The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons And Growing Up Strange

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The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons And Growing Up Strange

by Mark Barrowcliffe

3.22 · rating details · 247 ratings · 87 reviews

Coventry, 1976. For a brief, blazing summer, twelve-year-old Mark Barrowcliffe had the chance to be normal.

He blew it.

While other teenagers concentrated on being coolly rebellious, Mark - like twenty million other boys in the '70s and '80s - chose to spend his entire adolescence in fart-filled bedrooms pretending to be a wizard or a warrior, an evil priest or a dwarf.

...more

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Community Reviews

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Jan 28, 2009

Seth rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, nonfiction

(Note, read the authors comments in the comments section, he points out a few factual errors in this review that I think are worth noting before taking my review seriously.)

Hahahaha...no.

I picked this book up because I was a huge dork in high school and middle school - the dorkiest, and hung out with some fairly damaged individuals. I was looking at a book to wince at my own memories as I share someone elses, and also in a way celebrate that time.

Barrowcliffe ...more

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Dec 02, 2008

Steve W rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Nerds, geeks, dweebs, freaks, dorks

Shelves: non_fiction

Despite the differences in age and upbringing between me and the author (him playing D&D in it's first incarnations in mid 1970's Midlands England, me riding the second wave of D&D in the early 1980's Midwest US), it is quite frightening, yet absolutely hilarious, how many things we had in common as D&D/fantasy obsessed teenagers. To name just a few:

* Naming your character your own name spelled backwards.

* Super characters of unbelievable power, prestige and wealth.
...more

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Jan 06, 2009

John Fletcher rated it

· review of another edition

I picked this book up because I, like the author, starting playing D&D at an early age. (I think I was 14 instead of 12 when I started). Unlike the author however, I still play D&D about twice a month with a group of co-workers and friends.

My feeling for this book is that the author, while on the one hand fondly reminisces about the game and credits the game for many aspects of his adult personality, on the other he clearly holds and demonstrates a certain amount of disdain and ridic...more

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Dec 17, 2008

Alisa rated it

Shelves: non-fiction

I wanted to read this book because I have the 'elfish gene' myself (although I never played D&D), and now that I *have* read it, I'm not sure how to rate it. Yes, I did find it a compulsive read, but by the end I was alternately disliking the author and feeling sorry for him. Though he claims to have 'grown up', he seems exactly the same as he was as a teenager, with all the accompanying and annoying character traits. For instance, as a teen, he found his own way of claiming 'coolness' by rej...more

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Oct 31, 2008

Josh rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

Not badly written, but not a very fun read. Barrowcliffe treats his subject (himself and other adolescent D&D players) with disdain, which makes what should be an entertaining read much less enjoyable.

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Aug 02, 2011

Jody Mena added it · review of another edition

This book is unique in my view. Biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, these always seem to be by or about people who are leaders rather than followers, who stand out rather than blend in, and who tipify quailities and goals that are either generally praised or universally loathed by the society. This book is about one boy with an overactive imagination who is pretty much the 'everyman' of the 'nerd' world, and pretty much the antithesis of the above. Yet at the same time, this manages to be a...more

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Dec 31, 2008

Sean rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: funny, non-fiction, games, memoir

Got this for Christmas and *cough* I really enjoyed it. I think anyone who grew up playing D&D or some variation of it would as well. Funny, honest, and at times sad, "The Elfish Gene" definitely brought me back to years 9 through 12 when I played it with what could only be described as maniacal zeal. The storytelling, for someone who can empathize, can be also a bit embarrassing at times, as you identify with the ridicuously over-the-top geekiness he describes--and realizing, years...more

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Nov 25, 2008

Stuart Nachbar rated it

The Elfish Gene was a fun story that made me think about the question: what is a nerd? Webster’s dictionary equates a nerd with a gearhead, a person who is extremely interested and knowledgeable about computers, electronics, technology, and gadgets. But Dungeons and Dragons is a card and board game; it has absolutely nothing to do with modern technology and computers.

And I must add that people who bury themselves in other interests, including role-playing games, politics and footbal...moreThe Elfish Gene was a fun story that made me think about the question: what is a nerd? Webster’s dictionary equates a nerd with a gearhead, a person who is extremely interested and knowledgeable about computers, electronics, technology, and gadgets. But Dungeons and Dragons is a card and board game; it has absolutely nothing to do with modern technology and computers.

And I must add that people who bury themselves in other interests, including role-playing games, politics and football statistics, to the exclusion of outside social interactions, and sometimes personal hygiene, are also nerds. And that’s Barrowcliffe’s point too. This does not make them bad people; it just means that their social circles are drawn almost exclusively around their interests. That’s fine for young children, when they’re safe in someone’s living room playing a board game, but as Barrowcliffe reminisces, it becomes a strange obsession for adults, an odd deviation from what he calls a “normal” path of a child life, school, work, and death.

But Barrowcliffe takes the obsession further, by saying that his infatuation with Dungeons and Dragons was equal to a drug addiction. Not that role playing is an illegal or illicit act, but the game, like drugs has the highest highs and lowest lows, and those highs and lows drive the rest of your life. Even a knock at a front door becomes an exercise in a demonstration of role-playing bravado. And like drugs, these games provide an escape from a less pleasant reality.

Barrowcliffe described himself as socially awkward and in his words “un-cool,” but he did not know how to get the keys to the kingdom of “coolness” in his working class neighborhood. But he is cool in the role playing world, for instance, when his parents allow their home to be a host dungeon for thirty gamers fueled by Mom’s sandwiches and scones. He tries to fit in with the best of the gamers, even allowing them to call him Spaz, hardly a flattering nickname. But he is also clever, for instance, when his mother knits him a stuffed Kermit the Frog, he later realizes that the figure more resembles a powerful mythical lizard, and therefore, tries to make the un-cool cool.

I recommend this book to parents who are raising game-playing nerds. And caution them. An obsession with a role-playing game is far from a measure of intelligence. It is an activity that might stimulate some learning, but an obsession can take one away from life lessons, such as those learned in school or at work. Even the brightest of nerds have to earn a living one day and they have to interact outside their own social circles.(less)

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Sep 24, 2011

Toshi rated it

Shelves: quit-part-way-through

I picked this book up in an airport while traveling and thought it would be a fun, humorous look back on life as a gamer. I played RPGs in middle and high school, though I apparently wasn't as hard core as the author was. By the end of chapter 1 I found that the only humor the author included was mean spirited and belittling. As I said before, I expected some self effacing humor, and humor at the sake of gamers he played with, but this book amounted to a prolonged bitchfest where the author does...moreI picked this book up in an airport while traveling and thought it would be a fun, humorous look back on life as a gamer. I played RPGs in middle and high school, though I apparently wasn't as hard core as the author was. By the end of chapter 1 I found that the only humor the author included was mean spirited and belittling. As I said before, I expected some self effacing humor, and humor at the sake of gamers he played with, but this book amounted to a prolonged bitchfest where the author does nothing but whine about how he could have/should have grown up "normal" and how playing RPGs isn't as useful as dating or learning to play the guitar. I have a problem with that opinion.
I am still a pretty nerdy guy. I play video games a lot, watch the occasional Anime, geek out over comic books, and zombies, but (and this is impossible according the the author) I have a wife and kid who I love, and am loved by. I didn't do anything social in high school, my wife did everything in high school, but once you enter the real world and grow out of the limited perspective you have in high school it's possible to not fit into stereotypes and still exist.
From the portions of the book I was able to tolerate reading before ultimately giving up, it seems that the author's friends are at least partially to blame for his damaged perspective on gaming, and reality. All are either petty, backstabbing, little weasels, or power tripping assholes with massive inferiority complexes they mask with god complexes. If this type of person is the only type he ever role played with I can see why he might look down on it with the level of disdain that he does, but to do so overlooks the fact that you pick your friends/role playing companions. If I played with someone who spent the whole time acting like a douchebag he'd either be kicked out, or not allowed back to the next session.
The last gripe I have (and this may be due to the period he was playing in) is that every RPG I've played (and that's a lot) has been story and character driven. The GM usually has a story drawn up, but 90% of the time one of us would do something unexpected and he'd have to work with it. If you're GM ever said "no you can't do that because I need you to do ___" he'd have been fired for being unable to do his job. Sure he's god in that world, but without freewill why play? When done right playing an RPG should be almost like a battle of wits between the players and the GM/DM. The players constantly trying to act in accordance with their characters (admittedly some better than others), while trying to simultaneously figure out what the GM's goals are, and do something else to screw with him. Meanwhile the GM has to tell a compelling and interesting story and handle the shenanigans of the players without power tripping and either killing people off out of annoyance or removing player's options. If done like this the experience is deep, fun, and massively encourages creativity, problem solving, and teamwork (to piss off the GM). All are more useful that being able to play kumbaya around a camp fire.(less)

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Mar 01, 2011

MJ Nicholls rated it

Shelves: non-fiction, virtual-insanity, sassysassenachs

I’m doing some early research for a possible creative non-fiction book about gaming addiction. I spent my childhood hooked on Sega Mega Drive and Playstation games, withdrawing from the outside world into a realm of spinning hedgehogs and spinning bandicoots.

I can relate, then, to the author of this memoir, who spent his teenhood hooked on Dungeons & Dragons. The central difference between an addiction to an RPG like this and video games is human contact. The RPG involves interactin...more

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May 17, 2010

David added it

This is the funniest book I’ve read for years. The sort where if you’re reading it in a public place you have to bite your lips or cover your mouth. So much rang true, and even the photo on the cover flashed me back to my friends of those days. I never played D&D but I went through a few years of Napoleonic war games, where we’d meet every Sunday at a friend’s gaming room on the second floor of the lighthouse his parents lived in. But it was mostly his living in a fantasy world for his entire te...moreThis is the funniest book I’ve read for years. The sort where if you’re reading it in a public place you have to bite your lips or cover your mouth. So much rang true, and even the photo on the cover flashed me back to my friends of those days. I never played D&D but I went through a few years of Napoleonic war games, where we’d meet every Sunday at a friend’s gaming room on the second floor of the lighthouse his parents lived in. But it was mostly his living in a fantasy world for his entire teens, and I know how rich that can be but at the same time how it doesn’t exactly prepare you for grim reality when you eventually have to get a job and take on responsibilities. A few things he said stuck out for me:

"After university, I spent a decade being deeply dissatisfied with my life and drinking heavily. All the time I’d been growing up I’d never felt bored, not even once. The trouble is that boredom is a fairly major component of most jobs. I never learned to cope with it. After all those years in the fantasy kingdoms then life as a nine-to-five commuter felt like the worst sort of curse. On one occasion, returning from a two-week break in the sun, I actually found myself crying on the way in to work. D&D had prepared me for a life of excitement. Now, it seemed, I was sentenced to crushing ennui for the rest of my days... Eventually I really couldn’t stand work any longer and decided it was better to be a pauper in a fantasy world than relatively well off in the real one. Without D&D I don’t think I’d have been so unhappy and would not have left to become a writer. That might have been a good thing. At the very least I’d be driving a better car."

"The big stuff in life sometimes doesn’t happen with crashes and bangs, it just happens, and it’s only later that you feel its impact."

But at the same time he shouldn’t come down so hard on his adolescent entertainment. It was indeed a rich and fulfilling time, and he could have been spending it hanging about on street corners. He had a vivid imagination and fed it with games, fantasy novels, heavy metal – so why not? And later he may have been driven to leave conventional work and become a writer, but I’d see that as a blessing in disguise and he should thank D&D for setting his character up like that, even if he could have afforded a better car if he’d stuck with the nine-to-five. And the great thing about writing for a living is that, again, you’re never bored. Terrified sometimes LOL but never ever bored. What happened to me in 15 years of conventional work? I can’t remember any of it apart from a few good jokes, a lot of boredom and frustration, sheer lunacy of sitting in meeting rooms listening to grown men agonise over the correct format for an invoice, and an overwhelming sensation that it was school repeating itself, but a lot worse. Anyway, enough of the rant... I like this guy, and I understand exactly what he’s talking about.
(less)

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Jan 13, 2010

Melody May rated it

As many of you know, I am a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) enthusiast; so was Mark Barrowcliffe until he decided that it was the cause of all his problems. This book really should have been called, Gaming Obsession and How Not To Play.

Basically, the book is a memoir of his awkward early years spent lost in his own reality, obsessing over the one outlet he found for his intelligence and imagination: D&D. Some of the anecdotes included are hilarious, for example the time he nearly set...more

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May 24, 2009

Emily Jane rated it

Frankly, this book is hilarious. Please read it.

Although there are some fundamental differences between myself and the author (I am a girl who came of age in the 1990's and have never played D&D, while he is a boy who came of age in 1970's and had no life outside of D&D), ultimately we had plenty in common. Like him, I was fundamentally a good kid who just couldn't figure out how to fit in with the mainstream of "cool". So I invented my own.

For me, this came in ...more

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Nov 21, 2008

Mike rated it

Shelves: nonfiction

Apparently Mark Barrowcliffe was much more obsessed with D&D than I was, and he gives a very funny account of what that is like. At times it is pretty hard to sympathize the young Mark, although the older Mark does recognize that he was a major ass as a teenager. At times he wants to blame a lot of later unhappiness on his wasted youth, and he repeatedly describes himself and his gaming buddies as "addicts" which I guess is possible but seems a little over the top.

Anyway...more

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Jan 14, 2009

Rick rated it

Shelves: biography, humor, non-fiction

This was an engaging, fun read -- often humorous and sometimes cringe-worthy -- about the author's childhood obsession with Dungeons & Dragons. It was pretty cool to read a memoir about D&D, combined with a look at 70s England.

My only criticism is below the spoiler line.

+++++++++++++++++SPOILER!+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

OK, my gripe about this book is the author's contention that not only do only nerds play roleplayin...moreThis was an engaging, fun read -- often humorous and sometimes cringe-worthy -- about the author's childhood obsession with Dungeons & Dragons. It was pretty cool to read a memoir about D&D, combined with a look at 70s England.

My only criticism is below the spoiler line.

+++++++++++++++++SPOILER!+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

OK, my gripe about this book is the author's contention that not only do only nerds play roleplaying games, but the games in fact make people obsessive and nerdier -- or in his words, wankers.

But having read this book, it is pretty clear that the author was a wanker before D&D ever entered his life. He comes off as very socially maladjusted youth and clueless as to how to even talk with other people -- boy, girl, man or woman. It is pretty clear that if he hadn't fell in with D&D, he would have become obsessed with any number of things, which would have become the total focus of his life instead of roleplaying. He seems to have a all-or-nothing attitude in whatever he does, given his total avoidance of anything "fantasy"-related today. He even complains that his fantasy-gaming youth made it impossible for him to adjust to the realities and boredom of office work... yeah... just like playing baseball or breathing will.

Now, of course there are many nerds, sociopaths and other freaks who roleplay. I know, I played D&D from grade school into high school, picking it back up again in college before leaving it behind for other games. I met a lot of total wankers and psychos. But I met a lot of those at rock concerts too. And at work. And just about anywhere. Frankly, most people I played with were normal kids. Hell, the guy who introduced me to D&D was the grade school's top jock and one of the most popular kids. And while I spent a great deal of time playing it, I never lost sight of reality like the author seemed to. Nor did anyone I know. It was just a game, like bridge or poker or video games.

So his constant attempts to paint D&D as a nerd-making game are fairly lame. Yeah, a lot of nerds play it. So do a lot of nerds play video games, and no one says "you're playing wii? you are such a nerd!" (less)

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Dec 15, 2009

Jamie rated it

In The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange, author Mark Barrowcliffe presents his memoir of what it was like to grow up during the 70s in Coventry, England and being utterly, hopelessly, and unhealthily obsessed with the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. As someone who was himself once obsessed with D&D to the point of being able to recite entire blocks of text from the Monster Manual or tell you how many level 3 spells an 8th level Magic-User could cast, this was a good en...moreIn The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange, author Mark Barrowcliffe presents his memoir of what it was like to grow up during the 70s in Coventry, England and being utterly, hopelessly, and unhealthily obsessed with the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. As someone who was himself once obsessed with D&D to the point of being able to recite entire blocks of text from the Monster Manual or tell you how many level 3 spells an 8th level Magic-User could cast, this was a good enough hook for me. I'd been there, albeit about a decade later and on the other side of the Atlantic. I wanted to compare notes.

The problem is that it's difficult to figure out who the audience for The Elfish Gene is supposed to be. Barrowfliffe certainly goes in to a lot of detail about his obsession with the game, and I think that any past or current D&D player would be hard pressed NOT to identify with something from the book. Maybe it would be the way the author would show up at schoolmates' houses awkwardly hoping for a game, or maybe how he delighted in his discovery of the area where D&D and heavy metal overlapped in a Venn diagram. Or maybe how his parents would --as only a loving if confused parent can-- feign interest in his nattering about hit dice, kobolds, and +5 vorpal swords.

Likewise, Barrofcliffe does have some genuine insights about how kids see social class, what drives teenage boys to be sardonic bastards, the nature of counter-cultures, hero worship among the self-loathing, and like. It's all very introspective and again it's sometimes interesting to compare experiences from my own adolescence.

There are also a few really funny bits to the book, and Barrowcliffe is not without the ability to occasionally turn an amusing phrase or describe a situation so absurd that it can only be a true tale born of childhood's own brand of logic. There is, for example, the time he plans to ignite a balloon full of lighter fluid in order to recreate a fireball spell, but sets his friend's bathroom on ablaze during a test run. Or the time that he decides to evaluate his ninja abilities by jumping, practically naked, from his bed into his dirty clothes hamper (of course!), only to miscalculate things and end up knocking himself out and leaving his befuddled parents to conclude that it must have been some bizarre masturbation ritual. Because, frankly, that's more believable than the ninja thing.

On the other hand, Barrowcliffe isn't describing all this in the context of nostalgia. Not even the wry, "can you believe what we used to think was cool" brand of nostalgia. From the opening pages of the memoir, it's clear that the author thinks that getting into D&D was a huge mistake for his teenage self, and that if he had only chosen a different path --one populated by girls and carburetors and maybe cricket-- he'd have actually been happy, well adjusted, and better off in life. In fact, he's downright disdainful of the game and those who play it, right up to the epilogue where he makes a half-hearted attempt to join a modern day game and ends up deriding the players and literally running for his life.

There are just no upsides to the game in the author's view. Everyone who plays it does so because he's a socially inept, hopelessly nerdy git. This is mostly because Barrowcliffe is (well, was) himself a socially inept, hopelessly nerdy git and he doesn't bother to see past his own nose. He's rather blame everything on the game. While D&D certainly attracts the nerdiest of the nerds (surely even more true of early adopters in the 70s than it is today), there are many positive things the author could have said about D&D if you weren't so bent on self-deprication. It encourages reading, it develops logical reasoning, it fires the imagination, and it's an inherently social game, just to name a few.

But there's none of that; the treatment of the game is entirely lopsided. A more complete book would have delved more into the history of the game and how it evolved, along with the author, over the course of its life. There would have also been more examination of the gaming subculture on a wider scale, as well as its many offshoots into other forms of entertainment. Of course, you can say that this is a memoir, and since Barrofcliffe gave up D&D for life and developed other interests, he can't very well talk about all that, can he? And that's fair enough. But it remains that Barrowfcliffe doesn't understand about role-playing games or the attendant culture. He understands about being a socially retarded teenager seeking escape from life. And yes, there's a difference.(less)

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Apr 18, 2009

Chris rated it

Shelves: adult, historical, humor, life, nonfiction, not-graphic, voice

On the Monday the school term began, and by the Tuesday the dark forces would take me. Family, friends, girls, food, everything would become as bright images receding into a void as I slipped into a shadow world from which I have never truly emerged. I would discover Dungeons and Dragons.

The thing is that, had I known my fate, I wouldn't have run away. I would have run towards it.

-----

I've always had the habit of carrying something to read with me, never kn...more

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Feb 23, 2009

Thermalsatsuma rated it

Shelves: book-a-week-2009

The late 70s was a particularly grim time. Economic crisis, terrorism, unemployment, an unpopular labour government - is this all starting to sound familiar? What more natural response than to turn your back on the whole mess and escape into the world of fantasy? That is exactly what author Mark Barrowcliffe did when he discovered Dungeons and Dragons, and threw himself headlong into for most of his teenaged years.

In much the same way as Andrew Collins mirrored my life of late 60s an...more

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Aug 11, 2011

Silas added it · review of another edition

This was a rather curious book. To start with, it was quite well written, with a consistently amusing voice, and excellent pacing. While it in no way fit my own experience with D&D, since he was far removed in both time and geography, that's to be expected. What I found curious was how negative his views of D&D seem to be, when he's writing a book that seems destined for so many gamers' bookshelves. It's worth reading if you're a gamer, since it does have a few insights and amusing anecdotes, bu...more

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Jul 26, 2011

Luciano Zorzetto rated it

· review of another edition

I have mixed feelings about this story as an ex-role-playing gamer myself.
The author was a complete D&D addict in his teenage years, years mythical to me as a fan, i.e. the late '70s, when the game was new to the world - I wasn't even born.
His identification with the fictional characters he played is uncanny, the antics described sometimes truly embarrassing and sad. Some moments are hysterically funny, though - I think of his ill-fated attempt to impersonate a ninja in his own home or the exper...more

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Dec 20, 2009

Amy rated it

Oh, Dungeons and Dragons. Yes, I too once owned a 100 sided die. Mark Barrowcliffe has written an autobiographical novel about his obsession with the game while growing up in Coventry, England in the late seventies and eighties. And The Elfish Gene is very funny, indeed. There is a section involving balloons, butane (he calls it lighter gas, but I'm assuming it's butane) and matches as an attempt to throw fireballs that so well written, I cringed, shook my head and laughed at the same time. ...more

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Jul 20, 2008

Kirsty rated it

Shelves: non-fiction

I was sucked in by the title, but the rest of the book did not disappoint. There was some clunky writing and it could have done with some restructuring, but I loved reading about the world of a nerdy Northern teen in the 70s.

like 1 like

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Jan 14, 2009

Nikki rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: memoir-biography

This book was funny, and I found myself laughing aloud several times. Made me want to dig out my books and find a gaming group again, despite the nerdy face he puts on the whole world of role-playing games. (For the record I was never a nerd. A closet-geek perhaps, but never a nerd. I played to experience the generation of creativity to put to use in writing fiction. Like Salvatore. Um... yeah. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!)
However I was saddened by his obvious reproach, particul...more

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Feb 12, 2009

Katharine rated it

page 42

"It's an odd fact of life that you don't really remember the good times all that well. I have only mental snapshots of birthday parties, skiing, beach holidays, my wedding. The bad times too are just impressions. I can see myself standing at the end of some bed while someone I love is dying, or on the way home from a girlfriend's after I've been dumped, but again, they're just pictures. For full Technicolor, script plus subtitles plus commemorative programme in ...more

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Jul 21, 2011

Michael rated it

· review of another edition

If I had grown up in the time period, this might have been my life. For me, it was the computer, some low level programming and the animated adventure game, rather than the D&D games of his youth. Which makes me identify quite easily with the author, a nerd who made no effort to hide it, and in fact was quite proud of his different interests, which were not shared by many of his peers. One difference, though, and I think a very interesting one -- his "strange" (word from title) obse...more

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Mar 19, 2010

Shane rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010, nonfiction, rpg

This was suggested by my favorite aunt Suzze - it looks hilarious.

I found this book to be very interesting and more than a couple times laugh out loud funny. At first I was really curious about the difference between the "beginnings of gaming" in another country but then I found that the whole thing was a completely different experience for Mr. Barrowcliffe.

You'll have to forgive me but reading this book has really made me want to write about my experiences.
...more

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Dec 12, 2010

David Peters rated it

Why I read It
I have read two of Barrowcliffe’s previous novels (Girlfriend 44 & Infidelity for First-time Fathers) and enjoyed them. I was doing a periodic check for his books on my library’s computer catalog and saw this one.

The Good
On its surface this is a memoir by a stand up comedian discussing his fascination with D&D growing up. On a deeper level this is a fantastic look on what it means to be a young man striving for adulthood. Particularly good was his recounting the ...more

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Jan 28, 2010

Kelly rated it

· review of another edition

A very nostalgic read for me as I was just getting into Dungeons & Dragons only a couple of years after the author of this book did. There are many great stories and examples of what it was like to be a gamer in the early 80s, not all positive. I think the game has both positive and negative influences on everyone that plays it and this book discusses both. There are plenty of stereotypes but if you played you can probably relate to every character in the book. Highly recommended for all gamers.

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May 12, 2009

Beverly rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: D & D people, gamers, and those who are curious about them.

I've never played D & D, nor a single solitary video game, but the people who do, and particularly the people who immerse themselves in those worlds to the abandonment of all else, fascinate me. This book veers weirdly between heartfelt nostalgia, hilarious if snarky anecdotes, and the occasional glob of super-detailed and somewhat dry facts about war games...but put it all together and it makes for an enjoyable, entertaining, if ultimately unsatisfying read. Maybe I was just expecting more magi...more

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Jul 25, 2011

Booth Babcock rated it

Honestly, I picked it up mostly because I really liked the name. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Barrowcliffe's experience of playing D&D and being a big dork in 1970s England was surprisingly similar to mine in 1980s Texas, down to the details in many cases. Who knew it was so universal? A fun book for anyone who did their time as a role playing dork as a kid, or perhaps for anyone looking to understand someone who wasted (in a good way) their youth playing with funny dice.

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About Mark Barrowcliffe

Aka M.D. Lachlan.

He grew up in Coventry and studied at the University of Sussex. He worked as a journalist and also as a stand-up comedian before he started writing his first novel, Girlfriend 44. He lives and writes in Brighton, England and South Cambridgeshire. Ron Howard secured the film rights for Girlfriend 44 and Infidelity for First Time Fathers is in development with 2929.
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Quotes from The Elfish Gene: Dunge...

“...an obsession is a way for damaged people to damage themselves more.” — 6 people liked it

“It's an odd fact of life that you don't really remember the good times all that well. I have only mental snapshots of birthday parties, skiing, beach holidays, my wedding. The bad times too are just impressions. I can see myself standing at the end of some bed while someone I love is dying, or on the way home from a girlfriend's after I've been dumped, but again, they're just pictures. For full Technicolor, script plus subtitles plus commemorative programme in the memory, though, nothing beats embarrassment. You tend to remember the lines pretty well once you've woken screaming them at midnight a few times.” — 3 people liked it

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The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons And Growing Up Strange

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