Why did James love this book?
I started playing Dungeons & Dragons back in 1977, and this book chronicles the rise of the game and the conflicts among the men who created it: Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
I saw a lot of this history from the outside, via hobby magazines and gossip, but Peterson's exhaustive and detailed research helped me understand what was really going on. He paints a fair picture of flawed people trying to understand the new type of game they invented, and come to grips with the new hobby community that grew up around it.
One comes away feeling a little sorry for two creators who lost their friendship over business, then lost the business as well.
1 author picked Game Wizards as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
The story of the arcane table-top game that became a pop culture phenomenon and the long-running legal battle waged by its cocreators.
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. As the game's fiftieth anniversary approaches, Peterson--a noted authority on role-playing games--explains…