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| David Kenzer | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Game designer |
David S. Kenzer is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Career
David Kenzer was a lawyer who started the game company Kenzer & Company with his friends Brian Jelke and Steve Johansson, and their first project was The Kingdom of Kalamar (1994), a fantasy setting without a game system. Kenzer understood trademark law, and had "suitable for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons printed 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." Kenzer began a casual relationship with Alderac Entertainment Group after releasing The Kingdom of Kalamar, as that young company was then publishing Shadis magazine with Jolly Blackburn as editor. Kenzer and his staff wanted Blackburn to join Kenzer & Company after he left AEG in 1995, and David Kenzer and others visited him in November 1996 during a local convention, during which Blackburn became convinced that Kenzer had the business sense and integrity he wanted in a partner. Kenzer & Company began publishing the Knights of the Dinner Table comic books by Blackburn, and beginning with issue #5 (February 1997) it became the work of the "KoDT Development Team" made up of Blackburn, Kenzer, Jelke and Johansson. Kenzer acquired the license to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons from Wizards of the Coast that allowed the company to release HackMaster (2001) as a satire of AD&D. Kenzer was not willing to sign the Game System License that Wizards offered when they released 4th edition D&D in 2008, and he instead published a 501-page PDF for Kingdoms of Kalamar (2008) and did not reach out to Wizards for authorization.
References
- ^ Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.