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As things change in the GCA world and surrounding areas, we'll post news about it here.

March 17, 2004

Yesterday, Steve Jackson Games announced GURPS 4th Edition, to be released in August. I have no inside information on the changes coming, but I believe 4th Edition is likely to be a much needed (in my opinion) shakedown of the GURPS system, to deal with some of the cruft that has accumulated over the years, and perhaps to streamline some of the bits that have always been a bit clunky. GURPS 4th Edition will still be GURPS, so I don't expect the heart of the system to change at all, and I don't expect the basic character creation method will change either. While I don't know what changes may be necessary, I will endeavor to make sure that GCA becomes compatible with 4th Edition as quickly as possible as information becomes available. As for GCA 3, work has been proceeding on what amounts to a glacial pace. I still have no idea of what kind of release date may be in the future for it. However, the announcement of 4th edition in August does give me a little extra gumption to try and finally get this thing out the door. After all, updating it with any necessary changes will be much easier than updating the GCA 2 code base. If I can get my ducks in a row (something that has been difficult for quite some time), perhaps we'll see GCA 3 this year, all pretty for the release of GURPS 4th Edition.

May 8, 2003

I have put up a newer version of the GCAPRN 2 program on the Add-ons page. It uses some newer versions of certain controls (such as the print/preview viewer), and includes some updated features, although I neglected to document them.

March 3, 2003

I just wanted to drop in a note for folks that may be experiencing GCA hanging when starting up. This is caused when running GCA on newer machines (or newly upgraded versions of Windows), after having installed with an older GCA setup program. The result is almost always a result of having the "CALL32.DLL" file in your GCA folder. Please see the Bug Reports page for more info, and the solution.

February 27, 2003

The official release version of GCA is now v2.2. You can download it, or upgrade to it, from the Program Files page. This is the same version that has been available as a public beta for some time now. You can read the WhatsNew.TXT file for this version here.

January 23, 2003

The 2.2 Beta version available from the Program Files page apparently had an internal kill date that I'd overlooked, and had recently stopped working. I'm very sorry about that. If you download the version now available, it will get you working again with no additional fuss.

September 26, 2002

I have modified the standard GCA installation to be a bit more compatible with modern OSes and computers. This should not affect anyone who is already running GCA, but should allow for most folks to avoid the most common compatibility issue when setting up a new GCA installation. Just a reminder: if you send me email, and you don't hear back from me reasonably soon, please try again. I get a very large amount of spam, and sometimes valid email is removed because I, or my spam filters, thought it was spam. Sometimes I notice and sometimes I don't. I don't ignore people who send me email, so please try again if you don't get a response.

September 8, 2002

I have added and updated a bunch of data files. With the exception of some Italian language files, this concludes the updating of data files as of today. If you don't see files listed that you may have sent me before, they're among the ones I lost some time back. If you don't see a data file that you want listed on the site, I don't have one to post. Added NBOS Software to the links page. Their Fractal Mapper and Character Sketcher programs have made them worthy to be there for a long time, although it took a suggestion from someone else before I got around to it.

September 6, 2002

I've started on the backlog of things to get onto the site. I should be caught up within a few days. If you contributed something that you don't see appear by the time the weekend is over, please contact me; I lost a bunch of stuff when I moved to a new computer some time ago. New in the Portrait Gallery: Portraits from Lynn Daniel. I also provided a link to the mirror site for Marzo Jr.'s excellent GDF Editor program, on the Add-ons page. Next up: data files.

May 23, 2002

I am not dead. Neither is GCA. Really. Some updates to the site should be appearing soon, although there's still no ETA for GCA 3. My apologies for the long dry spell.

December 24, 2001

Happy Holidays!

November 5, 2001

My aborted vacation is being attempted again, starting tomorrow, November 6th, and running through November 14th. I will not have a computer, so any email or other attempts to contact me will have to wait until I return. Also, I recently discovered that Wizards of the Coast has a section of character portraits on their site for folks to download and use.

October 1, 2001

The Game Industry Disaster Fund Auction is now under way. Please take a look.

September 13, 2001

I'm back home. Vacation now to happen some time in the future. I was in the air when the plane was diverted to Salt Lake City and grounded. After being stuck there overnight, my brother found us a rental car, and we drove home. My sympathy goes out to all those affected by the recent tragic events.

September 11, 2001

I am such a loser. I managed not to get anything updated *again*. I'm off on vacation until the 19th, sans computers, so there will be no way to reach me until I return.

September 4, 2001

Yup, it's been over three months since the last update of the site. Why? Just a lot of stuff happening in my life, and nobody else around to help me get the work done. I really apologize to all of you for that, and I hope to avoid any such gaps in the future. I have a lot of stuff sitting around that needs to reach the site, from data files to data file fixes to custom character sheets for GCAPRN2. I hope to get these updates up soon, but since I've hoped that before without doing it . . . believe it when you see it. I will be on vacation (my first in many years) from September 11th to September 19th. I will be unable to reply to any email during that time. GCA now has an official web board available at RPG BBS. You can participate in discussions there, ask questions, whatever. Please note that this does not mean that we've ended our mailing list--it's still available, and should remain so for as long as we like (it's very low traffic). I've also missed alerting you to a couple new sets of Mug Shots over at RPGAction. Their archive system isn't the most (at all) descriptive, but you can see what they've got in a few clicks.

May 23, 2001

There's a new crop of Mug Shots over at RPGAction, this time a group of cyberpunk types. Check it out. Also, I have a bunch of data file updates and such that I'm way, way behind on getting up on the site. I apologize for that, and I apologize to the folks who submitted things that I've been promising to get up on the site for the last couple months. Mea culpa.

April 25, 2001

The fine folks over at RPGAction have posted the next Mug Shots column, this one covering a variety of fantasy elves. While you're there, why not take a look around at the rest of the site? My thanks to Matt Drake (Art Director) and the other RPGActioneers, both for the link back here to the GCA site, and more importantly, for the nifty resource they've created.

April 13, 2001

In the Portrait Gallery: New portraits from Lioness. Also, I'd like to bring to your attention a new resource for portraits. The e-zine RPGAction has recently introduced a new feature called Mug Shots, which provides a variety of character pictures. So far they've done two sets, one group of dwarves and one group of 'road warriors'. Check out the 'zine, and the feature.

April 2, 2001

In the Portrait Gallery: New portraits from Sébastien Allard (both galleries) and Greg Henle.

March 28, 2001

In the Portrait Gallery: Added to Sébastien Allard's pages.

March 9, 2001

Geek Speak: The website is now hosted with a new web hosting company, pair Networks. You shouldn't really notice any differences, though.

February 2, 2001

Added and updated a few data files.

January 25, 2001

I added a new FLX character sheet to the Add-ons & Extras page today, for use with the GCA Character Printer 2 program. This is for GCAPRN 2 only, and won't work with the older GCAPRN. Thanks to Robben Leaf for the file, and my apologies for not getting it up much, much sooner.

January 23, 2001

I've been having some trouble getting the site updated recently, and I apologize for that. For the next few days, I hope to work through the backlog of updates, and finally get everything I have sitting here posted to the site. Today I started with the new Portrait Gallery items, since that's actually the hardest part to update. We have two brand new artists, Lioness and Matt Lees, and new work from Greg Henle. Thanks to all of them. I hope to have more items posted in the next day or two, but today's update is all the gallery items I had. Remember, if you'd like to contribute to the portrait gallery, we'd love to make your character portraits available to others.

Too cool to miss: Cumberland Games & Diversions. I've previously told you about Sparks, which are still extremely cool (and now includes even more nifty sets), but now there's also Points in Space Volume 1: Starport Locations, the first e-book from S. John Ross. This book covers a variety of interesting locations that could be found in a starport or outpost. Obviously, it's intended for space going sci-fi related games (hence the name), but it's entirely possible to use the locations ground-side if you have a relatively space-travel-free game. There are two PDF files in the full package: The main book covers each of the 15 locations included, providing an annotated map, character descriptions, and plenty of juicy text to help motivate those creative impulses. The maps book contains 1:36 scale maps of each location, with a hex grid overlay, ready for miniatures to stomp all over 'em. (And if only one of the two books looks interesting to you, you can buy just the one you want.) I don't plug just anything, but I'm really diggin' Points in Space.

December 23, 2000

Happy Holidays! to each and every one of you. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, full of joy and warmth. Armin

November 19, 2000

It's been a while since I posted anything in What's New, and I apologize for that. We're still here, and I'm working away on GCA 3 (available some time next year; see the GCA 3 FAQ for info). No big announcements or updates to the site. I do have a couple small things to put up that I've been meaning to get to, but I'm a bit disorganized at the moment, so they aren't up today.

July 22, 2000

In the Portrait Gallery: Added to Dan Harbison's pages. Added more drawing templates to Dean Mehling's Portrait Templates page.

July 9, 2000

In the Portrait Gallery: Added to Sébastien Allard's pages; added a new artist: Ken Jacobsen, Jr..

June 30, 2000

Added or updated a few data files.

June 12, 2000

In data files: Added data files for Innocentia Splendia's campaign, and a data file for Rune Magic that I've had sitting aside for nearly a year (sorry, Travis). This should, however, conclude my posting of delayed files. If you submitted a file that hasn't appeared on the site, please let me know. I've been asked more frequently lately how GCA 3 is coming along, so let me tell you: it's coming along fine, just rather slowly. Work is proceeding more rapidly at the moment than it has the previous few months (years?), but it's still not likely to be done really soon. I do plan to have it out this year, though, assuming nothing drastic and unforeseen happens.

June 11, 2000

In the Portrait Gallery: Added to Greg Henle's page. In data files: Added a data file for GURPS Egypt.

April 17, 2000

In the Portrait Gallery: Added a pair of gallery pages for new artist Dan Harbison; added some more new goons to Manchu's goons page. In data files: Added a little data file for use with natural abilities packages, to make those a bit easier for folks to define. I've had this one since the middle of last year, but for some reason I never got it onto the site (sorry, Dave).

Previously archived What's New items.