Who is your favorite d20 author?

[KDLadage]

1. Who is your favorite d20 author?
I am not sure if I could pull out an author of d20 material and call them my favorite. There are a few companies and individuals that produce excellent work, however, and I might go that route. Some authors of note include Aaron Loeb, Michael Morris, Richard Bowman, Chris Pramas, MEG Hal... the guys over at Kenzer that put together the Kalamar Player's Guide, the various contributors of the S&SS material... this sort of thing.

2. Why?
There is a lot of material that is crunch. I am more of a Fluff man. Thus, Monte Cooke (great crunch, sub-par fluff in my humble opinion) just doesn;t do it for me. I have the first of the BoEM volumes, but the second on I got the PDF and did not bother getting the print version. I just passed on the third one.

3. What are some of this author's works that you particularly enjoy?
See above.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi all!

My favourite d20 'writer' is Mark (Clover) of Creative Mountain Games. Of all the d20 stuff I have read his is consistently the best written. The 'Locus - Jalston' and 'Plexus - Portals' bear this out.

That said I don't think he is the best d20 'designer' out there (sorry Mark). In that respect I would have to give Monte (Cook) the nod, with Chris (Pramas) and James (Wyatt) close behind.

Of course even Monte has his off days...I didn't think much of the BoVD Archfiends chapter...of course I would never criticise someone unless I could have done a better job myself.

 

[Arnwyn]

1) Clark Peterson
2) He knows how to write modules!
3) Tomb of Abysthor

Runners-up:
Ed Greenwood, because he knows the Realms like no one else.
Eric Boyd, as he keeps the Realms to its roots.
Bill Webb, because his modules are also a blast.

 

[Harlock]

I'm wimping out and picking three writers.

M. Jason Parent who wrote much cool stuff for Ambient and promises to write much more great stuff for EN Publishing.

Wil Upchurch who writes great stuff for Dragon magazine on ocassion, some modules on Direkobold.com, some FFG work etc.

Sam Witt who has written Quint Samurai, Quint Psy Warrior, etc.

Why these three? Because they hang out in the official EN World chat channel #dnd3e on chat.psionics.net ports 6660-6669 more often than any other writers. I consider them friends even. The fact they they write some of the coolest stuff out there for 3e and d20 is a huge bonus.

 

[DonAdam]

Clark Peterson and Mike Mearls do deserve props.

Cordell is getting better with every product. I didn't like the PsiHB when it was first released, but IFTCK, Manual of the Planes, and Mindscapes are all fantastic.

 

[Teflon Billy]

This is actually three related questions:

1. Who is your favorite d20 author?
2. Why?
3. What are some of this author's works that you particularly enjoy?

Thanks in advance.

1) Steve Kenson

2) In my experiencee, his work has always been well above the already high bar set by his usual publisher: Green Ronin. He is the best author at a D20 Publisher with a deserved reputation for quality.

3) Mutants and Masterminds, Freedom City, and The Shaman's Handbook all come to mind.

Honorbale mention goes to M. Jason Parent (our own HellHound) who took what I considered a pretty Hackneyed concept (a Necromancer splatbook) and--in Garudok's Libram of thee blah blah blah (Sorry Jason, I cant remember the title)--created something so fresh and exciting that it has become canon in our games.

 

[diaglo]

E. Gary Gygax when d20 included the use of chits.

 

[Mystic Eye]

For those of you who felt strongly enough to list Hal, myself and the team at Mystic Eye Games in this thread you have my heart felt thanks and humble gratitude. This is what keeps us going guys. Many thanks indeed.

 

[mikey6990]

I gotta add my own two cents to this.

1. I don't know about favorite author, so I will answer that this way:

On Monte: I just don't particularly like his 'crunchy' stuff. To each his own. But Banewarrens... That is the way to present a module. The story and development are wonderful. So that is my Monte story.

Chris Pramas: I love the Freeport and Fiends stuff. These lines are great just to read for sheer inspiration (which I find hard to come by in published products). Put them up there with Ambient for best reads.

The Mystic Eye folks: Some folks just seem to hit the ball out of the park regularly. These guys do great work under their own name and seem to either aquire or align themselves with others who are the same. I love to mine the Hunt campaign for ideas, the Ambient stuff is the greatest, and Blluffside is superb. They just seem to not miss with me.

Necromancer: With 23 years of gaming under my belt, these guys talk to me on another level with their 'old style' modules. Great work.

I have to mention Wil Upchurch and Midnight as a current favorite. I think this setting is pure inspiration and I really like the rule mods to go with it.

Mike

 

[Seule]

If I look at consistency across all an author's published works, one name stands alone. He has never written anything that I rate less than my favorite module ever, and although Monte, Chris Pramas, Bruce Cordell, and a few others also rate extremelt highly, they each have been involved with products that I don't much like at one time or another. The author I speak of is, of course, Piratecat. With one writing credit (Of Sound Mind) that I am aware of, he's broken the bar for modules with every release.
More seriously, untill he has a few more mods or supplements out, there isn't one author I can say is the best. Monte does some of the best stuff out there, but I wasn't a fan of the BoEM series, and Bruce Cordell is responsible for Nightfang Spire (blech) along with his other stellar work. As such, nobody has the unbroken success record that I'd associate with a 'favourite' author. Except, as I said, Piratecat.

--Seule