Stephen V. Cole

Last updated
Stephen V. Cole
Born
United States
Nationality American
Occupation Game designer

Stephen V. Cole is an American game designer and the CEO of Amarillo Design Bureau (also known as ADB or, incorrectly, Starfleet Games) which publishes Star Fleet Battles , [1] Federation and Empire , Federation Commander , Prime Directive (a series of RPGs for D20, D20M, and GURPS), and other wargames set in the Star Fleet Universe. ADB became ADB, Inc., in 1999.

Contents

Career

Stephen Cole is a registered engineer and former Texas State Guard company commander (and operations officer). He was awarded the Texas Medal of Merit with "V" for valor, a non U.S. military citation. [ citation needed ] While attending school at Texas Tech in 1973, he founded the company JagdPanther Publications, which published JagdPanther (1973-1976), a magazine which featured complete small games in every issue in addition to scenarios and variants for existing games. [2] : 114  Allen Eldridge, who Cole had previously met at an Amarillo game club, joined Cole at his company a few years later. [2] : 114  the company published several games separate from the magazine. Cole and Eldridge made the decision in November 1976 to close the company, and then shut the company down in spring 1977. [2] : 114  They closed the company after paying all of its bills and subscriptions. JP Publications operated from 1973 to 1977. [3]

In autumn 1978, Cole and Eldridge co-founded Task Force Games to sell games only to wholesalers and retailers and initially not to individual consumers. [2] : 114  They started a "Pocket Games" line, with four science-fiction releases in 1979 designed by Cole: Starfire , Asteroid Zero-Four , Cerberus , and Star Fleet Battles . [2] : 114  Cole had first conceived the idea of Star Fleet Battles in 1975, and finally published the game after obtaining a license from Franz Joseph. [2] : 114  Cole's Valkenburg Castle was also released in 1979, and was the company's first fantasy game. [2] : 114  Cole has designed over 100 published games on many subjects. He won two Charles Roberts awards for JagdPanther and several awards for Star Fleet Battles.

Stephen V. Cole took ROTC from 1971-1975 but the Army chose not to offer him an active duty slot and was placed in the inactive reserves, never attending Officer Basic Course (OBC). He has made claim to have taken US Army Command & General Staff School (a master's degree in military science) through the Army Reserve and the influence of his father, a serving Colonel in the U.S. Army at the time.[ citation needed ] He wrote and published the military intelligence newsletter For Your Eyes Only from 1983-1999. He was a consultant to the military and DIA during this time. He has written over 200 articles on military affairs for several magazines.

As the Pocket Games line ended in 1983, Cole left Task Force Games and formed the new company Amarillo Design Bureau, which would be his design house for more Star Fleet Battles products. [2] : 116  Through the Amarillo Design Bureau, Cole continued to support Star Fleet Battles heavily. [2] : 118  After Task Force Games was sold to John Olsen in April 1990, Olsen relocated the company back to Amarillo so that they could better coordinate with Cole. [2] : 117  Task Force Games refocused on Star Fleet Battles beginning with Cole's Star Fleet Battles Captain's Edition Basic Set in 1990. [2] : 117  Cole took over publishing Star Fleet Battles in 1999, and in the process made Amarillo Design Bureau into a corporation. [2] : 117 Star Fleet Battles continues to be published by Amarillo Design Bureau and was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming, Arts, & Design Hall of Fame in 2005 where they stated that "Star Fleet Battles literally defined the genre of spaceship combat games in the early 1980s, and was the first game that combined a major license with 'high re-playability'." [4]

Cole was previously a contributor to StrategyPage that "provides quick, easy access to what is going on in military affairs." [5]

Cole has been married since 1979 to Leanna. They have owned several Felis bengalensis wildcat crossbreeds. Cole regularly visits the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary where he gives talks on wolf nutrition and behavior as Chef Steve.

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<i>Star Fleet Battles</i>

Star Fleet Battles (SFB) is a tactical board wargame set in an offshoot of the Star Trek setting called the Star Fleet Universe. Originally created in 1979 by Stephen V. Cole, it has had four major editions. The current edition is published by Amarillo Design Bureau as Star Fleet Battles, Captain's Edition.

Federation and Empire (F&E) is a strategic-level board wargame set in the fictional Star Fleet Universe spinoff of Star Trek, currently published by Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. (ADB). It is a stand-alone product, but has sometimes been considered the official campaign generator for Star Fleet Battles.

The Star Trek franchise has produced a large number of novels, comic books, video games, and other materials, which are generally considered non-canon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prime Directive (role-playing game)</span> Tabletop role-playing game

Prime Directive is a role-playing game set in the Star Trek-derived Star Fleet Universe. The game has gone through two different incarnations.

<i>GURPS Prime Directive</i>

GURPS Prime Directive is a sourcebook for GURPS, first published in 2002. It is named after the Prime Directive in Star Trek, the universe it adapts. It spawned several associated sourcebooks.

This page lists board and card games, wargames, miniatures games, and tabletop role-playing games published in 1979. For video games, see 1979 in video gaming.

Federation Commander is a tactical starship combat board wargame system, produced and developed by Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. (ADB) It is designed to represent combat between vessels of various factions in the Star Fleet Universe, such as the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. The Star Fleet Universe is based upon a licence to use properties in the fictional Star Trek universe as it stood in 1979. Thus it includes the original series and the animated series as well as fan contributions but diverges from then and does not include anything from the movies or any subsequent television series. Much of the combat in Federation Commander is said to take place around the time of the fictional "General War", a large scale conflict in the Milky Way that involved prolonged conflict between a multitude of star-faring cultures.

Starfire is a board wargame simulating space warfare and empire building in the 23rd century, created by Stephen V. Cole in 1979.

Amarillo Design Bureau is a company which specializes in tactical and strategic board wargames. The company is a successor to Task Force Games, and is owned and operated by Steve and Leanna Cole, with partner Steve Petrick, and based in Amarillo, Texas. The company created and developed the series of games set in the Star Trek-based Star Fleet Universe, under license from Paramount Pictures, which includes the tactical combat games Star Fleet Battles and Federation Commander, the strategic-level game Federation and Empire, the card-based tactical game Star Fleet Battle Force and the role-playing game Prime Directive. They also produce a large series of miniatures under the Starline 2400 and Starline 2500 label, as well as the biannual Captain's Log magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Star Fleet Battle Force</span>

Star Fleet Battle Force is a card-based starship combat game system, produced and developed by Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. It allows fast-paced multiplayer combat between vessels of various factions in the Star Fleet Universe, such as the Federation, the Klingon and Romulan Empires, the Gorn Confederation, Kzinti Hegemony, Tholian Holdfast and Orion Pirates. The game is based on the races that appear in the original Star Trek television series.

[Star Fleet Battle Force] is a very intrigu[ing] mix of rules that simplify miniature space based games while maintaining a level of detail that preserves the flavor and excitement of the Star Fleet universe.

Task Force Games was a game company started in 1979 by Allen Eldridge and Stephen V. Cole. TFG published many games, most notably including both Star Fleet Battles and the Starfire series of games, which were later novelized by David Weber into such books as In Death Ground, The Shiva Option and Insurrection. Eldridge sold the company to New World Computing in 1988, which became a division of The 3DO Company in 1996 and went out of business in 2003.

A task force is a group set up to focus on a specific goal.

<i>Polyglot</i> (webzine)

Polyglot was a biweekly online newsletter about the game hobby industry that ceased publication in 2012. It contained official press releases put out by roleplaying game, board game, miniatures, card game, LARP, comic book, and computer game companies. It was published for free as a downloadable PDF. Polyglot was published by Polymancer Studios, Inc., a Canadian publisher that also prints Polymancer magazine.

Allen D. Eldridge is a game designer who has worked primarily on board games.

<i>Star Fleet Battles Expansion 3</i>

Star Fleet Battles Expansion 3 is a supplement published by Task Force Games in 1982 for the science fiction board wargame Star Fleet Battles.

<i>JagdPanther</i> (magazine)

JagdPanther is a game magazine that was published from 1973 to 1976.

<i>Star Fleet Battles: Commanders SSD Book</i>

Star Fleet Battles: Commander's SSD Book is a series of nine separate supplements published by Amarillo Design Bureau from 1983 to 1987 for the tactical science fiction wargame Star Fleet Battles, which was based on Star Trek.

<i>Introduction to Star Fleet Battles</i> Game supplement

Introduction to Star Fleet Battles is a supplement published by Task Force Games in 1986 for the science fiction combat game Star Fleet Battles that is inspired by the TV series Star Trek.

References

  1. ↑ "Star Fleet Battles Basic Set (Review)". RPGnet . Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN   978-1-907702-58-7.
  3. ↑ "JagdPanther Publications: A Game Inventory". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  4. ↑ "Academy of Adventure Gaming, Arts, & Design Hall of Fame (2005 Inductees)". Archived from the original on 2007-06-26. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
  5. ↑ "StrategyPage homepage". Archived from the original on 2007-09-04. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
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