Only Monte Cook could've made the trip to China

[Libertad]

Some time ago a dude named Kevin Crawford (Spears of the Dawn guy) wrote up a base class for Basic B/X Dungeons & Dragons retroclones.  The Blademaster was interesting in that it incorporated several of Tome of Battle's features, most notably the concept of per-encounter maneuvers and stances in the form of always-active buffs.

Interestingly many old-school gamers within the OSR (who is Crawford's primary market demographic) are not very fond of gaming mechanics from newer D&D editions.  I'm not saying all of them are this way, but there is a contingent of folks among them who view such games as too high-powered and balanced in comparison to their preferred editions.

Still, Crawford got some interested parties, and it motivated me to write up two homebrew Blademaster schools of my own.


So, if you had to implement a choice in the table-top fandom which would be unpopular, which game designer/personality would you view as the best option for wooing over the other side?  Let's assume you're publishing a third-party sourcebook for the opposing demographic, and can choose said designer as the main writer.  Just to start off with some examples, who would you pick...

1.) to implement an alternate spellcasting system to Vancian magic for Gygaxian purists?

2.) to create a "dark superheroes" Vampire game for "crapsack world" fans?

3.) to write an old-school style DM empowerment rules variant for 3.X/Pathfinder fans?

4.) to write a setting with anime art and aesthetics for OSR gamers?

[Solo]

4.) to write a setting with anime art and aesthetics for OSR gamers?

I nominate myself to write a kung fu adventure.

[Samwise]

1.) to implement an alternate spellcasting system to Vancian magic for Gygaxian purists?

Gygax.
He wrote non-Vancian systems for some of his other games. Clone one of them and throw it in the faces of grognerds as "inspired by the system of Gygax!"

If you are a masochist, you might try Kuntz or Lakofka, but I accept no responsibility for the outcome.

2.) to create a "dark superheroes" Vampire game for "crapsack world" fans?

Actually . . . Monte Cook.
He was involved with the Dark Champions supplement back in the day, as well as a bunch of PS stuff. If you can't get the lead, Steven S. Long, then you may as well fall back on Monte.

3.) to write an old-school style DM empowerment rules variant for 3.X/Pathfinder fans?

Frank Mentzer and Skip Williams.
They'll still hate it, but I'd probably buy it. 

4.) to write a setting with anime art and aesthetics for OSR gamers?

No idea. Not a genre I know.