Who is the coolest game designer?

[Pielorinho]

My favorite adventure is still our very own Kevin Kulp's Of Sound Mind; if only he'd do more of 'em!

Monte Cook is great, but I've had uneven success with his stuff. Sometimes his decisions just seem weird to me (such as recently, when we discovered that characters have no way of accelerating the healing of ability damage in AU until they reach ninth level--why is that fun?)

Mark ReinbjorkHagen is pretty great, too, although he ended up going a little la-la in later projects, IMO.

But no such poll is complete without Robin "Feng Shui" Laws, one of the sharpest tacks out there.

Daniel

 

[devilbat]

I'll go with Shane Hensley.

Honorable mention to :Hal Mangold, John Wick, Matt Fornbeck and Skip Williams

 

[reanjr]

David "Zeb" Cook, Monte Cook, Wolfgang Baur.

"Zeb" is responsible for Planescape.
Monte and Wolfgang did Dark*Matter.

That's all that needs to be said.

 

[reanjr]

I had a three way tie going between David 'Zeb' Cook, Monte Cook, and Colin McComb. After around ten minutes of thought on the matter during which time I brewed coffee, I went with David 'Zeb' Cook. Planescape box set, all I can say.

But damn if Colin wasn't almost there for 'Faces of Evil'.

I wished I lived near the Fortune's Wheel in Sigil. Then I could game with you.

 

[JeffB]

I voted the G-man..this really should eb multiple choice

But for first generation designers

1) Tom Moldvay
2) Zeb Cook
3) Bob Bledsaw
4) Greg Stafford
5) Sandy Petersen
6) Steve Perrin


2cnd generation folks..

1) Robin Laws
2) Ed Greenwood
3) Carl Sargent
4) Lou Prosperi
5) Steven Schend

Current d20 market

1) Clark & Bill over @ Necromancer Games
2) Kevin Kulp

guess thats it for D20...folks whom I'll buy from sight-unseen...everyone else is a crap-shoot AFAIC.

 

[pogre]

I'm not a big fan of the Modern genre, but I have always liked Charles Ryan's design decisions. I was a big fan of ME.

I have a lot of fond memories of Flame Publications so Carl Sargent got the vote.

 

[Thanee]

Voted Gary Gygax, since he is a legend.

Monte Cook is probably the coolest for the d20 stuff.
Steve Kenson is up there, too, because M&M is really a masterpiece.

Bruce Cordell is by far my least favorite (with my limited experience), I don't have seen anything from him yet, which I like (neither rulebooks (3.0 PsiHB = worst d20 book I know :\, tho the Malhavoc 3.0 Psi stuff was at least ok, compared to that) nor adventures, tho I know only the Heart of Nightfang Spire from those and I really didn't like that. So, maybe I just do not know all the good stuff he has done (if you can point me to some, I'll gladly reconsider my opinion ))).

His fluff is really cool, however, even I can acknowledge the many good (background) ideas in the XPH, so it's not like there is nothing positive to say , he should be good at doing adventures and campaign backgrounds, just the rules are lacking considerably IMHO, he just doesn't seem the right man for rulebooks to me.

Bye
Thanee

 

[BaldHero]

Other: The entire Kenzerco Kingdoms of Kalamar design team. Bill Slavicsek, and Chris Perkins, Ed Stark, Rich Baker. A lot of people not on the list.

 

[Dave Turner]

Mike Mearls and Jared Sorensen are the coolest game designers I know, but the question makes it sound like I'm not evaluating them on their game design.

 

[MonsterMash]

I voted other - Sandy Petersen, but honourable mentions for EGG, Greg Stafford, Greg Costikyan, Paul Jaquays, Dave Arneson and Bob Bledsaw from the early days.

More recent times: Jeff Grubb, Monte Cook and Nathan Paul

I think a few more targeted polls would be better - designer of rules/game system, designer of adventures/settings as some people don't have credits in both areas.