What d20 author do you buy sight-unseen?

[Chiaroscuro23]

I especially like how they toast evil at the end.

I've never heard Monte Cook badmouth anyone else in the industry. So I'm inclined to believe his comments about TSR are relatively generous.

But nonetheless: To evil!

 

[Samnell]

Seriously, someone should put together a file or something, filled with first-hand tales from people who worked there about the truth of TSR during those days. I know it was pretty bad, but separating fact from fiction is always a nebulous task.

Somewhere on ENWorld, you can probably still find Ryan Dancey's old essay about what he found when he went to Lake Geneva. Monte's 30th Anniversary interviews on his site have a few stray details too, but are generally more about positive experiences.

 

[Masquerade]

Monte Cook and/or Sean K. Reynolds.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Here are some of the things that he has authored and/or designed (...)

Ah. Right. I thought I knew the name, but as I said, I'm pretty bad at remembering those of RPG writers.

I've now fixed the shortlist a bit. Thanks.

 

[Monte At Home]

Somewhere on ENWorld, you can probably still find Ryan Dancey's old essay about what he found when he went to Lake Geneva.

Actually, I have some problems with Ryan's essay (I was there too). Albeit minor ones.

Monte's 30th Anniversary interviews on his site have a few stray details too, but are generally more about positive experiences.

And that's because most of the experiences were positive. I don't want to give the impression that it was terrible to work there. It wasn't. We had a blast. I probably laughed more in the years 1994-1998 than I have in any other 12 year period of my life. We had really good times, and (in my opinion) did some good work.

But the difference between where the execs worked and where the creatives worked was striking. (As I suspect the salary differences were as well, but then that's true at WotC too.)And the executives didn't know spit about the game, and they didn't care. They looked down on gamers and on creative people. And they wouldn't spring for a real study. They were cheap. At best, they probably asked a few distributors and store owners some leading questions.

 

[Ghostwind]

But the difference between where the execs worked and where the creatives worked was striking. (As I suspect the salary differences were as well, but then that's true at WotC too.)And the executives didn't know spit about the game, and they didn't care. They looked down on gamers and on creative people. And they wouldn't spring for a real study. They were cheap. At best, they probably asked a few distributors and store owners some leading questions.

Want to see any game designer who worked at TSR during this time cringe from the uttering of a single word (which characterizes Monte's statement perfectly)?

Just say "Lorraine".

 

[Samnell]

And that's because most of the experiences were positive. I don't want to give the impression that it was terrible to work there. It wasn't. We had a blast. I probably laughed more in the years 1994-1998 than I have in any other 12 year period of my life. We had really good times, and (in my opinion) did some good work.

It wasn't my intent to imply that TSR was an awful ordeal, and said interviews were some kind of carefully constructed "good bits" version. I'm sorry if I gave that impression. Rather I was writing in reference to the stated desire to get more stories about the bad things going on.

And I still get a lot of use out of my 2e setting material. I've certainly got no cause to be down on the work done there by the creatives, yourself included.

 

[DaveMage]

There are no authors that I would buy sight unseen.

There are, however, authors whose products I avoid.

 

[jdrakeh]

When I lived in Topeka I played a lot of Deadlands with a guy (Kelley Foote) who worked on the OA line back in the day. He had nothing kind to say about TSR or many of its employees. I still recall The Tale of a staff game that included barrel-rolling, commando-like, NPC storm giants and other crazy, Killer GM stuff that employees had no choice but to endure, lest their department suddenly be downsized or their manuscript handed off to somebody else for completion. Honestly, it sounded like a crappy place to work before the suits were running things (albeit a different kind of crappy).

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Not many.

Robin Laws (His roleplaying articles in Dragon are all gold)
Joe Browning (Except for the monster products because I don't really need any more at the moment. Keep bringing on the world building type books though!)
Jonathan Richards (Not really his books but I love all of his ecology articles and Challenge of Champions modules. I thought that Gorgoldand's Gauntlet was a pretty good adventure too. Jonathan, when are we going to see another Challenge of Champions module?)

Olaf the Stout