Michael A. Stackpole (1957 - )
Michael Stackpole is a fairly prolific
sci-fi author and game designer in the
RPG and
computer game industry. Born in Wausau, Wisconsin, he graduated from Rice Memorial High School in 1975 and the University of Vermont in 1979 with a BA in
History.
While still in college, he wrote several magazine articles and adventures, mostly for Flying Buffalo's Tunnels & Trolls game. In the following years, in addition to more articles, short stories and adventures for various gaming mags, he also wrote the storyline in several computer games for Electronic Arts and Interplay, most notably Wasteland, Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate, Neuromancer, Star Trek 25th Anniversary and Judgement Rites. wonko tells me he also worked on the original X-Wing game for LucasArts.
His RPG creations include Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes for Flying Buffalo, Justice Inc. for Hero Games/Iron Crown Enterprises, and the Renegade Legion Roleplaying Game for FASA. He did the Berserker board game and the Nuclear Escalation card game for Flying Buffalo, as well as the Crimson Skies board game for FASA.
He seems to consider the starting point of his career as a writer to be the 1988 Warrior trilogy of novels for FASA's BattleTech universe, which defined the Fourth Succession War. These, as well as the later BattleTech novels (the latest are part of the Twilight of the Clans series) have defined the storyline of the BattleTech universe for over a decade. These include:
The demise of FASA meant that the next novel, Tide of Tyrants, might never be written, but he has expressed interest in re-involving himself in the BattleTech universe for WizKids, LLC.
He is more famous in mainstream society for his Star Wars novels, most notably the late 90's X-Wing series, published under Bantam Books. These include:
His other novels, mostly independent, include:
Not included in these lists (mainly because I couldn't find a complete listing) are the comics and graphic novels he's scripted for Dark Horse, including the Star Wars novels and X-Wing: Rogue Squadron.
He maintains a homepage at http://www.stormwolf.com/.
Info gathered from his homepage, both old and new, as well as books of his that I own. I may have misplaced a few Star Wars books, as I am not that big a fan of Star Wars. If so, /msg me...