Who are the most inventive game designers?

[Darkness]

To his credit, that was forced upon the designers from higher-ups at TSR. Not even close to their choice.

True. I actually like DvD (and Bruce in general).

For that matter, I'm not blaming Monte Cook for *twitch* Faction War *twitch* either. *twitch*

 

[Darkness]

If GW d20 is indicative of his work, then he is one of the worst designers in my book.

Never seen GW d20 but Bruce is usually very good. Don't know how much of it you know, but if you want to, take a look at the other things he's written.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

innovative

Gary Gygax/Dave Arneson (for starting from nothing)
Greg Stafford (for RuneQuest and Glorantha)
Johnathan Tweet (for Ars Magica and D&D 3.5)

Ken

 

[scourger]

Never seen GW d20 but Bruce is usually very good. Don't know how much of it you know, but if you want to, take a look at the other things he's written.

Thanks for the link. I did check it. I have no familiarity with those other products.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

It's tough to pick just one, so here are the top few:

Monte Cook - Requiem for a God, A Paladin In Hell, Book of Vile Darkness
Bruce Cordell - When a Star Falls, Return to the Tomb of Horrors, College of Wizardry
Mike Mearls - Book of Iron Might, Psionics Toolkit
Greg Stafford - Pendragon
Jonathan Tweet - Ars Magica
Gygax - oh, you know...

 

[Krieg]

If GW d20 is indicative of his work, then he is one of the worst designers in my book.

It isn't. GW d20 was a compilation work by five writers. Bruce was responsible for the short fiction & fluff pieces. All of the mechanical bits were written by others (which goes a long way to explain why all of the FX rules are completely different from one another).

 

[woodelf]

If GW d20 is indicative of his work, then he is one of the worst designers in my book.

EDIT & DISCLAIMER: This is not a personal attack on Bruce Baugh. Please DO NOT misread this as a personal attack on this person. It has already happened to me once today. I don't know the man. I just hated Gamma World d20, and I have the audacity to say it publicly. And if you love it, then I'm happy for you. Don't flame me for expressing an opinion on a product.

Well, actually, i probably shouldn't have listed that in his credits, since i don't have the Gamma World D20 PH, and don't remember if he had anything to do with the GMG. However, the Gamma World D20 GMG is one of the best general GMing books i've seen yet, and it has a selection of very cool, evocative, settings for GW. Plus, it's doubly-cool for taking one basic setting, and presenting it in 3 different styles (i.e., action-adventure, thematic storytelling, and i forget) in such a way that it truly comes across as 3 completely different games. I'm an old-school fan of GW in every edition, and i didn't even give GW D20 a look because of the response online. Then i picked this up cheap, and after reading just a fraction of it, i fell in love with GW all over again--it's the only take on post-apoc to top the first few editions of GW (i believe 2nd and 3rd were what we mostly playd back in the day) in my ways.

So, even if you couldn't stand the GW D20 PH, you might want to give the GW D20 GMG a look. And, on topic, i wouldn't judge Baugh's work by GW D20, for reasons others have stated.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I would echo the nominations for Jonathan Tweet (Over the Edge, D&D 3e), Robin D Laws (Over the Edge, Feng Shui), Monte Cook (Planescape, D&D 3e, Eldritch Might, Arcana Unearthed) and Gary Gygax & Dave Arneson.


Cheers


Richard

 

[Patrick O'Duffy]

Well, actually, i probably shouldn't have listed that in his credits, since i don't have the Gamma World D20 PH, and don't remember if he had anything to do with the GMG.

Bruce developed the entire GWd20 line.

And I, for one, loved every goddamn book. Especially the GMG, which is one of the best books on GMing ever. I even liked it more than Machines & Mutants, and I wrote a big chunk of that sucker.

 

[TerraDave]

Gygax and Arneson invented role-playing games and deeply influenced many CRPGs and fantasy novels. They are the great inventors.

Moving to the present, 3.0 was certainly inventive, and Jonathan Tweet (ars magica, over the edge, omega world), Skip Williams (behind the much loved/hated 2ed Options books), Monte Cook (CoC D20…), and Peter Adkinson (Wizards of the Coast) all can take some credit for being gaming innovators—though I wonder what some of them have done for us lately…

However, right now, in an admittedly very competitive RPG environment, Green Ronin seems to be my innovator of choice, and I would have to say Chris Pramas (head honcho), Scott Bennie (Testament) and Steve Kenson (Psychics Handbook, Mutants and Masterminds, Blue Rose) win the title