Frank Mentzer

Who is Frank Mentzer?

Jacob Franklin "Frank" Mentzer III, is an American fantasy author and game designer best known for his work on early materials for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. He was a performing folk musician from 1968 to 1975, and played one concert at the White House during the administration of Richard Nixon. He was an employee of TSR, Inc. from 1980–1986, part of that time as Creative Advisor to the Chairman of the Board, Gary Gygax. He also founded the Role-Playing Games Association during his time with TSR. He has been closely involved with the world's largest game auction at the Gen Con game convention since 1983, and is an expert on family boardgames and role-playing games. After Gygax was ousted from TSR at the end of 1985, Mentzer left TSR as well and helped Gygax to start New Infinities Productions Inc.. When this venture failed, Mentzer left the gaming industry, eventually becoming the manager of a bakery. In 2008, he closed down this business, and two years later, announced he was returning to the gaming industry as a founding partner of a new publishing company, Eldritch Enterprises.