My girlfriend and I played a lot of Star Wars: The Old Republic recently, which is a lot of fun. It’s the most immersive MMO I’ve played so far and Verena and I are enjoying it immensely. The game also makes me want to run some Star Wars pen & paper game, but at the moment, I have neither the time nor the players needed to start a new campaign.

On New Year’s Eve I’ve run a Call of Cthulhu game for a couple of friends. I picked the first episode of the Age of Cthulhu campaign by Goodman games, which has an interesting story but has some issues that made it harder to run than I expected. But we still had a lot of fun.

And there’s something else I want to tell you about. I got a very special gift this Christmas. Some of you probably know that I am interested in astronomy that’s why I picked the nickname Stargazer a couple of years back. I own a small telescope but I don’t go out watching the skies as often as I would like. So my girlfriend thought she gave me some incentive to do so. She gave me a star as one of her Christmas gifts! One star in the Draco constellation is now registered¹ as “Stargazer’s World” and I have the documents to prove it. So, next time you look up into the sky, look out for “Stargazer’s World”.

1) Yes, I know that only the IAU can actually name stars, but I don’t mind. And the deed really looks great on the kitchen wall.

No related posts.

In 2011 the team of Stargazer’s World has posted over 300 times. Considering that we usually don’t publish posts on the weekend this is quite an achievement. But the holiday season is usually used as a time to look back on what you’ve done and to relax. And trust me, especially my creative batteries are almost dead, so some days without thinking about what to post next are in order. But fret not, we’ll be back in January 2012!

Until then the team of Stargazer’s World wishes you happy holidays and a happy new year!

Related posts:

1. Taking a short break
2. Here is to 1,000 more!
3. Tips to Break Writers Block

But sometimes there are times when deleting a comment is necessary. I delete everything that looks like spam or that could be considered illegal. I don’t tolerate racism, hate speech or misogyny. And if you think you need to attack one of your fellow commenters or the author of the article of the post without adding anything meaningful to the discussion, you don’t have to be surprised when I delete your comment.

If you can’t accept these simple rules, it’s perhaps best you refrain from commenting here. Everyone else is welcome to share his or her thoughts. The community around Stargazer’s World has always been a nice and open one and I hope this is not going to change in the future, even if there’s some controversial topic to argue about.

Related posts:

1. RPG Anthology, blog comments and Creative Commons
2. A word on our Alternity April Fool’s post
3. Canned Meat

What was
Sunglar has been very busy in the last few weeks which has had a great impact on his post frequency. Yesterday he posted about his hopeful return to a more active presence in the game community. He also reminded me that I’ve written my 900th post recently. I wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t reminded me, oops.

This is a good segue into the next thing I want to talk about. As you all may know I had a great idea for NaGa DeMon that is much harder to design than I anticipated. And since the end of November is drawing closer I doubt it will be finished in time. But I don’t want to abandon the project entirely. I want to continue to work on it and I think I will try to get some more help and advice from the community. Later this week I will start sharing what I have done so far here on the blog.

Our new feature “Ask The Stargazer!” started last week and I hope I can answer another of your questions later this week. And if you haven’t done so feel free to send in your question. Details on how to contact us are in the sidebar to the right!

What is
A lot of my free time is currently occupied by both Minecraft and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. As some of you may already know I am running my own Minecraft server. A few days ago I moved the server to a new host. We used that opportunity to start a new world. Minecraft recently left beta status behind and the release version brings a host of new features I have to try out ASAP. Interestingly enough Minecraft turns more and more into a sandbox RPG, which I like a lot. Aside from mining and building, you can fight monsters, get XP, craft potions and even enchant your items. Cool stuff!

And when I am not trying to get my Minecraft server running I am playing Skyrim. I have always been a fan of the Elder Scrolls series and Skyrim is in my opinion the best game of the series so far. The new classless system is a lot of fun and my current character is some kind of battlemage fighting in heavy armor and using a bound sword in one hand and a spell in the other. In addition to that I love the crafting system. Hopefully I can get my smithing skill high enough to be able to create Deadric armor soon.

While playing the game I have been wondering several times if an Elder Scrolls pen & paper game would work. I am actually surprised that the creators of the series never released one themselves. The world of Tamriel is highly detailed and is much more unique as most people think. And from what I’ve seen it should even be possible to transfer the rules system used in the game almost 1:1 to the game table. On the other hand Tamriel would probably work with most game systems. Savage Worlds, Runequest or even FATE might be a good fit. The skill perks in Skyrim are mechanically not that much different from FATE’s stunts. When I find the time, I might actually work on an Elder Scrolls pen & paper project if my players are interested in such a game.

What will be
Some time ago Robert from Ancient Scroll offered to write guest posts for Stargazer’s World. He already sent me a couple adventure ideas that I’ll publish over the next weeks. The adventure ideas will be for various genres and with no particular setting or rules system in mind. We hope you will enjoy them.

Aside from that I still have a few reviews in the pipeline. As you probably know from the Doctor Who RPG unboxing video I posted a while ago, this is one of the games on my list. The other one is The One Ring. Both games by Cubicle 7 look awesome and as soon as I have the time I will post my reviews here on the blog.

I think that concludes my official “State of the Union” … eh … “State of the Blog” speech for this month. If you have any questions, comments or ideas, feel free to post them below!

No related posts.

In the meantime fellow gamer Symatt (you can follow him on Twitter) is working on a mascot for the “Ask The Stargazer!” section of the blog. I already got his first idea and it is awesome!

I also added an “Ask the Stargazer!” widget in the right sidebar of the blog. If you have a great question to ask, just click on the link and your email program should open. I hope I will be able to post the first replies this week but depending on how busy I am, it may take a bit longer, so if you have sent in any questions, please bare with me for a while.

Related posts:

1. Status update
2. Ask The Stargazer!
3. Ask the Stargazer: WTF Edition

So what’s the idea behind this new feature? You can send in your questions and the team of Stargazer’s World will try to answer them to the best of their abilities. You have a question about an existing or upcoming Stargazer Games product? Ask away! You want to know what we think about a recent development in the RPG industry? Send in your questions. You always wanted to know what we think about game X? Send us an email.

Of course this will only work with your help. So please think about what you want to know and send your questions to askthestargazer@stargazersworld.com! Please note that it may take a while until we publish our first “Ask The Stargazer!” post here. And if it’s possible try to keep questions short and to the point.

So what are you waiting for you? Send us your questions!

Related posts:

1. Update on the status of “Ask the Stargazer!”
2. Support the Stargazer!
3. Ask the Stargazer: WTF Edition

A lot has changed over the last three years. When I started out I was the only one German fan who took his first steps into the world of RPG blogging. Without the help of the RPG Bloggers Network, our readers and a few friends I would probably have given up soon. But that’s was not how it turned out. Writing for Stargazer’s World helped me to make friends all over the world, encouraged me to go to GenCon and gave me the confidence to release a roleplaying game of my own writing.

It have been quite tumultuous times but I definitely won’t miss a minute of it. Thanks again to everyone who joined me on that ride!

As it is tradition with my anniversary posts I want to give you some statistics:

• Total number of posts: 1,149 (including this one)
• Total number of approved comments: 4,872
• Number of total views: 454,412
• Busiest day: 4,631 — Wednesday, April 8, 2009 (this record is still unbroken!)
• Active WordPress plugins: 20
• Technorati authority: 451
• Google Page Rank: 3 (still unchanged, don’t ask me why)
• Glasses of Coke Zero consumed by me during the writing of that post: 1
• Feed subscribers (via Feedburner): 309

And last but not least here’s an overview of the pageviews starting from January 2009 till today.
I am very proud of what we have achieved over these three years, but there’s no reason to get complacent and stop trying to make Stargazer’s World even better. So I ask you, the readers, what can we do to improve the blog? What kind of posts would you like more often? Do you want to read more reviews, more advice, more random thoughts on roleplaying games and the industry? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

Related posts:

1. Happy birthday, Stargazer’s World!
2. 25 years later… 24 years later!
3. The Stargazer’s World has passed the 200 posts mark!

Related posts:

1. DISQUS
2. First Look: The SKETCH System
3. Issue with IE resolved

A Wanderer’s Romance
A Wanderer’s Romance is a wuxia-style game written by Chris McDowall of SoogaGames. A long time ago he already asked me to do the layout of one of his games but alas I always had to put this off. But last Thursday I sat down and finished the layout. Of course there are still a few errors to fix, but I hope we can release this game in the coming days/weeks. It’s quite different in style from BADASS but I am definitely as excited!

Pavel Elagin allowed us to use his awesome artwork, which really helps to let “A Wanderer’s Romance” shine.

One Thousand and One Posts – Best of Stargazer’s World
When we hit the 1000th post milestone at Stargazer’s World a while back I asked the readers for their help: “What are your favorite posts?” The idea was to compile the best posts into some kind of blog anthology. Alas the feedback was quite limited, but I didn’t want to let the project die. So I picked some of the most popular, most controversial and interesting posts and started to work on “One Thousand and One Posts”.

Please note that the pictures above are taken from a very early draft, so there might still be changes. But I definitely love the cover artwork created by Vlad Gerasimov who gave me permission to use his artwork as long as I don’t sell the PDF. Since I always give my work away for free, this should be no major hurdle.

Aside from that I still have a couple of game design things brewing at the moment. Alas I am not ready to talk about those, because I don’t want to repeat the Gears debacle…

Related posts:

1. 400 posts milestone
2. Five Hundred!
3. Opening Stargazer’s World to other authors

As you are well aware there are no ads on the blog, aside from some unobstrusive DriveThruRPG affiliate links, and I give away all the games I’ve written for free. But from time people ask me how they could support me. I have thought about adding a PayPal donation button, but decided against it. I don’t want to make money off this blog.

But if you really want to show your appreciation, why not send me something from my wishlists? You don’t have to see this as a demand to send me gifts, but if you always wondered how to support me, that’s your chance.

Related posts:

1. Post/page ratings and iPhone support
2. Update on the status of “Ask the Stargazer!”
3. Stargazer’s World is now on Facebook

While moderating trackbacks this morning I noticed that one of those sites has starting misusing the posts we’ve written for Stargazer’s World over the last few weeks. I posted a screenshot of the site below. There is a small link “View full post on Stargazer’s World” linking back to the original article in there but still the site still is in violation of the CC license since it’s clearly commercial in nature. And if someone added Stargazer’s World to some kind of RPG Planet without asking for permission I might not even mind, but in this case it’s obvious that there’s no overzealous RPG fan at work.

If there was some contact info on the site, I would have contacted the owner and kindly ask him to remove the feed. But in a way I think it’s a futile battle. There are hundreds of these sites all over the net that use other sites’ RSS feeds for their nefarious deeds.

Has anyone of you dealt with something like this before? Does it make sense to fight against these guys or is it like fighting windmills? Any advice? By the way, I am not linking directly to the site here, but the URL should be clearly visible in the screenshot above.

This is not a good way to start a day! *sigh*

UPDATE: Yahoo took action. The copyright infringing site was taken down.

Related posts:

1. Stargazer’s RPG Stuff
2. Free Stuff Friday: Dragon Avenue
3. Free Stuff Friday: Tolkien Fonts

PRESS RELEASE

Wolf-Micheri Ltd. Publishing

Löhnberg, Germany

San Juan, Puerto Rico

editorinchief@wmltdpub.com

April 1^st, 2011

The much beloved sci-fi game Alternity is back with a vengeance! The RPG originally published by Wizards of the Coast in the late 90s continues to have a huge fan base online, long after the line was discontinued by its publisher. The fans have clamored for a new edition and we listened. The newly formed Wolf-Micheri Ltd. Publishing has acquired the rights to publish Alternity materials.

The publishers have confirmed they are working on a second edition of the game integrating years of fan developments. They also intend to integrate the best innovations in game design theory that has developed since the line’s cancellation.

The stated purpose is for all past Alternity products to be partially compatible with the new edition with minor conversions. The new books, to be published in electronic form first and via major POD services in the coming months, will continue to be developed around the core two books; one aimed at players, the other at game masters.

The development team is composed of the best and brightest game developers in the blogosphere and Mr. Micheri has confirmed the new edition of Alternity will integrate elements modern gamers have come to expect: tactical combat rules, rules for the use of miniatures in the games, an upcoming miniature line, random collectable cards for skills, psionics, bionics and special equipment. The publisher went on to say, “Just because we criticize others for doing, doesn’t mean we won’t milk this baby for all its worth!”

Stay tuned to the blog for the launch of the official website coming soon.

Be ready for a new, exciting Alternity RPG. Not your father’s sci-fi game!

Have a great first day of April…

Related posts:

1. A word on our Alternity April Fool’s post
2. Review: Alternity
3. Alternity memories…

There are a lot of people to thank for this. First and foremost you the reader, whether you lurk or post in the comments, whether you are a new arrival (welcome!) or a regular (great to see you again!), you are the lifeblood of the blog, we write hoping others will want to read what we have to say. We also need to thank the greater blogging community, I have been lucky that joining the Stargazer’s World team has put me in contact with so many wonderful people all over the world. The support of so many bloggers who read us, and we read them in return, is crucial. In this time of interconnectivity and virtual communities we learn, grow and improve by example and collaboration.

To all my friends that make up the Stargazer’s World team, guest posters, regular posters, those that have come before me and will come after me, we are all part of the effort that made reaching the 1,000^th post milestone possible. But most of all a big THANK YOU to Michael who started all this, our fearless leader, our Captain Kirk (but without the toupee), the Stargazer who showed us the stars, the guy who wrote most of those 1,000 posts! You sir are a gentlemen and a friend thru and thru.

So here is to 1,000 more posts! Glad you were here for the first leg of the journey, buckle up cause we are only getting started…

PS – I promise to stop referring to myself as “new” at blogging. It’s been a year and over a 100 posts (so I’ve written about 10% of the 1,000 posts), the shticks grown old by now, so no more references to being new at this from now on!

Related posts:

1. Guest blogger wanted!
2. New avatar!
3. Ask The Stargazer: “How should one go about starting an rpg blog?”

But in order to do this I need the help of my readers. Please select your favorite Stargazer’s World blog posts and fill out this little survey. Your responses will be collected over the coming weeks and analyzed as soon as the 1000th blog post has been published.

Thanks in advance!

Related posts:

1. Three Years of Stargazer’s World
2. Opening Stargazer’s World to other authors
3. Happy birthday, Stargazer’s World!

I also got rid of the Disqus comment system. Recently the service was not that reliable and it often caused severe slowdowns on the site. So I replaced it with Intense Debate. Intense Debate definitely integrates better into the blog and has a few more features I find useful (like CommentLuv support).

I am still in the process of tweaking the theme and some of the plugins, so don’t get alarmed if something doesn’t work like you were used to it. If there are any major issues, please let me know. I’ll try to fix any errors ASAP.

Related posts:

1. Look at the shiny new theme!
2. Please wear your helmet!
3. Post/page ratings and iPhone support

And it seems this year he picked Stargazer’s World for the “Best Gaming Blog” category. Here’s how he explains his decision:

Michael Wolf and company have managed to take on new contributors without seeing any dip in their already-awesome quality. It also would have been easy to pick the most excellent Gnome Stew, but in a lot of ways Michael’s done more with less. Plus, I’m pretty sure we were all surprised that he didn’t win an ENnie, so hopefully this will help in ever-so-slightly compensating for it.

Thanks a lot, Zach! And I have to thank my team without something like that wouldn’t have been possible. I also need to thank my readers. The blog would be a pretty pointless with out you guys reading it!

You definitely should check out Zach’s post to find out about the other awardees. Some of the picks may surprise you, but trust me, Zachary picked a few true gaming gems. And don’t forget to give the honorable mentions a look, too!

Related posts:

1. RPG Blog Anthology
2. RPG Blog II says “Thank You” to its readers
3. “Blog of a new RPGer” interview

The DISQUS plugin will add some new features to the comment system and will hopefully make it easier for you to read and write comments. If you encounter any issues with the new system, please let me know!

UPDATE: One thing I’ve noticed is that the widget in the sidebar to the right shows pretty ancient comments as recent. I am pretty sure this was caused by the import process and will remedy itself as soon as new comments are coming in.

Related posts:

1. Bye, bye, Odiogo!
2. Post/page ratings and iPhone support
3. Please wear your helmet!

Stargazer’s World

This channel is accessible both by chat client (mIRC, Xchat, and so on). It is also accessible by a browser-based Java applet on the network’s website. I will provide instructions for both forms of access:

Using an IRC Client
0.) If you do not have a client but wish to use this method, download mIRC for Windows, Colloquy for Mac, or Xchat for Linux (Xchat for Windows cuts itself off after a trial period and is, in my opinion, far too expensive for a program which is free under Linux). Be aware that mIRC asks you to pay after a trial period, but does not actually cripple itself after that period; it’s on your conscience and honor whether you pay the requested money. Spend some time learning how to use the client — help files!

1.) Point your IRC client at the server irc.sorcery.net on port 6667, 7000 or 9000.

2.) Join #StargazersWorld

Using the Stargazer’s World Blog Chat Page

1.) Go to http://www.stargazersworld.com/irc/

2.) Follow the instructions.

Using the Network Website Java Applet

1.) Go to the Sorcerynet website, http://sorcery.net/

2.) Click “Chat Now” in the top bar.

3.) In the page that loads, enter your chosen nickname in the “Nickname” box, and “#RPMN” in the “Channels” box.

4.) Give the applet time to connect. You’ll know when you’re in the channel.

5.) Begin chatting!

Be aware that your chosen nickname may be registered by someone else for their personal use. If you see a warning message, change your nickname, or the network may change it for you to something like “Nonick-3B4AE”.

A Few Basic Guidelines

1.) Be respectful. The occasional curse is fine, we’re adults. Racism, sexism, generic attacks on groups of people, countries, etc. will be frowned upon. No personal attacks, no stalking, and any arguments will have a lid put on them if they go beyond civil disagreement. Finally, try not to gross out your fellow chatters, please.

2.) Please try to use decent spelling, punctuation, capitalization and grammar. Some folks really don’t care to hit the Shift key, and that’s fine too, but txtspk will be frowned upon unless it is used in humor or illustration.

3.) There are only two forbidden topics. These are politics and religion. These two topics are easily the most contentious subjects in society today, and lead to far too many arguments, especially online. Use common sense: talking about the fact that the United States has a bicameral Congress is fine, because it is factual, but talking about the doings of the Senate, the behavior of a particular figure, the “real” causes of such and such war, etc. is across the line. As for religion, again, factual statements are fine, but anything beyond that is not permitted. If an op asks you to stop, please do not argue the case, even if you believe you have not crossed the line. There are plenty of other places to discuss these two topics.

If you have IRC experience and wish to be considered for a channel op (admin) position, contact me either here or in the channel. My nickname on IRC is Corvus. I will not automatically op everyone who asks; this isn’t a personal judgement or an insult.

Related posts:

1. Join us on #rpmn
2. Chat with ICE on RPGBomb (get HARP for free until 9pm EST today)
3. World Building Part 9 – The Don Draper School of World Immersion

By the way, the small guy to the right is a character I invented back in 10th grade. If you like him, he might have a few more appearances on the blog.

I also decided I should reveal the pageview statistics of the blog since I started it in August ‘08. Here they are:

And now let’s return to our regular program…

Related posts:

1. Support the Stargazer!
2. Here is to 1,000 more!
3. RPG Blog Anthology

I already sent him an email and when he accepts his prize, he’ll be reading Fantasy Craft in no time. In the unlikely case he doesn’t accept, I’ll do a second drawing. Typhon, if you read this and you haven’t got an email yet, please contact me using email (my email address is shown under that post).

Related posts:

1. Fantasy Craft giveaway: The lucky winner!
2. Fantasy Craft Giveaway!
3. You want to get a free copy of Fantasy Craft? Here’s your chance!

I will be traveling to Seattle with my fiancé for this event. PAX is from September 3rd – 5th. We are both excited to see as many games and talks as possible. We are both interested in checking out what Wizards of the Coast has going on for Dungeons & Dragons related events. I am hoping to find a Green Ronin booth and maybe talk with someone about the new DC Adventures RPG.

My fiancé and I will be treating this trip like a vacation for us. After PAX I will be spending a week in Washington State visiting family before returning to Juneau Alaska. I am not planning on doing much writing while I am on vacation, but please feel free to follow me on twitter (@nicap) as I am sure I will be posting updates and pictures from PAX.

Related posts:

1. Penny Arcade: “For the Vin”
2. My Motivation for Writing an Adventure
3. PAX Prime 2010 – Day 3

• Cubicle 7
• Dream Pod 9
• Fabled Environments
• Fat Dragon Games
• Goodman Games
• Erisian Entertainment
• Generic Universe Publishing
• Holistic Designs
• Kallisti Press
• Louis Porter Jr. Design
• OtherWorld Creations
• Palladium Books
• Rogue Games
• RPG Objects
• Savage Mojo

The code is HotAugustGames2010! Enjoy!

And while you’re there, why don’t you get Warrior, Rogue & Mage and the supplement From the Imperial Forges as well? They are both free and if you like rules-light fantasy games you’re in for a treat!

Related posts:

1. Behold this month’s DriveThruRPG 20% discount!
2. 20% discount on DriveThruRPG/RPGNow
3. Get 20% discount at DriveThruRPG until March 8th

Thanks again to Tristan for having me on the show. It was an honor and a pleasure!

Related posts:

1. “Blog of a new RPGer” interview
2. Interview with the AntiPaladins: Mini Six Bare Bones Edition
3. Gen Con: Crafty Games Interview

• A Terrible Idea
• Aethereal Forge
• Bailey Records
• Crucifiction Games
• Dream Pod 9
• Fantasy Games Unlimited
• Final Redoubt Press
• Gold Rush Games
• Goodman Games
• Highmoon Games
• Morbid Games
• OtherWorld Creations
• Palladium Books
• Rogue Games
• RPG Objects
• Savage Mojo
• Tricky Owlbear
• Vigilance Press

The discount code for this month is: DTRPGAugust2010BlogPCast

Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. 20% discount @ DriveThruRPG
2. RPGNow/DriveThruRPG discounts for July
3. Behold this month’s DriveThruRPG 20% discount!

This will be my first trip to Gen Con and the first time I ever leave Europe. Alas I am the kind of person who always ponders about all the bad things that could happen. And while I am pretty well prepared I still fear I might have forgotten something. These fears are usually pretty unfounded, but I already know I won’t sleep that well on the night before the flight!

But aside from that I am also positively excited. When I arrive at the airport in Indianapolis I will be picked up by Zachary Houghton and I’ll stay with him and his family for almost a week. I will be among friends all the time and I am pretty sure I’ll make a lot of new ones.

I will also bring a couple print copies of my new game with me. When I decided to attend Gen Con earlier this year, I never would have guessed I would bring my own roleplaying game with me. Currently I have no plans to run Warrior, Rogue & Mage there, but I know Zach and the others will keep asking me, until I give in…

One day before Gen Con my blog will also celebrate its 2nd anniversary. This will be another important milestone for me and I hope you’ll enjoy the posts published on that day. And no, I won’t bore you with statistics all day. Some blogger luminaries have agreed to provide some guest posts for that day, so make sure you check them out!

When this post will go live (I’ve written in on the weekend), my bags will be packed and I will be ready to go. On Tuesday I’ll leave early in the morning to the Frankfurt international airport from where I’ll start my first Gen Con trip. When everything goes as planned, I will post about my experiences soon!

Related posts:

1. Preparing for Gen Con: Geek Wear
2. Preparing for Starblazer Adventures