Who are your 5 favorite Game Designers?

[Razuur]

I don't know if this has been done before, but it should be interesting.

Of all of the products that I have bought, the following 5 designers usually force me to buy their products just because their name is on it and I trust their work":

(In no particular order!)

1. August Hahn (Minbari Federation book, Cybernet, etc...)
2. Wil Upchurch (Mis is for Midnight, and it's good enough for me)
3. Joe Browning and Suzi (for MMSWE of course! now get to work on more!)
4. Mike Mearls ( for everything from Mercenaries to Wilds to the superhero rules in Godlike. )
5. Scott Bennie (Testament) and you need to get making more stuff!
6. Aaron Loeb (BOTR) and you need to get making more stuff!
7. Steve Kenson (for so much...)

Yeah, there were seven, but I was stuck. Sue me. Who are your top five (or six... or seven) ??

Razuur

 

[Dinkeldog]

Wow. I get five right off the bat.

Joe/Suzi
Monte
Bruce
Steve Kenson
Mike Mearls

I don't think I could put them in any order, though, other than alphabetical.

 

[Reprisal]

For D20, and in no particular order:

• Monte Cook
• David S. Kenzer
• Mark Plemmons
• Bruce Cordell
• Bill Slavicsek

 

[Morpheus]

Only five? Ok, here it goes (in no particular order):

Sandy Petersen (Call of Cthulhu)
Mark Rein-Hagen & Jonathan Tweet (Ars Magica)
Gary Gygax (Need I say?)
Monte Cook (d20)
Patrick Kapera (Spycraft)

 

[Darkness]

Only five? No way.

My apologies to all the fine designers whom my chronically failing memory will most certainly make me forget to put on the list.

Here are some that come to mind:


Justin Achilli (WoD)
Rebecca Borgstrom (e.g., Exalted)
Deirdre Brooks (WoD, etc.)
Monte Cook (D&D)
Bruce Cordell (D&D)
Nigel D. Findley (e.g., Shadowrun. May he rest in peace.)
Geoff Grabowsky (Exalted)
Robin D. Laws (Feng Shui & in general)
Steve Long (Hero)
Ari Marmell (WoD, D&D)
Matthew McFarland (WoD, esp. Dark Ages)
Chris Pramas (D&D and stuff)
David Pulver (BESM, GURPS)
Sean K. Reynolds (D&D)
Greg Stolze (e.g., Unknown Armies)
Michael Surbrook (Hero)
Skip Williams (D&D)
James Wyatt (D&D)

 

[FCWesel]

John Wick, Mike Pondsmith, Tracy Hickman, Bill Slavicsek, Greg Stafford

 

[johnsemlak]

No votes for Ed Greenwood so far...?

Unlike some others, I'm not sure If I can name 5 that really stand out. There are a lot of great designers.

Gary Gygax
Monte Cook
Ed Greenwood

Also, I'll throw in Jesse Decker.

 

[ichabod]

Reiner Knizia
Klaus Teuber
Robin Laws
Steve Jackson
Greg Kostikyan

 

[Ycore Rixle]

In the D&D/d20 world,

1. Gary Gygax (AD&D)
2. (tie) Jonathan Tweet and Peter Adkison (D&D 3.0; and yes I know technically PA is not a designer, but I think his influence on 3.0 is vastly underrated and underappreciated- and IIRC he does get an "additional design" credit on the books - also Ryan Dancey can never be forgotten for helping design the business aspect of the game, but back to the more direct game designers...)
3. Bill Slaviscek
4. (tie) Chris Perkins and Chris Thomassen (wonderful work on Dungeon magazine)
5. Tracy Hickman (original Ravenloft, not so much Dragonlance)
6. Lance Hawvermale (throwing in a plug here; ever since "Fortune Favors the Dead" in Dungeon 80 I will buy anything with his name on it - although there has been too little of that!)

In the all around game world, my list would look more like:

1. Gary Gygax
2. Jonathan Tweet/Peter Adkison
3. Jeff Strain/Rob Pardo et al. formerly of Blizzard, now Triforge IIRC (computer games such as Starcraft, Diablo, etc.)
4. Steve Jackson (Illuminati in all its wondrous forms)
5. Warren Spector ( I mean come on now, take a look at his credits: Wing Commander, Ultima VII, System Shock, Deus Ex - it's as if the same guy had been credited on the Iliad, the Divine Comedy, and Hamlet)

 

[VorpalBunny]

My personal Hall of Fame:

• Gary Gygax
• Dave Arneson
• Monte Cook
• Ed Greenwood
• Nigel Findley
• Zeb Cook
• Sandy Petersen
• Lynn Willis
• John Tynes
• JD Wiker
• Jeff Grubb
• Bruce Cordell