Dave Morris (writer)

David John Morris
Born 19 March 1957
Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire
Nationality British
Alma mater Magdalen College, Oxford
Genre Graphic novels, videogames, science fiction, fantasy
Spouse Roz Morris
Website
mirabilis-yearofwonders.com

Dave Morris (born in 1957) is a British author of gamebooks, novels and comics and a designer of computer games and role-playing games.

Biography

Dave Morris is a graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford,[1] where he read Physics from 1976–79.

He is co-creator of the Fabled Lands[2] series, and also wrote for the Virtual Reality,[3] Blood Sword,[4] and Golden Dragon series, as well as penning a single Fighting Fantasy gamebook, (The Keep of the Lich Lord) and a number of TV and movie novelisations.

He also wrote, with Oliver Johnson, the book series Dragon Warriors (1984–1986) for Games Workshop.[5]:46[6] Dragon Warriors is a role-playing game but is often mistaken for a gamebook because of its paperback format. The game, a cult hit for Transworld in the 1980s, was republished in 2009 by Magnum Opus press.

Morris has frequently collaborated with other gamebook writers, notably Jamie Thomson (Fabled Lands[5]:46[7] and The Keep of the Lich Lord) and Oliver Johnson (Blood Sword, Dragon Warriors and Golden Dragon). He has worked with many illustrators including Russ Nicholson,[8] Siku, Iain McCaig, Leo Hartas, and Martin McKenna.

His original novels include Knightmare (a historical fantasy adventure series set in the early 13th century that ties in with the television series of that name), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the contemporary horror novel Lost Souls. Another horror novel, Florien, was published as an ebook in 2010.[9] In 2008 his episodic comic strip Mirabilis[10] began weekly publication in Random House's subscription-based magazine The DFC.[11] Working with artist Leo Hartas, Morris founded electronic publisher Mirus Entertainment and published Mirabilis for the iPad in December 2010.[12]

In addition to his more than seventy published books,[13] Morris is a leading developer of the Empire of the Petal Throne gaming system (created by MAR Barker and published by TSR), creating a playable rules system (Tirikelu) and editing a fanzine.[14]

Morris also co-authored a book on the computer gaming industry,[15] having worked as a game designer for Eidos and Microsoft, and is a former mentor in the American Film Institute's Digital Content Lab.[16] In April 2012, he published an interactive reworking of Frankenstein in which the reader is able to give advice to the first-person narrator of the story.[17]

Morris' Dragon Warriors game was licensed to James Wallis of Magnum Opus Press, who published a new 1.1 edition of the game with supplements from 2008–2011; a new company called Serpent King Games picked up the property after the license lapsed.[5]:307

Bibliography

Dave Morris's published works include:

Heroquest series

Blood Sword series

Knightmare series

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series

Virtual Reality series

Fabled Lands series

Chronicles of the Magi

Dragon Warriors series

Golden Dragon series

Other works

Game Architecture and Design (with Andrew Rollings, 2003, Pearson Education, ISBN 0-735-71363-4)

Game Guru: Role-Playing Games (with Leo Hartas, 2004, ILEX Press, ISBN 1-904-70544-8)

Game Guru: Strategy Games (with Leo Hartas, 2004, ILEX Press, ISBN 1-904-70545-6)

Machinima : Making Animated Movies in 3D Virtual Environments (with Dave Lloyd and Matt Kelland, 2005, ILEX Press, ISBN 1-904-70564-2 )

Mirabilis: Year of Wonders, Volume One (2011, Printmedia Productions, ISBN 978-0-956-71211-0 )

A Minotaur at the Savoy (2011, Mirus Entertainment, ISBN 978-0-956-67789-1 )

Frankenstein (2012, Profile Books, ISBN 978-1-847-65831-9 )

References

  1. ↑ Biography at Magnum Opus Press
  2. ↑ The War-Torn Kingdom by Dave Morris & Jamie Thomson, 1995, Pan Books, ISBN 978-0330336147 (et al.)
  3. ↑ Virtual Reality: Necklace of Skulls by Dave Morris & Mark Smith, 1993, Mammoth, ISBN 978-0749714871 (et al.)
  4. ↑ The Battlepits of Krarth by Dave Morris & Oliver Johnson, 1987, Knight Books, ISBN 978-0340401545 (et al.)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  6. ↑ The Dragon Warriors role-playing game
  7. ↑ Fabled Lands blog
  8. ↑ Concept art process for The Shadow King
  9. ↑ Megara Entertainment
  10. ↑ Mirabilis The Year of Wonders blog
  11. ↑ Mirabilis comic book
  12. ↑ Mirabilis comic book reader app
  13. ↑ Published works of Dave Morris at Library Thing
  14. ↑ The Eye of All-Seeing Wonder
  15. ↑ Game Architecture and Design, by Andrew Rollings and Dave Morris, 2003, New Riders, ISBN 978-0735713635
  16. ↑ Law & Order: Motive, Means, Opportunity at the AFI
  17. ↑ 'The Divided Self: Remaking Frankenstein as an Interactive Novel' in the Huffington Post

External links