Oh, I dunno about "best".  That'd take lots of objective research and stress tests and some pie charts.

Now, my favorites?  

• GREG COSTIKYAN, for his work on Star Wars back in the 1980s
  
• S JOHN ROSS, because Points In Space was absolutely delightful and because he rescued Encounter Critical from oblivion
  
• BRETT BERNSTEIN is a new favorite whose Genre Diversion and Impresa lines have satisfied me at every turn -- and which beg to be played and played with
  
• CHRIS ENGLE, whom you have probably never heard of, has done a lot of work to strip gaming down to its essence, encourage creativity and open it up to a wider audience with his "Engle Matrix" game
  

I'm also impressed with Jeff Combos, whose Hollow Earth Expedition is getting ooohs and ahhhs from my friends -- and from me.

Costikyan is something of a minor deity.  Not only did he design great games but his recent work in the videogames industry has been nothing less than heroic.

  John Tynes is something of a personal hero too.  Since he left the gaming industry he's done some good writing and his Contrarian column is always worth a read but when he was in the games industry, I think that he was single-handedly responsible for re-invigorating Cthulhu at least three times; initially with the Unspeakable oath bringing an intelligence to Cthulhu design that had been lacking from Chaosium for years, then there were the Delta Green books and finally his in-character posts on RPGnet which I think formed the basis for Chaosium's recent change of direction of Cthulhu.  Plus he wrote Unknown Armies.

As systems monkeys go Greg Stolze is hard to beat.

Yeah, Unknown Armies really was a bit of a "Dream Team" production.  All you would have needed for it to be complete is the guy from the Exalted books who puts nipple rings on everyone.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!

• CHRIS ENGLE, whom you have probably never heard of, has done a lot of work to strip gaming down to its essence, encourage creativity and open it up to a wider audience with his "Engle Matrix" game

Oh, I've heard of him.  I've always seen his works as occupying that space between Murder Mystery Night-style events and RPGs.  He's a very interesting fella to talk to, as well (and is a fellow Hoosier)!

Quote from: Hastur T. FannonNo love for Monte Cook?

Right here. Monte's stuff really clicks with me, except in a few cases - Arcana Unearthed I didn't really care about one way or the other. But stuff like Ptolus and Requiem for a God kick serious ass. Plus, he had a major role in D&D 3e, of course, which gives him high marks in my book.

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalJohn Tynes is something of a personal hero too.  Since he left the gaming industry he's done some good writing and his Contrarian column is always worth a read but when he was in the games industry, I think that he was single-handedly responsible for re-invigorating Cthulhu at least three times; initially with the Unspeakable oath bringing an intelligence to Cthulhu design that had been lacking from Chaosium for years, then there were the Delta Green books and finally his in-character posts on RPGnet which I think formed the basis for Chaosium's recent change of direction of Cthulhu.

He also was in on the d20 version of Call of Cthulhu, which I think is outstanding. I played in a campaign of this game, and it holds up against its BRP forebear. In my mind, it set the bar pretty high for d20 products, a bar which was rarely reached until the last year or two.

Quote from: ColonelHardissonHe also was in on the d20 version of Call of Cthulhu, which I think is outstanding. I played in a campaign of this game, and it holds up against its BRP forebear. In my mind, it set the bar pretty high for d20 products, a bar which was rarely reached until the last year or two.

I think the rules are flawed, which is a shame as I think it was close to brilliant.  The two classes don't really work and I think you need the Mike Mearls free online expansions to really make it work properly (ish).

The GM sections that Tynes wrote are excellent though, agreed.

Quote from: BalbinusI think the rules are flawed, which is a shame as I think it was close to brilliant.  The two classes don't really work and I think you need the Mike Mearls free online expansions to really make it work properly (ish).

They worked quite well for the group I was in, which numbered 6 players and a GM. The campaign lasted about a year. We never had any problem with the classes. What was perceived to be the problem? Do you have a link to Mike Mearls' expansions?

http://www.mearls.com/cthulhu/index.html

With the classes, simply that they didn't really relate to anything.  Defensive and offensive just seemed a wierd split, academic and action orientated would have made far more sense or better yet no classes at all.

Steve Kenson is the single writer whose work most impresses me right now. M&M2 and True20 are games I'm really keen to run sometime. And Freedom City is the setting I've most wanted to run on sight in a long time.

Nigel D Findley. He wrote a ton of incredibly good stuff, including several Shadowrun classics. It's a tragedy that he died young in 1995.

No one compares to me... for me. I'm the top of a hill of one!


If force to name real designers, I'll go with the same answers I gave as most underrated: George MacDonald & Steve Peterson

Aaron Allston. The BD&D Rules Cyclopedia was 10 years ahead of its time. It's about the best game you could make using the 2e/BD&D paradigm of doing stuff, and probably two standard deviations better than anything else anyone has done with that model.

Quote from: ColonelHardissonHe also was in on the d20 version of Call of Cthulhu, which I think is outstanding. I played in a campaign of this game, and it holds up against its BRP forebear. In my mind, it set the bar pretty high for d20 products, a bar which was rarely reached until the last year or two.

  CoC D20 has a fascinating history on RPGnet with everyone initially horrified that such a combat-phobic game should be adapted to D20.  Then this poster appeared who began by bitching about how awful CoC D20 was but then seemed to be won round by it and promptly began to spit out a series of campaign ideas so utterly crazy and yet so strangely fitting that it can be safely said, they completely turned the game's reputation around and into what is probably the most widely respected D20 port on RPGnet.

  Ah... here's the thread.

  There's still some debate over who the guy actually was but I like to think it was John Tynes.

  Re-reading that thread was a joy, I'd forgotten about trading styx and shakira CDs for healing potions and getting Jimmy Paige to play Stairway to heaven at Drizzt Do'Urden's funeral.