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Who are your 5 favorite Game Designers?

I have to agree that Synnibar was one of the best balanced, most immaginative, and funnest high powered games I ever played. Unfortunately, the high level math deterred a lot of people from playing. I played characters up to 40th level in that game and remained very challenged by the monsters, as written. No other game that i am aware of pulled that off.

Marc Miller for Traveller, as previously mentioned.

Who else stands out in my mind? Most, if not all, of the people working for Necromancer games.

Kevin Sembieda (sp?) simply because I love the world of Paladium, but not Rifts. They could have learned some lessons from Mr. McKraken on game balance.

I also liked Mr. Bell's work for Fiery Dragon. If I were to see something with his name on it I would definitely give it a look, if not just buy it. It was very rough, but great fun once re-worked.

I, too, would buy something with Aaron Loeb's name on it, just because of how awesome the Book of The Righteous is. The more I read that book the more I love it. I'll say it again, it is far and away the best treatment ever given religion in the gaming industry. If anyone knows a better one, please tell me. Even one as good.

I have found I tend to buy more because of the name of the publisher rather than the actual author. Either because I believe in their ability to put out consistantly good product (Necromancer, Green Ronin, Kenzer, Goodman Games) or because it is a campaign world I love (Forg. Realms, Ravenloft).

However, most of the names mentioned previously would make me take a look at whatever product their name is on, but not buy blindly.
 

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1. Gary Gygax, for being the first, and for having the most recognizable and loved writing style in the biz.
2. Chris Perkins, who is like a mentor to me. He is the Obi-One to my Luke Skywalker.
3. Jeff Grubb for the Manual of the Planes (1st & 3rd edition) and Spelljammer.
4. Wil Upchurch, for his awesome FFG stuff and for being cool about it when I had to be a no-show at his Gen Con Midnight game (a game I begged to get into in the first place).
5. Me. Hey, self love, baby, yeah!

Honorable mentions: Andy Collins, JD Wiker, Stan!, Rich Redman, Skip Williams, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Dominick Covey.
 


Gothmog said:
The author of Synnibar- one of the most horrific RPGs ever conceived. While not as tacky as FATAL, Synnibar is widely renowned as one of the worst RPGs ever made. And if you can find the book, read the guy's bio- the dude has a whole noggin of loose nuts and bolts.

Anyone got a link so I can see for myself?
 

Kenneth Hite

John Wick

David Pulver

SJ Ross

John Tynes



Also...

my favorite system: Steve Jackson (GURPS)

my favorite d20 setting: Wil Upchurch (Midnight)

my favorite gaming companies: Steve Jackson Games, FFG, and Eden Studios
 



My list would be of people who I would actually buy, for the most part site unseen. I like Gary Gygax, and thank him whole-heartedly for the enjoyment he gave me in the past, but in the present, I've found little of his material that I truly would consider getting.

Those authors designers (within the d20 RPG world) that I would consider my favorites are:

1. Joe Browning/Suzi Yee
2. Monte Cook
3. Ben Durbin
4. Erik Mona

(pauses)

Hmmm. Only four. Of course, when a certain Story Hour writer gets published, that'll rise to five.

Most important fact: ENworld is responsible in large part for this list.
 

Pick only five? Hrrrm....

1: Robin D. Laws. Feng Shui, Dying Earth, Hero Quest...
2: Jake Norwood. The Riddle of Steel doeth rock the house.
3: Geoffrey C. Gebrowski: Exalted line editor, dammit. He had to kill Rebecca R. Borgstrom and take her stuff in order to get this mention.
4: Luke Crane: Burning Wheel is very cool, as is he.
5: Me. :D My first commercially published work (Updated version of Pagoda, see .sig) will be coming out some time next year in the No Press Anthology from Burning Wheel Press (heh, another reason why I like Luke), packaged with seven other short games.
 

Jeph said:
Pick only five? Hrrrm....

1: Robin D. Laws. Feng Shui, Dying Earth, Hero Quest...
2: Jake Norwood. The Riddle of Steel doeth rock the house.
3: Geoffrey C. Gebrowski: Exalted line editor, dammit. He had to kill Rebecca R. Borgstrom and take her stuff in order to get this mention.
4: Luke Crane: Burning Wheel is very cool, as is he.
5: Me. :D My first commercially published work (Updated version of Pagoda, see .sig) will be coming out some time next year in the No Press Anthology from Burning Wheel Press (heh, another reason why I like Luke), packaged with seven other short games.
Woo-hoo! Way to go, J!
 

Into the Woods

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