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Bruce Cordell

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Bruce Cordell at Gen Con on August 22, 2004
Bruce Cordell at Gen Con on August 22, 2004
BornBruce R. Cordell
1968
Watertown, South Dakota, United States
OccupationGame designer, novelist
NationalityUnited States
GenreRole-playing games

Bruce Robert Cordell (born 1968) is an American author of roleplaying games and fantasy novels. He won the Origins Award for Return to the Tomb of Horrors and has won several ENnies as well. He lives in Seattle.

Early life and education

Bruce Cordell played Dungeons & Dragons as a youth, and even recalled playing the original Tomb of Horrors adventure with future fellow game designer Monte Cook when they were in high school together.[1] Cordell was a wrestler and a debater, and also earned a degree in Biology from the University of Colorado.[1]

Roleplaying work

Cordell worked on freelance game design while working in the scientific field, and was eventually hired as a full time game designer by TSR in 1995.[1] He authored the Sea Devils Adventure Trilogy, The Illithiad, the Shattered Circle, Bastion of Faith, the Dungeon Builder's Guidebook, and the adventures Die Vecna Die!, Return to the Tomb of Horrors, and Return to White Plume Mountain for the AD&D game, as well as the Tangents sourcebook and The Killing Jar adventure for the Alternity game.[1] Cordell was also one of the designers working on the first new adventures for the 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons game, beginning with The Sunless Citadel.[1]

Bruce Cordell's RPG work includes many scenarios and sourcebooks; many of which are directly or indirectly concerned with monsters of a Lovecraftian bent (particularly mind flayers and psionics).

Cordell frequently references certain characters, ideas, and organizations in his RPG works, creating a private continuity between various supplements. For example, The Illithiad references the character of Strom Wakeman and the organization known as the Arcane Order (an organization detailed heavily in another of Cordell's works, College of Wizardry). Wakeman was quoted occasionally in Planescape books by Cordell, such as A Guide to the Ethereal Plane, and was instrumental to the course of events in the adventure Dawn of the Overmind (books which were themselves also connected through a phenomenon called an ether gap). Meanwhile, the Arcane Order returned in Tome and Blood as a detailed organization and the basis of a prestige class.

Most of Cordell's work for Malhavoc Press has followed similar patterns, creating a sort of story arc across When the Sky Falls, If Thoughts Could Kill, and Hyperconscious, connected by the god-like Dark Plea and, to a lesser extent, the kureshim race. In an interview with Monte Cook, Cordell himself described his style as including "subtle story threads that connect seemingly unrelated projects".[2]

Biographical timeline

Novels

  • Sword of the Gods (Forgotten Realms Novel, #1 in series Sword of the Gods/Abyssal Plague tie-in novel), April 2011
  • Key of Stars (Forgotten Realms Novel, #3 in series Abolethic Sovereignty), August 2010
  • City of Torment (Forgotten Realms Novel, #2 in series Abolethic Sovereignty), September 2009
  • Plague of Spells (Forgotten Realms Novel, #1 in series Abolethic Sovereignty), December 2008
  • Stardeep (Forgotten Realms Novel, #3 in series The Dungeons), November 2007
  • Darkvision (Forgotten Realms Novel, #3 in series The Wizards), 2006
  • Lady of Poison (Forgotten Realms Novel, #1 in series The Priests), 2005
  • Oath of Nerull (Writing as T. H. Lain), 2004

Short stories

  • "Wandering Stones", Realms of the Dead, Forgotten Realms Anthology, January 2010
  • "Black Arrow", Realms of War, Forgotten Realms Compilation, March 2008
  • "Not all that Tempts", Dragon's Return, Malhavoc Press, 2005
  • "Hollows of the Heart", Children of the Rune, Malhavoc Press, 2004

Role-playing games

Adventures

2nd Edition AD&D

3rd Edition D&D

  • The Sunless Citadel (2000)
  • Heart of Nightfang Spire (2001)
  • Bastion of Broken Souls (2002)
  • Grasp of the Emerald Claw (2005)

4th Edition D&D

Sourcebooks

2nd Edition AD&D

  • College of Wizardry (1998)
  • Dungeon Builder's Guidebook (1998)
  • Bastion of Faith (1999)
  • The Illithiad (1998)

3rd Edition D&D

Third-Party d20 System Sourcebooks

  • If Thoughts Could Kill (Malhavoc Press, 2002)
  • Hyperconscious (Malhavoc Press, 2004)

4th Edition D&D

  • Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide (2008)
  • Draconomicon I: Chromatic Dragons (2008)
  • Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead (2009)

Bruce has written over 80 game products and artiles: a list of which can be found externally here: Amazon list of credits

Media Mentions

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

Podcasts

  • RPG Countdown[3]: Bruce appeared on these episodes: 28 January 2009[4] (Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead), 25 March 2009[5] (Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress).

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Kenson, Stephen (2000). "ProFiles: Bruce Cordell". Dragon (#268). Renton, Washington: Wizards of the Coast: 22. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  2. ^ A Talk With Bruce R. Cordell, http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?int_dnd30_BRC
  3. ^ RPG Countdown. RPG Countdown on Facebook.
  4. ^ RPG Countdown (28 January 2009). Retrieved 28 January 2009.
  5. ^ RPG Countdown (25 March 2009). Retrieved 25 March 2009.

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