Richard Garfield

Richard Garfield is an American game designer and mathematician who created Magic: The Gathering and designed other tabletop and card games.

Magic: The Gathering: A collectible card game in which players build decks and use cards to battle one another. Garfield created the game, whose expandable card pool made it his defining design.
Collectible card game: A card game distributed through randomized products, with players collecting and assembling personal decks. Magic established the modern form Garfield used to make cards collectible and decks personal.
University of Pennsylvania: A private research university in Philadelphia, founded in 1740. Garfield studied mathematics there and developed the early game that became Magic.
Mark Rosewater: An American game designer and writer who has led design for Magic: The Gathering since 1996. Rosewater continued developing the game Garfield originated and has documented its design principles.
Trading card game: A game played with collectible cards that players acquire and assemble into decks. Garfield's Magic popularized the commercial format and established its core expectations.
Netrunner: A two-player card game about asymmetric conflict between a corporation and a hacker. Garfield designed this asymmetric collectible card game, later revived as Android: Netrunner.
Deck-building game: A card game in which players acquire cards during play to construct a deck. Unlike Magic's prebuilt decks, this later genre makes deck construction part of each match.
Peter Adkison: An American entrepreneur who founded Wizards of the Coast and helped publish Magic: The Gathering. Adkison recognized Garfield's prototype and made its publication possible.
James Ernest: An American game designer and publisher known for Cheapass Games and tabletop designs. Ernest and Garfield collaborated on tabletop games, including the card game Schizoid.
Booster pack: A sealed package containing a randomized selection of trading cards. Magic's randomized booster sales connected collecting and deck development to game play.

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Digital collectible card gameRelated: His design of Magic helped define the collectible-card structure adapted by digital games.