Rhianna Pratchett
Pratchett at the 2016 Game Developers Conference
Born	(1976-12-30) 30 December 1976 (age 48) Rowberrow, Somerset, England
Occupation	Writer
Genre	Video games, fantasy
Notable works	Heavenly Sword, Mirror's Edge, Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider
Relatives	Terry Pratchett (father)
Pratchett's voice from the BBC programme Front Row, 26 December 2013^[1]
Website
rhiannapratchett.com

Rhianna Pratchett (born 30 December 1976) is an English video game writer and journalist.^[2]^[3] She has worked on Heavenly Sword (2007), Overlord (2007), Mirror's Edge (2008) and Tomb Raider (2013) and its follow up, Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015), among others. She is the daughter of fantasy writer Terry Pratchett.^[4]

Career

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Rhianna Pratchett studied journalism at the London College of Printing. Following graduation, Pratchett began writing for Minx magazine, where her first games reviews were published.^[5] She moved to the long running PC Zone magazine^[6] as an editorial assistant, staff writer, eventually becoming a section editor. She wrote for many other publications including The Guardian.^[7]

Pratchett moved into script writing and narrative design in 2002 with Beyond Divinity, produced by Larian Studios in Belgium.^[8] She also wrote a novella to accompany the game. In 2007, her work on Heavenly Sword was nominated for a BAFTA and a year later she won a Writers' Guild of Great Britain 'Best Videogame Script' award for Overlord.^[9] Pratchett wrote the comic Tomb Raider: The Beginning with Dark Horse and the Mirror's Edge miniseries with DC Comics, along with several of her own short stories. She has contributed to various books on games narrative including Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing and Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames.^[10]

Since 2012, she has been co-director of Narrativia Limited, a production company which holds exclusive multimedia and merchandising rights to her father Terry Pratchett's works following his death.^[11] In 2012 and 2013, Narrativia announced that it would be working on three television projects based on Pratchett's father's works: The Watch, Good Omens, and Wee Free Men, as well as several other projects; Pratchett was reported as co-writer of The Watch^[12]^[13] but in 2019 she announced she had not been involved in the project "for many years".^[14] In a deal announced in April 2020, multiple Discworld novels are to be adapted for television by Narrativia, Motive Pictures and Endeavor Content.^[15]

She has also spoken on BBC Radio 1, Radio 4, 5Live and multiple conferences around the world, including Develop, Animex, GDC and TEDx Transmedia.^[16] In June 2015, she said that her father's 41st Discworld novel The Shepherd's Crown, to be published posthumously later that year, would mark the end of the series, and that no further novels or books of unfinished work would be authorised for publication.^[17]

In 2023, Pratchett hosted her first radio programme, Mythical Creatures, a ten-part documentary series for BBC Radio 4 about creatures from British folklore. It was first broadcast from 18–29 December 2023.^[18]

Works

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Video games

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Gamebooks

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Crystal of Storms (Fighting Fantasy) – published by Scholastic (2020)^[36]

Other books

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Campaigns & Companions: The Complete Roleplaying Guide for Pets (with Andi Ewington) - published by Rebellion (2021)^[37]
Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch (with Gabrielle Kent) - published by Penguin Books (2023)

Tabletop games

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Bardsung (lead writer and narrative designer) – Steamforged Games^[38]

Comics

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Mirror's Edge #1 to #6 – published by DC Comics (2008)^[39]
Tomb Raider: The Beginning – published by Dark Horse Comics (2013)
Legends of Red Sonja #3 – published by Dynamite (2014)
Tomb Raider #7 to #18 – published by Dark Horse Comics (2014–2015)

Film and television

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Pratchett has appeared in the documentaries Games Britannia,^[40] Critical Path^[41] and Charlie Brooker's How Video Games Changed the World.^{[citation needed]}

Achievements

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Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015) – Won Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing at 68th Writers Guild of America Awards 2016.^[42] Won Outstanding Achievement in Character for Lara Croft at 19th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards 2016^[43]
Risen (2009) – co-nominated for a WGGB award 2010.^[44]
Won the European Women in Games Hall of Fame Award in 2013.^[45]

References

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^ "Rhianna Pratchett". Front Row. 26 December 2013. BBC Radio 4. Archived from the original on 19 January 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
^ Gilbert, Ben (27 March 2009). "GDC09: Rhianna Pratchett says games should forget about making people cry". Engadget. Archived from the original on 25 April 2021. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
^ "Rhianna Pratchett interview". Multiplay UK. 16 February 2005. Archived from the original on 16 February 2005. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
^ "Rhianna Pratchett: Fantasy author's quest for mythical creatures". 21 December 2023. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
^ Timmer, John (28 June 2007). "Talking with Rhianna Pratchett, writer and co-story designer of Overlord". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
^ "Rhianna Pratchett On Working From Bed, Retrofitting Story, And Rise Of The Tomb Raider". Kotaku Australia. 17 October 2018. Archived from the original on 29 August 2018. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
^ "Rhianna Pratchett's Profile". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
^ ^a ^b russpitts (3 September 2014). "Rhianna's rise: Meet the writer behind Tomb Raider". Polygon. Archived from the original on 22 April 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
^ UAL (8 June 2018). "Honorary Awards 2017". UAL. Archived from the original on 22 April 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
^ Leigh, Megan (13 July 2017). "Writing video games with Rhianna Pratchett". Archived from the original on 25 September 2019. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
^ Maureen Paton (14 March 2015). "It was like having a full-sized hobbit for a father". Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 12 July 2015. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
^ "Terry Pratchett: Sex, death and nature". New Statesman. 21 November 2012. Archived from the original on 14 March 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
^ "Meet Rhianna Pratchett – The woman behind the Lara Croft backstory". 6 October 2016. Archived from the original on 7 October 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
^ Pratchett, Rhianna (10 August 2019). "@rhipratchett on Twitter". Twitter. Archived from the original on 25 December 2020. Retrieved 17 February 2020. Just to be clear (since I'm asked this a lot) I am not working on The Watch TV series, and haven't been for many years. The show is under the creative control of BBC Studios.
^ Ravindran, Manori (28 April 2020). "Terry Pratchett's 'Discworld' Series to Be Adapted by Endeavor Content, Motive Pictures". Variety. Archived from the original on 28 April 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
^ "The Future of the Videogames Writer: Rhianna Pratchett at TEDxTransmedia". YouTube. 21 January 2013. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
^ Terry Pratchett's daughter declares The Shepherd's Crown will be the last Discworld novel Archived 26 October 2019 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian, 12 June 2015
^ "Mythical Creatures". The Radio Times. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
^ I. G. N. Staff (24 June 2004). "Beyond Divinity Q&A with Rhianna Pratchett at LewsTherinKinslayer13". IGN. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
^ "Vital Game Narrative: A Conversation With Rhianna Pratchett". www.gamedeveloper.com. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
^ "Writers' Guild Awards 2008 – shortlists". WGGB – The Writer's Guild of Great Britain. 30 September 2008. Archived from the original on 29 September 2008. Retrieved 5 May 2009.
^ "Rhianna Pratchett interview: writing for the Overlord". Den of Geek. 19 June 2008. Archived from the original on 7 July 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
^ "Review: 'Viking: Battle for Asgard' a weekend skirmish - CNN.com". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
^ "Mirror's Edge writer Rhianna Pratchett isn't working on Mirror's Edge 2". Eurogamer.net. 8 January 2014. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
^ ^a ^b Andy Chalk (27 March 2020). "Tomb Raider writer Rhianna Pratchett's new game is out today, exclusively on Stadia". PC Gamer. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
^ Bonner, Jerry. "Rhianna Pratchett on the Art of Writing Video Game Characters". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
^ ^a ^b "Pratchett returns for 'Overlord' sequels". Digital Spy. 17 October 2008. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
^ ^a ^b "Rhianna Pratchett ('Overlord')". Digital Spy. 28 June 2009. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
^ "Rhianna Pratchett – Games". rhiannapratchett.com. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
^ "Review: CSI: Fatal Conspiracy". Destructoid. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
^ ^a ^b Makuch, Eddie (22 October 2018). "Tomb Raider Writer Rhianna Pratchett To Give PAX Australia Keynote With A Twist". Archived from the original on 5 December 2018. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
^ "'Beatbuddy' release date announced". Digital Spy. 2 July 2013. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
^ "Rival Kingdoms from Space Ape". rivalkingdoms.com. Archived from the original on 1 April 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
^ "Pratchett-penned Lost Words: Beyond the Page heads to Switch". 7 June 2019. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
^ "Surgeon Simulator 2 Store Page". Epic Games Store. Archived from the original on 24 August 2020. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
^ "With Crystal of Storms, Rhianna Pratchett Helps Reboot Fighting Fantasy Roleplay Books". 30 September 2020. Archived from the original on 19 December 2021. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
^ Manni Henry (26 July 2021). "Review: Campaigns & Companions: The Complete Role-Playing Guide for Pets by Rhianna Pratchett and Andi Ewington". Retrieved 14 December 2023.
^ "Here Be Legends: 12 Bardsung Guest Writers". 20 November 2020. Archived from the original on 28 January 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
^ "Mirror's Edge". Archived from the original on 25 June 2023. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
^ ""Games Britannia" Joystick Generation (TV Episode 2009) – IMDb". IMDb. Archived from the original on 19 December 2021. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
^ "Critical Path Celebrates Fifth Year Of Production With 46 New Videos". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 25 June 2023. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
^ "2016 Writers Guild Awards Winners Announced". Writers Guild of America, West. 12 February 2016. Archived from the original on 21 March 2016.
^ "Tomb Raider writer Rhianna Pratchett leaves Crystal Dynamics for 'new adventures'". Destructoid. 3 January 2017.
^ of Great Britain, Writers' Guild. "Writers' Guild Awards 2010 – shortlists announced". Archived from the original on 4 November 2010. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
^ "European Women in Games Hall of Fame". womeningamesjobs.com. Archived from the original on 21 March 2014.

External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rhianna Pratchett.