Born | Ari Marmell New York |
---|---|
Occupation | Game designer |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | University of Houston |
Genre | Role-playing games |
Ari Marmell is an American novelist and freelance role-playing game writer.
His first novel, Gehenna: The Final Night, was published in 2004 by White Wolf Publishing. Agents of Artifice, a media tie-in novel set in the Magic: The Gathering Planeswalkers game-setting, and published by Wizards of the Coast, followed in November 2009.
His first novel that was not based on a role-playing game was 2010's The Conqueror's Shadow. Reviewing the novel for Booklist , Krista Hutley wrote, "This action-packed, morally gray fantasy has an intriguingly twisty plot, full of magic and political intrigue." [1] Reviewer Clay Kallam wrote that it "has a lot going for it, but it still didn't leave me completely satisfied." [2] The sequel to The Conqueror's Shadow is 2011's The Warlord's Legacy. [3] Library Journal wrote that it "fills a vital niche in the fantasy adventurer genre, one occupied by the heroes of Michael Moorcock's Elric Melniboné novels and C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy ." [4]
In 2011, Marmell's novel, The Goblin Corps was published by Pyr. This novel was written from the perspective of the traditional "bad guys": the goblins themselves.
In February 2012, Pyr also released Marmell's Thief's Covenant, first in his "Widdershins Adventures" Young Adult series. [5] It was followed by False Covenant, [6] the second "Widdershins Adventures" novel. The third "Widdershins Adventures" novel was announced on April 24, 2013 along with a preview of the cover art and synopsis. The novel will be published on December 3, 2013 and will be called Lost Covenant. [7]
On February 1, 2012, it was announced Marmell would pen a novel set in the Darksiders universe. Darksiders is a video game series published by THQ and developed by Vigil Games. The novel is titled Darksiders: The Abomination Vault and will be published by Random House Publishing Group. The novel will ship earlier than the actual game, in July, whereas Darksiders 2 will ship in August. [8] It centers around the adventures of Death and War, two of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. [6]
Notable short stories from Marmell include "The Flight of the Righteous Indignation" from Tales of the Last War (Wizards of the Coast, April 2006), "The Ogre’s Pride," (a tie-in to The Conqueror's Shadow (originally published in Spectra Pulse, April 2010), and "Twenty-One-Oh" from the multimedia anthology, Foreshadows: The Ghosts of Zero (Blindsided Books, February 2012).
He has written extensively for the role-playing game industry, including White Wolf Publishing [9] and Wizards of the Coast.
Dungeons & Dragons supplements for which he has written include:
Marmell was born in New York State, but moved to Houston, Texas when he was one year old. [10] He attended college at the University of Houston, graduating in 1996. He lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, George. [11]
Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, Greenwood brought the setting to publication for the D&D game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, as have various licensed products including novels, role-playing video game adaptations, comic books, and the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Ed Greenwood is a Canadian fantasy writer and the original creator of the Forgotten Realms game world. He began writing articles about the Forgotten Realms for Dragon magazine beginning in 1979, and subsequently sold the rights to the setting to TSR, the creators of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, in 1986. He has written many Forgotten Realms novels, as well as numerous articles and D&D game supplement books.
Tobias S. Buckell is an American science fiction writer.
The Chesley Awards were established in 1985 by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists to recognize individual artistic works and achievements during a given year. The Chesleys were initially called the ASFA Awards, but were later renamed to honor famed astronomical artist Chesley Bonestell following his death in 1986. The awards are presented annually, typically at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon).
The flexibility of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) game rules means that Dungeon Masters (DM) are free to create their own fantasy campaign settings. For those who wanted a pre-packaged setting in which to play, TSR, Wizards of the Coast (WotC), and other publishers have created many settings in which D&D games can be based; of these, the Forgotten Realms, an epic fantasy world, has been one of the most successful and critically acclaimed settings. Many campaign settings include standard sword and sorcery environments, while others borrow Asian, Central American, swashbuckling, horror and even space-travel themes.
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In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, goblins are a common and fairly weak race of evil humanoid monsters. Goblins are non-human monsters that low-level player characters often face in combat.
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Complete Champion is a supplement for the 3.5 edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
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Darksiders II is an action role-playing hack and slash video game developed by Vigil Games and published by THQ. It is the sequel to Darksiders and was released in August 2012 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and as a launch title for Wii U upon the console's North American and PAL regions release in November 2012. The story follows the efforts of player character Death to clear the name of his brother, War, who stands accused of wiping out humanity. On a total budget of $50 million, it was one of the most expensive video games to develop of all time.
THQ Nordic GmbH is an Austrian video game publisher based in Vienna. Formed in 2011, it is a publishing subsidiary of Embracer Group. Originally named Nordic Games, as was the parent company, both companies were renamed THQ Nordic in August 2016 after the parent company had acquired the "THQ" trademark in 2014. THQ Nordic's core portfolio comprises assets that were acquired from other developers and publishers, such as from JoWooD Entertainment and its subsidiaries DreamCatcher Interactive and The Adventure Company in 2011, THQ in 2013, and NovaLogic in 2016. THQ Nordic has acquired and established several subsidiary studios, including Black Forest Games, Bugbear Entertainment, Gunfire Games, HandyGames, Piranha Bytes, Purple Lamp, and Rainbow Studios.
Shadow Scale is a 2015 fantasy novel by Rachel Hartman. It is the sequel and conclusion to her first novel, Seraphina (2012). It was released in hardcover, ebook, and audio book format on March 10, 2015.
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Widdershins is a webcomic by Kate Ashwin.