Richard Garfield

For the nursing professor, see Richard Garfield (nursing professor).
Richard Garfield
Richard Garfield at Spiel 2014
Born
Richard Channing Garfield

(1963-06-26) June 26, 1963 (age 61)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Pennsylvania (BS, PhD)
Occupation(s)Mathematician, inventor, game designer
Known forMagic: The Gathering, Netrunner
RelativesJames A. Garfield (great-great-grandfather)
Scientific career
ThesisOn the residue classes of combinatorial families of numbers (1993)
Doctoral advisorHerbert Wilf
Websitewww.threedonkeys.com

Richard Channing Garfield (born June 26, 1963) is an American mathematician, inventor and game designer. Garfield created Magic: The Gathering, which is considered to be the first collectible card game (CCG). Magic debuted in 1993 and its success spawned many imitations.[1]

Garfield oversaw the successful growth of Magic and followed it with other game designs.[2] Included in these are Keyforge, Netrunner, BattleTech(CCG), Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, Star Wars Trading Card Game, The Great Dalmuti, Artifact and the board game RoboRally. He also created a variation of the card game Hearts called Complex Hearts.[3] Garfield first became passionate about games when he played the roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons,[4] so he designed Magic decks to be customizable like roleplaying characters.[5] Garfield and Magic are both in the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame.[6]

  1. ^ "Magic: The Gathering Fact Sheet" (PDF). Wizards of the Coast. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 24, 2009. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  2. ^ Varney, Allen. "Richard Garfield Archived 2014-01-22 at the Wayback Machine." The Escapist. 10 JULY 2007. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  3. ^ "Complex Hearts". Math.unl.edu. Archived from the original on 8 July 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference vasel 05 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Garfield Magic was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ List of Winners, Origins Game Fair. Retrieved 22 June 2013.