Who is the most influential living game designer?

[SJB]

I don’t know why my mind turned to this, probably listening to Fear of a Black Dragon.

My heart is with Marc Miller: essentially every SFRPG in existence is either Traveller derived or consciously trying not to be Traveller.

However, I’ll plump for Vincent Baker. He designed (with Meguey Baker) Apocalypse World and because of his open and collegial approach to game design launched the whole PbtA movement, which in turn drives indie game design to this day. More than that, I think nearly every game designer currently at work seems aware of PbtA and is influenced by it at some level, however trad they may be. I suspect that realisation spurred Alex Macris’ rodomontade against the ‘Six Cultures of Play’. Personally, I don’t care for PbtA but I‘m framing this as influence rather than preference.

Any thoughts?

 

[Dr Jack]

I'd like to agree with Vincent Baker (because I think his contribution has been entirely positive), but I think his influence extends into what is still a relatively niche end of roleplaying games. I would vote for Ryan Dancey: the introduction and pushing of the OGL had a dramatic impact on the playing field of the RPG market and has impacted many more people than Baker's works.

 

[gruagach]

I'd like to agree with Vincent Baker (because I think his contribution has been entirely positive), but I think his influence extends into what is still a relatively niche end of roleplaying games. I would vote for Ryan Dancey: the introduction and pushing of the OGL had a dramatic impact on the playing field of the RPG market and has impacted many more people than Baker's works.

Agreed 100%. No doubt Baker's been influential, but I think that pales in comparison with the introduction of the OGL in terms of raw numbers of games derived from a given base.

I guess an argument could be made for Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams - whose collective work on 3.0 era D&D formed the basis of rules released under the OGL.

I'm not some kind of gaming historian, nor have I read the work of the folks who are, so I'm not 100% certain who among Dancey, Cook, Tweet and/or Williams deserves most credit as a designer. (Heck, I guess I'm not even 100% sure all of them are still living )

 

[Endless Flight]

Robin Laws has to be up there.

 

[Toadmaster]

I have to limit this to my little corner of the gaming world.

Steve Jackson - The influence of TFT / GURPS, particularly the point buy vs random roll is pretty significant. GURPS also helped kick off the now common universal system market. GURPS has even influenced CRPG design. Not directly SJ but as the head of SJG there is an indirect influence there as well through the many GURPS products and other games.

George McDonald - Champions / HERO system, similar reason to GURPS, plus I think it is safe to call Champions one of the most significant Supers RPGs to have come along.

I think Sandy Peterson is still with us. Can not overlook the influence of Call of Cthuthlu on the hobby.

I agree with the inclusion of Marc Miller and Ryan Dancy for the reasons given by others.

Had a few other names but sadly they are disqualified by the living requirement. A list that has grown much larger in recent years.

 

[Fenris-77]

Maybe what we need is a top ten or something. Pick the #1 X conversations always get bogged down.

 

[SJB]

I'd like to agree with Vincent Baker (because I think his contribution has been entirely positive), but I think his influence extends into what is still a relatively niche end of roleplaying games. I would vote for Ryan Dancey: the introduction and pushing of the OGL had a dramatic impact on the playing field of the RPG market and has impacted many more people than Baker's works.

This is a question from ignorance. Was Dancey a designer of note?

 

[SJB]

Maybe what we need is a top ten or something. Pick the #1 X conversations always get bogged down.

We travel to find out!

 

[SJB]

Had a few other names but sadly they are disqualified by the living requirement. A list that has grown much larger in recent years.

Quite, the parameter occurred to me when I realised that the people who normally pop into my mind are no longer with us.

 

[Endless Flight]

This is a question from ignorance. Was Dancey a designer of note?

No, and he would say he was no designer/writer. I think he has one credit to his name.

 

[Dr Jack]

This is a question from ignorance. Was Dancey a designer of note?

In terms of designing mechanics, settings, etc. - not particularly, but the things he did do were extremely influential. He played a major role in the purchase of TSR by WotC and was the primary driving force behind the establishment of the OGL and that has had a huge influence on the RPG market.

 

[Dr Jack]

Robin Laws has to be up there.

What do you think Robin Laws (that's the same guy as Robin D. Laws, yes?) done that puts him up there? I know him from Feng Shui and Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering and a whole back catalogue of work on supplements for various game systems - all of which is good stuff, but I don't think I'd describe it as particularly influential. What have I missed?

 

[MoonHunter]

Michael Pondsmith is an American roleplaying, board, and video game designer. He is best known for founding the publisher R. Talsorian Games in 1982, where he developed a majority of the company's role-playing game lines: Mekton (1984), Cyberpunk (1988), and Castle Falkenstein (1994). He was the driving force for the Fuzion system, allowing it to be used by other companies and individuals. His own individual games were cutting-edge of game design, given modularity, innovative resolutions, experimental presentation (the various interplays of fiction that did not detract from the rules), production value (color plates before that became common and economical), and the use of (anime) licensing, which are now common place in RPGS were first done or done early by R. Talsorian. He also contributed to the Forgotten Realms and Oriental Adventures lines of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, worked in various capacities on video games, and authored or co-created several board games. He was the president of GAMA for eight years (if I remember correctly). Except when his medical issues flared up, he was a staple at conventions across the country. Pondsmith also worked as an instructor at the DigiPen Institute of Technology teaching game design.

 

[Andrew J. Luther]

Depends on what you mean by influential.

If you’re talking influence on general gamers, then people like Monte Cook are up in the top range due to the third edition domination of the hobby.

If you’re talking about influence on other game designers, then Robin Laws and Jonathan Tweet have often been listed as major influences by many, even if their names are not as well known by the average gamer.

And Ryan Dancy’s influence is on the industry, not necessarily games or gamers (since he’s not a designer). Of course, he also self-applied the label as “the Steve Jobs of MMOs” during Paizo’s disastrous attempt at having one of their own, so make of that what you will.

 

[PolarBlues]

I am no expert, but I would think Jonathan Tweet. As lead designer on D&D 3.0, for better or worse, his DNA lives on in the hobby's most played games even now. But his career also includes a diverese range of smaller, but still influential games, primarily Over The Edge, but also Ars Magica and Everway.

I don't actually own any of his games, but I can still recognise his impact.

 

[Fenris-77]

I am no expert, but I would think Jonathan Tweet. As lead designer on D&D 3.0, for better or worse, his DNA lives on in the hobby's most played games even now. But his career also includes a diverese range of smaller, but still influential games, primarily Over The Edge, but also Ars Magica and Everway.

I don't actually own any of his games, but I can still recognise his impact.

He's also one of the authors of 13th Age, which is pretty popular.

 

[SavAce]

What do you think Robin Laws (that's the same guy as Robin D. Laws, yes?) done that puts him up there? I know him from Feng Shui and Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering and a whole back catalogue of work on supplements for various game systems - all of which is good stuff, but I don't think I'd describe it as particularly influential. What have I missed?

I don't know if I'd put Robin Laws at the very top, but if you're wondering what RPGs I believe he gets primary credit for (rather just supplement material, or a contributor [Like "Nexus: The Infinite City"]), his RPGs include:

• Feng Shui (& 2e)
• Hero Wars/HeroQuest
• Pantheon and Other Roleplaying Games
• Rune
• The Dying Earth Roleplaying Game
• A bunch of Gumshoe games (The Esoterrorists, Fear Itself, Mutant City Blues, Ashen Stars)
• Skulduggery
• Hillfolk
• The Yellow King RPG

I'd say he has a good range and he tries new stuff. I feel like Feng Shui, Hero Wars, Rune, Dying Earth, Gumshoe and Hillfolk have all been of some design interest. Like, Mike Pondsmith I think is worth having in the discussion because Mekton, Cyberpunk, Castle Falkenstein and even Teenagers from Outer Space puts him real early at getting certain geek interest genres on the map in RPG form, but Robin Laws' games cover more, umm... "design breadth" I guess, in my opinion, if you're talking about rules approaches.

 

[Armchair Gamer]

I am no expert, but I would think Jonathan Tweet. As lead designer on D&D 3.0, for better or worse, his DNA lives on in the hobby's most played games even now. But his career also includes a diverese range of smaller, but still influential games, primarily Over The Edge, but also Ars Magica and Everway.

I don't actually own any of his games, but I can still recognise his impact.

I'm inclined to give it to Tweet because Ars Magica also brings in Mark Rein*Hagen and the World of Darkness ... and between 3E D&D and stepfather of WoD, you cover a lot of ground.

 

[Bunch]

I agree Tweet has a lot going for him. He's influenced people with his indie designs and also the general public with his more commercial contributions.

George McDonald would be in my list just because he's a grandfather of point buy system and Champions long influence on the super heroes genre.

Marc Millar for the reasons previously stated. Traveller and it's code mechanics seem alive and well and still influencing design.

 

[Endless Flight]

Greg Gorden for creating the greatest RPG ever, DC Heroes!

 

[CaoCao]

I second Vincent Baker choice. pbta system is my first choice since I discovered it, and all persons I presented it in the last three years liked it a lot. its simplicity and might allowed me to play remotely during lockdown in a very smooth way, and the same applies to my current play-by-whatsapp campaign. its influence is widespread, being for example the "success-at-a-cost" optional rule in 5EDMG just a reformulated fail forward.

 

[Gringnr]

Ken St. Andre, for creating the original alternative to the original RPG. I think the creators or Rolemaster, BRP, et. al., could easily be listed for the same reason. Much of our current hobby can be traced back to those who saw D&D, and had ideas for how to do it differently. Edit: never mind, they're dead except for Ken.

 

[Fenris-77]

There are a lot of solid names here that come from the early to middle days of our hobby. Of designers who's influence is more recent, I think Vincent Baker is my pick. I'd have trouble picking and choosing from some of the old school designers though.

 

[ka maat]

Tim Kask: TSR's first employee, first editor of The Dragon magazine, plus he helped Gary Gygax develop what would become Basic and Advanced D&D. His influence continues nearly fifty years after he helped kickstart the tabletop role-playing game hobby.

 

[T. Foster]

Frank Chadwick deserves to be in the conversation. In addition to working closely with Marc Miller on Traveller he also wrote or co-wrote several other RPGs (En Garde!, Twilight 2000, 2300AD, Space 1889, and the GDW “house system” (derived from T2K and used for Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, Dark Conspiracy, and Traveller: The New Era)) and is also a very prolific and multi-award-winning wargame designer (way too many credits to list). Probably not #1 on the list, but definitely belongs in the top tier.

 

[Silverlion]

I'm not going to pick my favorite here, I'm going to go purely by overall impact. In that case, it is Vincent Baker, purely because of the sheer number of different PBTA games that have been spawned, and do interesting things but still hearken to his magnum opus. Secondly would be John Harper for Blades in the Dark because there are several variants of those. While I think many notable names are up there few actually have had the impact outside of a narrow field (Traveller for Miller, Champions for the Champs folks, and so on.) While all are important it's the weight of how much other people use their materials.

As a favorite who has had an impact, Jeff Grubb, for Marvel Superheroes. It still has an immense number of fans who think of it fondly, and many who still play. More so I find than some other supers games. He still isn't the MOST impactful but it is measurable.

 

[Baulderstone]

I'd like to agree with Vincent Baker (because I think his contribution has been entirely positive), but I think his influence extends into what is still a relatively niche end of roleplaying games. I would vote for Ryan Dancey: the introduction and pushing of the OGL had a dramatic impact on the playing field of the RPG market and has impacted many more people than Baker's works.

Is Ryan Dancey a game designer? I've always seen him a businessman who works in the game industry.

Edit: I see this was already discussed.

 

[JAMUMU]

Vincent Baker. Johnathan Tweet. And Mark Rein*Hagen unleashed the fuckin beast back in the 90s.

 

[Baulderstone]

What do you think Robin Laws (that's the same guy as Robin D. Laws, yes?) done that puts him up there? I know him from Feng Shui and Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering and a whole back catalogue of work on supplements for various game systems - all of which is good stuff, but I don't think I'd describe it as particularly influential. What have I missed?

I'm not going to argue he is the #1 most influential, but:

While it was Jonathan Tweet's baby, he did a lot of work on Over the Edge at the start of his career, and that had a huge influence on light game system design. Over the Edge also had Greg Stolze working on it, speaking of influential designers.

Feng Shui kicked off the whole "Cinematic Combat System" boom in the '90s in everything from GURPS Black Ops to Exalted (although Exalted utterly screwed it up).

Esoterrorists spawned dozens of Gumshoe games.

And as for Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering, when you write a GM advice book that gets copy-pasted into an edition of the Dungeon Master's Guide, you are officially influential in the industry.

 

[Baulderstone]

Frank Chadwick deserves to be in the conversation. In addition to working closely with Marc Miller on Traveller he also wrote or co-wrote several other RPGs (En Garde!, Twilight 2000, 2300AD, Space 1889, and the GDW “house system” (derived from T2K and used for Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, Dark Conspiracy, and Traveller: The New Era)) and is also a very prolific and multi-award-winning wargame designer (way too many credits to list). Probably not #1 on the list, but definitely belongs in the top tier.

Chadwick definitely deserves more attention than he gets. T:2000 was the game that taught me about sandbox play.

 

[Dyrnwyn]

Am I going to be the first person to mention Kevin Siembieda? Alright, then.

 

[PolarBlues]

And as for Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering, when you write a GM advice book that gets copy-pasted into an edition of the Dungeon Master's Guide, you are officially influential in the industry.

I think Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering is underrated. Sure, it provides a fairly superficial overview of the hobby - plenty of blogs these days go much deeper - but the core message that there are many different ways to approach and enjoy roleplaying and they are all valid is message that cannot be stressed enough.

 

[Baulderstone]

I think Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering is underrated. Sure, it provides a fairly superficial overview of the hobby - plenty of blogs these days go much deeper - but the core message that there are many different ways to approach and enjoy roleplaying and they are all valid is message that cannot be stressed enough.

The books is around a quarter-century old at the this point too. The fact that is has gone from novel advice to being "obvious" just shows how deeply influential it was.

 

[Baulderstone]

Am I going to be the first person to mention Kevin Siembieda? Alright, then.

The guy invented the OSR retro-clone 25 years ahead of time with Palladium Fantasy. He deserves a place in the conversation.

 

[Fenris-77]

The guy invented the OSR retro-clone 25 years ahead of time with Palladium Fantasy. He deserves a place in the conversation.

And he'll end up farther down the list than than his early work probably mitigates for because, well, reasons.

 

[Baulderstone]

And he'll end up farther down the list than than his early work probably mitigates for because, well, reasons.

I'm honestly not familiar with much past the Robotech RPG.

There is more to design that just writing mechanics. There is also the matter of deciding what stuff in your game: the character options, equipment, powers, etc. The things you actually playing with in the game. Siembieda was a master of putting toys in his games that teen boys in the '80s really wanted to play with.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm honestly not familiar with much past the Robotech RPG.

There is more to design that just writing mechanics. There is also the matter of deciding what stuff in your game: the character options, equipment, powers, etc. The things you actually playing with in the game. Siembieda was a master of putting toys in his games that teen boys in the '80s really wanted to play with.

He's generally a setting God just based on Rifts, and a syphlitic rhesus monkey in terms of rules, also based on Rifts. You win some you lose some. Frankly though, just the setting for Rifts ought to be worth a serious set of accolades.

 

[Baulderstone]

He's generally a setting God just based on Rifts, and a syphlitic rhesus monkey in terms of rules, also based on Rifts. You win some you lose some. Frankly though, just the setting for Rifts ought to be worth a serious set of accolades.

Thinking about influences from Palladium, Feng Shui had a structure for time travel that avoid most of the related headaches, and it owed a lot to Trans-Dimensional TMNT.

 

[Fenris-77]

Thinking about influences from Palladium, Feng Shui had a structure for time travel that avoid most of the related headaches, and it owed a lot to Trans-Dimensional TMNT.

TMNT might be the most under-rated Palladium property.

 

[Baulderstone]

TMNT might be the most under-rated Palladium property.

Licensed games just disappear when their time is up.