Tuesday, August 11, 2015

RPGaDay Challenge 2015 - Day 11




I'll say one thing about this year's RPGaDay Challenge, it sure is challenging. I'm practically wrestling with my own brain to come up with answers to some of these questions.

Before I try to answer this one, and I don't know that I can, let you ask you all a question:

How do you know who wrote what in an RPG product?

I mean, did Tom Moldvay write the prose for the revised Basic D&D book, redesign the mechanics, or both? How do we know? It says on his Wikipedia page that he co-authored a number of classic D&D adventure modules, but do we know which parts were his, and which were someone else's?

I* worked on Among The Clans, the Andorian Sourcebook for Last Unicorn Games' Star Trek, The Original Series, Role Playing Game. I wrote up the material for all the NPCs you see in the book. The mechanics in the book, such as additional rules, character options, stats for the NPCs, etc. were done by the incredibly talented Steven S. Long. The rest of the book, including the specifics of the planet Andor/Andoria, the history of the species, etc. were written by the oh-my-god-this-guy-is-awesome S. John Ross.

If you read the credits for the aforementioned sourcebook, it just lists our names after the word, 'Authors'.

So who's to say who wrote what?

Anyway, for these reasons, and other lesser ones, I'm not certain I can really choose a favorite RPG writer. I can name a few I really like. Does that count? Well, it'll have to do.

On the top of my list are Greg Costikyan (Paranoia, Star Wars D6, Toon), Kenneth Hite (Star Trek - LUG, Trail of Cthulhu), Steve Kenson (Mutants and Masterminds), Mike Pondsmith (Mekton, Teenagers from Outer Space), S. John Ross (Risus, Pokethulhu), Jared Sorenson (InSpectres, octane), Greg Stafford (Ghostbusters, Pendragon), and Jonathan Tweet (Ars Magica).

I'm sure there are others that I am forgetting, and as such I apologize.

That's all the time we have for today.

See you tomorrow gang!

AD
Barking Alien

*It seems I do not warrant my own Wikipedia page yet, however, if you Google my name and the letters 'RPG' you will see several sites listing products I have worked on.

Neat huh?

On a somber note, today marks the one year anniversary of the passing of Robin Williams.

As noted in the post I did last year in association with his death, Robin Williams was more than a favorite actor, and comedian of mine. He was someone I knew, however lightly, and however briefly our paths crossed.

Please read that post if you would, and think of the laughter he brought us.

Thank you.






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