Troy Denning | |
|---|---|
 Troy Denning at the 2024 WonderCon | |
| Occupation | Writer, game designer |
| Alma mater | Beloit College |
| Genre | role-playing games, fantasy |
| Spouse | Andria |
Troy Denning is an American fantasy and science fiction author and game designer who has written more than two dozen novels. [1]
Denning grew up in the mountain town of Idaho Springs, Colorado. An avid reader of science fiction and fantasy, he began writing himself at the age of fourteen in 80-page spiral-bound notebooks, and began to collect the usual quantity of rejection slips. Around his eighteenth birthday, he received a rejection slip from editor Ben Bova, but one with a signature and a handwritten note thanking him for the submission. Heartened, Denning continued to write as he attended Beloit College, where he also played on their Division I football team. [2]
Denning joined TSR as a game designer in 1981, and was promoted a year later to Manager of Designers, before he moved to the book department. [3] Denning then worked for two years managing the Pacesetter game company. [3] Denning designed the adventure board game Chill: Black Morn Manor (1985) for Pacesetter. [4] : 198 When Mayfair Games acquired ownership of the horror game Chill from Pacesetter, Denning also moved to Mayfair at that time; Denning worked on the line with Mayfair staffers David Ladyman, Jeff Leason and Louis Prosperi, to create a second edition of Chill (1990). [4] : 168 After his stint at Mayfair Games, Denning went freelance. [3]
Denning wrote the third novel in TSRs "Avatar Trilogy", Waterdeep (1989), which he wrote under the house pseudonym Richard Awlinson; [3] the book became a New York Times bestselling novel. [5] He wrote the novel with Scott Ciencin, and the choice of the surname Awlinson was an inside joke which sounds like "all in one".[ citation needed ]
In October 1989 he rejoined TSR as a senior designer, co-creating the Dark Sun setting with Tim Brown and Mary Kirchoff. [3] Denning and Brown led the Dark Sun project, with fiction editor Kirchoff, and artist Brom joined them soon with illustrations that helped make Dark Sun the first of TSR's world designs with a more artistic sensibility. [4] : 26 According to Denning, the three designers envisioned "a world for experienced DMs that would push the AD&D game to its limits and let people do things like play half-giants and thri-kreen and superstrong characters—in short, all the really neat stuff we wanted to do ourselves, but that everybody kept saying would ruin game balance." [3] Denning felt in 1998 that Dark Sun "did what we wanted it to, and it has attracted a devoted following. When I go to conventions, it's still what people want to talk about. Talking Brom into being the lead artist early was very fortunate for us; he would sketch weird creatures and settings and equipment, and we'd work them into the game." [3] Brown and Denning also designed the 1991 D&D "black box" set, which became a top-seller for TSR, with half a million copies sold over the following six years. [4] : 27
Denning returned to freelance writing again in 1991, writing the bestselling "Prism Pentad" for the Dark Sun setting (1991–93), and the Forgotten Realms "Twilight Giants" trilogy (1994–95). [3] Denning also wrote the Planescape hardcover Pages of Pain (1996): "It had to be from the Lady of Pain’s viewpoint—which is something of a problem, since (as every Planescape player knows) she never speaks—and (this was the really good part) the reader must know less about her at the end of the book than he does at the beginning, and nobody knows anything about her at the beginning." [3] Denning recalled that Pages of Pain "really made me rethink the way I approach stories, and for that reason alone it was worth writing. It also ended up being a much deeper book than I had ever written before, which I think was a result of the extreme approach I was forced to take. Those who have [read it] seem to think it's my best work. It was certainly the most challenging and—forgive the pun—'painful' to write." [3] Denning continued the story told in Waterdeep's sequel, Prince of Lies (1993) by James Lowder, with the novel Crucible: The Trial of Cyric the Mad. [3] Denning then authored another Forgotten Realms novel called Faces of Deception. [3] Denning's other notable works are Dragonwall and The Parched Sea. Denning wrote the novel The Sentinel for The Sundering, a fictional event set in the expanded D&D universe. [6]
He is also the author of a number of Star Wars expanded universe novels. Including Invincible , the ninth and final book in the Legacy of the Force series, was released in May 2008. He also authored the third and sixth books in the series. He has also been the author for three books in the Fate of the Jedi series. [7] And the 9th book in The New Jedi Order: Star by Star and the Dark Nest Trilogy.
Troy was one of the founders of Pacesetter Ltd, a game company formed by a group of former TSR, Inc. executives.[ citation needed ]
Denning lives in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin with his wife Andria. [7] He enjoys many hobbies, including skiing, hiking, mountain-climbing, and Kyuki-do -- a form of tae-kwan-do incorporating judo, boxing, and hapki-do. [8]
(listed in order of publication)
(listed in order of publication)
(listed in order of publication)
(listed in order of publication)
Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, it was published 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, in addition to novels, role-playing video game adaptations, comic books, and the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Planescape is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, designed by Zeb Cook, and published in 1994. It crosses numerous planes of existence, encompassing an entire cosmology called the Great Wheel, as developed previously in the 1987 Manual of the Planes by Jeff Grubb. This includes many of the other Dungeons & Dragons worlds, linking them via inter-dimensional magical portals.
Chill is an investigative and modern horror role-playing game originally published by Pacesetter Ltd in 1984 that captures the feel of 20th-century horror films.
Jeff Grubb is an author of novels, short stories, and comics, as well as a computer and role-playing game designer in the fantasy genre. Grubb worked on the Dragonlance campaign setting under Tracy Hickman, and the Forgotten Realms setting with Ed Greenwood. His written works include The Finder's Stone Trilogy, the Spelljammer and Jakandor campaign settings, and contributions to Dragonlance and the computer game Guild Wars Nightfall (2006).
Richard Baker is an American author and game designer who has worked on many Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings.
Gerald Brom, known professionally as Brom, is an American gothic fantasy artist and illustrator, known for his work in role-playing games, novels, and comics.
Mary L. Kirchoff is an American author of fantasy and young adult novels.
Bill Slavicsek is an American game designer and writer who served as the Director of Roleplaying Design and Development at Wizards of the Coast. He previously worked for West End Games and TSR, Inc., and designed products for Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, Alternity, Torg, Paranoia and Ghostbusters.
Timothy B. Brown is an American game designer, primarily of role-playing games. He has been a designer at Game Designers' Workshop, an editor at Challenge magazine, and the director of product development at TSR.
Colin McComb is an American writer and game designer, who is best known for his work designing the Planescape setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, and as the creative lead for the role-playing video game Torment: Tides of Numenera.
Sigil is a fictional city and the center of the Planescape campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
Kim Rudolph Mohan was an American author, editor and game designer best known for works related to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
Dark Sun is an original Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) campaign setting set in the fictional, post-apocalyptic desert world of Athas. Dark Sun featured an innovative metaplot, influential art work, dark themes, and a genre-bending take on traditional fantasy role-playing. The product line began with the original Dark Sun Boxed Set released for D&D's 2nd edition in 1991, originally ran until 1996, and was one of TSR's most successful releases.
Dungeons & Dragons novels are works of fantasy fiction that are based upon campaign settings released for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.
Stephen D. Sullivan is an American author and artist. He is a prolific author, having written more than twenty-five books.
Preludes is a series of novels comprising two trilogies set in the Dragonlance world of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
Jeff R. Leason is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Creature Feature is a supplement published by Pacesetter in 1986 for the horror fantasy role-playing game Chill.
The Verdant Passage is a fantasy novel based on the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and set in the world of the Dark Sun campaign. It was written by Troy Denning and published by TSR in 1991.
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