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Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People, and Fantastic Adventure from Chess to Role-Playing Games

Jon Peterson (Goodreads Author)

4.1 · Rating details · 376 Ratings · 76 Reviews

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 s ...more

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Mass Market Paperback, 720 pages

Published August 1st 2012 by Unreason Press (first published July 26th 2012)

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May 14, 2013 David rated it liked it

I have to take issue with this book. Primarily that the title on the cover, Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People, and Fantastic Adventures from Chess to Role-Playing Games, does not even remotely prepare the reader for what to expect inside.

This book is about Dungeons & Dragons. Period.

It's 720 pages about Dungeons & Dragons.

It happens to be so incredibly thorough in exploring the historical roots and inspirations for Dungeons & Dragons (and the historical ro ...more

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Dec 25, 2012 Rindis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, gaming

When I was growing up, my dad had a small business in the wargaming industry, acting as a wholesaler for other companies, selling games retail by mail, and publishing a magazine. So, I grew up amidst a collection disparate products from Avalon Hill, SPI, and an insane number of tiny publishers in the wargaming and burgeoning RPG market.

Much of Jon Peterson's Playing at the World therefore is familiar ground. Familiar, but not extensively known, since I was never all that directly plugged into th When I was growing up, my dad had a small business in the wargaming industry, acting as a wholesaler for other companies, selling games retail by mail, and publishing a magazine. So, I grew up amidst a collection disparate products from Avalon Hill, SPI, and an insane number of tiny publishers in the wargaming and burgeoning RPG market.

Much of Jon Peterson's Playing at the World therefore is familiar ground. Familiar, but not extensively known, since I was never all that directly plugged into the events he talks about. However, I have contemplated trying to produce such a book myself. While this isn't the book I'd write, it is close, and it shows just how insane an undertaking it would be to do my half-formed thoughts right. Jon is obviously a fellow fan, and his viewpoint is shown on the cover, which features a hand-drawn dungeon map on graph paper, a couple of hand-made wargame counters, and a well-worn old-style d10, and on the title page, which is done to look like a copy of an old fanzine cover, complete with staple in the corner, and a rust mark from an old paperclip. In his acknowledgements, he mentions "In keeping with the tradition of self-publishing exemplified by gaming fandom, this work was written, edited, typeset, illustrated and published by the author with the help of some friends." The lack of professional editing shows on occasion, but given the nature of the project, it's very well done. It also points up a criminal lack of academic interest in subjects that have had a profound influence on popular culture, and therefore modern culture as a whole; one of the author's assertions is that early RPGs pioneered systems that can be seen in the vast bulk of current video games, and he later points out that the only histories of the SF&F genre are similarly self-generated without any real scholarly interest.

The bibliography of this massive work is twenty-five pages long, most of it dedicated to various tiny-run fanzines of the period. Jon Peterson went to an amazing amount of effort scouring eBay, and getting access to private collections to be able to reference 'zines that often had a run of less than a hundred copies per issue. All of this is in pursuit tracking down what people said at the time, rather than relying on what they said about it later. The scope and breadth of his research shows both in the main text, and in copious footnotes that give asides, point out connections, develop an argument further, etc.

There's two themes in this book. The first, and heavily dominant one, is the history of the birth of Dungeons & Dragons. The first chapter (of five, they're all massive chapters) covers from the birth of commercial wargaming in the late fifties to the publication of the original box set at the beginning of 1974. The next three chapters are massive essays on just what history and concepts fed into that, before the last chapter picks up the main story again, and covers the next few years, effectively leaving off with the publication of the AD&D Player's Handbook, by which time the concept of the 'role-playing game' had taken root, and other competing systems were coming out at an increasingly furious pace. So furious, in fact, that even Playing at the World's normally exhaustive coverage starts breaking down, such as when the company Wee Warriors gets mentioned in a footnote with no explanation of who they were, or what they had been doing, other than picking up the publishing of the product that was the subject of the footnote.

The middle three chapters are deep dives into what Jon Peterson feels are related subjects. The second chapter looks at the origin and history of the fantasy genre, to show how the genre was understood at the time of D&D. He also points out the recurring theme of the 'visitation story', where a person from the real world is transported to a fantastic land, and then returns to the real world at the end, which he posits played a part in why the first RPG was a fantasy RPG. The third chapter takes a look at the history trying to simulate events in games, effectively a history of wargaming from early chess variants into dedicated kriegspiel systems, then through more civilian efforts, the rise of miniatures wargamers inside of toy soldier collectors, and thence into commercial wargaming explored at the beginning. This part comes with extra warnings from the author that it really is for the more dedicated reader, though I found it all fascinating. The fourth chapter looks at the idea of 'role playing', and notes several powerful instances of shared collaboration in a fictional world. This one is rougher, and doesn't flow as well, but there's some interesting groping towards the shape of an instinctual type of 'group think' that can have a very powerful impact on people.

The second theme of the book is just how far the concepts pioneered in D&D have carried outside of traditional RPGs. It doesn't get a lot of space in the book, being mostly confined to the introduction and epilogue, but again, he has some interesting things to say.

It's a truly massive book (no, really, I was very surprised by the weight of my Christmas present when it showed up), and the result of an undertaking no less massive. But it reads very well, I had problems putting it down every time I picked it up. I can quibble about a few facts, but they'd be at most clarifications of points he raises, can doubt some of his assertions, but they are massively snowed under by the amount of other arguments that are rock-solid. It's a great, enjoyable book, about a small, critical happening, and why it happened when and how it did, and anyone with an interest in gaming really needs to pick this up. ...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Johnny rated it it was amazing

Shelves: game-industry

As an avid wargamer and role-playing gamer, as well as professor of Game History, Ethics, and Design, I found myself relishing Playing at the World. Ostensibly, Jon Peterson set out to find the origins of Dungeons & Dragons in its predecessors (board games, miniatures, and military/academic simulations) and then, trace the development of the system. He does that in well-documented and fascinating fashion, but he also provides insights into the literary sources, social trends (Society for Cre ...more

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Sep 06, 2012 Dylan Horrocks rated it it was amazing

Shelves: role-playing-games, non-fiction

At some point in the late 60s and early 70s a handful of young wargaming geeks in Wisconsin and Minnesota - almost by accident - found a new way to create and explore imaginary worlds, realities and lives. It was like nothing they'd experienced before, bringing pleasures and excitements far beyond anything people normally associated with "gaming." In a few short years, this new immersive fantasy experience spread from these tiny local wargame clubs to become an international phenomenon that chan At some point in the late 60s and early 70s a handful of young wargaming geeks in Wisconsin and Minnesota - almost by accident - found a new way to create and explore imaginary worlds, realities and lives. It was like nothing they'd experienced before, bringing pleasures and excitements far beyond anything people normally associated with "gaming." In a few short years, this new immersive fantasy experience spread from these tiny local wargame clubs to become an international phenomenon that changed the world.

Playing at the World is a study of the creation of Dungeons & Dragons (first published in 1974), and the birth of fantasy role-playing games. Like a methodical archaeologist, Peterson painstakingly uncovers D&D's origins in the theory and subculture of wargaming, in fantasy literature and fandom, and in the wider social context and subcultures of 1960s-70s America. For anyone interested in role-playing games (as a cultural phenomenon and as a narrative/world-simulation form), this book is an inexhaustible treasure trove of information and insights. The depth of Peterson's research is extraordinary and his prose style is confident and enjoyable (and the presentation, editing and design prove that self-publishing is no barrier to absolute professionalism). It's true that some casual readers may be put off by the (deliciously nerdy) comprehensiveness (Peterson is determined to identify and analyse every conceivable source for and influence on D&D's development), but for someone genuinely fascinated by the subject, that is merely another of the book's many pleasures.

But looking beyond the breadth and detail, there are plenty of important larger themes here, which Peterson does a better job of exploring than almost anyone else I've read on the topic. I've long felt that the rise of Dungeons & Dragons was a significant turning point in the culture: a shift in the content, structure and uses of fiction. D&D coalesced various emerging trends and brought them together to provide an imaginary experience that was immersive, exploratory and interactive - in effect providing a template for many of the wider cultural developments since. It offered a new kind of relationship to fictional stories and realities, one that I often think has come to dominate the contemporary world.

Peterson sees this too, and underlying much of this book is his search for a deeper understanding of what made such a shift possible and of what it might mean. He undertakes that search not by making sweeping generalisations or launching into academic cultural theory, but by methodically and fastidiously sifting through the detail: who said, wrote and did what when? And why? What did this mean to the people involved at the time? How was all this shaped by the context (both at the micro level of the Lake Geneva and Twin Cities wargaming scene of the early 70s, and also at the macro level of 1970s America)? Along the way - often in very quiet, subtle ways - Peterson draws out some rich and intriguing connections, resonances, meanings. I love this kind of historiography, where broad themes and profound insights emerge out of a careful nuanced reading of complex concrete factual details. It sometimes demands a degree of patient effort on the part of the reader but the rewards can be tremendous.

Add to that the pleasures of nostalgia (of which there's plenty to be enjoyed here) and personal drama (albeit less than some might like, thanks to Peterson's determination to be judicious and fair and avoid gossip), and Playing at the World is one of the most satisfying books I've read in a while. It was clearly an enormous task, and I'm very grateful to Peterson for what he has achieved. There will be more books by other authors on the invention of D&D, and there will be many more insights and pleasures to be enjoyed. But we should count ourselves lucky indeed to have such a thorough, carefully-researched, solidly written and thoughtful book among the first.

P.S. If Playing at the World leaves you hungry for more, Peterson also maintains a hugely enjoyable blog which extends his research into the minutiae of RPG history. ...more

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Aug 27, 2015 Joe Kilmartin rated it did not like it

Shelves: reference

If good research was the same as good writing than this would be the Tolstoy or the Dostoyevsky of books about Dungeons and Dragons. The author confuses EXHAUSTING with exhaustive. There is nothing here that is not verified with multiple sources while, at the same time, driving the passion implicit in the subject matter as far from the body of the work as possible. Much like, Victor Frankenstein separating the heart from the body to see how long it could survive and to get a better look inside, ...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Shannon Appelcline rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, rpgs

Peterson does a great job of unearthing impossible-to-get source materials from the early '70s to tell the story of how the game to be. Anyone with interest in the hobby will love parts 1 & 5 of the book, which do a terrific job of laying all the foundations. Though the book is a bit dense at times, it's still a very interesting read.

The rest of the book, covering deeper bases in fantasy, game systems, and characters may be more than the average reader is interested in, since some of it goes ...more

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Jun 16, 2018 Chris Chinchilla rated it really liked it

An absolute epic of a book that is sometimes tedious, sometimes exciting, but always incredible thorough and you have to credit the author for the shear amount of research he must have undertaken.

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Oct 31, 2012 Wayne McCoy rated it did not like it

Shelves: non-fiction

'Playing at the World' is a 720 page book about the history of the game Dungeons and Dragons that is exhaustive and completely exhausting. So much so, that I gave up on page 345, and I wasn't even halfway through. I wouldn't normally review something that is unfinished, but I did look through the remainder of the book to see that is was more of the same.

The book discusses everything that influenced the creation of the game. While much of this is interesting, the amount of detail bogs everything ...more

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Jul 10, 2013 Juhana Pettersson rated it really liked it

The book is a vast achievement, single-handedly expanding the early history of roleplaying games and D&D by a massive degree. If I were to teach a course on the history of roleplaying games, the first half would come from here. I was amazed at all the details, like Gygax's religious beliefs, that I never knew despite thinking myself well informed. When on the core subject of D&D prehistory and events around the game's publication, the book is solid gold. The only small criticism I have i ...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Peter Aronson rated it it was amazing

I gave this book 5 stars, but that's for me. I've been a member of the MITSGS and LASFS, I was a Wild Hunt contributor, I've played postal Diplomacy, subscribed to many of the magazines and 'zines mentioned here and met a lot of the people mentioned in this book. I found this fascinating. It is scholarly, detailed and full of facts. Mind you, despite being extensively backed by the written record, there's a certain amount of speculation too, and I suspect not all of that is spot on, but that's a ...more

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Nov 12, 2016 Scott Rogers rated it really liked it

An amazing achievement

Make no mistake, Playing at the World is dense. It can be a bit of a tough read especially through the history of Kreigspiel, but when it finally reaches the origins of Dungeons and Dragons, it really shines. My hat is off to the author who obviously put in many, many hours of research. It truly is the definitive book on the topic of roleplaying games and the beginnings of the phenomena of Dungeons and Dragons.

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Jul 08, 2013 Clark rated it it was amazing

Shelves: dnd, fantasy-scifi

Wow, what a blockbuster read! I got so nostalgic reading this book that I felt homesick for the good old days of the Golden Age of RPGs. Jam-packed with information, well-written, pretty well organized, and exhaustive. Quite a few typos but I can live with that in a work of this dedication and specialty. Read every page, enjoyed almost every page, and wish I'd had a lot more $$ and time back in the day. Great book and my favorite read in a long, long time.

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Feb 10, 2013 Adam Koebel rated it it was amazing

I can't believe I forgot to close and review this! It's fucking perfect. Read it, nerds.

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May 21, 2017 Jerry rated it it was amazing

Shelves: gaming-tools

This is huge and amazing. Peterson has searched out sources as close to the beginning of the D&D-style RPG industry as we’re likely to get, filling in the huge gaps—and clearing up the falsehoods—of decades of history-by-gossip. You know the ones: TSR stiffed Arneson out of any royalties for products not labeled “D&D” (actually, Arneson got 2.5% off the top of every AD&D book). Or that Gygax just collated what Arneson wrote (Arneson definitely got the D&D ball rolling, but Gygax ...more

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Jun 28, 2017 Adam rated it it was amazing

Shelves: io9, nonfiction, read-in-2017

Want a book that describes the creation of Dungeons & Dragons? [Wild, enthusiastic cheering from the crowd]

One that includes a history of epic fantasy that influenced its setting? [Hurray!]

One that includes a detailed look at the various wargaming groups and zines and cons in the decades prior to Arneson and Gygax meeting and creating the rules? [Scattered cheers]

A book that covers a thorough history of wargaming, from chess through German kriegsspiel and military wargaming, to the developme ...more

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Nov 26, 2017 Dana Larose rated it really liked it

Shelves: owned, 2017, nonfiction

I think I've been reading this book for...two years? A long (630 page, not counting bibliography) history of D&D, RPGs, their wargame antecedants (from ancient board games to the first attempts at proper wargames to train military officers), and the fiction that influenced the creators. It was quite academic and dry, but I'm interested in this stuff. So it was an enjoyable, if slow, read for me!

For so thoroughly seeming researched a book, I noticed one error in the final chapter about compu ...more

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Jun 28, 2018 Scott Johnson rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, gaming, history

This was extremely thorough almost to a fault. I understand the organization of the content and it was mostly very readable, but it did suffer from a surfeit of detail at times that pushed it into the realm of unnecessary tedium. The worst offender in this respect was the chapter that went into excruciating detail about the specifics of the developing rules of war games over the course of a century.

Otherwise, it was very useful to place the origin of the D&D system in a proper context of the ...more

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Aug 06, 2017 Tom Franklin rated it it was amazing

A Master Class on the people, the events, the games, the newsletters, the conventions, the letters, the books, the businesses, and so much more that led up to the creation of Dungeons and Dragons.

This is THE authoritative work on the subject. Period.

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Nov 10, 2017 Reza rated it liked it

Too long, it was like reading a historical essay which is partly true. Nevertheless I enjoyed reading it. Still it's not for everybody. You have to either have enough free time or have to read it because of your job or study.

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Sep 16, 2017 Odhran rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

An exhaustive history of the development of Dungeons and Dragons, and all the threads that led there. Not quite the history of wargaming/simulation I was expecting, and somewhat amateurish, but definitely interesting.

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Dec 14, 2013 Ned Leffingwell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Playing at the World by Jon Peterson is an academic tome about the creation of Dungeons and Dragons. It traces the game from its roots in miniature wargaming up until the release of the three core books of first edition AD&D. This is a thorough book that will be a huge commitment to those who choose to read it. The book is 720 pages long and is priced at 34.95 for the paperback and 17.99 for the kindle version, although the back cover of my edition lists the price as 20 g.p., nice touch! The Playing at the World by Jon Peterson is an academic tome about the creation of Dungeons and Dragons. It traces the game from its roots in miniature wargaming up until the release of the three core books of first edition AD&D. This is a thorough book that will be a huge commitment to those who choose to read it. The book is 720 pages long and is priced at 34.95 for the paperback and 17.99 for the kindle version, although the back cover of my edition lists the price as 20 g.p., nice touch! The author has mined through zines, interviews, and wargaming rules to trace the path that led to the creation of the world’s first fantasy role playing game.
The strength of this book is in the author’s research. He chronicles the various ingredients that influenced Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, no matter how esoteric or tangentially related they are to the birth of D&D. For example, the history of miniature wargaming is presented from the estates of Prussian military officers to the secret pretend world of the Bronte sisters. From Avalon Hill board games to play-by-mail Diplomacy clubs, Peterson has uncovered almost every fanzine and document that was ever produced. He shows how these groups and genres influenced each other, showing how sword and sorcery and sci-fi fandom cross pollinated with diplomacy players and miniature wargamers. Peterson diligently shows how certain game mechanics migrated from certain games and influenced others. If someone is curious as to where the idea for hit points came from, this book will provide the answer.
The best chapter in the book is the discussion of the growth of the rpg industry. Peterson tells how D&D had to balance the fact that it told its fans to add to the game, and then had to deal with protecting its intellectual copyright. The fan input truly helped the game and community to flourish. At the same time, TSR and Gary Gygax had to deal with promoting the brand of D&D and had to make sure that D&D remained a pure brand that people could recognize. Peterson does a good job of showing how these forces met each other, caused a certain amount of friction, and eventually led to the idea that a role playing game extends beyond the designers and functions best in a community of players.
The book is very long and is written in an academic style. It is not a good introduction to roleplaying (for this see Confessions of a Part Time Sorceress) or a good layman's history (see Of Dice and Men). There is a plethora of information as well as footnotes. This sheer volume may be off-putting for the casual reader. They must be prepared to sail through an ocean of information, including tangents that are years and miles away from D&D.
If you are looking for a casual history of rpgs, this is not the book for you. If you are going to write a thesis on the creation of D&D, this book beat you to it. If you have an interest in the history of sci-fi fandom, miniature wargaming, early rpg history, diplomacy communities, and all of the above this book will deliver. If you are looking for a rich history that shows how a history of wargaming simulation merged with sci-fi fandom, sword and sorcery fiction, and general nerdom to create a cultural phenomena, then read this book.
...more

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Jan 29, 2014 Tom rated it really liked it

This book is definitely not for everyone.

For instance, despite the name this isn't really a history of games in general. It is a history of the events that lead to the development of the cultural phenomenon of Dungeons & Dragons, whose rules it also examines in exhaustive detail. If you have little interest in D&D this book will not be for you.

But this book isn't for every D&D enthusiast either. It is a dry book, heavily footnoted and thoroughly referenced. It is also massive, a rea This book is definitely not for everyone.

For instance, despite the name this isn't really a history of games in general. It is a history of the events that lead to the development of the cultural phenomenon of Dungeons & Dragons, whose rules it also examines in exhaustive detail. If you have little interest in D&D this book will not be for you.

But this book isn't for every D&D enthusiast either. It is a dry book, heavily footnoted and thoroughly referenced. It is also massive, a real doorstop of a book. This is an academic's approach to Dungeons & Dragons.

Who is it for? Someone who loves history, roleplaying games and has a high tolerance for academic writing. Like I said, that's not everyone.

THAT said, this book is pretty impressive. The author has obviously undertaken years of research to track down every piece of documentation pertaining to the development of D&D, particularly the war-gaming hobbyist communities in the 60's and 70's. That community was sustained by small newsletters, often with circulations in the tens of people. That Peterson was able to get his hands on this material is really impressive. And these newsletters give a great deal of insight into the cross-pollination of ideas that would eventually give rise to a whole new kind of game.But Peterson doesn't stop there.

Let's be honest: a lot of nerds play D&D. This was as true in 1974 as it is now. And just as today, the nerds of the 70's had many interests. This means the history of D&D intersects with other histories, such as that of American sci-fi fandom, swords-and-sworcery fantasy novels and even computer games. True to form, Peterson gives the reader an extensive grounding in each of these. For instance, he is meticulous in tracing the various monsters and rules from the first edition of D&D back to their literary fantasy influences.

This reader found these pieces of history that are only tangentially related to D&D to be pretty interesting, for the most part. But at times their thoroughness will tax even the most patient of readers. Peterson might have served his reader better by summarizing and compressing in many cases.

The real revelation is the history of war gaming, which actually goes back centuries. War-gaming traces its origins all the way back to medieval Germany, yet Peterson shows that those games had a real and measurable influence on D&D and its kin. Its history also includes such literary lights as H.G. Wells and Robert Louis Stevenson, both of whom developed their own private rules for elaborate war games.

In many ways, the history of Dungeons and Dragons is the history of geek culture. It is inextricably bound up with sci-fi and fantasy literature, fandoms and video games. And anyone who participates in online messageboards regarding any of these topics will find the arguments and drama of the war-gaming community of fifty years ago familiar!

So this is an important work, almost a Bible of geekdom, and I have no doubt that it will be frequently cited as academia begins to mine the geek culture of the 20th century. I enjoyed it and found it illuminating.

But it is definitely not for everyone.
...more

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Feb 26, 2014 Vince Darcangelo rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, nonfiction, reviews

http://ensuingchapters.com/2014/02/26...

Playing at the World

Jon Peterson

Remember the first time you crawled a dungeon, slayed the dragon and stuffed as much treasure as you could into your “bag of holding”? Felt good, right? But the true prize wasn’t the booty. Sure, I enjoyed counting the gold and platinum coins, drooling over the prospects of upgraded armor, a magic-enhanced broad sword and whatever mischief I could scare up with a few copper pieces at the local tavern.

But what intrigued me mo http://ensuingchapters.com/2014/02/26...

Playing at the World

Jon Peterson

Remember the first time you crawled a dungeon, slayed the dragon and stuffed as much treasure as you could into your “bag of holding”? Felt good, right? But the true prize wasn’t the booty. Sure, I enjoyed counting the gold and platinum coins, drooling over the prospects of upgraded armor, a magic-enhanced broad sword and whatever mischief I could scare up with a few copper pieces at the local tavern.

But what intrigued me most were the tattered spell scrolls, mysterious tomes and the secrets of the ancients.

It shouldn’t be much of a surprise. A rabid imagination is the primary tool that all fans of role-playing games bring to the table, and a trove of yellowed parchment and faded maps makes us froth at the mouth. Just how powerful is that fireball incantation? What wisdom could be discovered in that old paladin’s codex?

That’s what it feels like digging into Jon Peterson’s Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games. For any experienced gamer, this is a hoard worthy of any dungeon campaign.

It’s no longer groundbreaking to think of gaming as a topic for academic or cultural studies, but while many books have been written about gaming and gamers, they tend to be focused on a particular aspect of the genre, rather than presenting a comprehensive history. Peterson spent more than five years of archival research and writing creating Playing at the World, the definitive history of gaming and, by far, the most ambitious.

Though originally published in 2012, Peterson’s book has been reissued in honor of D&D’s 40th birthday. Four decades can offer a lot of history, but Peterson goes even further, tracing its lineage back to chess and existing war games.

By Peterson’s own admission, this book isn’t necessarily intended for a mainstream audience. It is a dense, detailed work of history and, if I dare say, sociology. It belongs on the book shelf (or e-reader) of any serious gamer, and though it may not be a front-to-back page-turner, it is an important resource for anyone who geeks out on geeking out.

The book’s most important contribution, though, has yet to be realized. In the decades to come, as gaming and gaming studies grow even bigger, Playing at the World will serve as both source material and historical lockbox upon which the future of gaming is framed and its past is preserved.
...more

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Jan 24, 2016 Jim rated it it was amazing

I grew up with a practicing Ivy scholar...an editor and researcher who taught one or two classes in his extreme specialty. This is substantial enough research, that in fact goes beyond the minimum to express a kind of joy in the subject.
People complain, but it is actually fun, to see how far and what adventure in research this book indicates.
Its almost comparable to Foucault and his strange and wonderous references to the medieval.

The book is superlative...it indicates a summa in the philosophic I grew up with a practicing Ivy scholar...an editor and researcher who taught one or two classes in his extreme specialty. This is substantial enough research, that in fact goes beyond the minimum to express a kind of joy in the subject.
People complain, but it is actually fun, to see how far and what adventure in research this book indicates.
Its almost comparable to Foucault and his strange and wonderous references to the medieval.

The book is superlative...it indicates a summa in the philosophical sense, of the age of Industrialism as it eventually was closed down to Interactivity and those arts that issued whence.
The book summarizes the escapist, fantasist, sci fi, ethos, without depicting these people as fanboys.
I cannot give Peterson enough praise and I grew up in the most intense circles of scholarship.
I am so happy that one of MY generation has spawned such a capacitious and talented scholar...sure, he might not have a PhD, but actually, he is what the PhD was created to indicate, and then surpasses it.
Nathanial Philbrick is the only rival as the GenX scholar...but my reading is so limited...

Only Peterson can let his genius go unnoticed and unappreciated, by staying so bound within the subject and not using his genius to publish another book, this time perhaps about Film History, or even such History as Philbrick writes
...perhaps he may rival Joshi or even surpass him, but as it stands, this body of work is superior to any singular book Joshi has published...and Joshi has done a spectacular job.
I believe Peterson is significantly younger and has a considerable ouevre in his future...perhaps he can do a survey of the Weird Literature in Film and TV?
But, in a cheap-adolescent-I-identify-with-my-consumption market, Peterson has already created a book for each chapter of this book. In other words, each chapter could be larded up with peer images, and sold individually to the fan markets, much like the old "Monsters of the Movies", or Rolling Stone Record Guide.
Except, he didn't just do that. Peterson added insights, anecdotes, his own perspective and voice.
Truly, a monumental achievement going unnoticed, but which could only exist at the end of the print age and the dawn of the digital age as a standard of scholarship. ...more

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Aug 22, 2012 Savinipop Savini rated it really liked it

Full disclosure before I write this. I met Jon in August and will be interviewing him for a film.
I saw someone give their 5 star review a caveat. I'm going to do the same because this book isn't for everyone, however for those who are interested in wargames as well as Dungeons & Dragons, this book is nothing short of amazing. It is possibly the best researched book on the history of war gaming and the beginning of RPGs I have ever read. Yes, I've read a couple.
Though scholarly in it's purs ...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Mike rated it it was amazing

It can be a pleasure to read a thoroughly-researched and well-organized history of anything, even if isn't exactly what you thought it was going to be. Though some may find it intimidating in a non-fiction book aimed at the layman, I found it a breath of fresh air to read a book with proper organization, where the author doesn't constantly repeat himself or make basic mistakes.

Like other reviewers, I had no inkling based on the title and even the various interviews that this book would use Dung ...more

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Sep 12, 2012 Hal Johnson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: toys-and-games, history, pub-2012, favorites, sfnf, academics

This book was amazing and anyone in the least bit interested in the history of (tabletop) role-playing games, really cannot do without it. It approaches the birth and apotheosis of D&D from may different angles, covering the history of wargames, of toy soldiers, of fantasy as a genre, of world-building as a playful/obsessive act, of the convention of people transporting a character into a fantasy world, of the tradition of dressing up and "acting" like fantastic characters, and finally of th ...more

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Jan 11, 2014 Raq rated it liked it

Stars because of the completeness and tongs of scholarly effort and research that went into this. I felt fairly well-informed about this history going in, and while I didn't learn anything majorly new, I learned a lot of new details.

Negative stars because of the language. I admit I've been out of school for a while, but the dense, almost pompous, academic voice grated on me. I felt like the author was trying to shore up his premise (that D&D was a seminal cultural event) with his tone. I wou ...more

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Mar 20, 2014 Ricardo Signes rated it really liked it

Shelves: humanities

I enjoyed the heck out of this. It went into great detail about the origin of many aspects of Dungeons and Dragons, going back several generations more than one might expect. In fact, many times during my reading of the book, I'd stop and think, "this is just getting too far afield. This is a pointless digression," only to be delighted, a few paragraphs later, when the digression ended up tying back into the main material from a new and unexpected angle.

If you're not interested in the history of ...more

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Aug 23, 2013 cuifen rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2013

This is a MAMMOTH tome. I've been reading it for one month. I freely admit that I skimmed over many of the very technical, in-depth studies of game mechanics, probability and structures, and it still took me a really long time to plow through.

That said, it is incredibly rewarding and truly breathtakingly well-researched. The sheer, ambitious breadth, level of detail, and more than that, the level of care, respect and enthusiasm for D&D that is evident from this monumental study is astounding ...more

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“In 1957, a young lieutenant in the Swedish Air Force named Bjorn Nyberg decided, somewhat inexplicably, that the surest means to improve his command over the English language would be to author a sequel to the adventures of Conan.” — 1 likes

“The extremely high price of $10 (in 1974 dollars) for three slim pamphlets in a box must have sorely tempted consumers to take matters into their own hands; in the American Wargamer, George Phillies judged that “the rules are rather expensive—sufficiently over the cost of copying them, I think, that there are probably more pirate Xerox copies than licit copies in the world.” [AW:v2n8] Gygax would later conjecture, “I have no way of knowing how many pirated copies of D&D were in existence, but some estimates place the figure at about 20% of total sales, some as high as 50%.” — 0 likes

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Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People, and Fantastic Adventure from Chess to Role-Playing Games

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