Who are your 5 favorite Game Designers?

[Barendd Nobeard]

Raven c. s. McCracken

No one else even comes close.

 

[Gothmog]

For any RPG, it has to be these guys:

Sandy Petersen (Call of Cthulhu)
Mark Rein-Hagen & Jonathan Tweet (Ars Magica)
Gary Gygax
Mike Mearls (the man only writes solid stuff!)
Shane Lacy Hensley (Deadlands goodness)

EDIT: The HORROR! You realize you could be dragged out into the street and shot for that Raven C.S. McCracken remark Barendd Nobeard!?!?!

 

[A'koss]

My Fave Five! Not really in any particular order.

1. Bruce Cordell: IMO, the best adventure writer the game has ever seen. Gates of Firestorm Keep, Return to the Tomb of Horrors, The Illithid Series, Bastion of Broken Souls...

2. David "Zeb" Cook: Planescape. 'nuff said.

3. Monte Cook: Still best remembered for his great Planescape stuff and adventures like A Paladin in Hell and Hellbound, the Blood War.

4. Gary Gygax (and Dave Arneson): For putting the hook in me. They gave us the game and Greyhawk. Gary gave us GDQ1-7 the Giants / Drow series, The Temple of Elemental Evil, The Tomb of Horrors. These still stand as the adventures that define what the game is all about.

5. Jonathan Tweet, Skip Williams, Peter Adkinson, Andy Collins and the gang who helped revitalize the game we all know and love.

A'koss.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Sandy Petersen
John Tynes
Mark Rein*Hagen
Jonathan Tweet
Gygax/Arneson

But that's the ones that come to
mind...so many books, so little room
here to love them all.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

EDIT: The HORROR! You realize you could be dragged out into the street and shot for that Raven C.S. McCracken remark Barendd Nobeard!?!?!

Maybe it's too late, or my cold has gotten to me, but who is this McCracken?

 

[Gothmog]

Maybe it's too late, or my cold has gotten to me, but who is this McCracken?

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.

 

[johnsemlak]

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.

Hate to drag this even further off topic, but how did such a work get published (john asks naively)?

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

Not sure I can come up with 5, but let's see...

CJ Carella (Witchcraft, Buffy, Angel and Unisystem in general)
Shane Lacy Hensley (Deadlands, Savage Worlds)

I know there are others, but I'm drawing a blank on names.

 

[Cbas10]

I suppose we are talking about designers, developers, authors, and such all in the same catagory. In that case, only a few really stand out:

• Justin Achilli (for developing the current Vampire: the Masquerade edition)
  Patrick Kapera (lead developer for Spycraft)
  Ed Greenwood (for the Forgotten Realms setting)
  Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance, the original Ravenloft, and more)

There are others that might be in my top 5 instead, but there seem to be other factors that get involved. Some people, such as Tim Brown and Monte Cook, did some AMAZING stuff with WotC. However, outside of WotC, I just don't find 99% of their work appealing. So, I'm not sure if it was THEIR work I liked or if it was great due to collaborative efforts at WotC.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Gygax
Monte
Jonathan Tweet - for Ars Magica and 3e
Greg Stafford - For Runequest and Pendragon
Marc Miller - for Traveller