(801) 949-8172
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Good day! Thanks for visiting my
site. This section gives you some more information about me.
I live in Salt Lake City. I'm not Mormon. I'm not married, but that
won't last long; I'm engaged to the most wonderful woman in the world.
In addition to my writing and game design, I am also a professional
comedian, performer (mostly comedy improvisation), and public speaker.
(The lovely pictures on this page are actor’s headshots.)
I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, which some claim helps me in
my work. I am undecided.
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About
Luke
My Story
When I was in fourth or fifth grade, a friend introduced me to the
then-current Dungeons & Dragons game (not to be confused with
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons -- in this game you could play elven
elves and dwarven dwarves). I never looked back.
I continued writing throughout elementary school, High School, and
college. I ran campaigns for D&D and other roleplaying games as
well.
In the spring of 2002, I submitted a Dungeons
& Dragons adventure I had written for my own group,
"Bloodlines," to Dungeon
magazine. They accepted it. (It appears in issue #94.) They also paid me generously for the
article. Afterward, I thought, "Hey, that was cool. I wonder who else
will pay me for writing game stuff?"
I then submitted a cover letter, resume, and writing samples to every
roleplaying game company I could find on the Internet. This was at the
beginning of the d20 boom -- when Wizards of
the Coast released the core Dungeons & Dragons rules mechanics
for other companies to use for free -- so plenty of
companies were out there.
My strategy worked. My first project after "Bloodlines" was Troll Lord Games’
The Book
of Familiars; my second was Dreaming
Merchant Press’s Tombs! After that, things just went up. Now I'm a
full-time freelance writer, editor, game designer, and game developer.
I write for Wizards of the Coast and White Wolf Publishing
(the two largest roleplaying game publishers around) and am the line
developer for two separate roleplaying game lines.
Design Philosophy
I taught game design at a college
called Full Sail
in Florida for a year and a half. (I quit to be a full time writer and
game designer.) While I was there, I gave a guest lecture every month
in Dave Arneson’s Rules of the Game class. This
lecture was entitled “Principles and Theories of Game Design,” so I
have some ideas about what makes a game fun. I can’t really go into it
all in detail here, though, but I will say that everything comes down
to choice. Choices are what make a game a game (as opposed to another
form of media): the audience is actively involved in the experience.
Choices in a game are best when they are interesting. (I have several
criteria to determine whether or not a choice falls into that
category.) If you have a game with interesting choices, you’re on the
right track.
I have another idea. This idea is: All games (with the exception of
solitary games) are excuses for people who like each other to get
together and engage in a common activity.
Advice
Nascent writers and/or game designers often ask me for advice. To those
who are interested in becoming professional writers and/or game
designers, I say: Great! Good luck. The world needs more talented
people in those areas, and if you have some talent, you should be able
to break in.
If you want to write for roleplaying games, I suggest that you
determine which companies and/or games you’d like to work on. Then
e-mail each of those companies or game line developers (for the Warcraft RPG or Etherscope, you’re talking about me) a cover letter, resume, and
writing samples. The writing samples are key.
What if you haven’t done anything worth putting on a resume? Well, if
you’re interested in breaking into this industry, I find it unlikely
that you haven’t done anything related to it. Include classes that
you’ve taken in college or High School. Articles published in your
College newspaper and short stories in your High School literary
magazine. Include on your resume that you play games and which games
you’ve played. If you run a roleplaying game session, write that down.
If you’re an active member of an online community, that goes in, too.
Writing samples. What should you include, exactly? Well, I ask
prospective writers to send me three samples. One demonstrates their
mastery of the game system (d20, dynamic D6, or whatever). One
demonstrates their fiction proficiency (their ability to write what we
in the RPG field call “fluff”). The third sample is whatever the writer
wants to include that will convince me to hire him. (Don’t pull your
hair out agonizing over which exact excerpt to include, though.) If
you’re aiming to write for a specific setting (Warcraft, Warhammer, Eberron,
or whatever), one of the writing samples
should also prove that you are familiar with the setting.
I also recommend that you check the open call forums on EN
World and RPG.net. I check
those forums daily and have attained work
through them.
If you want to write fiction, my advice is probably less useful. I
think writing a bunch of short stories and submitting them to literary
magazines is a good idea. I’m trying that strategy myself, so we’ll see
how it goes. I recommend the Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market to help you
out.
If you want to write nonfiction --
like,
if you want to be a magazine and/or technical writer -- I suggest a
combination of the above two approaches. Find the magazines you want to
write for, and submit article ideas in the proper format (you can
probably find the proper format on their
websites). Picking up a copy of the Writer’s Market will help you in your quest.
People sometimes also ask me to recommend books about writing. My
favorite so far is Stephen King’s On Writing. If the only thing you get out
of that book is the ability to recognize (and avoid) passive voice,
you’re well on your way.
Hate takes a lot of energy. So, I try not to do it. In fact, there’s
only one thing in the world that I hate. I hate passive voice.
Interests
When I’m not working, I like to read. My favorite authors include Terry
Pratchett, the aforementioned Stephen King, Barbara
Robinette Moss, and a myriad of others. Perdido Street Station, by China
Miéville, may be my favorite book of
all time.
I like Star Trek: The Next Generation. Firefly is also
an excellent television show. I like the original Star Wars trilogy
(who doesn’t?) and superhero movies like X-Men 2
and Batman
Begins.
I used to play a lot of video games, but the only one I’ve been playing
lately is a Warcraft III mod called Defense of the
Ancients (DotA). I think it’s because I can play it in hour-long
bursts. My battle.net handle is CptLukebeard, so give me a shout
sometime.
I also like cats, Broadway music, and stupid puns.
Judging by the length of this page, I also like writing about myself.
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