Steve Miller is a

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

and editor who has worked on a number of products for the ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

from

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for ga ...

, and other role-playing games.

Early life and education

Steve Miller wanted to be a writer from an early age: "Actually, when I was in first grade, I wanted to be a sheriff's deputy... Then I wrote a little book in first grade called 'The Man Who Watches' about a sheriff's deputy, and I won some sort of prize for it. From then on, I wanted to be a writer." After Miller graduated from the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

with a degree in English, with a Creative Writing emphasis, he began working as a publicist for a television station, at the same time freelancing as a feature writer and entertainment critic for various weekly newspapers and magazines. During this time he also unsuccessfully attempted to break into the comic book industry.

Career

A fellow gamer suggested that Miller try writing role-playing game material, so the next day Miller called

Bruce Heard Bruce Heard (born March 9, 1957, in Nice, France) is a game designer, and an author of several products for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game from TSR. Early life Heard was born in Nice, France, on March 9, 1957, to his Frenc ...

at TSR. Heard, who handled the scheduling of TSR's freelancers at the time, set Miller up with editing and design tests. His first freelance assignment came a few months later. After a few months of freelancing,

Tim Brown Timothy, Timmy, or Tim Brown may refer to: Music * Timothy Brown (bassist) (born 1969), bassist for the band The Boo Radleys * Timothy Brown (conductor) (born 1946), English choral conductor * Timothy Brown (hornist), English hornist Sports Gridir ...

called Miller and offered him a staff job after Miller wrote him a letter of thanks for providing writing tips: "I'd said in the letter, 'if you have any openings, please keep me in mind,' not really thinking anything would come of it." Miller accepted the job, working on the

Ravenloft Ravenloft is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game. It is an alternate time-space existence known as a ''Demiplane, pocket dimension'' or demiplane, called the Demiplane of Dread, which consists of a collection of la ...

and

Dragonlance ''Dragonlance'' is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived ''Dragonlance'' while driving in t ...

lines during his time with TSR and later

. Bruce Cordell and Miller worked on ''

Die Vecna Die! ''Die Vecna Die!'' is an ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ''(AD&D 2nd edition) module released in 2000D ...

'' (2000) together, an original adventure that brought an end to the ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' line. Miller co-wrote the first 3rd Edition

Forgotten Realms ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a ...

adventure '' Into the Dragon's Lair'' with Sean K. Reynolds. Between his stints at TSR and Wizards of the Coast, Miller worked for

West End Games West End Games (WEG) was a company that made Board game, board, Role-playing game, role-playing, and wargaming, war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York City, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Its product line ...

on their '' Star Wars Adventure Journal'' product line. In late June 2011, Miller began distributing role-playing game material and fiction in digital format under NUELOW Games, with exclusive distribution through

OneBookShelf OneBookShelf is a digital marketplace company for both major and indie games, fiction and comics. OneBookShelf was formed by the merger of RPGNow and DriveThruRPG. The company's e-commerce platforms host content from individual sellers, indie cre ...

websites. In June 2013, Miller added hybrid comics book/game products to NUELOW Games's line-up.

References

External links

*
Official site
Dungeons & Dragons game designers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{rpg-bio-stub