LudoScience

History of videogames (traditional games)

Author(s) : David M. Ewalt
Editor : Scribner
Publication date : 08-20-2013
Language : english

This book tells the story of Dungeons & Dragons, a game that gave birth to the "pen and paper role playing" genre, highly popular in the 80's and 90's. The book details the origins of the game, co-designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Anerson in 1974, alongside with the epic tale of TSR, the company created by Gygax to sell this innovative game. The book mix chapters about the history of the game with more personal chapters, where the author remembers his owns role-playing sessions. While this combination feels disturbing at first, it finds its true meaning in the last chapters of the book, where the author tries live-action role-playing, he embarks on a "pilgrimage" to Lake Geneva to find the first TSR building, and he even plays Dungeons & Dragons with the son of Gary Gygax. This journey ends with the author starting to design his first Dungeons & Dragons campaign as a Dungeon Master, an important step for every player of the game. In the end, far from being a mere compilation of historical information about Dungeons & Dragons, this book achieves to capture the deep soul of this unique game, and manages to share it in a clear and simple way through pages full of passion and emotion.