Favorite Designers

I've always said that my favorite game designers were:

• Teuber (The Settlers of Catan)
• Kramer (The Princes of Florence)
• and Moon (Ticket to Ride)...
• with Knizia (Ra) & Rosenberg (Bohnanza, Agricola) close behind.

But I recently ran some stats (love BGG John Farrell's x-tended stats page, eh?) and here's the actual order of finish for folks I've played enough to matter:

1. Stephen Baker, Craig Van Ness & Rob Daviau... yep, they not only created Heroscape, but they also made Queen's Gambit a reality and have overseen some really nifty re-treads of Risk, Clue (the Clue DVD game is great!), and Monopoly.
2. Richard Borg... Liar's Dice alone would cement his rep - but when you add in Pig Pile (the best "better than UNO" game ever), Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel, Wyatt Earp and the Command & Colors series (Battle Cry, Memoir '44, C&C:Ancients and Battlelore), you've got a genius on your hands.
3. Tom Lehmann... and it's not just about Race for the Galaxy. To Court the King is golden and Fast Food Franchise is one of my top ten games.
4. Klaus Teuber... I love me some Settlers - but the cream of the crop is the original Lowenherz.
5. Mike Fitzgerald... the Mystery Rummy series is so good that I'll give anything else he touches a try.
6. Wolfgang Riedesser... he hasn't done much lately (Wurfel Kick, which I've never even seen) but his ratio of game/fun is so darn good (Ave Caesar/Ausgebremst, Dschungelrennen, Secrets of the Deep, Route 66, etc.). Your mileage may seriously vary. :-)
7. Uwe Rosenberg... the man does magical things with cards. I love Agricola, but I'm fasciinated right now by how much we're having with Nottingham.
8. Heinz Meister... the king of kid game design. Seriously. Here's a short list of some major accomplishments: Barenstark, Daddy Cool, Die Kullerbande, Galloping Pigs, Hupf Hupf Hurra, Igloo Pop, Karambolage, Maus nach Haus, Nur Peanuts, Turbulento, Zapp Zerapp, Zitternix. The gaming world would be a much sadder place without him.
9. Franz-Benno Delonge... and speaking of sad, the loss of Herr Delonge is great. While I don't like all of his designs, he approached things from a different angle.
10. Wolfgang Kramer... I don't like his action point games (with the exception of Torres) but he knows his way around a game table and is willing to design just about anything.
11. Alan Moon... again, many of the supposed "classic" designs from Alan are not my favorites - but I'd be happy to play Andromeda or Mush with anyone who asks.
12. Michael Schacht... sometimes his stuff gets a little same-y, but when it works (Zooloretto, Kardinal & Konig, Richileu, etc.) it's very good.
13. Reiner Knizia... like Moon, the stuff I like is not always the stuff other people like - Clash of the Gladiators or Hot Potatoes, anyone?!

And a few guys I want to watch:

• Lutz Stepponat (designer of Return of the Heroes... I really want to play his Midgard: Das Brettspiel game, not to be confused with the oddly random Midgard game that played like El Grande had swallowed Candyland)
• Jean du Poel (when he's good - Carabande - he's VERY, very good... and when he's not, I usually I have managed to avoid it... still, he comes up with stuff no one else does)
• Thomas Liesching (OK, not everyone liked Niagara as much as I did - but I thought it was wonderful & creative & delightful to play... I want to see what he comes up with next.)
• Jens-Peter Schliemann (His "classy" game is Burg Appenzell... but this is the same guy who came up with Pirahna Pedro & Nacht der Magier. His continued success bodes well for all of us who love nifty bits & "fluffy" games.)
• Bruno Cathala (he's all over the map... for every gem like Droles de Zebres there's a miss like Drake & Drake... and some of the games that people adore of his - Mission: Red Planet, Mr. Jack - leave me cold. But this guy dreamed up Du Balai, Cleopatra, Shadows Over Camelot, Queen's Necklace & Jamaica... whatever comes next will be intriguing even if I don't like it.)