#RPGaDay2015 Day 11-12

Days 11 through 12 of #RPGaDay2015.

Day 11 - Favorite RPG Writer

I think we are in a golden age of RPGs at the moment. There are so many great writers and game designers pushing out amazing material that its hard to choose just one as my favorite. Instead, I'll list a few.

These writers appeal to my interests and I've found always push out quality material. These are the writers that, when they publish something, I'm immediately interested and extremely likely to pick it up.

Oscar Rios - Oscar writes for, and runs, Golden Goblin Press - a Call of Cthulhu licensee. Oscar has been writing and running games for as long as I can remember, and I've been extremely lucky to have met and gamed with him on multiple occasions. In the Call of Cthulhu world, there are a number of authors who are reinventing the game - Oscar is leading that pack.

Graham Walmsley - Graham is the author of Cthulhu Dark, along with multiple Trail of Cthulhu and other books and scenarios. More importantly, he is the author of Stealing Cthulhu, a book which lays out the Cthulhu mythos and describes how GMs can steal directly from Lovecraft's stories for their own games. If you run any type of Cthulhu mythos game, you need to read this book.

Ken Hite - Ken Hite should be familiar to anyone who is in gaming, especially horror gaming. Author of Trail of Cthulhu, co-host of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, as well as multiple (hundreds?) of other RPG-related material, Ken is at the forefront of our industry. He is also the author of another RPG-related book that anyone who runs horror games should read, Nightmares of Mine. This book breaks down horror RPGs into their basic components and describes how they should be run to make them the best they can be.

Day 11 - Favorite RPG Illustration

This was an easy one. Whenever I think of RPGs and my RPG experience, especially when I first started out, this one always comes to mind.

On page 34 of the 1st edition AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide (at least the one with the City of Brass on the cover) is an illustration by Will McLean depicting two adventurers in mouse costumes and stating "This had better work!".

While the AD&D DMG is full of incredible art, this one always stood out to me. Its fun and perfectly describes what can happen in an adventure. I even attempted to recreate this in my 9th grade computer art class! Fortunately, it has been lost to time.