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David Kenzer
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David Kenzer | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Game designer |
David S. Kenzer is a game designer whose company, Kenzer & Company, is best known for the comic book series Knights of the Dinner Table, as well as for various role-playing games such as HackMaster.
Company start-up
[edit]In the early 1990s, David Kenzer, a law student, was playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons regularly with five friends, including Brian Jelkey and Steve Johansson.[1] In the spring of 1993, the group decided to start up a company in order to publish AD&D adventures. Kenzer filled out the paperwork to incorporate the company, and put "Kenzer and Company" as a placeholder for the company name. When the five friends objected to the name, Kenzer told them it was only a placeholder, and they were free to come up with a better name for the company. A discussion produced no consensus, and Kenzer laid down a deadline of a week to come up with a better name before he filed the papers. No better name was submitted, so the new company became known as Kenzer & Company.[1]
First products
[edit]Studying Intellectual Property law at the time, Kenzer was sure that the company could produce non-licensed material for AD&D without TSR's approval. Their first project, published in 1994 , was the AD&D-compatible adventure The Kingdom of Kalamar.[2]: 309 The adventure was marked "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."[2]: 309
After producing another adventure, Kenzer decided to branch out, producing a licensed collectible card game (CCG) based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail in 1996, which proved to be a bestseller.[1]
Knights of the Dinner Table
[edit]Kenzer began a casual relationship with Alderac Entertainment Group, which had just started to publish the RPG magazine Shadis, with Jolly Blackburn as editor.[2]: 309 Kenzer and his staff wanted Blackburn to join Kenzer & Company after he left AEG in 1995, and 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.[2]: 309
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.[2]: 310
Hackmaster
[edit]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.[2]: 311 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.[2]: 312
Awards
[edit]Kenzer's Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier, co-authored with Jolly R. Blackburn, Brian Jelke, Steve Johansson, Jennifer Kenzer and Mark Plemmons, won a 2007 Origins Award in the category Roleplaying Game of the Year 2007,[3] and a Silver ENnie Award for "Best Game of 2007."
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Kenzer and Company Interview". Gaming Ballistic. 10 May 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2026.
- ^ a b c d e f g Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
- ^ "2007 Origins Awards".