Über Goober 2004
A feature documentary about gaming subculture. It played festivals around the world and won several awards.
Steven E. Metze
Retired Army colonel, West Point class of 1989, documentary filmmaker and author, in Austin, Texas.
Steve Metze went from West Point into the field artillery and computed firing data for a howitzer battery in Desert Storm. He came home on April 20, 1991, and every year on that date he still writes to the people who saw him through it.
He spent the rest of his career in the Texas Army National Guard, most of it in public affairs, with deployments to Bosnia in 1996 and to Iraq in 2005, where he earned the Bronze Star. Between them he took an MFA in film at the University of Texas, taught there for seven years (winning the College of Communication’s Texas Excellence Teaching Award in 1999), made two feature documentaries and wrote a shelf of fiction and game books.
Service record
- 1989Commissioned from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point into the field artillery.
- 1990–91Fire direction officer, C Battery, 1-3 Field Artillery, through Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
- 1992Joined the Texas Army National Guard as a public affairs officer with the 100th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.
- 1996–97Public affairs officer in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, working with CNN, AP, Reuters and Stars and Stripes.
- 1998–2002Commander of the 100th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.
- 2005Operations officer, 3-133 Field Artillery, Tikrit, Iraq. Bronze Star Medal and Combat Action Badge.
- 2017Spoke for the Texas National Guard during Hurricane Harvey on CBS News and PBS NewsHour.
- RetiredColonel, U.S. Army.
Films
Year at Danger 2008
His Texas Guard unit’s year in Iraq, filmed while he served in it. Film Threat named it one of the best of the fests of 2008.
Both were made by his Austin company, Scum Crew Pictures.
Novels
Wraith 2017
A woman out of time recruits an Iraq War veteran to fight a group of modern day necromancers.
The Zombie Monologues 2011
The recovered session transcripts of the world’s first zombie psychiatrist.
He also has a story in All Things Dark and Dastardly, an anthology of dark fiction by Austin authors, and two finished manuscripts: The Dark Side Academy, a young adult novel he wrote in Iraq for the daughter born while he was there, and Three Wars Later, a memoir of Desert Storm, Bosnia and Iraq.
Games
Roleplaying games, miniatures rules and sourcebooks from his imprint, Über Goober Games.
Über RPG: Steampunk
Urban Steampunk
Uncharted Steampunk
Umbrage of the Automaton
Über LARP: Steampunk
Universal Airship Combat System
Undead States of America, 2nd Edition
Undead Avenue
Undead Nations
Undead Universe
Steampunk Coloring Book
Also the Universal Space Combat System; three sets of LARP Damage Cards, Blades and Bullets, Breaks and Bruises and Unspeakable Horrors; and, for Hero Games, The Ultimate Metamorph, a sourcebook on shapeshifters.
Lately
To reach Steve, use the contact page.