Rich Banner

Paul Richard "Rich" Banner is an American game designer and graphic artist.

Beginnings Rich Banner and Frank Chadwick formed the ISU Game Club at the Illinois State University (Normal, Illinois). Banner engineered a grant which funded the printing of blank hex sheets (suitable for making wargame maps) and they began drafting a variety of designs, some derivative of existing games at the time, and some original concepts.

In 1973, Illinois State University, under a program to fund educational innovation, created SimRAD (Simulation Research, Analysis, and Design), which designed games for implementation in the college classroom. At about the same time, Banner and Chadwick, along with newcomers Marc Miller and Loren Wiseman, decided to publish a massive World War II simulation game, and founded Game Designers' Workshop as their publishing company. His graphics for the System 7 (printed Napoleonics Miniatures) won him the H G Wells Award for Best Historical Figure Series in 1979 (and Chadwick received the companion H G Wells Award for Best Miniatures Rules for 1979).

Banner is credited as co-designer on six of the 11 original Europa Series of World War II wargames.

He was honored as a "famous game designer" by being featured as the king of diamonds in Flying Buffalo's 2010 Famous Game Designers Playing Card Deck.

Game Manufacturers' Association Banner was the first treasurer (1977–78) for the newly formed Game Manufacturers' Association, and its second president (1978-1981). During his tenure, the Association established its basic goals of promoting and protecting the game manufacturing industry, and oversaw the creation of the annual GAMA trade show.