John D. Rateliff

John D. Rateliff discovered gaming in February 1980 and the work of  
J. R. R. Tolkien in September 1973. This gaming interest led him to  
work at TSR, Wizards of the Coast, and Hasbro, as well as freelancing  
for companies like Decipher, Green Ronin, White Wolf, Guardians of  
Order, and Chaosium. Among the projects he's edited are The Complete  
Book of Gnomes & Halflings, Night Below, Return to the Tomb of  
Horrors, and the third edition Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's  
Guide (which established the core d20 rules); he also contributed to  
Decipher's Lord of the Rings core rulebook and the d20 Call of  
Cthulhu project, along with dozens of other titles over the years.  
His favorite roleplaying games are Dungeons & Dragons (particularly  
1st edition AD&D), Call of Cthulhu, and Pendragon.

In addition to being a longtime gamer, John is also a Tolkien  
scholar, who has helped organize several Tolkien conferences and  
symposiums. He spent many hours working with the Tolkien manuscripts  
at Marquette, where he got his Ph.D. His major contribution to  
Tolkien studies is probably his edition of the original manuscripts  
of The Hobbit, with extensive commentary, in a two volume set  
published last year by HarperCollins: The History of The Hobbit (Vol.  
I: Mr. Baggins; Vol. II: Return to Bag-End). He is currently engaged  
in a piece on Tolkien's writer's block but having a hard time  
finishing it . . .

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Additional information...

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Some items of note:

Author of The History of the Hobbit.

Co-author Decipher Lord of the Rings Role Plaing Game (2002)

EverQuest Player's Handbook (2002)

Standing Stone, The (Dungeons & Dragons) (2001)

The Standing Stone: An Adventure for 7th-Level Characters (Dungeons & Dragons Adventure) (April 1, 2001)

Reverse Dungeon (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons/AD&D) (May 1, 2000)

Egypt (Children of the World) (co-author) (Feb 1992)

Fushigi Yugi: Ultimate Fan Guide #1 (Sep 30, 2002)