Michael Austin Stackpole (born November 27, 1957) is an American

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

author best known for his ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'' and ''

BattleTech ''BattleTech'' is a wargaming and military science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984, acquired by WizKids in 2001, which was in turn acquired by Topps in 2003; and published since 2007 by Catalyst Game Labs. The trademark ...

'' books. He was born in

Wausau, Wisconsin Wausau ( ) is a city in Marathon County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Wisconsin River and had a population of 39,994 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the core city of the Wausau ...

, but raised in

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

. He has a BA in history from the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...

. From 1977 on, he worked as a designer of

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

s for various gaming companies, and wrote dozens of magazine articles with limited distribution within the industry. He lives in

Scottsdale, Arizona Scottsdale is a city in eastern Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, and is part of the Phoenix metropolitan area. Named Scottsdale in 1894 after its founder Winfield Scott (chaplain), Winfield Scott, a retired Chaplain Corps (United States ...

Game design career

Michael Stackpole was hired full-time at Flying Buffalo after they accepted his submission for a solo '' Tunnels & Trolls'' adventure which was published in 1978 as ''

City of Terrors A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

''. He wrote columns on industry news and reviews for Flying Buffalo's magazine ''Sorcerer's Apprentice''. Stackpole worked for

Coleco Coleco Industries, Inc. ( ) was an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as The Connecticut Leather Company. The name "COLECO" is an abbreviation derived from the company's original name which combines the first two letters of "C ...

from 1980 to 1981 after

Rick Loomis Rick Loomis (August 24, 1946 – August 23, 2019) was an American game designer, most notable as the founder of game publisher Flying Buffalo, which he managed until his death. Career Early years Richard F. Loomis was born and raised in Scott ...

, Stackpole, and the president of Coleco met at a gaming and pinball convention. Stackpole designed the roleplaying game '' Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes'', which Flying Buffalo published in 1983. Stackpole left Flying Buffalo after the company's 1985 move to

. Stackpole, Ken St. Andre, and Liz Danforth designed the computer roleplaying game '' Wasteland'', published by Interplay in 1988. He later returned to work with his fellow creators of Wasteland as a writer on its sequel '' Wasteland 2'', released in 2014 by inXile Entertainment. In response to the accusations of Patricia Pulling (among others) who felt that the "

occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...

" elements of ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' were driving people to suicide, Stackpole began to defend the game and the roleplaying game community. Stackpole published one of his first articles about the role-playing games misinformation from the media in ''Sorcerer's Apprentice'' #14 (Spring 1982) as an article titled "Devil Games? Nonsense!", and even debated the Western Regional Director of Pulling's BADD organization on a radio program broadcast on July 14, 1987. He compared BADD's statistics of suicides among role-playing gamers to the rate of general teen suicide and found the percentage of roleplayers committing suicide was actually lower than those who were not gamers, and published his argument in an article called "The Truth about Role-Playing Games" in the 1989 book ''Satanism in America''; he also published the document "The Pulling Report" in 1990, which further discredited Pulling's stand against roleplaying games. In the 1980s, Stackpole began designing computer games for

and then

Interplay Productions Interplay Entertainment Corp. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by developers Brian Fargo, Jay Patel, Troy Worrell, and Rebecca ...

. His work at Interplay included '' Bard's Tale III'', '' Wasteland'', ''

Neuromancer ''Neuromancer'' is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian author William Gibson. Set in a near-future dystopia, the narrative follows Case, a computer hacker enlisted into a crew by a powerful artificial intelligence and a traumatis ...

'', '' Star Trek: 25th Anniversary'' and '' Star Trek: Judgment Rites''. He also created the role-playing game '' Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes'', which provided the game mechanics for ''Wasteland'', and wrote several solo adventures for the Tunnels & Trolls role-playing system, including " Dargon's Dungeon", " Overkill", "

" and " Sewers of Oblivion". Stackpole loaned his image to

Decipher DECIPHER is a web-based resource and database of genomic variation data from analysis of patient DNA. It documents submicroscopic Chromosome abnormality, chromosome abnormalities (Deletion (genetics), microdeletions and Gene duplication, duplic ...

for the image of Corran Horn used in their ''

Star Wars Customizable Card Game ''Star Wars: Customizable Card Game'' (''SW:CCG'') is an out-of-print customizable card game based on the ''Star Wars'' fictional universe. It was created by Decipher, Inc., which also produced the '' Star Trek Customizable Card Game'' and '' ...

'' expansion "Reflections 2".

Timothy Zahn Timothy Zahn (born 1951) is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy. He is known best for his prolific collection of ''Star Wars'' List of Star Wars books, books, chiefly the Thrawn trilogy, ''Thrawn'' trilogy, and has published several ...

did likewise for the character Talon Karrde. Stackpole teamed up with Decipher again, helping them write the background story to their '' WARS TCG'', including

e-books An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. A ...

and other writing tie-ins for the

expanded universe The term expanded universe, sometimes called an extended universe, is generally used to denote the "extension" of a media franchise (like a television program or a series of feature films) with other media, generally comics and original novels. ...

. In January, 2019 Stackpole resigned from the Board of Directors of GAMA (Game Manufacturer's Association), citing its inactivity and the poor handling of an incident involving GAMA President Stephen Brissaud. He was one of the few remaining Emeritus Directors (alongside

and Will Niebling).

Writing career

In 1986 Stackpole wrote his first novel, the fantasy story ''Talion: Revenant''. His editors believed that a 175,000 word book was too long for an unknown author and that the story wasn't particularly engaging. The story remained unpublished for the next 11 years until reworked by Stackpole's editor, Anne Lesley Groell. Stackpole clarifies these issues himself in the afterword of the published version of ''Talion.'' The manuscript was published in 1997 by Bantam Books. Stackpole's first published novels were the Warrior trilogy for the ''

'' universe, published by

FASA FASA Corporation was an American publisher of role-playing games, wargaming, wargames and board games between 1980 and 2001, after which they closed publishing operations for several years, becoming an IP holding company under the name FASA In ...

in 1988-1989. His "Blood of Kerensky" trilogy (1989-1991) were the last novels that FASA directly published; '' BattleTech: The Animated Series'' (1994) was set during the events of this trilogy. Stackpole also wrote a trilogy of novels published in 1992, which were based on the ''

Dark Conspiracy ''Dark Conspiracy'' is a near-future horror role-playing game (RPG) originally written by Lester W. Smith and published by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) in 1991 in games, 1991. Several newer editions have been published. Setting ''Dark Conspi ...

'' roleplaying game by GDW. Stackpole has found his greatest success in serial works that continue the characters and plot lines developed by other authors. In 1987 he began writing novels set in the BattleTech universe for

FASA Corporation FASA Corporation was an American publisher of role-playing games, wargaming, wargames and board games between 1980 and 2001, after which they closed publishing operations for several years, becoming an IP holding company under the name FASA In ...

, some of which were used as the source for a television animated series. He was then selected to write several novels in the Star Wars universe for

Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin Jr., Sidney B. K ...

. He also wrote several comics based in the Star Wars universe for

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...

. Initially these covered the period just before his ''X-Wing'' novels. Later, he also covered the marriage of

Luke Skywalker Luke Skywalker is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. He was introduced in the original film trilogy as the main protagonist and also appears in the sequel trilogy. Raised as a poor moisture farmer on the desert planet Tat ...

and

Mara Jade Mara Jade Skywalker is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. She appears in the '' Legends'' continuity as the wife of Luke Skywalker and mother of Ben Skywalker. She has been voiced by Heidi Shannon, Edie Mirman and Kath Souc ...

in the graphic novel '' Union'' and collaborated with

on Mara Jade's early career. In the foreword to his book '' Outbound Flight'', Timothy Zahn thanks Stackpole and issues a challenge at ''Star Wars

Trivial Pursuit ''Trivial Pursuit'' is a board game in which winning is determined by a player's ability to answer trivia and popular culture questions. Players move their pieces around a board, the squares they land on determining the subject of a question the ...

''. In addition, he has written several novels and short stories with original settings. One series is the ''DragonCrown War Cycle''. These books attempted to break fantasy conventions in order to stir reader interest, including the introduction of firearms in a fantasy setting. Reception of these books was fairly positive based on Amazon reviews, but reviews elsewhere were not as good. Stackpole contributed one of the four stories in

Roger Zelazny Roger Joseph Zelazny (May 13, 1937 – June 14, 1995) was an American fantasy and science fiction writer known for his short stories and novels, best known for '' The Chronicles of Amber''. He won the Nebula Award three times (out of 14 nominatio ...

shared world A shared universe or shared world is a fictional universe from a set of creative works where one or more writers (or other artists) independently contribute works that can stand alone but fits into the joint development of the storyline, charact ...

anthology ''Forever After'', published by

Baen Books Baen Books () is an American publishing house for science fiction and fantasy. In science fiction, it emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, and military science fiction. The company was established in 1983 by science fiction publisher an ...

in 1995. He was a contributor in the 1998 anthology '' Lord of the Fantastic'' commemorating Zelazny. ''The Age of Discovery'' trilogy is his latest complete series, with ''A New World'' released mid-2007. The trilogy is set in a fantasy world, with an attempt at an unconventional approach to magic and mastery. ''The Crown Colonies'' is a trilogy that re-imagines the events of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. The first book, ''At The Queen's Command'', was released in November 2010. At New York Comic Con 2012, it was revealed that Blizzard Entertainment had approached Stackpole to write the next novel in their series based on the popular MMORPG, ''World of Warcraft''. The novel, titled ''Vol’jin: Shadows of the Horde'', centres around the chieftain of the Darkspear Trolls as his loyalty to the Horde is put to the ultimate test after an assassination attempt on his life. The novel was released in July 2013.

''The Secrets''

Stackpole also writes and publishes an

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on lin ...

newsletter A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of ...

titled ''The Secrets'', which offers tips, tricks, and tidbits about fan fiction writing (focusing on, but not limited to, science fiction and fantasy). It is aimed towards the serious fan fiction writer and some casual writers, and includes information about getting books published.. Topics discussed in the newsletter range from how to beat

writer's block Writer's block is a non-medical condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Writer's block has various degrees of severity, from difficulty in coming ...

to how to build a world, and even how to manage writing as a career. ''The Secrets'' newsletter requires a subscription, and issues are released every two weeks.

Podcast

''The Secrets'' Newsletter has an "audio companion" in The Secrets

Podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

. The first ten podcasts were based on material from the first ten issues of The Secrets newsletter. After the first series ended, the content of the podcast diverged from the newsletter. The podcasts average twenty-five minutes long and are voiced and produced by Stackpole. The podcasts are free and require no subscription, but older episodes have been retired and are no longer available on the main archive. Stackpole is also one of the main hosts on ''The Dragon Page Cover to Cover'', a book review and interview show dealing mainly with

and

sci fi Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

publications, together with Michael R. Mennenga.

Skepticism

Stackpole has been the executive director of the Phoenix Skeptics since 1988 and is listed as the contact for the group in the magazine ''

Skeptical Inquirer ''Skeptical Inquirer'' (S.I.) is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle "The Magazine for Science and Reason". The magazine initially focused on investigating clai ...

''.

Asteroid

An outer main-belt asteroid discovered March 23, 2001 by David B. Healy was named 165612 Stackpole.

Novels

'' DragonCrown War''

Published by

. *2000 ''The Dark Glory War'' *2001 ''Fortress Draconis'' *2002 ''When Dragons Rage'' *2003 ''The Grand Crusade''

''Age of Discovery''

Published by Bantam Books. *2005 '' A Secret Atlas'' *2006 ''Cartomancy'' *2007 ''The New World''

''The Crown Colonies''

Published by Night Shade Books. *2010 ''At The Queen's Command.'' *2011 ''Of Limited Loyalty.''

Homeland Security Services

*2011 ''Perfectly Invisible'' (Stormwolf.com)

World of Warcraft

*2013 ''Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde''

BattleTech

The BattleTech novels were originally published by

up until 1991. In that year,

Penguin Group Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media company, media Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a Mergers and acquisitions, mer ...

/ Roc Books took over the line and also reprinted the earlier novels. The last print novel of the classic BattleTech setting was published in 2002; in the same year, the first novel for the Dark Age setting (set some 100 years after the classic setting) was published, written by Stackpole. His novels were typically "spine novels" that moved the setting ahead, narrating large-scale or otherwise important events with far-reaching consequences in the fictional timeline. ;Warrior Trilogy *1988 '' Warrior: En Garde'' (FASA, ROC reprint) *1988 '' Warrior: Riposte'' (FASA, ROC reprint) *1989 '' Warrior: Coupé'' (FASA, ROC reprint) ;Blood of Kerensky Trilogy *1989 '' Lethal Heritage'' (FASA, ROC reprint) *1990 '' Blood Legacy'' (FASA, ROC reprint) *1991 '' Lost Destiny'' (FASA, ROC reprint) ;Other BattleTech Spine Novels *1992 '' Natural Selection (novel)'' (ROC) *1993 '' Assumption of Risk'' (ROC) *1994 '' Bred For War'' (ROC) *1996 '' Malicious Intent'' (ROC) *1997 '' Grave Covenant'' (ROC) - Twilight of the Clans series #2 *1998 '' Prince of Havoc'' (ROC) - Twilight of the Clans series #7 ;Mechwarrior - Dark Age setting *2002 '' Ghost War'' (ROC/

WizKids NECA/WizKids, LLC (commonly known as simply WizKids) is an American company based in New Jersey that produces tabletop games. WizKids is best known for its collectible miniatures games (CMGs) Mage Knight, HeroClix, MechWarrior, and HorrorCli ...

) *2007 '' Masters of War'' (ROC/WizKids)

Star Wars

*1996 '' X-Wing: Rogue Squadron'' (Bantam Books) *1996 '' X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble'' (Bantam Books) *1996 '' X-Wing: The Krytos Trap'' (Bantam Books) *1997 '' X-Wing: The Bacta War'' (Bantam Books) *1998 '' I, Jedi'' (Bantam Books) *1999 '' X-Wing: Isard's Revenge'' (Bantam Books) *2000 '' The New Jedi Order - Dark Tide I: Onslaught'' (

Del Rey Books Del Rey Books is an imprint (trade name), imprint of the Random House Group, a division of Penguin Random House. The imprint was established in 1977 under the editorship of Judy-Lynn del Rey and her husband, author Lester del Rey. Today, th ...

) *2000 '' The New Jedi Order - Dark Tide II: Ruin'' (Del Rey Books)

''Dark Conspiracy''

Published by GDW. *1991 ''A Gathering Evil'' *1991 ''Evil Ascending'' *1992 ''Evil Triumphant''

Others

*1994 ''Once a Hero'' (Bantam Books) *1994 ''Dementia'' (Roc/Target) *1997 ''Talion: Revenant'' (Bantam Books) *1997 ''A Hero Born'' (

HarperPrism Harper Prism (1993–1999) was launched by John Silbersack, Publishing Director, in 1993 as the first science fiction and fantasy imprint (trade name), imprint of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States. Prism's early authors included Steph ...

) *1998 ''An Enemy Reborn'' (HarperPrism) *1998 ''Wolf and Raven'' (Roc/FASA) *1998 ''Eyes of Silver'' (Bantam Books) *2010 ''In Hero Years I'm Dead'' (Stormwolf.com) *2011 ''

Conan the Barbarian Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero created by American author Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) and who debuted in 1932 and went on to appear in a series of fantasy stories published in ''We ...

'' (

Berkley Books Berkley Books is an American imprint founded in 1955 by Charles Byrne and Frederic Klein owned by the Penguin Group unit of Penguin Random House. History Berkley Books began as an independent company in 1955. It was founded as "Chic News Compa ...

) *2014 ''The Crusader Road'' (

Paizo Publishing Paizo Inc. (; originally Paizo Publishing) is an American role-playing game publishing company based in Redmond, Washington, best known for the tabletop role-playing games '' Pathfinder'' and '' Starfinder''. The company's name is derived from ...

)

Other publications

*1982 Grimtooth's Traps Too (co-author) *1982 Citybook I: Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker (co-author) *1984 Citybook II: Port o' Call (co-author, co-editor) *1987 Citybook III: Deadly Nightside (co-author, editor) *1988

Lords of Darkness ''Lords of Darkness'' is the name of two accessories for the fictional ''Forgotten Realms'' campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition ''Lords of Darkness'' is a collection ...

(co-author) *198
''Game Hysteria and the Truth''
*199

*1990 Citybook IV: On the Road (co-author, contributing editor) *1990 Sprawl Sites (co-author) *1991 (with co author Loren K. Wiseman
''Questions and Answers about Role Playing Games''
Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) *1991 Citybook V: Sideshow (co-author) *1994 GAMA News, ''Model Retailer'', March, 98-99 *1995 ACE Books, Superheroes (Edited by Lynne Varley) ''Peer Review'' *1995 Magic the Gathering: Tapestries (Edited by Kathy Ice), ''What's In A Name?'' *1996 Magic the Gathering: Distant Planes (Edited by Kathy Ice), ''Insufficient Evidence'' *2010 Steampunk'd (Edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg), ''Chance Corrigan and the Tick Tock King of the Nile'' *2012 Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design (co-author) *2012 The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding (co-author) *2013 ''A Hero by Any Other Name'' (Short story anthology edited by Jean Rabe)

References

External links

Personal Website
the result of Stackpole's research (see above)

a
SFFWorld.comWars CCG Short Story collection onlinePen & Paper listing for Mike Stackpole
on Slice of SciFi

on I Should Be Writing (audio) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stackpole, Michael 1957 births 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American fantasy writers American male novelists American science fiction writers American skeptics American video game designers Conan the Barbarian novelists Interplay Entertainment people Living people People from Wausau, Wisconsin Role-playing game designers American video game writers University of Vermont alumni Writers from Vermont Writers from Wisconsin 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers