#RPGaDay2015 Day 11 - Favorite RPG Writer

OK this one isn't fair - there's about fourteen gazillion I'd pick...

I'm not even going to give a pretense of trying to pick just one. This time I'm going to list those writers who, seeing their name on a product, will make me give some serious thought to buying it when I might not otherwise. This is a somewhat random list and I'm sure I'm going to leave someone off that I'd wanted to include...


  • Mike Olson - While not having a huge portfolio, he made some very interesting tweaks with the Fate system in the Kerberos Club's Fate version (an amazing setting to begin with) and fully realizing that in Atomic Robo, a game which so perfectly captures the feel of the comic it is based on.
  • Steve Kenson - Best known for creating Mutants & Masterminds, I actually first heard of him back when he did some writing for Last Unicorn Games' Star Trek: The Next Generation. Once upon a time he shared with me some of his background for a sector he developed for the system, including how he was also able to use it for graduate school work. He's since gone on to some amazing games such as Icons, Blue Rose, and Mutants & Masterminds. As a comic book fan, I find he manages to capture the feel of the Marvel and DC universes at their best.
  • Dennis Detwiller/Shane Ivey/Greg Stolze - I list these three together as I so often find two or three of them together on products I greatly enjoy such as Wild Talents, Godlike, and Delta Green. When I see them alone I check out the products as well.
  • Mike Pondsmith - I don't see to much by him lately, but I signed onto the Mekton Zero Kickstarter with very fond memories of Cyberpunk 2020 and Castle Falkenstein.
  • Fred Hicks - I'm not sure I've read any of his solo works as I can't recall him alone on a product, but he's shepherded a ton of excellent Fate and other products. This isn't damning with faint praise - seeing his name on a product is always a good sign.
  • Monica Valentinelli - Designer for the Firefly RPG as well as a number of my favorite World of Darkness products. I've not given Firefly enough love in this blog. 
  • Ken Hite - Master of the Cthulhu Mythos and other weirdnesses, showing how they can be realized in a variety of ways. He's produced products dealing with Lovecraftian superheros, a bizarre post-World War 2 series dominated by a giant (really really giant) serpent falling on the Earth, and produced many different ways of seeing different Mythos entities.
  • Cynthia Celeste Miller - Writing an RPG for Saturday morning cartoons? And another that screams Bronze Age superheroes... Sold. 

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