Richard Channing Garfield (born June 26, 1963) is an American mathematician, inventor and game designer. Garfield created '' Magic: The Gathering'', which is considered to be the first

collectible card game A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategy game, strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards, introduced with ''Magic: The Gathering'' in ...

(CCG). ''Magic'' debuted in 1993 and its success spawned many imitations. Garfield oversaw the successful growth of ''Magic'' and followed it with other game designs. Varney, Allen.
Richard Garfield
" The Escapist. 10 JULY 2007. Retrieved 27 June 2013. Included in these are '' Keyforge'', ''

Netrunner ''Netrunner'' is an out-of-print collectible card game (CCG) designed by Richard Garfield, the creator of '' Magic: The Gathering''. It was published by Wizards of the Coast and introduced in April 1996. The game took place in the setting for t ...

'', '' BattleTech(CCG)'', '' Vampire: The Eternal Struggle'', ''

Star Wars Trading Card Game A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ...

'', '' The Great Dalmuti'', '' Artifact'' and the

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a co ...

'' RoboRally''. He also created a variation of the card game Hearts called Complex Hearts. Garfield first became passionate about games when he played the roleplaying game ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

'', so he designed ''Magic'' decks to be customizable like roleplaying characters. Garfield and ''Magic'' are both in the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame.List of Winners
Origins Game Fair. Retrieved 22 June 2013.

Early life, family and education

Garfield was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

and spent his childhood in many locations throughout the world as a result of his father's work in architecture. His family eventually settled in

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

when he was twelve. Garfield is the great-great-grandson of U.S. President James A. Garfield and his grand-uncle Samuel Fay invented the

paper clip A paper clip (or paperclip) is a tool used to hold sheets of paper together, usually made of steel wire bent to a looped shape (though some are covered in plastic). Most paper clips are variations of the ''Gem'' type introduced in the 1890s or e ...

. He is also the nephew of Fay Jones, who, already an established artist, illustrated one ''Magic'' card for him. While Garfield always had an interest in puzzles and games, his passion was kick-started when he was introduced to ''

''. Garfield designed his first game when he was 13. In 1985, Garfield received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in computer mathematics. After college, he joined

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial Research and development, research and scientific developm ...

, but soon after decided to continue his education and attended the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

, studying

combinatorial mathematics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and an end in obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many a ...

for his PhD. Garfield studied under Herbert Wilf and earned a Ph.D. in

from Penn in 1993. His thesis was ''On the Residue Classes of Combinatorial Families of Numbers''. Shortly thereafter, he became a

Visiting Professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

of mathematics at

Whitman College Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. The school offers 53 majors and 33 minors in the liberal arts and sciences, and it has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9:1. Whitman was the first college in the Pacific ...

Walla Walla, Washington Walla Walla is a city in Walla Walla County, Washington, where it is the largest city and county seat. It had a population of 34,060 at the 2020 census, estimated to have decreased to 33,927 as of 2021. The population of the city and its two su ...

. Garfield was married to Lily Wu in the late 90s, and he has at least two children. He proposed to his second wife, Koni Kim in 2015.

Game design career

Precursors and development of ''Magic: the Gathering''

While searching for a publisher for '' RoboRally'', which he designed in 1985,

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 science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidia ...

began talking to Garfield through Mike Davis, but the game looked too expensive for a new company like Wizards to produce. Peter Adkison of Wizards of the Coast expressed interest in a fast-playing game with minimal equipment, something that would be popular at a game convention. Adkison asked Garfield to develop a game that was cheaper to produce than ''RoboRally'', that might be more portable and even easy to carry around to conventions; Garfield did have an idea about combining baseball cards with a card game and began turning that rough idea into a complete game over the next week. Garfield built on older prototypes of games that dated back to at least 1982, when he had created a '' Cosmic Encounter''-inspired card game called "Five Magics." Garfield thus combined ideas from two previous games to invent the first trading card game, '' Magic: The Gathering''. At first, Garfield and Adkison called the game "Manaclash," and worked on it in secret during

Palladium Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself ...

's lawsuit against Wizards, protecting the game's

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

under a shell company called Garfield Games. Garfield began designing ''Magic'' as a Penn

graduate student Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and s ...

. Garfield's

playtester A playtest is the process by which a game designer tests a new game for bugs and design flaws before releasing it to market. Playtests can be run "open", "closed", "beta", or otherwise, and are very common with board games, collectible card games, ...

s were mostly fellow Penn students.

Wizards of the Coast

''Magic: The Gathering'' launched in 1993. Playtesters began independently developing

expansion pack An expansion pack, expansion set, supplement, or simply expansion is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game, video game or collectible card game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, characters, or ...

s, which were then passed to Garfield for his final edit. In June 1994, Garfield left academia to join Wizards of the Coast as a full-time game designer. Garfield managed the hit game wisely, balancing player experience with business needs and allowing other designers to contribute creatively to the game. With his direction, Wizards established a robust tournament system for ''Magic'', something that was new to hobby gaming. Wizards finally published Garfield's ''RoboRally'' in 1994. Wizards published Garfield's '' Vampire: The Masquerade''-based CCG ''Jyhad'' in 1994, but changed the name to '' Vampire: The Eternal Struggle'' in 1995 to avoid offending Muslims. ''

'' (1996) was Garfield's CCG based on ''

Cyberpunk 2020 ''Cyberpunk'' is a tabletop role-playing game in the dystopian science fiction genre, written by Mike Pondsmith and first published by R. Talsorian Games in 1988. It is typically referred to by its second or fourth edition names, ''Cyberpunk 2 ...

'', where he included an element that made it an entirely asymmetrical game, with the two players having different cards, abilities, and goals. Wizards published the ''

BattleTech Collectible Card Game The ''BattleTech Trading Card Game'' is an out-of-print collectible card game (CCG) set in the ''BattleTech'' universe. The game was developed by Wizards of the Coast (WotC) for FASA and released in 1996. Description The ''BattleTech Trading ...

'' in 1996, based on Garfield's design. Peter Adkison was developing a ''

'' MMORPG based on a design from Garfield and

Skaff Elias Skaff Elias is a game designer. Career Skaff Elias had been working on '' Magic: The Gathering'' at Wizards of the Coast when the company was still fairly new. He was one of the designers for various ''Magic'' sets, including Arabian Nights (Dece ...

, but left Wizards in December 2000 after Hasbro sold the ''D&D'' computer rights and cancelled the project. In 1999, Garfield was inducted into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame alongside ''Magic''. He was a primary play tester for the ''

'' 3rd edition bookset, released by Wizards in 2000. He eventually left Wizards to become an independent game designer.

As an independent designer

He still sporadically contributes to '' Magic: The Gathering''. More recently, he has created the board games ''Pecking Order'' (2006) and ''Rocketville'' (2006). The latter was published by

Avalon Hill Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company' ...

, a subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast. He has shifted more of his attention to

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

s, having worked on the design and development of ''

Schizoid Schizoid personality disorder (, often abbreviated as SzPD or ScPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency toward a solitary or sheltered lifestyle, secretiveness, emotional coldness ...

'' and ''

Spectromancer Spectromancer (russian: Спектромансер) is a computer game developed by Apus Software and Three Donkeys LLC. The game was released in October 2008. The expansion League of Heroes, Truth & Beauty, and Gathering of Power are upgrade to t ...

'' as part of Three Donkeys LLC. He has been a game designer and consultant for companies including

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

. Garfield taught a class titled "The Characteristics of Games" at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...

. It is now taught as part of the University of Washington's Certificate in Game Design.

Games designed

Spiel 2015 Essen - Der Freitag - Treasure Hunter (21879288099)

A partial list of games designed by Garfield: * '' Magic: The Gathering'' (1993), collectible card game * '' RoboRally'' (1994), board game * '' Vampire: The Eternal Struggle'' (1994), collectible card game * '' The Great Dalmuti'' (1995), card game * ''

'' (1996), collectible card game * ''

BattleTech ''BattleTech'' is a wargaming and military science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984, acquired by WizKids in 2001, which was in turn acquired by Topps in 2003; and published since 2007 by Catalyst Game Labs. The tradema ...

'' (1996), collectible card game * '' Dilbert: Corporate Shuffle'' (1997), card game * '' Filthy Rich'' (1998), board game * ''Twitch'' (1998), card game * ''

'' (2002), collectible card game * ''Pecking Order'' (2006), board game * ''Rocketville'' (2006), board game * ''

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connec ...

'' (2007), board game anthology * ''

'' (2008), online card game * ''

'' (2008), console action game * ''Kard Combat'' (2011), iOS Game * ''

King of Tokyo ''King of Tokyo'' is a tabletop game using custom dice, cards, and boards, designed by Richard Garfield and released in 2011. A New York City-based edition, ''King of New York'', was published in 2014. The game was re-released in 2016, with all ...

'' (2011), board game * '' SolForge'' (2012), online digital card game * ''Ghooost!'' (2013), card game * ''King of New York'' (2014), board game * ''Treasure Hunter'' (2015), board game * ''SpyNet'' (2016), card game * ''Bunny Kingdom'' (2017), board game * '' Artifact'' (2018), digital trading card game * '' KeyForge'' (2018), unique deck game * ''Half Truth'' (2019), co-created with

Ken Jennings Kenneth Wayne Jennings III (born May 23, 1974) is an American game show host, author, and former game show contestant. He is the highest-earning American game show contestant, having won money on five different game shows, including $4,522,70 ...

, a party trivia game *
Carnival Of Monsters
' (2019) Kickstarted (failed) and eventually released through AMIGO Games * ''The Hunger'' (2021), board game *
Mindbug
' (2021), card game * ''Roguebook'' (2021),

roguelike deck-building game A roguelike deck-building game is a hybrid genre of video games that combine the nature of deck-building card games with procedural-generated randomness from roguelike games. Gameplay aspects Most roguelike deck-building games present the playe ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Garfield, Richard 1963 births 20th-century American mathematicians American game designers Board game designers Collectible card games

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stro ...

Living people Magic: The Gathering Mathematicians from Philadelphia People from Oregon University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Washington faculty Whitman College faculty 21st-century American inventors