A couple of months later, Pickens responded to an ad in Popular Mechanics for a magazine titled Strategy & Tactics.
By a coincidence, my father had a speaking engagement in Delavan, which is near Lake Geneva, on the same weekend, so he took me up.”[2] Pickens and Gary Gygax drove up to Madison, and Gygax later invited him to the Gen Con convention; Pickens attended beginning with Gen Con 3 and for many years after that.
After college, Pickens began writing occasional articles for Dragon magazine, and was active in the Alarums & Excursions publication.
He has edited many Dungeons & Dragons books, including notably the Castle Greyhawk module, and the Rules Cyclopedia.
[7] In preparing the campaign setting book Al-Qadim: Arabian Adventures (1992), Pickens provided Jeff Grubb with three boxes of reference and research material.