Peterson, Jon. Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons. Cambridge, MA: The
MIT Press, 2021. ISBN: 9780262542951
Dungeons & Dragons! If you grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, you just knew about D&D, especially if you were a nerd, a geek, or just into playing games. Between college students disappearing into steam tunnels, D&D being banned from school campuses, and claims of devil worship, pop culture was rife with stories about the game. But what is the real story of how D&D came to be, who created it, and what happened next? Jon Peterson provides a documented version of the behind the scenes story in the pages of Game Wizards!
Jon Peterson provides a inside the company history of TSR, the sort-of club that formed to publish a set of cribbed together rules. It all started in the early 1970s, with Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson collaborating with friends. They had a bit of success, so they formed a company to distribute the rules for what became D&D and other games. But bad blood, bad dealings, and questions of ownership and authorship soured the deal early on. The fallout from early authorship issues haunted TSR for a long time, especially when TSR seemed to be raking in the money. But inventors seldom make good businessmen, and Gygax, Arneson, and the Blumes (Brian and Kevin) definitely were not. So on October 22, 1986, Gary Gygax was maneuvered out of his own company in order to save the company. Under new management, TSR lasted another 10 years until another crisis ended with a sale to Wizards of the Coast.
As a person who played D&D and various other role-playing games during the 1970s and 1980s, this book brought back a lot of memories and cleared up some cloudy areas for me. So if you are interested in TSR history, D&D history, or how not to run a company, pick up a copy of Game Wizards and enjoy!
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