David S. Kenzer is a

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 ...

who has worked primarily on

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

Career

David Kenzer started the game company

Kenzer & Company Kenzer & Company (KenzerCo) is a Waukegan, Illinois based publisher of comic books, role-playing games, board games, card games, and miniature games. They are known for the ''Kingdoms of Kalamar'' campaign setting and for their own ''HackMaster ...

with friends Brian Jelke and

Steve Johansson ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

, 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 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 ga ...

'' 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

AEG Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...

, who was then putting out ''

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 indepen ...

'' magazine, edited by

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 colleg ...

. 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 visiting Blackburn over the course of a local con, during which Blackburn became convinced that Kenzer had the sort of business sense and integrity that he was looking for in a partner. Kenzer & Company began publishing Blackburn's ''

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 ...

'' comic books, and starting with issue #5 (February 1997) it was not just the work of one person but instead of the "KoTD Development Team" which consisted of Blackburn, Kenzer, Jelke and Johansson. Kenzer acquired the license to ''

'' from

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 ga ...

that allowed the company to release ''

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 c ...

'' (2001) as a satire of ''AD&D''. When Wizards released 4th edition ''D&D'' in 2008, Kenzer was unwilling to sign the

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 th ...

that Wizards was offering, and he thus published a 501-page PDF of ''Kingdoms of Kalamar'' (2008) without authorization from Wizards.

References

External links

David S. Kenzer :: Pen & Paper RPG Databasearchive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kenzer, David Living people Role-playing game designers Year of birth missing (living people)