Jon Peterson

Explore the conceptual origins of wargames and role-playing games in this unprecedented history of simulating the real and the impossible. From a vast survey of primary sources ranging from eighteenth-century strategists to modern hobbyists, Playing at the World distills the story of how gamers first decided fictional battles with boards and dice, and how they moved from simulating wars to simulating people. The invention of role-playing games serves as a touchstone for exploring the ways that the literary concept of character, the lure of fantastic adventure and the principles of gaming combined into the signature cultural innovation of the late twentieth century.

A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-playing Games

Playing at the World

Michael Witwer

Kyle Newman

From the D&D experts behind Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana comes a cookbook that invites fantasy lovers to learn about their favorite fictional cultures through their unique cuisines and lifestyles. With this book, you can prepare dishes delicate enough to dine like elves and their drow cousins or hearty enough to feast like a dwarven clan or a boisterous orcish horde. All eighty dishes are delicious, easy to prepare, and composed of wholesome ingredients readily found in our world. Heroes' Feast includes recipes for snacking, such as Bytopian Shepherd's Bread, Iron Rations, savory Hand Pies, and Hogs in Bedrolls, as well as hearty vegetarian, meaty, and fish mains, such as Amphail Braised Beef, Hommlet Golden Brown Roasted Turkey, Drow Mushroom Steaks, and Moonshae Seafood Risotto. There are also featured desserts and cocktails--like Heartlands Roseapple & Blackberry Pie, Yawning Portal Biscuit, and Chultan Zombie--and everything in between, to satisfy a craving for any adventure.

The Official D&d Cookbook

Heroes' Feast (Dungeons and Dragons)

Sam Witwer

An illustrated guide to the history and evolution of the beloved role-playing game told through the paintings, sketches, illustrations, and visual ephemera behind its creation, growth, and continued popularity. From one of the most iconic game brands in the world, this official DUNGEONS & DRAGONS illustrated history provides an unprecedented look at the visual evolution of the brand, showing its continued influence on the worlds of pop culture and fantasy. Inside the book, you'll find more than seven hundred pieces of artwork--from each edition of the core role-playing books, supplements, and adventures; as well as Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance novels; decades of Dragon and Dungeon magazines; and classic advertisements and merchandise; plus never-before-seen sketches, large-format canvases, rare photographs, one-of-a-kind drafts, and more from the now-famous designers and artists associated with DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. The superstar author team gained unparalleled access to the archives of Wizards of the Coast and the personal collections of top collectors, as well as the designers and illustrators who created the distinctive characters, concepts, and visuals that have defined fantasy art and gameplay for generations. This is the most comprehensive collection of D&D imagery ever assembled, making this the ultimate collectible for the game's millions of fans around the world.

A Visual History

Dungeons and Dragons Art and Arcana

Craig VanGrasstek

Forty years ago, Craig VanGrasstek was fourteen yours old, had no idea that the game Dungeons & Dragons existed, and yet managed to produce what is ostensibly the first Dungeons & Dragons variant. In the eighteen pages of rules, we see the first role-playing game condensed down to its most basic elements, reinvented by someone who learned by playing rather than studying rulebooks. VanGrasstek first encountered the game in February 1974 thanks to Louis Fallert, who had in turn experienced Blackmoor under the tutelage of Arneson's immediate circle in the Twin Cities. Few copies of Dungeons & Dragons were circulating at that point, and thus, in the reaction of VanGrasstek's peers in the Minneapolis science-fiction fandom community, we find some of the earliest commentary on the startling innovations that Dungeons & Dragons introduced. VanGrasstek at the time had the foresight to commit the rules as he understood them to paper: these Rules to the Game of Dungeon, first promulgated in August of 1974. With afterword and notes by Jon Peterson.

Rules to the Game of DUNGEON

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 how D&D and its creators navigated their successes, setbacks, and controversies. Peterson describes Gygax and Arneson's first meeting and their work toward the 1974 release of the game; the founding of TSR and its growth as a company; and Arneson's acrimonious departure and subsequent challenges to TSR. He recounts the "Satanic Panic" accusations that D&D was sacrilegious and dangerous, and how they made the game famous. And he chronicles TSR's reckless expansion and near-fatal corporate infighting, which culminated with the company in debt and overextended and the end of Gygax's losing battle to retain control over TSR and D&D. 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 Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons

Game Wizards

How the early Dungeons & Dragons community grappled with the nature of role-playing games, theorizing a new game genre. When Dungeon & Dragons made its debut in the mid-1970s, followed shortly thereafter by other, similar tabletop games, it sparked a renaissance in game design and critical thinking about games. D&D is now popularly considered to be the first role-playing game. But in the original rules, the term "role-playing" is nowhere to be found; D&D was marketed as a war game. In The Elusive Shift, Jon Peterson describes how players and scholars in the D&D community began to apply the term to D&D and similar games--and by doing so, established a new genre of games.

How Role-Playing Games Forged Their Identity

The Elusive Shift

"A detailed history about the early years and drama of TSR, Inc., the company that founded Dungeons and Dragons"--

The Epic Battle for Dungeons and Dragons

"Peterson animates the history of role-playing games found in zines, from the collision of the niche audiences of war gaming and fantasy in the 60s to the extreme commercial growth of D&D in the 80s"--

Official Dungeons & Dragons Licensed

An illustrated guide to the history and evolution of the beloved role-playing game told through the paintings, sketches, illustrations, and visual ephemera behind its creation, growth, and continued popularity. FINALIST FOR THE HUGO AWARD • FINALIST FOR THE LOCUS AWARD • NOMINATED FOR THE DIANA JONES AWARD From one of the most iconic game brands in the world, this official DUNGEONS & DRAGONS illustrated history provides an unprecedented look at the visual evolution of the brand, showing its continued influence on the worlds of pop culture and fantasy. Inside the book, you’ll find more than seven hundred pieces of artwork—from each edition of the core role-playing books, supplements, and adventures; as well as Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance novels; decades of Dragon and Dungeon magazines; and classic advertisements and merchandise; plus never-before-seen sketches, large-format canvases, rare photographs, one-of-a-kind drafts, and more from the now-famous designers and artists associated with DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. The superstar author team gained unparalleled access to the archives of Wizards of the Coast and the personal collections of top collectors, as well as the designers and illustrators who created the distinctive characters, concepts, and visuals that have defined fantasy art and gameplay for generations. This is the most comprehensive collection of D&D imagery ever assembled, making this the ultimate collectible for the game's millions of fans around the world.

Jon Peterson

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