David Kenzer
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David Kenzer
David S. Kenzer is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career David Kenzer started the game company Kenzer & Company with friends Brian Jelke and Steve Johansson, and their initial project was ''The Kingdom of Kalamar'' (1994), a systemless fantasy setting. Kenzer was a lawyer who knew how trademark law worked, and had "suitable for use with ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' on the back cover, and included the disclaimer text "''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' is a registered trademark of TSR Hobbies, Inc. Use of this trademark is NOT sanctioned by the holder." Following the publication of ''The Kingdom of Kalamar'', Kenzer had formed a casual relationship with Alderac Entertainment Group, AEG, who was then putting out ''Shadis'' magazine, edited by Jolly Blackburn. When Blackburn left AEG, Kenzer and the staff of Kenzer & Company wanted to get Blackburn to join their company, and the turning point came in November 1996 when David Kenzer and others were vi ...
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United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo-Americ ...
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Shadis
''Shadis'' is an independent gaming magazine that was published in 1990–1998 by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG). It initially focused on role-playing games. Publication history Shadis was conceived and started by Jolly Blackburn as an independent gaming fanzine in 1990. In 1993, Blackburn formed Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) to publish Shadis as a quality small-press magazine, and brought on John Zinser and David Seay as partners. Printing of the first three issues was paid for by Frank Van Hoose, a friend of Jolly's, who also wrote for the magazine. A year later, in late 1994, the magazine received its biggest success by including a random ''Magic: The Gathering'' card in each issue at a time when booster packs of the new card game were scarce; many players bought multiple copies of each issue hoping to find a rare or out-of-print card. Many readers were also drawn to a small comic strip, ''Knights of the Dinner Table'', which was initially intended to fill a blank spot i ...
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Living People
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Game System License
The Game System License is a license that allows third-party publishers to create products compatible with and using the intellectual property from the 4th edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). It was released to the public by Wizards of the Coast (WotC) on June 17, 2008. History A System Reference Document (SRD) of the 3rd edition of ''D&D'' had been licensed under the Open Game License (OGL). The OGL is a copyright license, allowing the use of copyrighted text created by others in one's products. Also released at the same time was the d20 System Trademark License, allowing third-party publishers to indicate compatibility using a system logo, but not allowing the use of the ''D&D'' trademark. The Game System License (GSL), however, grants use of the 4th Edition System Reference Document, which lists trademarks, words, and short phrases that could be used to refer to materials in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' 4th edition rules, but contains no rules itself. People wishing ...
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HackMaster
HackMaster is a fantasy role-playing game produced by Kenzer & Company. It began as a fictional game, a parody of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' played by the characters of the ''Knights of the Dinner Table'' comic strip by Jolly R. Blackburn. The characters in the comic began playing fictional ''HackMaster 3rd Edition'', which was updated and published in 2001 as a numerously revised 4th edition. It has been hinted the name of the game was originally changed for copyright reasons. The current 5th edition has removed most of the parody aspects, and contains game mechanics written from scratch in order to avoid any intellectual property problems. Publication history Kenzer & Company received many requests from fans of the comic to produce an actual ''HackMaster'' game, but initially they thought that licensing ''Dungeons & Dragons'' would be impossible. In 1999 the ''Dragon Magazine Archive'' software was published where Wizards of the Coast failed to get permission to reprint many o ...
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Wizards Of The Coast
Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidiary of Hasbro, which acquired the company in 1999. During a February 2021 reorganization at Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast became the lead part of the new "Wizards & Digital" division. Originally a role-playing game publisher, the company originated and popularized the collectible card game genre with ''Magic: The Gathering'' in the mid-1990s. It also acquired the popular ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game by buying TSR (company), TSR and increased its success by publishing the licensed ''Pokémon Trading Card Game''. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Renton, Washington, Renton, Washington (state), Washington, part of the Seattle metropolitan area. Wizards of the Coast publishes role-pl ...
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Knights Of The Dinner Table
''Knights of the Dinner Table'' (''KoDT'') is a comic book/strip created by Jolly R. Blackburn and published by Kenzer & Company. It primarily focuses on a group of role playing gamers and their actions at the gaming table, which often result in unfortunate, but humorous consequences in the game. The name is a parody of King Arthur's Round Table reinforced by the truism that roleplaying aficionados often end up sitting round their host's dinner table as it is the only one large enough to accommodate the party (4 to 8 people typically). The comic The panels are written by Blackburn, and given that he had no formal art training, the characters are drawn in simple caricatures which are scanned onto a computer and are continuously reused. Many of the stories presented in ''KoDT'' are based on actual in-game experiences of the developers or readers, who are encouraged to submit story ideas. Part of the comic's popularity stems from the reader's ability to relate to the characters and ...
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Jolly Blackburn
Jolly Randall Blackburn is best known as the creator of the comic strip ''Knights of the Dinner Table''. Biography Jolly Blackburn went to Ball State University. Jolly Blackburn majored in anthropology, history, and classical cultures in college. Blackburn later joined the Army, and launched both the gaming magazine ''Shadis'' and his company Alderac Entertainment Group (named after his ''AD&D'' campaign world) while still in the Army. The original ''Shadis'' was a black-and-white digest featured gaming articles largely written by Blackburn, and each issue featured several pieces of fiction collectively called the "Alderac Anthonology" which detailed Blackburn's world of Alderac (one of Alderac's moons was Shadis, from which the magazine borrowed its name). He conceived of having a comic strip that became ''Knights of the Dinner Table'' (''KoDT'') in 1990 as part of ''Shadis'': "I had been a great fan of J.D. Webster's ''Finieous Fingers'' from the early ''Dragon Magazine'', an ...
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Alderac Entertainment Group
Alderac Entertainment Group, or AEG, is a publisher of role-playing game, board game, and collectible card game products. AEG was formed by Jolly Blackburn in 1993 and is based in the city of Ontario, California. Prior to getting into their current markets, AEG was involved in hobby gaming magazines, with their first product the magazine ''Shadis'' (winner of the 1994, 1995, and 1996 Origins Awards for ''Best Professional Gaming Magazine''). Including the three for ''Shadis'' mentioned above, AEG products have garnered eight Origins Awards (see the individual articles noted below for more details). In 2009, AEG entered the board games market with 10 new board game releases. Notable successes include Thunderstone (card game), Thunderstone and Smash Up. Products Collectible card games * ''7th Sea Collectible Card Game'' (Multiple Origins Award winner) * ''City of Heroes Collectible Card Game'' * ''Doomtown Collectible Card Game'' (Multiple Origins Award winner) * ''Hum ...
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Game Designer
Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in the form of gamification. Game designer and developer Robert Zubek defines game design by breaking it down into its elements, which he says are the following: * Gameplay, which is the interaction between the player and the mechanics and systems * Mechanics and systems, which are the rules and objects in the game * Player experience, which is how users feel when they're playing the game Games such as board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, video games, war games, or simulation games benefit from the principles of game design. Academically, game design is part of game studies, while game theory studies strategic decision making (primarily in non-game situations). Games have historically inspired ...
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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
Several different editions of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game have been produced since 1974. The current publisher of ''D&D'', Wizards of the Coast, produces new materials only for the most current edition of the game. However, many ''D&D'' fans continue to play older versions of the game and some third-party companies continue to publish materials compatible with these older editions. After the original edition of ''D&D'' was introduced in 1974, the game was split into two branches in 1977: the rules-light system of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and the more complex, rules-heavy system of ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' (''AD&D''). The standard game was eventually expanded into a series of five box sets by the mid-1980s before being compiled and slightly revised in 1991 as the ''Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia''. Meanwhile, the 2nd edition of ''AD&D'' was published in 1989. In 2000 the two-branch split was ended when a new version was designated the 3r ...
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The Kingdom Of Kalamar
''The Kingdoms of Kalamar'' is a fantasy role-playing game campaign setting published by Kenzer & Company in 1994 that is compatible with the second edition of '' Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' published by TSR. Contents ''The Kingdoms of Kalamar'' describes the Kingdoms of Kalamar on the planet Tellene, providing details of its inhabitants, flora and fauna, geography, religions, and nations. Because Kenzer & Co. did not have a license to produce material for TSR games, the book was advertised as a generic setting that could be adapted to any role-playing game system. However a note on the back cover of the original edition clarified that the setting was "suitable for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" with a disclaimer "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is a registered trademark of TSR Hobbies, Inc. Use of this trademark is NOT sanctioned by the holder." The material was originally published as two books: *''Volume 1: Sourcebook of the Sovereign Lands'' detailed the people and pl ...
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