About Michael Wolf

http://www.stargazersworld.com

Michael Wolf is a German games designer and enthusiast best known for his English language role-playing games blog, Stargazer's World, and for creating the free rules-light medieval fantasy adventure game Warrior, Rogue & Mage. He has also worked as an English translator on the German-language Dungeonslayers role-playing game and is part of its editorial team.

In addition to his work on Warrior, Rogue & Mage and Dungeonslayers, he has created several self-published games and also performed layout services and published other independent role-playing games such as A Wanderer's Romance, Badass, and the Wyrm System derivative Resolute, Adventurer & Genius, all released through his imprint Stargazer Games.

Professionally, he works as a video technician and information technologies specialist. Stargazer's World was started by Michael in August 2008.

Follow him on Twitter.

Posts by Michael Wolf:

Jun 18 2013

Pulp-O-Mizer

Pulp-O-Mizer Cover Image I am pretty sure some of you have already heard of Pulp-O-Mizer, the customizable pulp magazine cover generator. Up until now I haven’t played around with it that much, but for this post I gave it another look.

In a nutshell it’s a web application that allows you to create pulp magazine covers. So what could you use these for? I’ve noticed that several RPG-related blogs actually use these covers on their blogs.

If you are currently running a pulp RPG you could actually use it to create custom covers for your adventures. Imagine that you want to run a new adventure called “The Death Ray of the Magnificent Brain Thieves”(1). Wouldn’t it be cool if you could give your players the adventure’s title as a pulp magazine cover handout?

Regardless of how you intend to use the covers, it’s definitely fun to play around with the Pulp-O-Mizer. If you have a few minutes to spare, check it out! That’s an order! ;)

 

Notes:
1) This title has been created with the Pulp Sci-Fi Title-O-Tron, another great web app on the same site.

By • Fluff/Inspiration, Random musings, RPG, RPG tools • 1

Jun 17 2013

Is it just me or is the post-apocalypse much like a fantasy world?

art-002 Last week I’ve been playing the new Defiance MMO from Trion Worlds. It’s set into the same setting as the TV show of the same name. While it’s not really a post-apocalyptic setting, it shares a couple of tropes with the genre. And this got me thinking about post-apocalyptic settings again. For a long time I have been wanting to run a post-apoc game, but for some reason it never left the planning stages.

Yesterday I made a realization, which might have been obvious to some (perhaps even most) of you: post-apoc settings work a lot like fantasy settings. In a lot of fantasy settings the wide-spread settlements are points of light in the darkness of an untamed wilderness. Only the bravest and most foolhardy adventurers dare to enter the wilds in search of riches and glory.

In post-apocalyptic settings it’s often the same. There are usually only small settlements in a vast wasteland which is overrun by mutants or other nasty creatures (this differs based on what the cause of the apocalypse was). These settlements are ruled by more or less tyrannical warlords. And this is yet another parallel to fantasy settings. The dungeons filled with deadly traps and untold treasure are not so different from the underground vaults in many post-apocalyptic settings where fearless scavengers can find pre-apocalypse artifacts and other valuable commodities.

With a lot of the tropes of both genres pretty similar, running a post-apocalyptic campaign may be a way for people usually running fantasy games to experience something new without leaving their comfort zone completely.

What do you think about this? Am I totally delirious or are those two genres closer than one might think? Or was this totally obvious to anyone and I was the only one oblivious to the fact? Please share your thoughts below!

By • Fluff/Inspiration, Random musings, RPG • 3

Jun 6 2013

Fate Core and Fate Accelerated now available at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow

114902-thumb140 114903-thumb140 Evil Hat’s Fate Core and Fate Accelerated Edition are now available for purchase from RPGNow/DriveThruRPG using a “pay-what-you-want” model. The recommended prices for Fate Core and Fate Accelerated are $5 or $2.50 respectively, but you can pay anything you want. If you are a fan of the Fate system I can wholeheartedly recommend both games.

Fate Core is the latest edition of the popular Fate Rules. On 308 pages you get everything you need to run a game in any genre.

Fate Accelerated is a condensed version of the rules (48 pages). Especially if you are new to Fate, I’d recommend checking out Fate Accelerated. It’s – at least in my opinion – very newbie-friendly and extremely flexible. And don’t be fooled by the Fate Accelerated cover. It might look as if it’s mostly focused on kids and young adults, but it’s actually suited for all ages.

By • FATE, Other Systems, RPG • 0

Jun 5 2013

Tales of Promethea

Dark Harvest: The Legacy of Frankenstein is one of the most impressive games I’ve reviewed in the last years. Dark Harvest is a horror roleplaying game set in an alternative early 20th century. The land formerly known as Romania is ruled by none other than Dr. Frankenstein himself. The country is now known as Promethea and it’s on the forefront of technology and research. But its borders are closed and no one outside of the country knows what really happens in Promethea. And the truth is far worse than what you might imagine…

Tales of Promethea is a collection of horror stories written by the game’s author Iain Lowson and others. I have to admit I haven’t had the time to read it yet, but if it’s as good as the short stories included in the rulebooks it’s a must-have.

The 330-paged short story anthology is available from the Amazon Kindle store and DriveThruFiction for $3.99. For more information on Dark Harvest, check out the official site.

By • Fluff/Inspiration, Other Systems, RPG • 1

Jun 4 2013

More thoughts on Fate Accelerated Edition

For the last couple of days I have been thinking a lot about Fate Accelerated Edition. Fate has always been a game I was quite excited about, but it’s definitely not what you would call rules-light. Most versions of Fate are actually pretty complex. Having to wrap your head around the rules, applying Aspects, Skills and Stunts properly can be a daunting task – especially for players and GMs unfamiliar with the rules.

Fate Accelerated looks a lot like it could be what I have been waiting for. It’s a streamlined version of Fate Core and is not much more complex than games like PDQ or even Risus. Skills are replaced by Approaches which makes it much easier to adapt the game to every setting imaginable. Overall the number of Aspects and Stunts a player character has, have been reduced, which makes creating a character easier and faster.

Fate Accelerated has no special rules for magic, equipment etc., so an attack with a gun works the same as an attack using a magic spell or using martial arts. Equipment usually doesn’t play a role at all, aside from gear you mention in your character’s Stunts or Aspects. I have to admit this is something I still have to get used to, but it sounds as if it could make things so much easier!

Thinking about Fate Accelerated and pondering what to do with it, is a lot of fun, but in the long run it’s not enough. Games are there to be played, not just read. Luckily I know at least two players who are very interested in Fate and would love to play in a game run by me. I fear scheduling a game might be an issue, but that doesn’t keep me from making plans.

The question remains what kind of campaign to run. Recently my interest in Shadowrun has increased slightly, probably because of the upcoming Shadowrun Returns computer game. Back in the 90s I ran Shadowrun regularly, but nowadays I can’t fathom how I could stand the rules back then. I guess I am just getting old. Even though I am not too fond of Shadowrun’s rules, I love the setting, especially the early 2050s era. It may feel a bit anachronistic in this day and age, but it has a certain “old-school” cyberpunk feel, I like. I am pretty sure that FAE can be used to run a Shadowrun game, if you focus on characters and story. Special gear, magic, etc. can easily be handled using appropriate Aspects and Stunts.

Alternatively I am also considering a more classic cyberpunk setting. Not everyone wants Elves and magic in their dystopian future. I think I mentioned before that I would love to use the setting from Deus Ex Human Revolution for a tabletop RPG. But I guess before making a final decision I’ll have to talk to my players first. But that doesn’t keep me from throwing a few ideas around. ;)

What I love about Fate Accelerated is that it’s so easy to apply the rules to basically any setting you can come up with – provided you are comfortable with the narrative play style Fate supports. So what are your plans with FAE? Do you want to run a game with it or is it not crunchy enough for your tastes? Please share your thoughts below.

By • FATE, Fluff/Inspiration, Other Systems, Random musings, RPG • 4

Jun 3 2013

Preview: Odyssey–The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management

Odyssey coverOdyssey is the latest book in Engine Publishing’s series of GM advice books. Engine Publishing was founded in 2009 by the people behind the exceptional RPG blog Gnome Stew. What sets them apart from other RPG publishers is that they currently entirely focus on bringing you great GM resource books that can be used with every game system and almost every genre. If you haven’t checked them out yet, you definitely should read my reviews of Eureka, Masks, and Never Unprepared.

So what is Odyssey all about? The 209-paged book written by Phil Vecchione and Walt Ciechanowski is supposed to help you manage a RPG campaign. Some of you might be surprised why “managing” is used, don’t we usually “run” campaigns? That’s actually one of the points the book is making: running a successful campaign needs a lot of management on behalf of the GM, and that’s what Odyssey is supposed to help you with. As Phil puts it “running” sounds as if the GM’s job is focused entirely on what happens at the game table, while “writing” makes it sound as if the GM was the only person who has creative input on the campaign. A lot of campaigns fail in the long run, because GM’s don’t see themselves as managers but focus too much on the running or writing aspects of it.

More

By • Advice, News & Reviews, Reviews & First Looks, RPG • 3

May 29 2013

My thoughts on Call Of Cthulhu 7th Edition

CoC 7th Edition KS It’s no secret that I have enjoyed playing Call of Cthulhu for many years now. Even though the rules are a bit dated and somewhat clunky, Call of Cthulhu feels like an old pair of shoes. They are not looking that great anymore, but they are extremely comfortable. That’s why I come back to Call of Cthulhu again and again, even though I think games like Trail of Cthulhu or tremulus might actually be superior in many ways.

Recently Chaosium has announced a 7th Edition of the CoC rules. I was actually very surprised that they are planning to make some major changes to the rules. The system powering the game hasn’t changed much since 1986, so this is quite a big deal. I haven’t followed the development of the 7th Edition that closely, but from what I’ve heard attributes are ranked from 01 to 100 now, skills rolls can now be “pushed”, and there’s now a mechanism in place that helps to avoid the awkward situation when the player characters miss all the clues. And they finally came up with new rules to get rid of the “opposed roll table”. Yay!
It doesn’t seem as if Chaosium is trying to fix things that aren’t broken and old adventure modules should still be more or less compatible. As a long time Call of Cthulhu fan, I am pretty sure I’ll get me a copy of the new rules as soon as they are out.

What I am not too fond off is the Kickstarter project Chaosium is currently running to fund this new edition of Call of Cthulhu. It’s basically just a regular preorder. There are no stretch goals and the pledge levels are uninspired. A huge part of the “Kickstarter experience” for me have been interesting stretch goals and to a lesser extent exclusives. The only exclusives listed on the CoC KS are two boring t-shirts. Chaosium, really, is this the best you could come up with? If I had to sum up the CoC Kickstarter in one word, I’d probably pick boring.

That said, even though I probably won’t back this project myself, I still hope Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition will be funded. It’s just that I don’t see a reason why I should invest my money now. I’ll probably wait till release and then get my copy of the two new rulebooks at my favorite online game store. What are your thoughts on that subject? Please share your thoughts below.

By • Call of Cthulhu, Kickstarter, Other Systems, Random musings, RPG • 17

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