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Monte Cook | |
|---|---|
 Cook atLucca Comics & Games 2014 | |
| Born | (1968-01-29)January 29, 1968 (age 57)[1] Watertown, South Dakota, U.S.[1] |
| Occupation | Writer,game designer |
| Genre | Role-playing games,fantasy |
| Spouse | Sue Weinlein (divorced[citation needed]) |
Monte Cook (born January 29, 1968) is an American professional tabletoprole-playing gamedesigner and writer, best known for his work onDungeons & Dragons.
Cook has been a professional game designer since 1988, working primarily on role-playing games.[2] Much of his early work was forIron Crown Enterprises as an editor and writer for theRolemaster andChampions lines.[3] Cook was at one point the editor in charge of both the "Campaign Classics" line of books for theHero System and theRolemaster line.[4]: 136 Cook worked for Iron Crown Enterprises for four years; two as a freelancer and two as a full-time designer.[5] During this period, Cook wrote the multi-genre settingDark Space (1990), which was a blend of fantasy, science-fiction, and horror.[4]: 137 Cook became the line editor forHero System, replacingRob Bell, who left ICE in 1990.[4]: 149 Cook left ICE in the early 1990s.[4]: 137
Cook began working forTSR in 1992 as a freelancer: "writing a whole slew of stuff for the oldMarvel game that never came out because the game got canceled".[5] In 1994 Cook came to work at TSR as a game designer.[2] Cook designedDungeons & Dragonsmodules such asLabyrinth of Madness (1995) andA Paladin in Hell (1998), and dozens of supplements to thePlanescape line includingThe Planewalker's Handbook (1996) andDead Gods (1998). Cook also designed the conspiracy gameDark•Matter in 1999.
After TSR was purchased byWizards of the Coast, Cook became a senior designer, and was part of the team working on theD&D game's third edition. Cook,Jonathan Tweet, andSkip Williams all contributed to the 3rd editionPlayers Handbook,Dungeon Master's Guide, andMonster Manual, and then each designer wrote one of the books based on those contributions.[5] Cook was proud of the work he did on the newDungeon Master's Guide, especially afterGary Gygax gave his team feedback on the book: "He said that the material in the newDMG would help him become a better DM... That was really cool–and satisfying in a 'completion of the circle' sort of way."[5] In 2000, Cook said of his involvement with Wizards of the Coast andDungeons & Dragons: "It's a great time to be working here... because every product is big, important, and innovative."[5] Cook also worked onReturn to the Temple of Elemental Evil, and the d20Call of Cthulhu (February 2002).[2]
Cook leftWizards of the Coast in 2001.[6] Cook wrote the adventureBeyond the Veil (2001), one of the later releases in the "Penumbra" line ofd20 System books fromAtlas Games.[4]: 258 Cook formed the new companyMalhavoc Press in 2001 to work with theSword and Sorcery Studios imprint ofWhite Wolf, starting with the d20The Book of Eldritch Might (2001) as his first product.[4]: 225 The Book of Eldritch Might was the first commercial book sold exclusively as a PDF to be published by a print company.[4]: 288 It was an immediate success and has been credited with demonstrating the viability of PDF publishing within the role-playing industry.[7] This and other early Malhavoc products were initially released only in electronic format, though print versions of most of them have since been released by White Wolf, Inc.[8] Malhavoc Press worked withFiery Dragon Productions after Fiery Dragon ended their arrangement with Sword & Sorcery in 2002, and the majority of the licensed work from Fiery Dragon was through their arrangement with Malhavoc.[4]: 226 Cook's work under the Malhavoc banner has includedArcana Unearthed: A Variant Players Handbook.[9] Cook set the d20 rulebookArcana Unearthed in his giant-dominated world of "The Diamond Throne".[4]: 226
He caused controversy in mid-2004 by exclusively selling his electronic d20 material with the DriveThruRPG.com store, which then used only a proprietarydigital rights management-encrypted PDF system.[10] He eventually succumbed to pressure from his customers to sell his products in standard-PDF form,[citation needed] and DriveThruRPG has more recently done the same.
In August 2006, Malhavoc releasedPtolus, a campaign setting based on Monte Cook's home game that was used as the playtest campaign for the third edition D&D designers.
Shortly after the release ofPtolus, which Cook has often described as the culmination of his original ambitions for Malhavoc, he announced that he would be focusing on writing fiction and other unspecified forms of creative work, rather than role-playing games, for the foreseeable future.[11] White Wolf andGoodman Games announced his final RPG books.Monte Cook'sWorld of Darkness, his own take on White Wolf's modern horror setting, was released atGen Con 2007. From Goodman Games isDungeon Crawl Classics: #50, Vault of the Iron Overlord, which was also targeted for the same Gen Con release.[12]
However, due to demand by fans reading hisLiveJournal,[13] and posting their desires on the Malhavoc message boards,[citation needed] Monte Cook released one more RPG product in early 2008,The Book of Experimental Might.[14] This was quickly followed byThe Book of Experimental Might II: Bloody, Bold and Resolute.[15]
Cook returned to Wizards of the Coast in 2011. On September 20, 2011,Mike Mearls announced that Cook would be taking over his "Legends & Lore" column for theWizards of the Coast website.[16] In January 2012, it was revealed that Cook was to be the lead designer for the 5th edition ofDungeons & Dragons.[17] In April 2012, Cook announced his departure fromWizards of the Coast due to "differences of opinion with the company" but not "with [his] fellow designers".[18]
Cook co-founded Monte Cook Games, LLC withShanna Germain in 2012,[19] which is a roleplaying game company that has producedNumenera,The Strange,The Cypher System Rulebook,Invisible Sun, andNo Thank You, Evil! which went to press in Fall 2015 after aKickstarter campaign raised over $100,000 to fund its publication.[20][21]
Numenera is a Kickstarter-funded table-top RPG created by Cook, set a billion years in the future in a science fantasy and post-apocalyptic setting with streamlined rules that prioritize the story, the action, and the wild ideas. It raised over $500,000 (more than 25 times its goal of $20,000).[22] System playtesting was announced on October 30, 2012, and the game was released on August 14, 2013.[23][24] Cook has stated thatDavid "Zeb" Cook's (no relation)Planescape fantasy world was a significant influence on concepts inNumenera.[25]
The Ninth World ofNumenera was also the setting for a 2013 release of theThunderstone Advance deck-building game byAlderac Entertainment Group,[26][27] as well as the 2017 video gameTorment: Tides of Numenera, which was developed byInXile Entertainment after a successful Kickstarter campaign.[28]
The Strange is aKickstarter-funded table-top RPG created by Cook andBruce Cordell using the same Cypher System ruleset asNumenera. The game, which involves traveling through different worlds known as Recursions, was released in August 2014.[29]
Invisible Sun is aKickstarter-funded table-top role-playing game created by Monte Cook Games, with a street date released of September 20, 2018. It is a surreal fantasy game with many game accessories.[30]
Stealing Stories for the Devil is aKickstarter-funded table-top role-playing created by Monte Cook Games. It was released in February 2023.[31] It is billed as a reality-altering heist game, where player characters use different abilities to lie to reality. It is a boxed set with board game-like aspects.
Tidal Blades, the Roleplaying Game[32] is aKickstarter-funded table-top RPG created by Cook andShanna Germain using the Cypher System ruleset. The game was released in August 14 2024.[citation needed] It is a tropical fantasy game located around the near islands and coastal city of Naviri, surrounded by a frozen temporal rift called The Fold. It was Kickstarted along "Tidal Blades 2, Rise of the Unfolders", the boardgame.[citation needed]
Monte Cook is a graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Workshop.[33] After graduating from the 1999 workshop, he has published the novelsThe Glass Prison andOf Aged Angels.[2] He has also published short stories like "Born in Secrets" (inAmazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (inRealms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (inRealms of the Arcane).[2] He also writes a continuingCall of Cthulhu fiction series,The Shandler Chronicles, inGame Trade Magazine.[34]
In the non-fiction genre, Cook has writtenThe Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracies.[35]
Cook wrote dialogue for theMMORPGMarvel Heroes.
He was married toSue Weinlein Cook,[5] although they are now divorced.[citation needed]
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