David Kenzer


David S. Kenzer is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.

Career

David Kenzer started the game company Kenzer & Company with friends Brian Jelke and Steve Johansson, and their initial project was The Kingdom of Kalamar, a systemless fantasy setting. Kenzer was a lawyer who knew how trademark law worked, and had "suitable for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 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." Following the publication of The Kingdom of Kalamar, Kenzer had formed a casual relationship with AEG, who was then putting out Shadis magazine, edited by Jolly Blackburn. When Blackburn left AEG, Kenzer and the staff of Kenzer & Company wanted to get Blackburn to join their company, and the turning point came in November 1996 when David Kenzer and others were visiting Blackburn over the course of a local con, during which Blackburn became convinced that Kenzer had the sort of business sense and integrity that he was looking for in a partner. Kenzer & Company began publishing Blackburn's Knights of the Dinner Table comic books, and starting with issue #5 it was not just the work of one person but instead of the "KoTD Development Team" which consisted 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 as a satire of AD&D. When Wizards released 4th edition D&D in 2008, Kenzer was unwilling to sign the Game System License that Wizards was offering, and he thus published a 501-page PDF of Kingdoms of Kalamar without authorization from Wizards.