedia surfing – for some of our Munchkin design. But that doesn’t mean we are averse to anachronism in the service of a good joke. Hell, even a mediocre one. In the conflict between “funny” and “true,” funny almost always wins.

18 Steve and I do like our adverbs.

19 Comical if you aren’t the person trying to finish the damn game, of course. If you are that person, substitute “infuriating.” Also, I’m sorry.

20 Find me at a convention and steer me to the bar, however. . . .

21 No shame at all.