30th Anniversary Interview Series

2004 is the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game. To help commemorate that fact, I thought it might be interesting to hear from some of the people who have worked on the game over the years, both at TSR and Wizards of the Coast. So, slowly but surely, I've been contacting D&D designers and editors and asking them a few questions, hoping to share a glimmer of what it was like to have been a part of those 30 years -- and perhaps get a few good stories out of the process. I've contacted current Wizards employees, old hands from TSR, and even some of the old guard. In particular, I'm hoping to focus on some of D&D's creative voices that you may not have heard discuss these topics.

This week, I am going to start with two interviews with friends who worked at both TSR and Wizards. One, David Wise, no longer works in the game industry but has gathered a lot of insight from years in the business. The other, Bruce Cordell, is one of my oldest friends and one of my favorite designers.

I hope you enjoy these conversations and come back to check the next interviews in this series as well.

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Sue's TSR Scrapbook During my years at TSR/Wizards, I took a lot of pictures. If there was an event, I was there with my camera. And as much as I loved the books and games that we produced, I loved the people even more. So, as my contribution to Monte's D&D anniversary series, I thought it would be fun to wrap things up with a photographic look at the many faces of D&D during my Wisconsin years with TSR.	A Talk With John D. Rateliff I don't actually remember first meeting John D. Rateliff. He'd already been at TSR for quite a while before I got there, and I remember hearing people refer to "Dr. John," and not knowing what they were talking about (John will explain). In early conversations with him, I remember feeling a bit intimidated by his knowledge of, well, a good many things. John's very well read, very literate, and a very knowledgeable guy. He's got a good eye for detail and minutiae -- all of which makes him a great editor.
A Talk With Jesse Decker I met Jesse Decker when he was the editorial assistant for the Dragon and Dungeon magazines. I'd been in a few meetings with him and discussed articles or whatnot and found him to be not only a real devotee of the game but a really nice guy. So, when a vacancy opened up in my Ptolus campaign, I suggested to the (Black Lantern) group that he might be a good addition and other members agreed.	A Talk With Steven Schend Steven Schend was one of the very first people at TSR that I interacted with. My first freelance job from TSR was working on the Marvel Super Heroes line, and Steven was more or less the in-house shepherd of the whole line, being the comics expert of the comics experts in the office. We talked on the phone a lot, and when -- about two years later -- I was hired as a full-time designer, he even offered to let me stay in the guest room of his house.
A Talk With Douglas Niles I never had the pleasure of working directly with Douglas Niles. He left TSR before I came to work there. Still, his legacy was clear. Though he was no longer in the office, his presence was still felt -- everyone still talked about Doug, and he had parties at his home and invited the whole TSR crew, even the newbies.	A Talk With Cindi Rice I can remember Cindi Rice's first days at TSR very well. It was a period when the company was hiring a lot of new creative staff, and it was sometimes hard to keep them all straight. I remember Cindi seemed to fit in really well, and really fast -- which is to say that she figured out quickly how to have a lot of fun.
A Talk With William W. Connors Bill Connors was one of the few people I already knew when I got to TSR in 1994. We had a mutual friend, and I'd met Bill at a previous Gen Con. (I remember that he was wearing a really cool suit and I was in a T-shirt and shorts. In one brief evening he changed my opinion about the mystique of being a game designer -- that they didn't have to be dorks, they could be really cool -- and I immediately wanted to be him.)	A Talk With Skip Williams Skip Williams hardly needs any introduction from me. When I started at TSR, I looked on him as the voice of experience. If I had a rules question, I went to Skip. The cool thing about Skip was, when you went to him with a question, he didn't speak from on high. Most of the time, he'd tell you what a good question it was, and that there wasn't an easy answer. Often, we'd end up having a good discussion about the rules....
A Talk With Stan! Steven Brown, a.k.a. "Stan!", is a good friend of mine. Although we both were at TSR and Wizards of the Coast at the same time, we never actually worked together on any projects, although he has since written a couple of short stories for Malhavoc fiction collections. Stan! always seemed to be working on other things. And in truth, I never really got to know him until after the move to Washington and Wizards of the Coast.	A Talk With Sean K Reynolds Sean Reynolds came to TSR right as the company was preparing to have a big 25th anniversary celebration. It was a pretty lavish affair with a big tent outside, lots of food, and a big display of TSR products. My first memory of Sean was when Sue and I met him and kind of dragged him to the celebration...