Mark Rosewater is a
Magic: The GatheringMagic: The Gathering is a collectible card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic is the first example of the modern collectible card game genre and still thrives today, with an estimated six million players in over seventy...
card designer. He is currently
Magic's head designer.
Early life
Rosewater grew up in
Pepper Pike, OhioPepper Pike is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is an affluent suburb of Cleveland. The population was 6,040 at the 2000 census.- History :In 1815, sixteen pioneers settled the area along the eastern border of present-day Cuyahoga County...
, where he attended the
Orange High SchoolOrange High School is a public high school located in Pepper Pike, Ohio, an eastern suburb in the Greater Cleveland metropolitan area and part of the Northeast Ohio region. Orange High School primarily serves the affluent communities that historically formed Orange Township, which are Hunting...
. Rosewater has a Jewish background. Rosewater has described himself in his youth as a "social outcast", who did not have many friends. He was particularly small, smart and was bullied by other children. In his youth, he worked as a professional magician.
Education
Rosewater attended
Boston UniversityBoston University is a private nonsectarian university located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Although chartered by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1869, Boston University traces its roots to the establishment of the Newbury Biblical Institute in Newbury, Vermont in 1839...
, where he got a
Bachelor of ScienceA Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years ....
in
Communication Communication is a process of transferring information from one entity to another. Communication processes are sign-mediated interactions between at least two agents which share a repertoire of signs and semiotic rules. Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of...
.
Television
After graduating, Rosewater started his career in television as a
runnerA gofer or go-fer is an employee who is often sent on errands.The term originated in North America, with the phrase dogsbody being a similar British term, and dog robber an American military one...
. He then found work as a writer. Before 1994 he was on the writing staff of
RoseanneRoseanne is an American sitcom broadcast on ABC from 1988 to 1997 starring Roseanne Barr.The series reached #1 in the Nielsen Ratings becoming the most watched television show in the United States from 1989 to 1990, and remained in the top four for six of its nine seasons, and in the top twenty for...
. He is credited for two Roseanne episodes: "Vegas, Vegas" and "Take My Bike, Please", both aired in 1991. He considered his time in Hollywood a "roller coaster ride." While working as a free lance writer he took a job at a game store in order to have some social contacts. Working there he got in contact with
Magic: The Gathering.
Magic: The Gathering
Between 2010 and 2011, Rosewater will do freelance work at
Wizards of the CoastWizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes...
, the company which makes
Magic: the GatheringMagic: The Gathering is a collectible card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic is the first example of the modern collectible card game genre and still thrives today, with an estimated six million players in over seventy...
. He wrote puzzles based on
Magic cards and other articles for the
The DuelistThe Duelist was created in late 1994 as a quarterly magazine produced by Wizards of the Coast to accompany the increasingly popular Magic: The Gathering trading card game...
, the Wizards of the Coast magazine promoting and covering
Magic. In 1996
Magic: The Puzzling was published, a collection of 25 puzzles written for
The Duelist. Since 1996 Rosewater has worked for Wizards of the Coast as a designer of
Magic cards. Rosewater has designed at least one card for every Magic expansion since
AlliancesAlliances was the fourteenth Magic: The Gathering set and eighth expansion set, released on 10 June 1996. It was released 8 months after Homelands, which is the longest gap between expansion sets in the history of the game. It is now the middle set in the Ice Age block since the July 2006 release...
. While working for Wizards of the Coast, he wrote columns called “Insider Trading” for the magazines
The Duelist,
TopdeckTopdeck Travel is a tour operator providing trips for passengers aged 18 to 30s throughout Europe, Africa and Egypt. The company was founded in 1973 by Graham "Skroo" Turner, who later went on to found Flight Centre in Australia.-Early Days:...
, and
The SideboardThe Sideboard was a magazine published by Wizards of the Coast that covered Magic: The Gathering tournaments and expert play. After six years of publication, it ceased its print activities and much of the content from The Sideboard was folded into magicthegathering.com.Originally titled "The...
which gave an inside look at
Magic design.
Rosewater has been the lead designer for
TempestTempest was the 20th Magic: The Gathering set and twelfth expert level set, and the first set in the Rath Block, released in October 1997. The release of Tempest represented a large jump in the power level of the card set, compared to the previous Mirage block. Many cards from Tempest instantly...
,
Urza’s Destiny,
OdysseyOdyssey is the 24th Magic:The Gathering expert-level expansion set. Released in September, 2001, Odyssey is the first set in the Odyssey Block. Its expansion symbol is a small image of the Mirari .-Storyline:...
,
MirrodinMirrodin was the 50th Magic: The Gathering set, the 30th expert level set, and the first set in the Mirrodin Block, released in October 2003. It is a 306-card expansion set. It is also the name of the block containing the Mirrodin, Darksteel and Fifth Dawn expansion sets...
,
Ravnica: City of GuildsThis article is about the Magic: The Gathering set known as Ravnica: City of Guilds. For an article about the plane and the guilds mentioned below, see Ravnica ....
,
Future SightFuture Sight is an expansion set, codenamed "Pop", for the trading card game Magic: The Gathering. The set was released worldwide on May 4, 2007. The pre-release events for this set were held on April 21 and April 22 2007.-Storyline:...
,
ShadowmoorShadowmoor is an expansion set, codenamed "Jelly," from the trading card game Magic: The Gathering. It was released on May 2nd, 2008. The pre-release events for this set were held on April 19-20, 2008.-Set Details:...
, and
EventideEventide is an expansion set from the trading card game Magic: The Gathering. It was released on July 25, 2008. The pre-release events for this set were held on July 12 and July 13 2008.- Set Details :...
. He also did the design of the
UngluedFor the Stone Temple Pilots song, please see Unglued .Unglued is the name of a Magic: The Gathering expansion set, the first silver-bordered, non-tournament-legal Magic: The Gathering expansion set released. It came out in August 1998. Its symbol is a cracked egg...
set by himself. In it he combined his career as a magic card designer with his previous career as a comedy writer. Picking up on the comic note of the "un"-sets, he judged the
Unglued pre-release wearing a chicken suit and the
Unhinged pre-release wearing a donkey suit. He also wrote the flavor text for sets such as
MirageMirage was the fifteenth Magic: The Gathering set and ninth expert level set, released in October 1996. This expansion began the first official block set with one large expansion being followed by two smaller expansions all tied together through card mechanics and setting. This expansion also...
and Tempest.
Rosewater championed the Pro Tournament for years, including the important idea of having feature matches at professional events.
Since 2002, Rosewater has a weekly column called "Making Magic" on magicthegathering.com, the official site of Wizards of the Coast. In these columns, much like in his previous "Insider Trader"-columns he gives an inside look on how Magic cards are created. He has written on many controversial subjects, such as why Wizards of the Coast makes "bad rares".
Other key subjects of his columns include Wizards of the Coast's "psychographic" profiles of players called "Timmy", "Johnny", and "Spike" and the color wheel. He often writes his articles in off-the-wall or unusual styles. For instance in one column he took the perspective of the Magic card "", in another he wrote from the perspective of the mechanic "splice". One article, which even had the subject "Mark Rosewater Admits He’s %#@$ Insane!" was written like a
bulletin boardA bulletin board is a place where people can leave public messages, for example, to advertise things to buy or sell, announce events, or provide information...
on one of his columns. Many articles also touch upon his personal life. Rosewater claims he reads every email sent to him and has written several mailbag columns in which he responds to praise and criticism alike.
In December 2003 he became Magic's lead designer, later called head designer. Before that he was senior head designer. As head designer Rosewater has written a "State of Design"-column every year, in it he has reviewed the
Magic design of the last year and he has written his plans for future
Magic designs. His most important contribution as a head designer is the institution of block design.
Mark Rosewater's nickname is Maro. This came about because the old email system of WotC had a feature that could complete names based on the letters typed in and Bill Rose found out that the shortest unique combination of letters that he could write to email Mark Rosewater was Maro. In the
MirageMirage was the fifteenth Magic: The Gathering set and ninth expert level set, released in October 1996. This expansion began the first official block set with one large expansion being followed by two smaller expansions all tied together through card mechanics and setting. This expansion also...
expansion of the card game, a creature card named "" named after him was included; Rosewater claims that it is his favorite magic card. is his second favorite card. He made the art of this card himself. Rosewater considers his personality to align with that ascribed to blue-red in the game itself, and the player profile of "Johnny."
Private Life
Rosewater is married to Lora Rosewater. They have three children; a daughter Rachel (born 2000) and twins Adam and Sarah (born 2004). As a hobby Rosewater likes "stereotypically geeky things", such as comics, television, games and writing. He for instance owns a collection of action figures of comic book characters.
External links