 Cordell in 2004 | |
| Born | Bruce Robert Cordell Watertown, South Dakota, U.S. |
| Occupation | Game designer, novelist |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Colorado |
| Genre | Role-playing games |
Bruce Robert Cordell is an American author ofroleplaying games and fantasy novels. He has worked onDungeons & Dragons games forWizards of the Coast.[1] He won theOrigins Award forReturn to the Tomb of Horrors and has also won severalENnies. He lives inSeattle.
Bruce Cordell playedDungeons & Dragons as a youth, and even recalled playing the originalTomb of Horrors adventure with future fellow game designerMonte Cook when they were in high school together.[2] Cordell was a wrestler and a debater, and also earned a degree in biology from theUniversity of Colorado.[2] Cordell once worked in the biopharmaceutical industry, where he learned to synthesize DNA.[3]
Cordell worked on freelance game design while working in the scientific field, and was eventually hired as a full-time game designer byTSR in 1995.[2] Cordell created theFar Realm for the adventureThe Gates of Firestorm Peak (1996).[4]: 299 He authored the Sea Devils Adventure Trilogy,The Illithiad,The Shattered Circle,Bastion of Faith, theDungeon Builder's Guidebook, and the adventuresDie Vecna Die!,Return to the Tomb of Horrors, andReturn to White Plume Mountain for theAD&D game, as well as theTangents sourcebook andThe Killing Jar adventure for theAlternity game.[2] Cordell andSteve Miller worked onDie Vecna Die! (2000) together, an original adventure that brought an end to theAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons line.[4]: 284 Cordell was also one of the designers working on the first new adventures for the third editionDungeons & Dragons game, beginning withThe Sunless Citadel.[2] Cordell andRich Baker wrote a new version of theGamma World Roleplaying Game (2010), which was based on the fourth editionD&D rules.[4]: 302
He won theOrigins Award forReturn to the Tomb of Horrors, andENnies forMindscapes,If Thoughts Could Kill, and his work on theManual of the Planes.[3] Cordell wrote the novelsOath of Nerull,Lady of Poison,Darkvision,Stardeep, and theAbolethic Sovereignty trilogy.[3] Short stories he's written have appeared in various anthologies, including "Black Arrow" inRealms of War.[3]
Cordell's RPG work includes many scenarios and sourcebooks; many of which are directly or indirectly concerned with monsters of aLovecraftian bent (particularlymind flayers and psionics).
Cordell often referenced certain characters, ideas, and organizations in his RPG works, creatingcontinuity between works. For example,The Illithiad references the character of Strom Wakeman and the organization known as the Arcane Order (an organization detailed in another of Cordell's works,College of Wizardry). Wakeman was quoted occasionally inPlanescape books by Cordell, such asA Guide to the Ethereal Plane, and was instrumental to the course of events in the adventureDawn of the Overmind (books which were themselves also connected through a phenomenon called an ether gap). The Arcane Order returned inTome and Blood as a detailed organization and the basis of aprestige class.
Most of Cordell's work forMalhavoc Press has followed similar patterns, creating astory arc acrossWhen the Sky Falls,If Thoughts Could Kill, andHyperconscious, connected by the god-likeDark Plea and, to a lesser extent, the kureshim race. In an interview withMonte Cook, Cordell himself said that he included "subtle story threads that connect seemingly unrelated projects".[5]
Cordell co-designed the fourth editionForgotten Realms Campaign Guide,[3] andGamma World Seventh Edition.[6]
After working for a few years as a designer on the fifth edition of D&D, Cordell left Wizards in July 2013.[7] In August of the same year he joinedMonte Cook at Cook's companyMonte Cook Games, LLC (also called MCG) as Senior Designer.[8] Not long after, MCG Kickstarted another RPG,The Strange.[9] The Strange, co-written by Cordell and Cook, was published in August 2014.[10]
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