Dragons in the Stacks: A Teen Librarian's Guide to Tabletop Role-Playing

by Steven A. Torres-Roman, Cason E. Snow

Tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) are a perfect fit for library teen services. They not only hold great appeal for teen patrons, but also help build important skills ranging from math and literacy to leadership and dramatics. Role-playing games are cost-effective too. "Dragons in the StackS" explains why RPGs are so effective at holding teenagers' attention, identifies their specific benefits, outlines how to select and maintain a RPG collection, and demonstrates how they can enhance teen services and be used in teen programs. Detailed reviews of role-playing games are included as well, with pointers on their strengths, weaknesses, and library applications. Coauthored by an experienced young adult librarian and an adult services librarian, this is the definitive guide to RPGs in the library, and the only one currently available.

Genres: Nonfiction

246 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 2014

Reviews

[Michael]

This book wasn’t everything I hoped it would be, but it was nevertheless useful and interesting. I was really hoping for a more immediately practical step-by-step set of procedures for setting up a role-playing campaign within a library, ideally including some example adventures that would be appropriate within that setting. Actually, there is some guidance on this in the first part of the book, but most of it is covered in a broad manner, leaving the details up to the prospective librarian-Gamemaster (GM). Most of the book is actually taken up with a very detailed discussion of game systems and their appropriateness to different kinds of audiences.

At first I was pretty disappointed by this, but it grew on me as I went through it. I am actually an old-school gamer (sometimes known as a “grognard”) who hasn’t really kept up with the changes in the RPG scene. But, if I want to effectively program for young people, I can’t expect them to do it like we did “in the good old days.” I needed to get up to speed with the current lay of the land, and this, although now four years old, did that much better than a few random Internet searches could have managed. A very wide variety of games were discussed, including “Old School Renaissance,” retro-clones, and even updated editions of my old favorites. In one or two cases, I was surprised that something that still has an audience was left out, but for the most part I was impressed by their comprehensiveness and with how many new games I learned about quickly. There’s still plenty here to chew on for anyone hoping to run games in their library, and the first section, while it’s more of a list of tips than a real program guide, is also well-written and accessible.

[Carrie]

Good information for all levels, and a great "guide to the games" chapter that goes through a lot of different RPG systems and games.

[Nicole Westen]

A definite read for teen librarians looking for more programs to run for their patrons!

[Abraham Ray]

Great book about rpgers in the public library system!