Jon Peterson

A wonderful trip down memory lane, with the right balance of art, brief history and humour.
From page 85:
And as D&D attracted this eager audience, the newly printed Dungeon Masters Guide (1979) was there to meet them.
In addition to providing counsel on the design of adventures and the adjudication of combat, the Dungeon Masters Guide also contained the ultimate treasure room of magic items that every adventurer coveted -pages where players would endlessly window-shop and fantasize about artifacts that might turn their characters into gods.

And although primarily focusing on the Art of D&D, the structure provided by using a chronological history of the game, interspersed with the developing art of monsters through editions, make this a fascinating and entertaining read.… (mehr)

Jon Peterson has made a name for himself as a gaming historian. His rightly lauded and fastidiously researched Playing at the World may well be the definitive treatment of the historical antecedents of modern role-playing games across the centuries.

Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons tackles a more focused topic: the creation of D&D and the first 12 years of Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) from its founding to the fateful evening when Gary Gygax was removed from direct control of the company. Peterson is particularly interested in divining credit for the game’s creation, sifting through the competing claims of Gygax and Dave Arneson, and detailing the (mis)management of TSR which led to Gygax inadvertently placing himself in danger of losing the company he co-founded.

Like Playing at the World, Game Wizards is well-researched with 30 pages of endnotes citing various trade magazines, columns in Dragon, and other sources. But what makes the book more readable than, say, Playing at the World is that Game Wizards has a compelling narrative on which to hang the various financial figures and convention numbers. No one thought Dungeons & Dragon would be an especially profitable idea (Peterson regularly reminds us that Gygax and Arneson thought it might be a “$300 idea”). So when the game takes off, what had been built on nebulous contracts and verbal agreements quickly becomes the focus of intense legal battles as various players seek their piece of the pie.

At yet those battles seem to have been exacerbated by the interpersonal conflicts that inevitably arose when a bunch of hobbyists tried to run a business. Broken promises, poor HR policies and procedures, and the lure of wealth and fame seem to have taken its toll on those who initially banded together to bring D&D to life, leading to the sad but inevitable climax of Gygax’s reign.

Game Wizards is a treat for RPG fans, especially those (like me) who came to the hobby well after the events it depicts. I highly recommend it.… (mehr)