A Role Playing Games Blog
Site News
Some minor changes in our comment system
1Some time ago I have installed IntenseDebate on this blog. I was actually quite happy with it for a while, but recently it had more and more trouble filtering out spam. In the end I was forced to basically moderate anything by hand again. That’s why I decided to shut it down and reinstall a simple captcha plugin to deal with this problem. Please let me know if you run into any issues with this new setup.
What I am working on right now
0June 27, 2011
I recently had a couple of long weekends that allowed me to work on several projects. One of these projects has been Jay Steven Anyong’s BADASS which we released some time ago. Now that the game is released I had some time to work on some other projects.
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!
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Pavel Elagin allowed us to use his awesome artwork, which really helps to let “A Wanderer’s Romance” shine.
Support the Stargazer!
0June 14, 2011
Some of you may already have noticed that I added a new widget to the right sidebar of the blog titled “Support the Stargazer!”. The widget contains links to my Amazon wishlists (on the US, UK and German sites) and my DriveThruRPG wishlist.
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.
Someone is stealing our stuff!
21I have no problems with people using the Stargazer’s World RSS feed as it is meant to be. The contents of the blog are usually licensed under CC BY-NC-SA after all. But it really pisses me off when someone takes the post and even the comments posted under them and posts them at his own site making it look like it was their content.
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.
Exciting Alternity news!
7April 1, 2011
We’ve been sitting on this for a couple of weeks, dying to share it with our readers, but we couldn’t until all the details were worked out. Now that all that is taken care off we can share some exciting news… Here is the press release going out to gaming magazines (the two left) and gaming blogs later today.
PRESS RELEASE
Wolf-Micheri Ltd. Publishing
Löhnberg, Germany
San Juan, Puerto Rico
editorinchief@wmltdpub.com
April 1st, 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…
Here is to 1,000 more!
5March 8, 2011
Yesterday Stargazer’s World had its 1,000th post. I’m pretty new to the world of blogging, having only joined the team little over a year ago, but I think many endeavors such as this fizzle away after the initial enthusiasm and we (and I use the term because Michael and the other contributors here have made me feel at home from the get go) are very proud to be going strong, growing and improving every day!
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 1,000th 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!
Best of Stargazer’s World
5February 9, 2011
The 1000th post at Stargazer’s World is approaching fast. A couple of months back I had the idea to release something special when this blog hits a thousand posts. The idea is to compile 20 or 30 of the best articles and release them as a PDF, much like a Stargazer’s World-only Open Game Table.
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!
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