Gaming

This page showcases the gaming pieces I have written over the years. Follow the links to either get more information from the publisher or actually read the piece off-site where the article is hosted. If you're interested in seeing more of my work, check out the links to the right that will take you to my current writings, fiction, and non-fiction writing pages.

Roleplaying Games

Guild Wars Nightfall

Publisher: ArenaNet

Release Date: November 2006

ASIN: B000HCU7B8

Description: This is the Guild Wars game I left Buffalo to work on. Here is the description from Amazon.com: Guild Wars: Nightfall takes you to the continent of Elona, for epic role-playing and fantasy adventure! Elona is a land of wealth and power, protected by its champions, the Order of the Sunspears. In Guild Wars Nightfall, Elona has fallen under the shadow of an evil, outcast god. Against the encroaching desolation of an infernal realm, the people of Elona will need more than a hero to save them, they will need a hero to lead them... For nightfall is at hand.


Dragon Magazine

Silicon Sorcery: ICO

Issue: Dragon Magazine #297

Date: July 2002

Description: The Silicon Sorcery column takes a look at a computer or console roleplaying game, and finds some aspect that players can use in their games. This article shows how to create Nether creatures (much like the whispy, shadow creatures in the game Ico) using a template you can add to any existing creature.

Wurms of the Far Reaches

Issue: Dragon Magazine #296

Date: June 2002

Description: Wurms of the Far Reaches details twelve land-based, druidical dragons in four size categories (Wurmling, Adult, Greater, and Elder). The twelve types correspond to different terrains (River, Forest, Mountain, Sea, Swamp, Tundra, Lava, Cave, Hill, Storm, Grassland, Sand).

Silicon Sorcery: Dark Alliance

Issue: Dragon Magazine #296

Date: June 2002

Description: The Silicon Sorcery column takes a look at a computer or console roleplaying game, and finds some aspect that players can use in their games. This article gives game stats for the various level bosses from the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance game (Bugbear Chieftain, Karne, Xantam, and Ilivarra).

Silicon Sorcery—Gauntlet: Dark Legacy

Issue: Dragon Magazine #289

Date: November 2001

Description: The Silicon Sorcery column takes a look at a computer or console roleplaying game, and finds some aspect that players can use in their games. This article describes potions and amulets you can use in your game that were inspired by the Gauntlet: Dark Legacy game.

The Splintered Mind

Issue: Dragon Magazine #281

Date: March 2001

Description: Written with Jesse Decker and Stephen Schubert, this article describes a rebel, splinter group of the Scarlet Brotherhood, including a history of the group, exotic weapons used by the members, the Truth Seeker prestige class, several new psionic powers, and three class combos (which provide level progressions from 1st to 20th level).

Heroes of Battle

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

Release Date: May 2005

ISBN: 0-7869-3686-X

Description: This is a Dungeons & Dragons handbook I wrote with David Noonan and Stephen Schubert. It is the first hardcover book I have ever worked on. This handbook has rules, feats, spells, prestige classes, and more to help you create a war-time setting for your gaming group's adventures.


Online Characters

Ranald the Sly

Website: Montecook.com

Description: Ranald the Sly is a sibeccai assassin in the De-Shamod Element of the Nightwalkers in Monte Cook's Diamond Throne game setting. Ranald is one of the main characters in my story "Child of the Street," which appears in the first Diamon Throne anthology - Children of the Rune. He appears as I envisioned him in the story, as a 3rd level sibeccai / 6th level unfettered.

Orion's Menagerie

Website: Wizards of the Coast

Description: Orion Woodson is an elven cleric of Ehlonna specializing in the Animal and Plant spheres. He acts much like a Druid, with Animal Companions at his side for protection, but still has all the abilities of a cleric. This NPC Closeup article stats out Orion at 3rd, 6th, and 10th level.


Online Adventures

Lorin's Chasm

Website: Wizards of the Coast

Date: November 2001

Description: Lorin's Chasm is a short adventure for four 5th-level characters that takes place in the caves\par beneath a remote monastery devoted to the sun god, Pelor. The monastery sits atop a\par mountain range and has a large complex of caves beneath, most of which are used as tombs\par for the priests who have died there over the centuries. The monastery and the adventure can\par be placed easily on almost any world.

Over the Edge

Website: Wizards of the Coast

Date: April 2001

Description: Over the Edge is a short adventure for four 9th-level characters. The adventure is set in the Lortmil Mountains on a newly established trade route between Ulek and Verbebonc, but could be on any route that takes the characters through a mountain pass.


Trading Card Games

Before becoming a full-time freelance writer and novelist, I spent almost four years as an editor on two different gaming magazines - Duelist (issues 21-42) and TopDeck (issues 1-15). In those years, I wrote scores of articles on everything from trading card game strategy and set previews to computer game reviews and editorials. You may still be able to find some of these issues for sale on the Internet, but both Duelist and TopDeck ceased publication long ago.

Magic: The Gathering Books

Urza's Destiny Game Guide

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

Release Date: July 1999

ISBN: 0-7869-1400-9

Description: This guide gave card-by-card descriptions and strategies for the Urza's Destiny card set for the Magic: The Gathering trading card game. It includes images of each card in the set as well as original short fiction titled "Phyrexian Autopsy" that introduced the story behind the set.

Urza's Legacy Game Guide

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

Release Date: April 1999

ISBN: 0-7869-2135-3

Description: This guide gave card-by-card descriptions and strategies for the Urza's Legacy card set for the Magic: The Gathering trading card game. It includes images of each card in the set as well as original short fiction titled "Scars of the Legacy" that introduced the story behind the set.

Guide to Urza's Saga

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

Release Date: November 1998

ISBN: 0-7869-1302-9

Description: This guide gave card-by-card descriptions and strategies for the Urza's Saga card set for the Magic: The Gathering trading card game. It includes images of each card in the set as well as original short fiction titled "A Time for Remembrance" that introduced the story behind the set.

Magic Online Articles

Caught in the Mirari's Wake

Description: For the release of my first novel, Judgment, I interviewed all of the people involved in the creation of the Magic: The Gathering - Odyssey cycle of books, including the other authors, the editors, and the Magic R&D people todescribe the process of publishing a Magic trilogy. This four-part series resides on the Wizards of the Coast website.

Mirari's Wake: Part 1

Mirari's Wake: Part 2

Mirari's Wake: Part 3

Mirari's Wake: Part 4


Pokemon / Harry Potter Online

Several years ago, I wrote several series of online strategy articles for both the Pokemon and Harry Potter trading card games.

There were three Pokemon series with twelve articles in each series. These were:

  • Pokemon 201- Intermediate Pokemon TCG Battle Training
  • Pokemon Deck Check
  • Single Card Strategies

I wrote one main Harry Potter TCG series, which lasted for 26 articles, and filled in occassionally on the other:

  • Harry Potter 101 - Basic strategies
  • Single Card Strategies

Unfortunately, it appears that all of these articles have been taken off their respective websites. The Pokemon articles had their home at Wizards of the Coast, while the Harry Potter articles were housed at the Warner Brothers website. In the future, if I can get permission, I will reprint these articles on this website.

Will McDermott

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