Mark Rosewater facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mark Rosewater
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| Born | May 25, 1967 |
| Occupation | Head designer for Magic: The Gathering |
Mark Rosewater (born May 25, 1967) is a very important person behind the popular card game Magic: The Gathering. He has been the main designer for the game since 2003. This means he helps decide how new cards and game rules are made.
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About Mark Rosewater
Mark Rosewater grew up in Pepper Pike, Ohio. When he was young, he worked as a professional magician, performing tricks for people. He faced some challenges growing up, but he was a very smart student in high school and got many offers for college scholarships. He went to Boston University and studied Communication.
Mark's Career Journey
Working in Television
After college, Mark started his career in television. He began as a "runner," helping out on TV sets. Later, he became a writer. Before 1994, he wrote for the TV show Roseanne. He wrote two episodes for the show in 1991. Mark has said that working in Hollywood was a big adventure. While working as a freelance writer, he also got a job at a game store. It was there that he first learned about Magic: The Gathering from a customer.
Designing Magic: The Gathering
Since 1995, Mark Rosewater has worked for Wizards of the Coast, the company that creates Magic: The Gathering. He started by writing puzzles and articles about Magic cards for magazines like The Duelist. In 1996, a book called Magic: The Puzzling was published, which was a collection of his puzzles.
Since 1996, Mark has been a designer for Magic cards. He has helped design at least one card for almost every new Magic set since Alliances. He also wrote columns for magazines, giving people an inside look at how Magic cards are designed.
Mark has been the lead designer for many Magic sets, including Tempest, Mirrodin, Ravnica: City of Guilds, Zendikar, Innistrad, Theros, Khans of Tarkir, Dominaria, War of the Spark, and many more. He was also the only designer for Unglued, a funny Magic set where he combined his card design skills with his comedy writing background. For the release events of these "un"-sets, he even dressed up in funny costumes, like a chicken suit and a donkey suit! He also wrote the "flavor text" (the little stories or quotes) on cards in sets like Mirage and Tempest.
Mark was a big supporter of "Pro Tournaments" for Magic, which are big competitions where players can win cash prizes. He also came up with the idea of "feature matches," which are special games highlighted for people watching because the players are famous or the game is very exciting.
Since 2002, Mark has written a weekly column called "Making Magic" on the official Magic: The Gathering website. In these columns, he shares how Magic cards are created. He talks about interesting topics, like why some "rare" cards might not seem very powerful. He also writes about different types of Magic players, like "Timmy/Tammy," "Johnny/Jenny," "Vorthos," and "Spike," and explains the "color wheel" of Magic. Sometimes, he writes his articles in very creative or unusual ways, like pretending to be a Magic card or a game mechanic. He says he reads every email sent to him and often answers questions from fans in his columns.
In December 2003, Mark became the head designer for Magic. Every year, he writes a "State of Design" column, where he looks back at how Magic was designed in the past year and shares plans for the future. One of his most important ideas as head designer was creating the "block design" system for new sets.
Mark's nickname is Maro. This nickname came from an old email system at Wizards of the Coast. A creature card named "Maro" was even included in the Mirage expansion, named after him. He says it's his favorite Magic card! His second favorite card is "Look at Me, I'm the DCI", which he drew the art for himself. Mark also has a podcast called "Drive to Work," where he talks about many different topics, usually related to Magic design.
Mark's Personal Life
Mark Rosewater is married to Lora Rosewater. They have three children: a daughter named Rachel (born in 2000) and twins named Adam and Sarah (born in 2004). For fun, Mark enjoys things that are often called "geeky," like reading comics, watching TV, playing games, and writing. He even collects action figures of comic book characters.
