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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.
Within four months of his return to the United States, Hickman married his high school sweetheart, Laura Hickman. 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 Laurana Kanan.
Hickman attended Brigham Young University. In an interview, he stated that he "nearly failed his creative writing course" in college.
In March 2019, Hickman and Weis were contracted by Wizards of the Coast, the new publisher of Dungeons and Dragons, to write another installment of the Dragonlance series. A new trilogy of books was planned to be published by Random House. Wizards of the Coast reportedly approved the first manuscript in the beginning of 2020, and Hickman and Weis had also finished the draft for the sequel. Wizards of the Coast then put a stop to the project, and Hickman and Weis responded by suing the publisher for breach of contract on October 16, 2020, requesting $10 million in compensation. The authors later dropped the lawsuit in December 2020 and announced that Del Rey Books would publish the new Dragonlance trilogy, with a publication date to be announced. Hickman and Weis see the new trilogy as "the capstone to their life's work". In December 2021, it was announced that the first novel of the new series, Dragonlance: Dragons of Deceit, is scheduled for release on August 9, 2022.
Tracy and Laura Hickman have been publishing game designs together for over 30 years, including the popular and innovative Dungeons & Dragons Ravenloft module in 1983. The Hickmans originally developed Ravenloft as a way to entertain their friends every Halloween. Says Hickman of the original module, and its 1986 sequel, , "I still believe the original Ravenloft modules were perhaps the best that ever had my name on them." Ravenloft was revived with the release of the Hickmans' Curse of Strahd module in 2016.
For the Starshield Project, Hickman and Weis produced the Del Rey Books-published novels Sentinels (later retitled Mantle of Kendis-Dai) and Nightsword. Hickman also wrote a story set in the Starshield universe for Dragon #250 called "Dedrak's Quest". Of his and Weis's fictional setting, he said, "Starshield is a universe where a society of dragons can confront blaster-armed spacemen or wizards wielding magic staves with computer targeting", and that the Starshield Project "grew out of his desire to share the creation process with all their fans." According to Hickman, Starshield's ultimate purpose, and his biggest dream, was to finance a permanent colony on the planet Mars by 2010. Readers were able to freely download both the first novel in the series and the Starshield roleplaying game from Hickman's website.
In the late 1990s, Larry Elmore asked Weis and Hickman to write novels for his fantasy world of Loerem, and they agreed to produce the Sovereign Stone trilogy. With encouragement from Peter Adkison, Wizards of the Coast published a new trilogy of Dragonlance novels by Weis and Hickman called War of Souls, beginning with Dragons of a Fallen Sun (2000).
In 1999, Pyramid magazine named Tracy Hickman one of The Millennium's Most Influential Persons, "at least in the realm of adventure gaming". The magazine stated that Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis were "basically responsible for the entire gaming fiction genre". Hickman was inducted into the Origins Award Hall of Fame in 2002, recognized in part for "one game line turned literary sensation: Dragonlance". Tracy and Laura Hickman wrote the adventure Out in the Black (2006) for the Serenity Role Playing Game for Margaret Weis Productions.
In 2009, Hickman released XDM: X-Treme Dungeon Mastery, a guide for DMs based on his years of experience in the trade. Written with his son Curtis Hickman and illustrated by online comic artist Howard Tayler, the book calls itself "the cure for the common game". The Hickmans have hosted "Killer Breakfasts", popular role-playing game experiences, at Gen Con conventions in various locations.
Hickman then released two new fantasy series: the four-book Dragonships of Vindras series (co-written with his longtime writing partner Margaret Weis), and the three-book Annals of Drakis series (co-written with his wife, Laura).
In 2010, Tracy and Laura Hickman launched a direct-to-internet serialized fantasy series, "Dragon's Bard", which merged serial publishing techniques (such as those employed with Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities) with modern internet distribution. Eventide, the first book in the Tales of the Dragon's Bard series, was subsequently published by Shadow Mountain Publishing in 2012. Hickman has said that Eventide was his favorite project to work on.
While primarily known for his work in epic fantasy, Hickman once wrote a Batman novel for DC Comics titled Wayne of Gotham (June 2012). The book explores the characters of Bruce Wayne's parents.
Hickman wrote the screenplay for, produced, and edited the first science-fiction film shot completely in space, Apogee of Fear. In August 2008, it was announced that Hickman would travel to the International Space Station, where his digitized DNA and samples of his writing would be stored in a capsule as part of "Operation Immortality", sponsored by NCSoft. Game developer Richard Garriott gathered information from people around the world (contributed through a website) to store in the capsule. On the topic of the project, Hickman said, "I have lived my entire life dreaming of space. 'Operation Immortality' is essentially a celebration of that same adventuring spirit and an offering of hope for the future. I am deeply honored to participate."
On March 15, 2013, Hickman joined Richard Garriott's team as lead story designer for . Shroud of the Avatar is the "spiritual successor" to Garriott's previous work in the fantasy role-playing genre, the Ultima series of video games.
On March 16, 2016, Hickman announced that he had become the Director of Story Development at The Void, a virtual reality gaming experience franchise, working with his son Curtis in designing interactive adventures.
On his website Hickman states that he is a devout member of the LDS Church. He has stated that he likes writing in the fantasy genre because it "is about ethical and moral choices—the questions of good and evil" and because it reflects "the story of all of us on our journey through mortality and our seeking to return home to Jesus". Hickman has said that his faith often inspires his work. As of 1998, the family resides in St. George, Utah.
==Appearances==
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