Since it’s Black History Month, I’m making sure you folks know about Mike Pondsmith.
Mike designed, amongst other things, Cyberpunk 2020 and its wonderful spin-off Cybergeneration. He designed the critically-acclaimed Castle Falkenstein. A black man kicked off interest in two incredibly white-dominated genres in a white-dominated hobby is a remarkable achievement.
Which is why it bugs me that I didn’t know he was black until a couple of years ago. I figure the least I can do is make sure other folks know too.
I’m actually kinda angry at the collective hobby for never communicating this to me before now. I recognized his name and of course immediately recognized the games he’s designed — Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0 and Castle Falkenstein are profoundly important and influential works. I don’t think there was much at all in the way of steampunk in the TTRPG world prior to the latter’s introduction (and after it came out I remember arguments over whether or not it “counted” as steampunk).
Mekton 2 was the first time i remember seeing a black dude on a RPG cover
If anything, the OP’s description is underselling Mike Pondsmith’s influence.
The guy is single-handedly responsible for creating enormous chunks of the tabletop roleplaying hobby: from Mekton, the first giant robot RPG; to the Urusei Yatsura-inspired Teenagers from Outer Space, the first anime style slice-of-life RPG; tothe above-cited Cyberpunk, the first cyberpunk RPG; and even to Castle Falkenstein,
which is often labeled a steampunk RPG, but is more properly considered as one of the foundational works of the then-nascent gaslamp fantasy genre.
In a just world, the name Pondsmith would be spoken in the same breath as Gygax and Arneson – he’s Kind of a Big Deal!
