Which D&D author/designer do you like best?

[jester47]

The Greyhawk Trinity (Gygax, Kuntz, Arneson) just cause they did it all.


Malhavoc Trinity (Cook, Cordell, and Reynolds) when it comes to ideas for stuff using the mechanics.

If I need a monster I will talk to Skip Williams or Scott Greene.

If I want a baddass dungeon I look no further than Bill and Clarks excellent adventures.

John Tweet gets the mechanical design award.

For sheer detailed world creation: Ed Greenwood. The realms seems to be able to fit everything.

Aaron.

 

[Numion]

I really dislike the cult of personality that's sprung up around 3E.

Well, some people dislike the 1E cult of Gygax. It's not like 3E created the phenomenon of RPG-design-messiahs. They've been there from day 1.

 

[Erik Mona]

I'm going to have to disagree with my friend Nicole on the whole Jonathan Tweet issue. I thought Omega World was just brilliant, and a LOT of Third Edition has his fingerprints all over it, even if Chainmail might not.

I was happy to see several Polyhedron Mini-Game authors on the list. Makes me think I'm doing something right (though I apparently need to whore myself a little more around here).

--Erik

 

[JohnNephew]

Right after WotC bought 3E, Jonathan Tweet sent me a somewhat crytic e-mail. In it he asked, if I had the opportunity to publish licensed material for D&D, would I be interested? I gather a lot of people inside WotC/TSR thought that other RPG companies would not be interested, that we were too married to our individual games, that we scorned D&D as artistically empty or something. Of course, I love D&D, and started my career as a writer for D&D. And my answer was an enthusiastic, "Heck YES!" A few years later, we had this thing called the Open Game License, championed by Ryan Dancey. (And some companies did respond with scorn and conspiracy theories...and regretted it quickly enough.)

As others have noted, Jonathan did also write material for D&D prior to 3rd Edition. His name is not on as many 3E books as Monte, for certain, but then a lot of the names on that list haven't done anything (yet) for 3E that I'm aware of -- like Carl Sargent, Frank Mentzer, Tom Moldvay, and Dave Arneson (unless I've missed books they've recently put out, which is quite possible; I know Dave's working on one at least). And anyhow, the question asks "D&D author/designer," not "D20" or "D&D3E".

So, for whatever it's worth, and at the risk of disagreeing with Nicole, I think Jonathan belongs on the list.

Then again, the question is kind of vague and open-ended, and any list is going to be wildly arbitrary, given how many hundreds of D&D author/designers have contributed to the game over the decades. How about Kim Mohan, for example? Besides his authoring of some good stuff, his tenure as editor of Dragon helped shape the community of D&D players at the height of its popularity. Bruce Heard was mentioned; he not only wrote a bunch, but as the coordinator for out-of-house freelance writers, he was the gatekeeper of much of what TSR published for D&D for what, a decade? Roger Moore, as writer and editor, was always one of my favorites. Ken Rolston wrote some GREAT stuff, like the Viking culture sourcebook in the Gazetteer series.

Which one do I like the BEST? Man, I could not possibly decide.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I'm not sure why Tweet shouldn't be on the list. He may not have written much for D&D, what he has written is pretty important. I think quality is better than quantity. And yes, I know that just because someone's name is on one of the Core Books as the author, that doesn't mean he was the only person to write it. But he was certainly an important part of the team. Leaving him off the list would have seemed strange to me. After all, the question is"Which D&D author/designer do you like best?" Not "who has written the greatest volume of influential D&D material?"

Looking at the list, and thinking of those who happen to not be on it, I can't really narrow my choice down to one, either.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Well, some people dislike the 1E cult of Gygax. It's not like 3E created the phenomenon of RPG-design-messiahs. They've been there from day 1.

That's a good point, and I'd like to add that this isn't a phenomenon confined to RPGs, not by a long shot. People like who they like, for whatever reason. When it comes to writers, people like to stick with who they've read and liked before. For example, I've been a fan of Ars Magica for maybe 15 years now; Tweet being involved with 3e was part of the draw for me, when the game was on the way to being released. The same could be said of, for example, Monte, whose work on 2e stuff was a cut above much else, in my opinion.

 

[Larry Fitz]

John Faugno, the only D20 author to bring me to a baseball game and get me a front row ticket to see Smashing Pumpkins. No contest, not even close. Unless of course Monte can score some Football playoff tix or maybe Ed Greenwood wants to take me to an Eric Clapton show....

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

Me.

Patrick Younts.

If Bruce Cordell's work put money in my bank account then I would say Bruce Cordell, if for no other reason than the megamodule Return to the Tomb of Horrors.

But only my work puts money in my bank account so

it really isn't much of a contest.


Patrick Y.

 

[Nikchick]

So, for whatever it's worth, and at the risk of disagreeing with Nicole, I think Jonathan belongs on the list.

As the guy who has published or resurrected many of Jonathan's creations (in fact, wasn't it your bringing him in on a Maztica project that got Jonathan his first gig with TSR?) I wouldn't expect you think otherwise.

Then again, the question is kind of vague and open-ended, and any list is going to be wildly arbitrary, given how many hundreds of D&D author/designers have contributed to the game over the decades. How about Kim Mohan, for example? Besides his authoring of some good stuff, his tenure as editor of Dragon helped shape the community of D&D players at the height of its popularity. Bruce Heard was mentioned; he not only wrote a bunch, but as the coordinator for out-of-house freelance writers, he was the gatekeeper of much of what TSR published for D&D for what, a decade? Roger Moore, as writer and editor, was always one of my favorites. Ken Rolston wrote some GREAT stuff, like the Viking culture sourcebook in the Gazetteer series.

Ah, and I guess this was really what was at the heart of my objection: there are plenty of people who shaped and contributed to D&D over the years who don't have the kind of press the 3E pet designers have. Jonathan in particular was brought onto the 3E design team after the rest of them had already been working on it for a while, he designed the PHB while "on loan" from the card game department, and has since gone back to largely working on non-D&D RPG stuff. Meanwhile there were people who worked on 1E, 2E, and even 3E for far longer and with no fanfare. I just cringe every time I see this cult of personality thing (that someone rightly pointed out did start with Gygax, though Dave Arneson was never so annointed) being perpetuated with the new material. That's not to say that Monte Cook hasn't absolutely paid his dues and contributed a great, noteworthy body of work, or anything like that... I guess the reverence with which favorite authors are referred to in threads like this just pushes my cult of personality hot button. I saw it up close and ugly with Rein*Hagen and Vampire, and I'll admit the whole thing makes me twitchy.

Nicole

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I think such "cults of personality" (which I think is too strong a term for the context of this discussion) come about because the person concerned has touched many folk with their work. I'm not sure why that would be a bad thing, in and of itself. I may not like, for example, the work of Stephen King, but I have to acknowledge that if people are really enamored of his work, there must be some substance to him and his writing. The same goes for really obscure or non-prolific writers - John Bellairs is one of of my favorite writers, based on one book - The Face In The Frost. The fact that I haven't read anything else by him, and I assume he never wrote much else because I haven't seen any other books by him, doesn't take away from his status as one of my favorite authors. His contribution to literature is still valid, despite his small body of work. Even if he wrote 75 stereo owner's manuals, his work in fantasy is still noteworthy.