Tracy Hickman, famed Dragonlance author, will have his DnD shot into space along with Richard Garriott in a program that will see the designer take a digital time capsule of the human racetaken to the international space station when Garriott makes the trek in October.

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 14, 2008 – Operation Immortality™, the project to create a digital time capsule of the human race, has joined forces with famed author and game designer Tracy Hickman.  Hickman is best known for his work on the Dragonlance novels and the innovative Ravenloft module of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game system. As part of Operation Immortality’s mission to preserve the most talented and influential people of our time, Tracy Hickman will be sending his digitized DNA into space with video gaming luminary Richard Garriott as he travels to the International Space Station (ISS) on Oct. 12, 2008.

Hickman will not only be adding his digitized DNA to the “Immortality Drive,” excerpts of his writings will also be included on the storage device Garriott will store on the ISS as part of Operation Immortality.  The Immortality Drive is currently in the process of being loaded with information from people all over the world at the OperationImmortality.com website. Hickman will be talking about the project as he addresses crowds at the Gen Con gaming convention today in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Visitors to the website can submit their suggestions for humanity’s greatest achievements, leave their immortalized message for future generations, and may even have their DNA selected to join Garriott and other luminaries on an out of this world trip to possibly become the future of mankind.

Garriott is a game developer at NCsoft® and creator of the Ultima series of games and the recently released Tabula Rasa®. The goal of Operation Immortality is to have a space-borne record of human DNA and a record of humanity’s achievements in the event a global calamity dooms the human species, similar to what happens in the Tabula Rasa video game.

”Mankind is at its best whenever we set our vision to the stars,” Hickman said. “One of my first memories was of watching Alan Shepard fly his Mercury capsule atop a Redstone rocket. I have lived my entire life dreaming of space. ’Operation Immortality’ is essentially a celebration of that same adventuring spirit and an offering of hope for the future. I am deeply honored to participate.”

The Tabula Rasa team is thrilled by Hickman’s participation in Operation Immortality.  “Looking back to the influences that impacted my career, Tracy Hickman’s Chronicles series left a lasting impression on me,” said Tom Potter, Tabula Rasa’s lead designer.  “His novels were my first exposure to epic fantasy, and even though I read them at an early age, the setting and characters he created still continue to influence me all these years later.” 

Read more here.

Tracy Hickman being described as one of "the most talented and influential people of our time"? Give me a break. Being on the bestseller lists doesn't make one a good writer and Hickman is mediocre at best. Garriott needs to be distanced far, far away from this game if NCSoft has any hope of salvaging it. This isn't even good hype, let alone anything of substance.

Originally posted by LordDraekon

Tracy Hickman being described as one of "the most talented and influential people of our time"? Give me a break. Being on the bestseller lists doesn't make one a good writer and Hickman is mediocre at best. Garriott needs to be distanced far, far away from this game if NCSoft has any hope of salvaging it. This isn't even good hype, let alone anything of substance.

At best everything you said is opinion and I'll chime in with mine Hickman is in fact as good as advertised.

I've never even heard of this Hickman guy. But if hes anything like Garriott then he doesn't need to be preserved.

Garriott has been talking for years on his personal website about his trip into space and all the time hes spending to prepare for it. If he had spent that time on Tabula Rasa it might not be the giant money pit for NCSoft that it currently is. If I were one of NCSoft's investors I would be calling for his head on a pike right about now.

If either one of these guys goes into space, they should just stay there. I don't think we need em' down here.

Well Hickman is one of those journeyman writers.  Not a great one, but some of his stuff is not bad.

Certainly nothing to get excited about, that is for sure.

This thing is one big gimmick.  I mean come on, it is not being shot into space, it is being put on the space station, which has a finite lifetime.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

I mean come on, it is not being shot into space, it is being put on the space station, which has a finite lifetime.

It may not be getting slung out beyond the far reaches of the solar system, but it's also not inaccurate to describe as getting shot into space.  Riding the rocket up and out of here qualifies as that much.