4.0
Game Wizards
ByPublisher Description
Discover the colorful history of the table-top RPG phenomenon, Dungeons & Dragons, as a D&D expert examines its surprising successes, setbacks, and controversies.
“The battle over Dungeons & Dragons was the ultimate geek war.” —Wired
When Dungeons & Dragons was first released to a small hobby community, it hardly seemed destined for mainstream success—and yet this arcane tabletop role-playing game became an unlikely pop culture phenomenon. In Game Wizards, Jon Peterson chronicles the rise of Dungeons & Dragons from hobbyist pastime to mass market sensation, from the initial collaboration to the later feud of its creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Inside you’ll learn about:
• Gygax and Arneson’s first meeting and their work toward the 1974 release
• The founding of TSR and its growth as a company
• Arneson’s acrimonious departure and subsequent challenges to TSR
• "Satanic Panic" accusations that plagued D&D—and boosted its popularity
• TSR’s reckless expansion and near-fatal corporate infighting
• And much more!
With Game Wizards, Peterson restores historical particulars long obscured by competing narratives spun by the one-time partners. That record amply demonstrates how the turbulent experience of creating something as momentous as Dungeons & Dragons can make people remember things a bit differently from the way they actually happened.
“The battle over Dungeons & Dragons was the ultimate geek war.” —Wired
When Dungeons & Dragons was first released to a small hobby community, it hardly seemed destined for mainstream success—and yet this arcane tabletop role-playing game became an unlikely pop culture phenomenon. In Game Wizards, Jon Peterson chronicles the rise of Dungeons & Dragons from hobbyist pastime to mass market sensation, from the initial collaboration to the later feud of its creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Inside you’ll learn about:
• Gygax and Arneson’s first meeting and their work toward the 1974 release
• The founding of TSR and its growth as a company
• Arneson’s acrimonious departure and subsequent challenges to TSR
• "Satanic Panic" accusations that plagued D&D—and boosted its popularity
• TSR’s reckless expansion and near-fatal corporate infighting
• And much more!
With Game Wizards, Peterson restores historical particulars long obscured by competing narratives spun by the one-time partners. That record amply demonstrates how the turbulent experience of creating something as momentous as Dungeons & Dragons can make people remember things a bit differently from the way they actually happened.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesGame Wizards Reviews
4.0
“Abridged – Full review on Substack paddyewi.substack.com
Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons is a historical account of the genesis of Dungeons and Dragons, its writers and publishers with as much drama, intrigue and interpersonal chaos as your average game of D&D.
Game Wizards outlines the early conventions and collaborations that made D&D – and TSR’s success – possible, and also sheds light on the disputes of D&D’s ownership and authorship. The games two credited creators – Gygax and Arneson – would feud for many years over rights and royalties. Though Gygax is a name many will know, and be familiar with as one of the game’s creators – Arneson also played a significant role. Game Wizards narrates the relationship between the two (and Gygax’s company TSR) through detailed recount from letters, accounting and even community discourse through fanzines such as Other Worlds and Alarums and Excursions.
Each chapter of Game Wizards presents one year, detailing the publications, business moves and interpersonal conflicts of each. This approach gives a real-time feeling to the story. This makes potent the astronomical rise of TSR. The incredible rapid expansion of TSR from the garages of wargaming hobbyists to a million-dollar business within only a few years is fascinating to witness through the timeline Peterson presents. This is aided by each chapter ending with a summary of TSR’s yearly revenue and stock valuation, Gen-Con’s yearly attendance figures and other details such as ‘players eliminated’ or ‘disputed HG Wells awards’ which put numerical values on the story.
I think fans of Dungeons & Dragons, or the broader hobby, who have any interest in its genesis and early history will take great enjoyment in reading Game Wizards. It will certainly bolster your appreciation of just how lucky we all are that this game succeeded and survived.”About Jon Peterson
Jon Peterson, a leading expert on Dungeons & Dragons and role-playing games, is the author of Playing at the World, Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana (a Hugo Award finalist), the New York Times bestseller Heroes' Feast, and The Elusive Shift: How Role-Playing Games Forged Their Identity (MIT Press).
Other books by Jon Peterson
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