Games Workshop is best known for creating Warhammer. But their story, and their origins, are full of nerd-tastic lore and legendary moments. From launching Dungeons and Dragons in the back of their van (and then securing rights to sell it through the whole of Europe) to creating the Fighting Fantasy series, co-founders Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson tell their remarkable story for the first time in Dice Men. Dice Men is not just the story of an iconic store, but tells of the birth of an industry, one that has changed gaming forever-in full color, and highly illustrated with early memorabilia that will thrill fans. History, HC, 9x12, 448pgs, FC

Distance of Touch is a magazine about Nordic larp published in conjunction with the Knutpunkt 2022 conference in Linköping, Sweden. It’s articles seek to capture the moment in Nordic larp culture, with the emergence of online larp and different kinds of new larps such as Seaside Prison and The Future Is Straight. It ranges beyond the Nordics in its examination of Hungarian proto-larp, Chinese larp and Brazilian antifascist larp. One of the themes of the magazine is community, with articles about the experiences of women of color and trans people in larp. The magazine is capped with a section on various design concepts that have recently bubbled up in Nordic larp. Contents: Editorial – Juhana Pettersson Interview: Mastering Chaos – Juhana Pettersson Six Larp Novels (And a Collection of Short Stories) – Jukka Särkijärvi Q&A – Juhana Pettersson Feature: Not All Black And White – Anna Erlandsson Feature: Glamour – Erik Winther Paisley Photo Essay: Heteronormativity in Pictures – Juhana Pettersson Interview: Designing a Dystopia of Straightness – Juhana Pettersson Everybody’s Mom And Dad – Tor Kjetil Edland, Karete Jacobsen Meland & Anna Emilie Groth Larp Against Fascism – Luiz Prado and Leandro Godoy Beyond Cracking Eggs – Jamie MacDonald Column: Larp As a Player, Larp as a Character – Alessandro Giovannucci Feature: The Online Larp Road Trip – Ylva Otting The Many Nuances of Fake Sex – Juhana Pettersson Exploring Larp Landscapes – Alexiou Alexandros Pandemic Larp Improvisation – Evan Torner How To Play – Mike Pohjola Feature: The Chinese Hotpot of Larp – Xiong Shuo, Wen Ruoyu & Mátyás Hartyándi Feature: Tribes And Kingdoms – Bálint Márk Túri & Mátyás Hartyándi Leading With Larp Magic – Moa Rönnåsen Wielding the Magic of Anticipation – Olivia Fischer How to Management a Larp Project? – Sandy Bailly Uncomfortable Metalinguistics – Thomaz Barbeiro & Leandro Godoy Column: “Never Give Up, Never Surrender” – Inge-Mette Petersen The Lion, the Witch and the Workshop – Olivia Fischer Interview: Looking At the Sea – Juhana Pettersson Photo Essay: Healing – Wanja Neite Unfinished Stories For an Unruly Audience – Alessandro Giovannucci Classic Comedies And Why We’ll Never Larp Them – Jamie MacDonald Possible, Impossible Larp Critique – Kaisa Kangas Optional Playtime – Juhana Pettersson Play-Enabling Oppression – Juhana Pettersson & Maria Pettersso Fuck the Hand – Juhana Pettersson Redundant, Fault-Tolerant Relationship Maps – Jason Morningstar Play On Lies – Julia Greip Combat Tokens – Garett Kopczynski Participatory Ritual Vocalization – Juhana Pettersson Symbolic Names – Juhana Pettersson Credits: Editor in chief: Juhana Pettersson Graphic design: Anne Serup Grove Distance of Touch has been created with the support of Taiteen edistämiskeskus, Journalistisen kulttuurin edistämissäätiö and Suomen Kulttuurirahasto. 151 pages, Full color and fully illustrated, Softcover

Where do you find beauty in larp? How to create larp in the intersection of politics and emergent play? How to design for player desires and make larp while avoiding burnout? Engines of Desire is a collection of 31 articles and essays about larp by Juhana Pettersson. Many of the texts have been published before and there are nine new articles as well as a foreword by the play researcher Jaakko Stenros. The cover seen above as well as the book’s graphic design is by Anne Serup Grove. The book’s essays span twenty years of Nordic Larp. The perspective is that of a larp designer, a player, a member of the Nordic community of play. The book is an exploration into the ideas and dynamics of larp during a time of intense artistic development in the community. “I’ve been making larp for over twenty years now. I wanted to put everything I know about it into one book,” Pettersson says. Juhana Pettersson (born in 1980) is a Finnish larp designer, novelist and game writer. Larps he has created or worked on include Luminescence, Halat hisar, End of the Line, Parliament of Shadows and Enlightenment in Blood. 460p

The story of the arcane table-top game that became a pop culture phenomenon and the long-running legal battle waged by its co-creators. When Dungeons & Dragons was first released to a small hobby community, it hardly seemed destined for mainstream success—and yet this arcane tabletop role-playing game became an unlikely pop culture phenomenon. In Game Wizards, Jon Peterson chronicles the rise of Dungeons & Dragons from hobbyist pastime to mass-market sensation, from the initial collaboration to the later feud of its creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. As the game's fiftieth anniversary approaches, Peterson—a noted authority on role-playing games—explains how D&D and its creators navigated their successes, setbacks, and controversies. Peterson describes Gygax and Arneson's first meeting and their work toward the 1974 release of the game; the founding of TSR and its growth as a company; and Arneson's acrimonious departure and subsequent challenges to TSR. He recounts the “Satanic Panic” accusations that D&D was sacrilegious and dangerous, and how they made the game famous. And he chronicles TSR's reckless expansion and near-fatal corporate infighting, which culminated with the company in debt and overextended and the end of Gygax's losing battle to retain control over TSR and D&D. With Game Wizards, Peterson restores historical particulars long obscured by competing narratives spun by the one-time partners. That record amply demonstrates how the turbulent experience of creating something as momentous as Dungeons & Dragons can make people remember things a bit differently from the way they actually happened. 408 pp., 6 x 9 in, 30 b&w illus.

Here is the ultimate record of how Dungeons & Dragons came to be. The Making of Original D&D is an extraordinary collection of rare documents that shed light on D&D’s origin story. Uncover materials never released to the public, including Gary Gygax’s first draft of original D&D, and early published writings such as the 1974 original D&D “white box” booklets and supplements. Each document is featured alongside insightful commentary from one of the game’s foremost historians, Jon Peterson. Contents: * Unearth the very first draft of original D&D, never released to the public until now. Crafted on Gygax’s home typewriter, this 1973 document contains handwritten notes by both Gygax and Arneson. * Discover approximately 30 early articles and rare documents that lay the foundation for modern D&D, including unpublished correspondence between Gygax and Arneson. * Peruse a remarkable collection of magazine and fanzine articles, many of which are no longer publicly available or remain undiscovered by D&D historians and fans of classic D&D. * Flip through facsimiles of all the first printings of Original D&D, compiled in a single book for the first time in D&D’s publishing history. * Explore the creation and development of the original 1974 game with insightful commentary by Jon Peterson, one of D&D’s foremost historians. Disclaimer: We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content in this product does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudices that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end. 576 pages

A fascinating and personal look at Dungeons & Dragons that “tracks D&D’s turbulent rice, fall, and survival, from its heyday in the 1980s…to the twenty-first century” (The Wall Street Journal). Even if you’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons, you probably know someone who has: the game has had a profound influence on our culture, and 2014 marks the intriguing role-playing phenomenon’s 40th anniversary. Released decades before the Internet and social media, Dungeons & Dragons inspired one of the original nerd subcultures and is still revered by more than 30 million fans. Now, the authoritative history and magic of the game are revealed by an award-winning journalist and lifelong D&D player. In Of Dice and Men, David Ewalt describes the development of Dungeons & Dragons from the game’s origins on the battlefields of ancient Europe through the hysteria that linked it to satanic rituals and teen suicides to its apotheosis as father of the modern video-game industry. As he chronicles the surprising history of the game’s origins (a history largely unknown even to hardcore players) and examines D&D’s lasting impact, Ewalt weaves laser-sharp subculture analysis with his own present-day gaming experiences, “writing about the world of fantasy role-playing junkies with intelligence, dexterity, and even wisdom” (Ken Jennings). An enticing blend of history, journalism, narrative, and memoir, Of Dice and Men sheds light on America’s most popular (and widely misunderstood) form of collaborative entertainment. 304p

Playground Worlds is a collection of articles on role-playing games by leading researchers, artists and other experts. The book documents the theory and practice of the Nordic role-playing scene – one of the most vibrant in the world – and presents numerous methods and techniques that are directly applicable to larp design and production. It also offers a peek into some Anglo-American role-playing cultures. The book is divided into three sections. Community and Journalism includes articles on role-player communities written particularly with an eye for approachability. Art and Design covers role-play as the product of a creative process, exposing philosophies and intentions behind specific role-playing works while providing advice and guidance for prospective designers. The Research and Theory section focuses on recent advances in analytic and academic thought on role-play. Journalism & Community The Role-Players’ School: Østerskov Efterskole Malik Hyltoft Østerskov Efterskole is the first school in Denmark to base its teaching primarily on role-playing. The pedagogy of the school changes both the role of teacher and pupil and presents a very different view of teaching. This article describes the methods used at Østerskov Efterskole as well as the school life experienced by the pupils. It gives preliminary assessments of the feasibility of the applied methods, both based on observations from school life and on the few statistical facts obtainable. Finally, it compares the empirical experience of the school with previous articles on role-playing based teaching. Leave the Cat in the Box: Some Remarks on the Possibilities of Role-Playing Game Criticism Jussi Ahlroth Robin D. Laws wrote in 1995 an article titled “The Hidden Art: Slouching Towards A Critical Framework for RPGs”. In the article, Laws claims that “Criticism of the actual role-playing game experience is the Schrödinger’s Cat of art criticism”, referring to the critic’s participation in the artwork she is to criticise. This essay addresses that conundrum by looking at the relationship between subjectivity and objectivity in criticism. A twofold division between text and-performance is proposed to see what the conditions under which a critic can criticise a role-playing game are. The conclusion is that in terms of criticism, the major problem is not the role of the critic, but of the other players. Finally, it is pointed out that the critique as a genre of writing might expand to other forms of writing when it comes to role-playing game criticism. The Dragon Was the Least of It: Dragonbane and Larp as Ephemera and Ruin Johanna Koljonen The international fantasy larp Dragonbane (July 27th – August 4th, 2006) was unprecedented in ambition, the promises of the organisers including a functional village, working magic and a life-size fire-breathing animatronic dragon. In this essay, Johanna Koljonen describes some of the production’s challenges and successes, in the context of a wider discussion on how and why larps should be documented. Producing A Nice Evening Anna Westerling This is an account of how A Nice Evening with a Family was created. When you create a larp, you build not only a game, but also a large organisation . You need to think about how that organisation can be optimal in order to foster a creative environment. I’ll touch on different aspects of this process in this article, such as creating a vision, recruiting an organisation and planning the financing and marketing of a game. It is my opinion that once we start to debate the managerial side of organising larps, the quality of our games will improve as we develop methods of organizing that enable us to look after the creative forces in the organisation . This article is also a documentation of my journey, the story of one larp. I share it hoping that it will broaden your views on larp organisation. Design for Work Minimization Kåre Murmann Kjær Rarely does a group of organisers start creating a larp with the intention of disappointing the players. However, it happens that a larp is not realised exactly as the organisers intended and led the players to believe, which in turn leads to disappointments. In vthis article I will propose a design philosophy, Design for Work Minimization, which larp organisers can use to realise their larp with less work without compromising their vision or the quality of the larp. By reducing the workload, the chances of successfully organising the larp will increase. I will argue why this design philosophy can be helpful, and I will describe tools that can be used to realise this design philosophy. The Children of Treasure Trap: History and Trends of British Live Action Role-Play Nathan Hook This article discusses the historical and current trends across mainstream British larp, from its beginning up to the present today. It charts the twists in the development of larp focusing on the action larp tradition – the style that includes some amount of physical action such as foam weapon combat. Art & Design Frail Realities: Design Process Justin Parsler This paper discusses the design philosophy that inspired the UK live action role-playing game Frail Realities, and looks at how that philosophy was realised. This is not an attempt to instruct people on how larp games should be created, but rather shows how one such game was created as a case study to exemplify the early design process. Along the way, many of the tropes common to UK larps are discussed because they are held in common with FR or because FR broke the common mold. High Resolution Larping: Enabling Subtlety at Totem and Beyond Andie Nordgren This article introduces the idea that we can describe game interaction in terms of resolution.and describes some of the methods used in the larp Totem to achieve “high resolution” game interaction. These techniques handled conflict resolution, love making, character creation and ensemble construction, building upon the methods developed in earlier Nordic larps. Walking the White Road: A Trip into the Hobo Dream Bjarke Pedersen & Lars Munck On a warm autumn morning, six hobos began the most important journey of their life: To bury their best friend and greatest love. What needed to be done was clear to them, and as the journey took them closer to their goal, they could see their own salvation peak at the horizon. This article describes the preparations and execution of a larp co-created by all players and the experiences and techniques used to make a truly life changing game. Adventurous Romanticism: Enabling a Strong Adventurous Element in Larp Katri Lassila This paper presents the work of Katri Lassila and Laura Kalli, a duo who has been developing a new style of live action role-play – Adventurous Romanticism – for the past four years. The Kalli & Lassila style is all about reproducing the feeling of childhood play while using classical literature and contemporary popular culture as inspiration. The four larps written and produced in this style have been played in Finland during 2003-2006. Exhuming Agabadan Matthijs Holter The reality game Agabadan was an experiment in decentralised play, in which the content was provided by the players. Players created their own world views and interacted with each other through common and distributed rituals and gatherings based on those world views. The decentralized model and processes used turned out to have unforeseen vulnerabilities, and over one third of the players dropped out of the game. The game provided strong subjective experiences for those who were able to follow through. The Nuts and Bolts of Jeepform Tobias Wrigstad Jeepform is a style of freeform role-playing that stresses the importance of the meta-play, transparency and tailoring the techniques to emphasise the story. It has been likened to improvisational theatre, psychodrama and performance art, and been called “what theatre might become” as well as “freeform role-playing done right.” This article is a personal introduction to jeepform, its background and how it differs from freeform, and some jeepform ideas and techniques interleaved within the rest of the text with a tiny bit of analysis sprinkled on top. In a sense, this is a partial ingredients-slip from the jeepform kool-aid bottle. Behind the Façade of A Nice Evening with the Family Anders Hultman, Anna Westerling & Tobias Wrigstad Larp allows us to experience stories in a very powerful and realistic way. However, the physical restraints of time and space constrain the storytelling. In A Nice Evening with the Family a handful of techniques and methods borrowed from freeform role-playing and theatre were used to enhance the experience. Stupid Stories: Using Narrativism in Designing Agerbørn Jonas Trier-Knudsen This article describes the design of the Danish larp Agerbørn, which attempts to realize the narrativist ambition of telling stories. The underlying question is whether or not larps can be used as a narrative medium, but the style is practically oriented so that organizers can use elements of the design. Levelling the Playing Field and Designing Interaction Troels Barkholt-Spangsbo This article provides practical advice on and concrete examples of how to design larps. It offers a terminology for talking about different kinds of social contracts: simulation rules, regulatory rules, behavioural rules and mise-en-scènic rules serve different purposes in larp design. This paper uses Eirik Fatland’s work on interaction codes, and connects them with various kinds of social rules. The Age of Indulgence Juhana Pettersson Role-playing games are a way to do things you want to do, but wouldn’t in ordinary life. In this essay, I discuss role-playing as the art of indulgence, of playing games as a way to fulfil desires, based on several indulgent larps and tabletop role-playing campaigns. Parlor Larps: A Study in Design John H. Kim The term parlor larp is the name for a series of published larp scenarios from Shifting Forest Storyworks. It referred more generally to the format: a larp scenario playable in a single room, with prewritten characters and minimal preparation, to be finished in a few hours. It is a case study in how to make larps accessible to inexperienced players. I analyze the design and play of these games on several levels, based on the play of nine games of this format, including five I directed and one I wrote. There are several levels of analysis: the formula for a distribution of characters, the arrangement of in-game action within a limited scope, the write-ups of characters which is split between given information and questions for the player, and the conflict resolution mechanics including physical, emotional, and social. Research & Theory 24 Hours in a Bomb Shelter: Player, Character and Immersion in Ground Zero Heidi Hopeametsä A player enters the fictional world of larp through a character. However, it is possible to immerse also in other aspects of the game, such as the physical surroundings, the story, or the challenges the game offers. I approach immersion as the way the player engages in a game when pursuing the optimal experience of flow (a concept introduced by Csikszentmihalyi), which can be achieved via these different aspects. I use the larp Ground Zero as an example. The game was a distressing experience, which was nevertheless considered to be positive and valuable by the players. It therefore provides a good case study for discussing immersion, the roles of the player and the character, and experiences which are simultaneously real and fictitious. We Are the Great Pretenders: Larp is Adult Pretend Play Erling Rognli There are extensive similarities between larp and the pretend play of children. The relation between these activities is proposed to be a matter of developmental continuity rather than mere resemblance. This is further considered to be of central importance to future larp research, and of great possible utility for larp design. Are You the Daddy? Comparing Fantasy Play in Children and Adults through Vivian Gussin Paley’s A Child’s Work Andreas Lieberoth Children play games, and so do many adults. What we often fail to realise is how directed and negotiated pretend play usually is, even among the smallest children. Case studies from Vivian Gussin Paley’s A Child’s Work (2004) are used to exemplify how children use techniques similar to adult role-play, such as defining characters, negotiating diegetic details, and ongoing mobilisation of new content. In this paper, such similarities are used to explore the phenomena “scripting” and “representational negotiation”, and venture a few notes on similarities and differences between children’s pretend play and 21st century adult role-play. Kaprow’s Scions J. Tuomas Harviainen This article re-introduces a way of looking at live-action role-playing as an artistic and possibly ideological descendant of an earlier expressive form, the Happening. In it, I will go through rules set for such events by Allan Kaprow in 1966, analyze those rules and compare them to the conventions of larps. Additionally, I will suggest new ways of looking at larp as art and on viewing earlier theories on larp as performance. Key Concepts in Forge Theory Emily Care Boss Underlying much of a surge in independent role-playing game publication is a body of role-playing game theory referred to as Forge Theory, or the Big Model. This and related concepts were formulated through discussion on online fora, particularly at one called Haephestus’ Forge. Play and design of the games also informed its development. These ideas offer an outline of the structure of role-playing and describe techniques used in table top and other role-playing games. The following is a summary of the background and key concepts of this theory. Broadcast Culture Meets Role-Playing Culture Marie Denward & Annika Waern The production Sanningen om Marika is a rare example of a production that combines traditional broadcast culture with the participative culture fostered primarily within the larp community in the Nordic countries. Swedish television collaborated with The Company P to produce this alternate reality multiplatform media production. The result was a spectacular and controversial production offering online and live action role-playing experiences in parallel with traditional TV drama. This article focuses on the differences between the production cultures of two companies, and how it affected the experience they produced together. We Lost Our World and Made New Ones: Live Role-Playing in Modern Times Gabriel Widing The aims and aesthetics of live-action role-playing are rooted in modernity. This article contextualizes larp as a strategy of distancing oneself from the boundaries of modern society. Larps produce autonomous spaces where the social relation of capital and the laws of the nation-state cannot apply. This theory of larp as exile from modernity explains why conservative and revolutionary impulses coexist within the subcultural practice of larp; both encompass a wish to escape the alienation of modernity. My thoughts derive from continental philosophy of the 20th century when the dark sides of modernity were more obvious than they seem today. Fantasy and Medievalism in Role-Playing Games Lars Konzack & Ian Dall This article examines how medievalism has influenced fantasy and fantasy role-playing, and how medievalism relates to the historical Medieval Times. The starting point is to define fantasy and get a better comprehension of the Medieval Times and medievalism. This is then compared to wellknown medievalist fantasy tabletop role-playing games. The aim is to create a solid foundation for improving the sub-creation process of designing fantasy role-playing games in general.

The first volume of two in a new, updated edition of the 2012 book Playing at the World, which charts the vast and complex history of role-playing games. This first volume is The Invention of Dungeons & Dragons, which explores the publication of that iconic game. In this volume, Jon Peterson distills the story of how the wargaming clubs and fanzines circulating around the upper Midwest in the 1970s culminated in Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson's seminal role-playing game, D&D. Drawing from primary sources ranging from eighteenth-century strategists to modern hobbyists, Playing at the World explores the origins of wargames and roleplaying through the history of conflict simulations and the eccentric characters who drove the creation of a signature cultural innovation in the late twentieth century. SC, 6x9, 392pgs, FC

The annual Solmukohta roleplaying conference is the epicenter of the Nordic Larp design movement. The conference rotates between Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and every year there’s a book collecting articles pushing the envelope of what roleplaying and larp can be. 200 pages + a DVD Full color Edited by Juhana Pettersson Graphic design by Tommi Kovala Articles: High on Hell by Elin Nilsen Why do we go to games where the emotional content is overwhelmingly negative? Valve: the Grand Adventure by Antti Kanner & Katri Lassila Valve is a Helsinki-based city game where dream is the only reality. The Joy of Kidnapping by Juhana Pettersson It’s hard to find venues for experiencing the joy of kidnapping in modern society. The Golden Rule of Larp by Simo Järvelä Larp ethics are still in their infancy. A Moment of Weakness by Yaraslau Kot Sometimes the opinion of one person is enough to get a game cancelled. Dublin2: the EU’s Asylum Policy in Miniature by JP Kaljonen & Johanna Raekallio Dublin2 brought the reality of EU’s asylum policies into the center of Helsinki. Weddings and Anti-Condom Activists by Trine Lise Lindahl There’s larp in Palestine. Larp and Aesthetic Responsibility by Tova Gerge Some lessons from the discussion concerning the game Just a Little Lovin’ in Swedish media. Folk Fantasy by Mike Pohjola The larp Kirjokansi escapes the shadow of Tolkien. Reliving Sarmatia by Michal Mochocki Using the toolbox of Nordic Larp to create and reinforce national identity. Valokaari by J. Tuomas Harviainen Who decides if a larp is a success? The organizers, or in the case of the game Valokaari, the players? Kiirastuli OY by Vili Nissinen Sometimes Hell is other people in your office. Playing “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” by Ari-Pekka Lappi The book is a game, as we always suspected. The Labyrinth of Possibilities by Gabriel Widing How to make a game of living in reality. We Created a Monster, Part I by Johanna MacDonald The origins and further permutations of the Walkabout project. We Created a Monster, Part II by Aarni Korpela A two-person project, Walkabout’s creators offer different perspectives on the games. Songs and Larp by Alexey Fedoseev & Daria Kurguzova As we all know, singing is the most important part of any debrief session. Pathos by Lorenzo Trenti Documentation from an Italian alternate reality game. Shadowrun by Thomas B. Sometimes larps are inspired by Nerf guns. Give Me Your Hands, I Will Be Your Eyes by Aaron Vanek The experimental game Steeds, and how it worked in practice. Mistakes I’ve Made by Claus Raasted Claus has made many mistakes. The Rogue Wave by Andrea Castellani How to see larp as a topical wave instead of a narrative. It’s About Time by Eleanor Saitta Time and how it was constructed in the larp Just a Little Lovin’. Letting the Stories Go by Emma Wieslander More conceptual tools for larp design from the designer who brought you Ars Amandi. Tears and Defeat by Nathan Hook You can’t win against faeries or superficial Swedes. What is Good Playing? by Niina Niskanen There’s been a lot of talk about what’s a good larp design, but less about what’s a good player. The Evaluation of Elusiveness by Aleksandra Mochocka A report from the Polish Golden Axes roleplaying competition. ¡Lucha Libre! by Jenni Sahramaa This larp has it all: Luchadores, freedom fighters and the best special moves of any game, ever. Tahtotila by Suvi Korhonen & Tuukka Virtaperko A report on the Finnish larp campaign Tahtotila, about an insane asylum detaching from reality. Your Character is Not Your Own by Gustav Nilsson Communal character creation works better than solitary endeavors. The Blessing of Lineage by Lauri Lukka Why play “single-generation” games when you can play a dynasty? Beyond the Game Master by Emily Care Boss, Ivan Vaghi & Jason Morningstar An enquiry into American game masterless roleplaying games. We Hold These Rules to Be Self-Evident by Lizzie Stark D&D is the American Dream.

Buy this game from Fantasiapelit and get a free PDF to accompany it! Read more about our free PDF program This is Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone... Mayday, Mayday. A box emblazoned with those words went on sale for the first time on July 22, 1977, at the Origins III Game Fair, heralding the advent of the Traveller roleplaying game from GDW. It wasn’t the first science-fiction roleplaying game, but through its innovative design and through the development of its evocative universe of Charted Space, it would become the longest running SFRPG in the industry. However, its path would not be simple. After Traveller reached its early apogee just four years in, it would face decades of increasing problems, raising many questions. Why did GDW decided to shatter their Imperium? What led them to seek outside help to produce the second edition of the game? Why did they abandon the Traveller game system with their next revision? How could such a popular publisher face bankruptcy just two decades on? Similarly, what happened to Imperium Games, QuikLink Interactive, and others who followed in GDW’s footsteps as the inheritors of the Traveller legacy? And finally, how did Mongoose Publishing reach into the past and bring Traveller back to its position as the industry’s best-loved SFRPG? This volume answers those questions and more. It tracks Traveller from its inspirations in the early ’70s, though its initial publication, and across seven distinct editions of its original 2d6 gaming system. It reveals the stories of Traveller’s three major publishers; GDW, Imperium Games, and Mongoose, as well many licensees. Most importantly, it tells how Traveller fell into increasing darkness before descending into a Long Night, and how it rose again as a phoenix. From the author of Designers & Dragons, which told the story of the entire roleplaying industry, comes the intimate history of a single roleplaying game, culled from hundreds of primary sources and interviews. A Designers & Dragons System History 296 pages