Wolfgang Baur

Wolfgang Baur
Portrait of author, game designer, editor, publisher Wolfgang Baur, taken November 28, 2009.
Born1968 (age 55–56)
Illinois, United States
Occupation(s)Game designer, writer

Wolfgang Baur (born 1968)[1] is an American game designer, best known for his work with Dragon magazine. He designs role-playing games and is known for his work at Wizards of the Coast. Baur is also the founder of Open Design LLC, later known as Kobold Press.

Biography

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Wolfgang Baur was born in a suburb of Chicago, and later attended the University of Illinois and then Cornell University for graduate studies in biochemistry and molecular biology to pursue an academic career in research.[1] When he ran out of funding in 1991, Baur took a temporary job as assistant editor to Barbara Young at Dungeon magazine: "By the time my scholarship was reinstated, I didn't want to go back... I'd been writing for Dungeon Adventures and Iron Crown, but this was an opportunity to work in a field I loved."[1]

Baur was involved in many projects at TSR as either designer or editor, including Dungeon and Dragon magazines, the Planescape (Planes of Law, Planes of Chaos), Al-Qadim (Secrets of the Lamp, Assassin Mountain), and Birthright settings (Warlock of the Stonecrowns), editing the Star*Drive setting, Dataware, and Doom of Daggerdale.[1] Baur also worked for ICE on books such as Treasures of Middle-earth.[1] Baur also worked on the Dark•Matter setting for the Alternity science fiction role-playing game.[1] His roleplaying game titles include Frostburn, Expedition to the Demonweb Pits, Book of Roguish Luck, Castle Shadowcrag, and Empire of the Ghouls.[2]

Baur was the "Kobold-in-chief" for Open Design LLC (which changed its name to Kobold Press in 2012[3]), and was editor-in-chief of its quarterly periodical Kobold Quarterly.[4] Open Design published Kobold Quarterly #1 (Summer 2007) before the final print issue of Dragon.[5]: 390  Baur stated on July 17, 2008, that the GSL was "absolutely terrible for Kobold Quarterly," as the periodical would be unable to publish material for both D&D third edition and fourth edition.[5]: 296  He won the eighth annual Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming in 2008.[6] Kobold Quarterly and Open Design won five ENnie Awards in 2009.

Baur is a member of the Alliterates (a group of local and national authors),[7] and serves as a judge for the RPG Superstar competitions, as part of a three-judge panel of respected figures from the field.[8]

Media mentions

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Wolfgang has appeared in the following newspaper and magazine articles, websites and podcasts.

Podcasts

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  • Atomic Array:[9] Wolfgang appeared on these episodes: 009[10] (Kobold Quarterly 007), 015[11] (Kobold Quarterly 008), and 021[12] (Kobold Quarterly 009).
  • Open Design:[13] Co-host with Ed Healy and Rone Barton. The official podcast for Wolfgang's publishing company.
  • RPG Countdown:[14] Wolfgang appeared on these episodes: April 22, 2009[15] (Kobold Quarterly 009), November 6, 2009[16] (Kobold Quarterly 011).

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Kenson, Stephen (November 1999). "ProFiles: Wolfgang Baur". Dragon (#265). Renton, Washington: Wizards of the Coast: 28.
  2. ^ Baur, Wolfgang (2007). "Legend of the Five Rings". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 172–175. ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0.
  3. ^ Appelcline, Shannon (2014). Designers & Dragons: The '00s. Evil Hat Productions. ISBN 9781613170878.
  4. ^ "Grand Old Master of gaming recognized: Ed Greenwood". Colborne Chronicle. June 12, 2008. p. 8.
  5. ^ a b Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  6. ^ "Diana Jones Award 2008". August 2008.
  7. ^ "Alliterates.com". Alliterates.com.
  8. ^ "RPGsuperstar". Paizo.
  9. ^ Atomic Array Archived August 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Atomic Array on Facebook.
  10. ^ Kobold Quarterly 007 (Atomic Array 009). Retrieved November 7, 2008.
  11. ^ Kobold Quarterly 008 (Atomic Array 015). Retrieved January 30, 2009.
  12. ^ Kobold Quarterly 009 (Atomic Array 021). Retrieved April 24, 2009.
  13. ^ Open Design Podcast. Open Design on Facebook.
  14. ^ RPG Countdown. RPG Countdown on Facebook.
  15. ^ RPG Countdown (22 April 2009). Retrieved April 22, 2009.
  16. ^ RPG Countdown (06 November 2009). Retrieved November 6, 2009.
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