The Mercer Effect
Without a doubt, Matthew Mercer and the rest of the Critical Role team has had a huge impact on how many people perceive roleplaying games in general and Dungeons & Dragons in particular....
January 15, 2019
Stargazer
Happy New Year–Plans for 2019 and A Look Back
After taking an extensive break over the holidays I am back at work. This is also a good opportunity to give you an update what I have been up to lately. Without further...
January 7, 2019
Unrealistic Hitpoints, Funny Dice and Descending AC
The origins of D&D always fascinated me. For me it is very exciting to learn about the early days of our hobby, where fantasy roleplaying came from, and how certain aspects made it...
December 7, 2018
Classic Traveller “Starter Traveller” now available for free
In 1983 GDW released a boxed set for Traveller (now called Classic Traveller) which contained everything you needed to get started with Traveller. The rules had been streamlined from the original. Especially the...
December 6, 2018
Strongholds, Towers, and Hideouts
I am currently reading through the D&D Rules Cyclopedia from 1991 and I’m constantly discovering game aspects that the later editions lack or which have been severely limited in scope. One of these...
November 28, 2018
The Fantasy Network
Recently I have been contacted by Ron Newcomb. He let me know about The Fantasy Network, a new SVOD (subscription-video-on-demand) service focusing on fantasy movies and series. It’s a joint venture of Arrowstorm...
November 22, 2018
Blast from the Past: D&D Rules Cyclopedia from 1991
Over the past few years, when I was looking more closely into old-school D&D, the OSR, the various retro-clones etc. numerous people recommended the Rules Cyclopedia to me. It’s basically a compilation of...
November 20, 2018
Stargazer’s thoughts on the OSR
What is the OSR? If you ask several gamers you’ll likely get different answers. The acronym usually stands for old-school revolution or old-school renaissance. For some people the OSR is celebrating games and...
November 20, 2018
A Message From White Wolf
Three days ago the interim manager at White Wolf Publishing posted the following on their official website: Hello everyone, My name is Shams Jorjani, VP of Business Development at Paradox Interactive and interim...
November 19, 2018
Realms of Terrinoth: Play Report
On Friday I finally had the chance to play in a Genesys game. My friend Sebastian ran an adventure set into the Realms of Terrinoth for us. Since it was meant as an...
November 19, 2018
Lazy Monday Video Post: Electric Bastionland Character Preview
One of my fondest gaming memories is the playtest of Chris McDowall’s Into The Odd. Into The Odd is a very unique game which feels a bit like OD&D, but it’s extremely streamlined...
October 29, 2018
Confessions of a terrible GM
Ok, I am probably not that bad, but sometimes I feel that way. I’ve run games that were terribly boring, extremely formulaic, and I made every mistake at least twice. I remember game...
October 25, 2018
Podcast recommendation: Grumpy Old Gamers
I have to admit I am not an avid listener to podcasts. I always found it hard to include listening to them into my daily routine. Usually I have some free time during...
October 24, 2018
I’ve got Genesys on my mind
After I decided to cancel my D&D game, one of the players immediately offered to run a “Realms of Terrinoth” game for us. “Realms of Terrinoth” is the first in the line of...
October 22, 2018
Organizing my tabletop RPG library
I have a huge collection of roleplaying games. Aside from a lot of books which are scattered all over my house (we even have a bookshelf with roleplaying games in the bathroom next...
October 18, 2018
Getting Back Into The Game
Everything is not rainbows and butterflies when it comes to roleplaying games in the house of the Stargazer – far from it. If you’ve followed my blog over the years you know about...
October 15, 2018
The Great Google+ to Mewe Migration of 2018
A couple of days ago Google announced that they will shutdown Google+ in 2019. This was a shock especially to many tabletop RPG fans which have used the platform basically from day one...
October 11, 2018
A Missed Opportunity
A while ago I read about the new Endless Quest books by Candlewick Press. They have been written by Matt Forbeck, are set into the Forgotten Realms, and in each book you can...
September 26, 2018
First Look: Stellar Adventures
I was looking for a simple science fiction roleplaying game on DTRPG when I stumbled upon Stellar Adventures. It especially piqued my interest since one of the authors listed in the credits is...
September 19, 2018
Fallout Wasteland Warfare Q&A with Designer James Sheahan
Stargazer’s World is first and foremost a roleplaying games blog, but that doesn’t mean we can’t cover board or tabletop miniature games from time to time. One game I am very excited about...
September 3, 2018