Bruce R. Cordell

Bruce Cordell at Gen Con on August 22, 2004
Born	Bruce R. Cordell 1968 (age 48–49) Watertown, South Dakota, United States
Occupation	Game designer, novelist
Nationality	United States
Genre	Role-playing games

Bruce Robert Cordell (born 1968) is an American author of roleplaying games and fantasy novels. He has worked on Dungeons & Dragons games for Wizards of the Coast. He won the Origins Award for Return to the Tomb of Horrors and has also won several ENnies. He lives in Seattle.

Bruce Cordell played Dungeons & Dragons as a youth, and even recalled playing the original Tomb of Horrors adventure with future fellow game designer Monte Cook when they were in high school together. Cordell was a wrestler and a debater, and also earned a degree in Biology from the University of Colorado. Cordell once worked in the biopharmaceutical industry where he learned to synthesize DNA.

Cordell worked on freelance game design while working in the scientific field, and was eventually hired as a full-time game designer by TSR in 1995. Cordell created the Far Realm for the adventure The Gates of Firestorm Peak (1996). He authored the Sea Devils Adventure Trilogy, The Illithiad, the Shattered Circle, Bastion of Faith, the Dungeon Builder's Guidebook, and the adventures Die Vecna Die!, Return to the Tomb of Horrors, and Return to White Plume Mountain for the AD&D game, as well as the Tangents sourcebook and The Killing Jar adventure for the Alternity game. Cordell and Steve Miller worked on Die Vecna Die! (2000) together, an original adventure that brought an end to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons line. Cordell was also one of the designers working on the first new adventures for the 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons game, beginning with The Sunless Citadel. Cordell and Rich Baker wrote a new version of the Gamma World Roleplaying Game (2010), which was based on the fourth edition D&D rules.