Who would you pick to design Fourth Edition?

[wingsandsword]

It's like saying, who's your favorite pro-wrestler, but you can't choose the Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, or the Rock.

I'll agree to this, especially after the ground rules were changed after the thread was started. "Who do you want designing 4e" became "Who do you want designing 4e who hasn't designed D&D before", which is a big change in the subject and the discussion.

Frankly, I don't want a lot of people who haven't worked on D&D design before working on 4e, if Monte Cook, Skip Williams et al. were unavailable, I'd say not produce 4th edition, there are too few people currently qualified for the job. Mike Mearls is the one person who hasn't worked on a core version of D&D that' I'd specifically want on the project (after Iron Heroes, he's earned that seat), but if current WotC employees are also excluded, then just scrap 4e IMO.

I don't want probably the single most important writing assignment in all of gaming handled by people without experience in that specific task (completely writing and/or overhauling a game system that will be used, abused, pushed to it's limits, used for tasks you can't imagine, has to accomodate a variety of fantasy settings, to the demanding expectations of millions of fans, and will have every tiny rule picked apart and dissected).

 

[JRRNeiklot]

Gary Gygax
James Ward
Gene Roddenberry
Bob Bledsaw

 

[Staffan]

Niilo Paasivirta
Raven C.S. McCracken
Kevin Siembieda
JT Smith
Todd King

What?

 

[Richards]

Originally posted by Erik Mona:

The guy who played Adric on Dr. Who

Why? Because he has a badge for mathematical excellence?

I think his name is Matthew Waterhouse, by the way - if not, it's something very like it.

Johnathan

 

[RangerWickett]

Frankly, I don't want a lot of people who haven't worked on D&D design before working on 4e, if Monte Cook, Skip Williams et al. were unavailable, I'd say not produce 4th edition, there are too few people currently qualified for the job. Mike Mearls is the one person who hasn't worked on a core version of D&D that' I'd specifically want on the project (after Iron Heroes, he's earned that seat), but if current WotC employees are also excluded, then just scrap 4e IMO.

I don't want probably the single most important writing assignment in all of gaming handled by people without experience in that specific task (completely writing and/or overhauling a game system that will be used, abused, pushed to it's limits, used for tasks you can't imagine, has to accomodate a variety of fantasy settings, to the demanding expectations of millions of fans, and will have every tiny rule picked apart and dissected).

So . . . if this were 1999, you would not want Monte Cook, Skip Williams, or Johnathan Tweet to design 3e, because obviously they're inexperienced and would do a crappy job?

Honestly, my interest in this thread was to find out who people thought of as good designers. There are hundreds of people writing in the d20 industry, and I'm curious who makes the short-list of the Top 10.

 

[Numion]

Most importantly, I'd really like to see WotC hire a team of dedicated, hardcore playtesters; I think ENWorld would be a great source.

Huh, someone outside of Knights of the Dinner Table has dreams of professional roleplayers?

 

[Erik Mona]

Why? Because he has a badge for mathematical excellence?

Precisely so.

--Erik

 

[diaglo]

So . . . if this were 1999, you would not want Monte Cook, Skip Williams, or Johnathan Tweet to design 3e, because obviously they're inexperienced and would do a crappy job?

huh?

monte and skip both had plenty of credits prior to 1999.

 

[redivider]

I'd establish two design teams: One public team led by people WOTC is comfortable with and who have solid experience with D&D and D20. The kind of folks who have been mentioned repeatedly in this thread.

Plus a secret design team of independent, small-press rpg creators to push the limits of rpg design. For example, Clinton Nixon (Donjon, Shadow of Yesterday), Ron Edwards (Sorceror, Elfs), Paul Czege (My Life with Master, Valedictorian's Death), Jared Sorenson (Octane, Inspectres). Of course some of these four are committed to creator-owned works exlusively, but for the sake of argument assume they would go along.

Then, either feed the main design team ideas and drafts from secret team to see what sticks; or WOTC could relase two versions of 4th editions: a 4.0 mainstream version and a 4.Z experimental version.

 

[RangerWickett]

huh?

monte and skip both had plenty of credits prior to 1999.

Wingandsword was implying that he didn't want new people to design a new edition because they didn't have experience designing new editions. Or at least that's the only way I could make sense of it, because he seemed to be opposed to any of the people mentioned in this thread, and nearly all of them have a good deal of design experience. Perhaps not as much as the MSJ triumvirate, but substantial.

Suggesting that they would not know how to design a new edition because they don't have experience doing so is like when my mom told me when I got my driver's license that she'd let me drive the car when I had more experience driving.

I still don't own a car, and I'm nearly 24.