A Talk With Bruce R. Cordell

A 30th Anniversary Interview

Bruce Cordell started at TSR in 1995. He and I became friends in the eighth grade (circa 1981), both of us born in a small South Dakota town where there wasn't much for a kid to do besides play football or D&D.

He graduated college with the idea of going into science and worked for a time as a research associate in process chemistry. However, his days of synthesizing DNA didn't last long. When I learned that he was looking for a change and that TSR was looking for a new designer, I jumped at the chance to see if I could put the two together, and immediately told David Wise about Bruce. This is not to suggest, however, that I "got" Bruce the job. Bruce earned it with his own talent and hard work.

If there's any similarity between Bruce's work and my own, or if there's a reason why I call Bruce one of my very favorite game designers, it's probably because we see eye to eye on most things, particularly game design sensibilities and a sense of what's "cool" as it applies to fantasy, science fiction, or gaming in general.

Bruce has written great adventures such as Return to the Tomb of Horrors, Gates of Firestorm Peak, and The Sunless Citadel. He's designed the Psionics Handbook, Epic Level Handbook, Tome and Blood, and other great sourcebooks. If you're playing a psychic warrior or a dragon disciple, you've got Bruce to thank, and if your character is going through Return to White Plume Mountain, you've got him to blame.

It's cool to be able to chat with Bruce about his D&D-related past and his current view on game design on the 30th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons.

Monte Cook: Although you and I gamed together very early on, as kids, you started playing D&D before we met. Tell us about how you got started in the game.

Bruce Cordell: In Boy Scouts, I watched with slack-jawed awe as the older scouts huddled around a lantern-lit picnic table during some late 70s summer camp and played a game of D&D. An ogre was eating dwarves like a cartoon cat eats a fish, throwing the denuded skeletons behind him into a large pile. The PCs looked on, worried that they were next. It was beyond anything I had ever imagined that I could interact with. I was instantly hooked.

Monte: What were your impressions of TSR, both as a new hire and as you got to know your way around?

Bruce: It was an entirely new world, one rife with possibility. I loved it. But, it was also located in a town of just 5,000 people in the middle of Wisconsin -- I never quite reconciled that aspect of my new job, having come from Boulder, Colorado.

Monte: How did it differ from where you had worked before? What was the environment like?

Bruce: The working environment was far superior -- it was the social environment that was more limited, simply because I went from a town of 100,000 (of which 20,000+ were students near my age) to a seasonal vacation town of but 5,000.

Monte: Did working at TSR meet your expectations?

Bruce: They weren't initially met, because I was hired to write a multi-user text-based game. In fact, three separate times while at TSR (and Wizards), I thought I'd be working on a multi-user game -- in a couple cases, I put a lot of work into it. All three times these projects fizzled for one reason or another. But, I don't want to suggest I'm not happy where I am -- I think it worked out for the best. I'm glad my expectations were not met.

Monte: What can you tell us about these multi-user games? Who else worked on them? Why did they fizzle?

Bruce: The first one, of course, as I noted, got nowhere. The second one happened while I was still at TSR -- the ringleader was [editor] Jim Butler, and working with him were me, [webmaster] Sean Reynolds, and [editor] Keith Strohm. Essentially, the buyout of TSR by Wizards happened at just the proper moment to queer the deal.

Monte: In your time with TSR/Wizards of the Coast, you've seen people come and go, and fellow designers (and editors) change jobs or go into management. All that time, though, you've remained stable. How have you managed that?

Bruce: I've toyed with moving into different tracks, but I always come back to the fact that I like creativity first and foremost. But writing just D&D for 10 years could get stale without some spice. I guess the way that I avoid the rut is to work on many different kinds of projects, not just D&D. I've been involved in various miniature game incarnations, board games, card games, novels, convention support, and other things. Of course, even D&D itself functions on a whole new rule set now than when I first came on board, and that has served as the springboard for even more creativity.

Monte: Both fellow professionals and game consumers have identified a "Bruce Cordell style" to your work. If you had to define it, what would that style be?

Bruce:Use of overly large words, pseudo-science-y plots, tentacles, subtle story threads that connect seemingly unrelated projects, and psionics.

Monte: I think you're being modest -- many fans and reviewers have said that your designs encourage or facilitate a certain style of play that goes well beyond the simple medieval fantasy model. What kinds of things do you do to accomplish that? What goes into your thought process when you're designing an adventure or some other product?

Bruce: I don't really have anything up my sleeve when I do adventure design -- I just try to come up with plots that are a little more engaging than, "Let's get that powerful item the monster is guarding." I'm sure most designers do the same.

Monte: Which product have you worked on that makes you the most proud?

Bruce: Of the designs that I've done lately that I'm most proud, I'd have to include Bastion of Broken Souls, despite it receiving only limited exposure (partly because it is such a high level adventure that few campaigns support PCs of high enough level to use it).

Monte: Since you experienced it first hand, how about a funny or interesting story involving the buyout of TSR or the move to Wizards of the Coast?

Bruce: When I drove out to Washington from Wisconsin, I did so twice. First, I drove my Geo Tracker out, then two months later, I flew back and drove out with my soon-to-be wife Dee. With Dee came two cats, Oliver and Bella. On each day of driving, those cats meowed for a solid hour (maybe two) when we first got into the car. I thought this had the potential to drive me crazy, but I actually adapted to it. It was Dee who it drove crazy. At one point, we found the perfect photo opportunity -- she got out of the car and stood in front of a sign titled "Crazy Woman Mountains."

Monte: What are, in your view, some of the differences between working at TSR and Wizards?

Bruce: Wizards of the Coast almost requires that you stay aware and connected with what's going on in the company as a whole -- at TSR you always wondered. Wizards is vibrant and demanding, while TSR was comfortable and provided a non-disruptive environment in which to write.

Monte: You've been working on D&D for almost a decade now, and you've seen the game change from 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition and then 3.5. What are your views on the changes? What was it like to be right in the middle of them as they occurred?

Bruce: Like most people, I saw the change from 2nd to 3rd Edition as a vital operation required to resuscitate an endangered brand. 3.0 was like giving D&D a heart transplant, providing the game new vitality while keeping its fantastic/heroic premise. As a designer used to writing to 2nd Edition rules that were essentially laissez faire, the switch to 3.0 initially seemed regimented and constraining. However, it soon became clear that, while the rules were much more entwined in every decision, they also allowed game designers to write a game more balanced for play than ever before. The new rule set also created a far larger tool box in which to rummage for cool new ideas.

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