Tracy Hickman has what many young men would consider a dream job. In 1999, he was named one of The Millennium’s Most Influential Persons in the field of adventure gaming by Pyramid Magazine. In 2002 he was inducted into the Origins Hall of Fame, partly due to his work on Dragonlance.
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Hickman served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Indonesia, although he spent the first six months in Hawaii learning to speak Indonesian and waiting for visa approval. He says he sometimes bases magical phrases in his books on Indonesian.
On his personal website, he writes, “While I taught many lessons on the church, my mission was also very much a mission toward my own salvation. I studied and learned. My own faith grew in that fertile, distant land. I served in Surabaya, Jakarta and Bandung. There I found myself and God — it seems strange now that I had to go so far away to do so.”
Three months after returning home from Indonesia, he married his long-time girlfriend, Laura. It was Laura who introduced Tracy to Dungeons and Dragons, and he wrote his first adventure games with her. They still partner on many of his creations today, although he also has another writing partner as well. They have four children.
In answer to concerns about whether Dungeon and Dragons was an immoral game, he states the problem with it was more that it took no moral stand at all. “I cannot speak for others who design these games but I can say with assurance that the games I designed while there always took a very carefully calculated moral slant and tried to teach positive values as central to their design. I would strongly admonish others who design their games to look beyond the illusory dream itself to the message that their games convey. I also strongly admonish anyone who is playing these games to carefully select only those settings and scenarios that espouse positive moral structures.”
Hickman feels that because players often refer to their characters in first person, meaning they speak as if they are the character, game creators and game masters have a responsibility to be certain actions have consequences. If this happens, players learn good lessons instead of bad ones.
In addition to creating games, Hickman also writes fantasy novels. He wrote his first novel as a child. Currently, his novels are much longer than the brief story he first created, and are often written with his wife.
He is very open about his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A large portion of his personal website is dedicated to discussing his faith and the things he believes. He states:
I give you my testimony that God lives; that Jesus is the Living Christ. I know this as fact more sure than the rising of the sun each morning. I know this as a fact more surely than my five physical senses can attest. I have known His truth and cannot deny it. I have heard His voice and while I have not always liked what He has said to me, I have known the truth of His will.”
Tracy Hickman’s work includes:
Dragonlance
Darksword trilogy
Death Gate Cycle,
Sovereign Stone trilogy
.Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Ravenloft module
Mystic Warrior
DragonHearth podcast
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