Tracy Hickman

Tracy Raye Hickman (born November 26, 1955) is an American fantasy author and designer of games and virtual reality (VR) experiences.

He co-authored the original Dragonlance novels with Margaret Weis as well as numerous other books.

He also designed and created role playing game material while working for TSR and has cowritten novels with his wife, Laura Hickman.

He is the author or co-author of over 60 books.

Tracy Hickman was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah.

His parents instilled in him a love of reading; he recalls visiting the local bookmobile with them.

Hickman took a particular interest in the science fiction genre.

He graduated from Provo High School in 1974.

His major interests were drama, music, and Air Force JROTC.

In 1975, Hickman began two years of service as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

He served in Hawaii for six months while awaiting visa approval for travel to Indonesia, where he served in Surabaya, Djakarta, and the mountain city of Bandung until 1977.

Within four months of his return to the United States, Hickman married his high school sweetheart, Laura Curtis.

Laura first introduced him to Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) shortly after they were married.

She gave him the game that year for his birthday.

Speaking on his discovery of D&D, Hickman said, "I spent part of my student loan money to buy game materials. It turned out to be the best career investment any of that money was ever used for."

Laura was also the inspiration for Tracy's character Lauralanthalasa (Laurana) Kanan.

Hickman attended Brigham Young University.

In an interview, he stated that he "nearly failed [his] creative writing course" in college.

Pharaoh was originally published by DayStar West Media in 1980.

In 1981, Tracy entered into a business arrangement to produce an arcade immersion game, but his associate disappeared, leaving the Hickmans with $30,000 in debt.

Tracy approached TSR with the modules Rahasia and Pharaoh, "literally so that I could buy shoes for my children".

TSR bought the modules, and wanted to hire Tracy as well.

Tracy recalls, "They said it would be easier to publish my adventures if I was part of the company. So, we made the move from Utah to Wisconsin. It was a terrifying experience. We had no money. My parents begged us not to venture into such foreign territory to pursue such a bizarre career. My father wrote that there was a secure job as a fry cook in Flagstaff (where my parents were living), and he pleaded with me to come take it."

When Tracy and Laura Hickman came to TSR, they brought Pharaoh with them.

Hickman had many jobs before joining TSR, Inc. (the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons) in 1982, including working as a supermarket stocker, a movie projectionist, a theater manager, a glass worker, a television assistant director, and a drill press operator in a genealogy center.

Together, Tracy and Laura wrote the original versions of the adventure modules Rahasia and Pharaoh, publishing them privately.

It was published as the first part of TSR's Desert of Desolation series (1982–1983).

Ravenloft (1983) was also written by Tracy and Laura Hickman.

Hickman also wrote two supplements for TSR's Gangbusters role-playing game.

Tracy and Laura Hickman's contributions to the D&D module portfolio are credited with initiating a fundamental shift in the RPG module design sensibilities, away from pure dungeon crawl and towards more "cerebral" adventures centered on intriguing plots.

As he was traveling from Utah to Wisconsin to join TSR, Hickman thought of the idea for a setting in which dragons would be fearsome once again.

At TSR he found other creators who were interested in his project, which was dubbed "Project Overlord".

Harold Johnson was the first to join the project and brought it to upper management, and talked Hickman into expanding further upon his idea of only a trilogy of three adventures.

Soon after, TSR management announced its intention to develop Hickman's series of dragon-based role-playing adventures.

Hickman's proposal resulted in the Dragonlance Chronicles, which led to his association with Margaret Weis.

Jean Black, the managing editor of TSR's book department, assigned Hickman and Weis to write first the novel Dragons of Autumn Twilight and then continue with the rest of the Dragonlance Chronicles series.

This was the first project TSR had undertaken that would include adult novels as well as games, calendars, and other spin-off products.

It was also Hickman's first novel writing experience.

The original Dragonlance team was formed under Hickman's leadership.

The project began with a novel and three game modules.