Role Playing Games
In the mid-1970s, a new kind of game swept high schools across the nation. Popular with introverts and intellectuals, band kids and jocks alike, all it required was a good imagination and a dedication to rules and the chance of fancy dice rolls… In 1976 Dungeons and Dragons was perfect for me. By 1980 I hosted games based on my personal fantasy worlds, with extensive maps, tables of unique items and special abilities, long plots with lots of non-player characters, and had assembled a group of dedicated players who wanted to meet every week. This group of friends still meets to play to this day.
In 1986 I contacted TSR, at that time the publishers of the Advanced Dungeon and Dragons game and submitted an unsolicited manuscript that caught their attention. They had recently begun publication of DUNGEON Magazine and asked if I could write games based on Asian history and legends for their Oriental Worlds expansion line of products. This led to my first by line game publications in their magazines, in 1987 and 1988, including a cover story, ‘The Flowers of Flame.’
Writing games requires more than just storytelling—to be successful, a game must include maps and locations, non-player characters, traps, tricks, treasure, and monsters, as well as defining the tables and specifications for the referee to manage a group of imaginative players who may not stick to the main plot! A game needs to be exciting and compelling and collect enough background material to keep even the most fastidious gamer enthused and involved. Based on my prose, plots and settings, and the reliability of my submissions to exceed deadlines, for the next three years TSR offered me a series of freelance projects for TSR publications, starting with ‘Kara-Tur, The Eastern Realms’ Boxed Set, an extension of their popular ‘Forgotten Realms’ series.
Writing games requires more than just storytelling—to be successful, a game must include maps and locations, non-player characters, traps, tricks, treasure, and monsters, as well as defining the tables and specifications for the referee to manage a group of imaginative players who may not stick to the main plot! A game needs to be exciting and compelling and collect enough background material to keep even the most fastidious gamer enthused and involved. Based on my prose, plots and settings, and the reliability of my submissions to exceed deadlines, for the next three years TSR offered me a series of freelance projects for TSR publications, starting with ‘Kara-Tur, The Eastern Realms’ Boxed Set, an extension of their popular ‘Forgotten Realms’ series.
For these adventures in the Orient, I wrote the background for multiple fantasy lands and designed many of the wide area maps that were included in the boxed set. Drawing on the myths and legends of Tibet, Korea and Southeast Asia, I populated their fictional background with heroes, legends, monsters and mythic, magical treasures for game play before the era of video games.
In 1989 I contributed to ‘Dragon Lance: The Mists of Krynn,’ and to the ‘Swords of the Iron Legion,’ an extension of the ‘Forgotten Realms’ series. Based on that work, I was hired to work on the new edition of ‘The Monstrous Compendium,’ contributing work to both volume 1 and volume 2 which was released in 1990.
For these adventures in the Orient, I wrote the background for multiple fantasy lands and designed many of the wide area maps that were included in the boxed set. Drawing on the myths and legends of Tibet, Korea and Southeast Asia, I populated their fictional background with heroes, legends, monsters and mythic, magical treasures for game play before the era of video games.
In 1989 I contributed to ‘Dragon Lance: The Mists of Krynn,’ and to the ‘Swords of the Iron Legion,’ an extension of the ‘Forgotten Realms’ series. Based on that work, I was hired to work on the new edition of ‘The Monstrous Compendium,’ contributing work to both volume 1 and volume 2 which was released in 1990.