#RPGaday2015 – Day 11: Favorite RPG Writer
RPGaday 2015’s Day 11 question is easier for me to answer. I have talked about it before in many venues, and I expect I will talk about it again and again as the years go by. Today’s question asks us to name our favorite RPG writer. While I suppose we could cause a commotion by trying to mix in authors of books based on RPGs, but I am not going to do that. I am, however, still going to avoid answering the question until you scan down below the RPGaday inset image. I hope you do not mind.
This may be the shortest entry in this series.
The Writer at Work
My favorite writer of and for RPGs is Paul Wade-Williams. You can see the only known picture of him off to the right. He kills werewolves between bouts of incredible writing. Known as ‘Wiggy’ to friends and fans alike, he is quick of wit and fast of keyboard, prolific and compelling, discerning of eye, and given to fits of creative genius. There are many who are fast, but not good. There are those with discernment, but not creativity. There are those who can write for days, but have nothing to say. If Wiggy were a machine, he would not only have perpetual motion, but would also produce manna as a by-product. If he were a song, it would be the one that never ends and never repeats. If he were to come over to dinner the grace he would say would be amazing. If he were gum his flavor would be never-ending and he would stick to nothing but your memory. If he were shoes they would give you the experience of walking 10 miles in the shoes of the world. If he were dinner, he would also be dessert. While some hacks might imply that Wiggy once spent a year in quiet contemplation to better understand the sound of a whisper, I will have you know that is false.
The whisper was contemplating Wiggy.
How about you? Who is your favorite RPG writer?
#rgaday2015
Casting Shadows 
I guess it depends on what “writing” we’re talking about…the interstitial setting story type stuff that usually leads into a rulebook? The general verbiage describing the rules? The design of the rules sets themselves? Usually, RPG books are a collective effort with one or two people leading the charge, led by the line editor or director.
I’m rather partial to Mike Olsen’s work on the Atomic Robo RPG, which did a great job of capturing the flavor of the comic whilst explaining the rules. Sarah Newton did fantastic work on Mindjammer on all of those fronts. I’ve done some not bad stuff for Victoriana on all those metrics.
It’s a much tougher question than I initially thought.
It really is a tough question, and not just because I hate to play favorites~