What do you think?
Rate this book
Designers & Dragons #4
Designers & Dragons: The 00s: A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry
PART FOUR OF A FOUR-VOLUME SET!
EVERYTHING YOU’VE WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF ROLEPLAYING GAMES...
Designers & Dragons: The ’00s is a comprehensive picture of the new resurgence of the RPG industry. The final and most updated book in a four volume series, we’ve added tens of thousands of new words and insider info to this volume alone. Take an inside look at d20 companies, watch the growth of new titans like Paizo Publishing, and learn about the growth of indie presses like Evil Hat Productions. Regardless of your gaming background, Shannon Appelcline’s meticulously researched history won’t disappoint.
In this volume, you’ll find:
* A foreword by Lisa Stevens, founder of Paizo Publishing
* Profiles for twenty-five 2000s gaming companies including Paizo Publishing, Green Ronin, Mongoose Publishing, and yes—Evil Hat
* The inside scoop behind games like Pathfinder, Freeport, Fate, and GUMSHOE
* Ten things you might not know about roleplaying in the ’00s
* An extensive bibliography and index
Meet the characters behind the characters and the gamers behind the games in Designers & Dragons: The ’00s!
EVERYTHING YOU’VE WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF ROLEPLAYING GAMES...
Designers & Dragons: The ’00s is a comprehensive picture of the new resurgence of the RPG industry. The final and most updated book in a four volume series, we’ve added tens of thousands of new words and insider info to this volume alone. Take an inside look at d20 companies, watch the growth of new titans like Paizo Publishing, and learn about the growth of indie presses like Evil Hat Productions. Regardless of your gaming background, Shannon Appelcline’s meticulously researched history won’t disappoint.
In this volume, you’ll find:
* A foreword by Lisa Stevens, founder of Paizo Publishing
* Profiles for twenty-five 2000s gaming companies including Paizo Publishing, Green Ronin, Mongoose Publishing, and yes—Evil Hat
* The inside scoop behind games like Pathfinder, Freeport, Fate, and GUMSHOE
* Ten things you might not know about roleplaying in the ’00s
* An extensive bibliography and index
Meet the characters behind the characters and the gamers behind the games in Designers & Dragons: The ’00s!
847 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
17 people are currently reading
251 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 21, 2018
The fourth and, to date, final volume of this excellent series. While I’ve been noddingly familiar with some of the history of the RPG industry, I’d had no idea of the sheer extent and variety. In my defense, my main area of gaming interest is more board and card games. I don't think I've played an RPG since an abandoned Earthdawn campaign in the late 90's … no, wait. I did run a bit of first edition AD&D for my son when he got old enough to become curious about those hardcover rulebooks gathering dust on the bookshelf in the back room …
Anyway, my point is that this whole series has been a revelation. And this final volume in particular is fascinating. Many of the games from the indie revolution sound amazing. I might just need to go looking for a few of them.
I suppose that sometime post 2020 we might just see a fifth volume of this series covering the years ‘10 to ‘19. Something to look forward to. As ever, not sure how this book will go over with non-gamers, but I found it quite interesting.
Anyway, my point is that this whole series has been a revelation. And this final volume in particular is fascinating. Many of the games from the indie revolution sound amazing. I might just need to go looking for a few of them.
I suppose that sometime post 2020 we might just see a fifth volume of this series covering the years ‘10 to ‘19. Something to look forward to. As ever, not sure how this book will go over with non-gamers, but I found it quite interesting.
June 9, 2018
The fourth (and kind-of final) volume of Shannon Appelcline's massive history of the RPG industry finishes up the project well. However, I can't help a feeling that this one is less important, and unpolished.
Some of this is my prejudices, but some is caused by the nature of how the books are put together. Since each chapter is a look at the full history of a company, instead of being confined to the decade under study, earlier volumes had histories that covered multiple decades in long histories with a lot of context. Here, all the histories are relatively short, since no company could have more than thirteen years of existence at the time of writing. This is shown by the coverage of 26 companies in this volume, plus thirteen company mini-histories, a quick look at OSR, a short look at Glorantha fanzines, and finally two asides talking about his conception of 'story games' (which have been brought up since the first volume).
The format also ill-serves overall industry trends, which was a minor problem before, but really damages coverage of the d20 years. I know it was a big thing, and it comes up a lot as a driving force in a lot of chapters, but I still don't have a clear picture of how it operated because of the fragmentary coverage. Short of the creation of the RPG itself, it's probably the biggest industry-wide force there's been, and I have no idea just how many companies (large and small) published during it (and how that compares to, say, the '80s boom), and so on.
There's some good coverage of the indie movement, and trends in it (including a much better picture of how it got going than I've seen elsewhere), and some lesser coverage of OSR. Of course, the real problem with all of this, is that with it all being so recent (/ongoing), it's harder to judge what's going to be of lasting importance at this point. Moreover, the book was written as D&D 5E was preparing to come out, so current events are still playing havoc with important subjects here, notably Paizo.
Some of this is my prejudices, but some is caused by the nature of how the books are put together. Since each chapter is a look at the full history of a company, instead of being confined to the decade under study, earlier volumes had histories that covered multiple decades in long histories with a lot of context. Here, all the histories are relatively short, since no company could have more than thirteen years of existence at the time of writing. This is shown by the coverage of 26 companies in this volume, plus thirteen company mini-histories, a quick look at OSR, a short look at Glorantha fanzines, and finally two asides talking about his conception of 'story games' (which have been brought up since the first volume).
The format also ill-serves overall industry trends, which was a minor problem before, but really damages coverage of the d20 years. I know it was a big thing, and it comes up a lot as a driving force in a lot of chapters, but I still don't have a clear picture of how it operated because of the fragmentary coverage. Short of the creation of the RPG itself, it's probably the biggest industry-wide force there's been, and I have no idea just how many companies (large and small) published during it (and how that compares to, say, the '80s boom), and so on.
There's some good coverage of the indie movement, and trends in it (including a much better picture of how it got going than I've seen elsewhere), and some lesser coverage of OSR. Of course, the real problem with all of this, is that with it all being so recent (/ongoing), it's harder to judge what's going to be of lasting importance at this point. Moreover, the book was written as D&D 5E was preparing to come out, so current events are still playing havoc with important subjects here, notably Paizo.
April 10, 2024
Reading this in the year 2024 and I was impressed with the deep dives of all the previous era's of books. Obviously, when the info collecting stops at approximately 2013/2014, there are some companies or products featured in here that a decade later are either OOP or never got off the ground beyond an initial rule book. That said, still the most interesting story and one that I think was lost in the midst of everything else pushed in this book was the rise of Paizo Publishing and their product line Pathfinder. Which probably did as much to keep TTRPG alive and kicking after the WOTC 4E shenanigans as anything else post the D20 boom and bust cycle.
As well the whole idea of who WOTC was though some what retreaded when talking about how they got the license in the 70s era book, when compared to what was discussed in this edition. Didn't really seem to add much to the overall feel of capturing the history of the industry.
Overall the major theme for this edition, and the author retreads it in the appendix, is that the 2000-2010s era was the rise of the indy publishing efforts and the rise of the narrative gaming concept vs the hard simulationist that was the 70s, the boom era of the 80s, and the cyberpunk and horror era editions of the 90s. I mixed listening to this on audible and reading it via kindle, however, there was a ton of fluff with rabbit trails to no where on small indy publishers that were taking older concepts like superheroes or sci-fi, if not just writing unusual things like how to live as an Orc family in a DnD like world. Some of this was good and it seemed that the two big if not three big systems covered in this era were Fate/Fudge, Pathfinder/D20, and all the Narrative story telling books with only simple dice mechanics.
It was still interesting to read this book, but I felt as if this edition seemed to be short changing the readers with the short quick chapters and that what could have been written of WOTC or even Paizo could have been really expanded on by the author. So that is why the 2 stars because the loving details of the other major companies in each era were glossed over when compared to previous editions. Too many page like chapters over a designer or company with a reference back to other chapters or to other books in the series.
As well the whole idea of who WOTC was though some what retreaded when talking about how they got the license in the 70s era book, when compared to what was discussed in this edition. Didn't really seem to add much to the overall feel of capturing the history of the industry.
Overall the major theme for this edition, and the author retreads it in the appendix, is that the 2000-2010s era was the rise of the indy publishing efforts and the rise of the narrative gaming concept vs the hard simulationist that was the 70s, the boom era of the 80s, and the cyberpunk and horror era editions of the 90s. I mixed listening to this on audible and reading it via kindle, however, there was a ton of fluff with rabbit trails to no where on small indy publishers that were taking older concepts like superheroes or sci-fi, if not just writing unusual things like how to live as an Orc family in a DnD like world. Some of this was good and it seemed that the two big if not three big systems covered in this era were Fate/Fudge, Pathfinder/D20, and all the Narrative story telling books with only simple dice mechanics.
It was still interesting to read this book, but I felt as if this edition seemed to be short changing the readers with the short quick chapters and that what could have been written of WOTC or even Paizo could have been really expanded on by the author. So that is why the 2 stars because the loving details of the other major companies in each era were glossed over when compared to previous editions. Too many page like chapters over a designer or company with a reference back to other chapters or to other books in the series.
September 18, 2023
The fourth (and final?) volume of Appelcline's Designers & Dragons, covering The '00s, really has two tracks. One is the extremely exciting rise of so-called "indie" role-playing games, experimenting with mechanics and pushing for story-telling more than simulation. It's more philosophical, and actively made me regret 1) the decade I was born in and therefore started gaming in, and 2) that my collection is so comparatively old school, dictating much of the gaming I've done to this day. These games also coincide with the self-publishing movement, which I am well into. The other tracks is more disappointing, because all critical darlingery aside, the decade is also about d20, its boom and bust, the proliferation of publishers catering to that one system (so many the book doesn't even try to cover them all), and its eventual settling into mega-hit Pathfinder. The success of other games resurrected from the past in the 2000s speaks to an old-school status quo in the hobby that's completely at odds with the more innovative game design going on next door. A book on the '10s going into the '20s would continue this latter trend, with D&D 5th playing the part of Pathfinder and streaming replacing online sales and Kickstarter in the narrative to grow the hobby.
December 22, 2017
Very informative, as always. I was surprised at how many companies this volume managed to cover, but I guess the '00s had a glut of companies thanks to the d20 and indie booms. Since the d20 craze was (finally) explained in volume three, this time around I wasn't as interested in those companies, but I did enjoy the spotlights on some of the most influential indie companies. I finally learned what the Forge was all about and how the ever-popular Apocalypse World engine originated.
Naturally, a lot of these stories felt incomplete, because in a sense they are just beginning. I will continue to read Shannon Appelcline's year in review column, because I know he does a great job at researching these things. For a relative newcomer to the tabletop RPG scene like me, these books were well worth the money and time.
Naturally, a lot of these stories felt incomplete, because in a sense they are just beginning. I will continue to read Shannon Appelcline's year in review column, because I know he does a great job at researching these things. For a relative newcomer to the tabletop RPG scene like me, these books were well worth the money and time.
December 12, 2018
This is the final book in the four-book series that summarizes the entirety of the modern history of table top roleplaying games. Everything I have said about the previous three books is applicable for this book as well, so if you’re interested in my thoughts, check out the reviews of the first two volumes, those covering the ‘70s and ‘80s.
This whole collection is an impressive achievement, full of detailed information and entertaining stories. Even when reading about games and people I was not particularly interested in, I enjoyed myself immensely and learned a great deal.
I look forward to picking the series up again in a couple of years to make still more connections and retain still more information than I could possibly take in on this first read through.
This whole collection is an impressive achievement, full of detailed information and entertaining stories. Even when reading about games and people I was not particularly interested in, I enjoyed myself immensely and learned a great deal.
I look forward to picking the series up again in a couple of years to make still more connections and retain still more information than I could possibly take in on this first read through.
May 7, 2023
Fouth and last (for the moment) volume of the most complete encyclopedia about the RPG history and the companies and people involved in.
This book covers mainly 00's decade and shows special interest in the rise of indie-games, drawing a complete picture of the most important games, authors and companies, and how they influenced each other for years.
an absolute must see series, that should be on the shelf of anyone interested in RPG history
This book covers mainly 00's decade and shows special interest in the rise of indie-games, drawing a complete picture of the most important games, authors and companies, and how they influenced each other for years.
an absolute must see series, that should be on the shelf of anyone interested in RPG history
July 22, 2020
This is the fourth and currently final volume of a history of the roleplaying game industry. I'm a lot less familiar with the companies and games outlined here than with those of prior volumes, but this was still an interesting read and really brought home the diversity of design ideas that have evolved in the 21st century. Hopefully work is now underway on a 5th volume to cover the 2010s.
November 19, 2022
Somewhat marred by being a bit selective in which online controversies it bothers to mentions. (If you're going to talk about John Wick-related flamewars, you can't skip over the "brain damage" controversy in your profile of Ron Edwards.) Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
February 25, 2019
Very good overview of the industry. The chapters on d20 publishers were a bit dry, but the chapters on indie publishers and companies trying unique mechanics or distribution were fascinating and inspiring.
November 8, 2024
A very methodical look at another decade, possibly going deeper into mechanics and specific games than previous books in the series, and with a nice look at "Indy RPGs".
Recommended for people interested in the subject matter.
Recommended for people interested in the subject matter.
January 27, 2015
This fourth volume covering the 2000s is equal in quality to the first three volumes covering the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. My review of the first volume also applies to this volume and is reproduced below.
This four volume set of books describes the history of the role-playing industry from its infancy to the present. The amount of information contained in these books is staggering. That one individual was able to bring to fruition such a monumental undertaking is beyond impressive. Even more impressive is the quality of the writing. As a player of RPG's, I imagined that I might have a modest interest in the behind-the-scenes story. Here, the books are organized very well. Each individual chapter is self-contained and told in a very interesting and readable way. The four books don't have to be read cover to cover in order. Rather, readers can peruse individual chapters on specific companies. Where references to other chapters are given, just enough information is provided to allow the reader to understand the context without being over redundant. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this and how much I learned from it. Taken together, the content, the writing, the editorial judgment in finding a balance for including the appropriate amount of detail without being bogged down in minutiae results in a really exceptional book on the subject. One imagines that this four-volume series will become the seminal reference for any study of the RPG industry from 1970-2009. For those readers who think they might have an interest in understanding the history of the RPG industry, this is clearly the definitive work.
This four volume set of books describes the history of the role-playing industry from its infancy to the present. The amount of information contained in these books is staggering. That one individual was able to bring to fruition such a monumental undertaking is beyond impressive. Even more impressive is the quality of the writing. As a player of RPG's, I imagined that I might have a modest interest in the behind-the-scenes story. Here, the books are organized very well. Each individual chapter is self-contained and told in a very interesting and readable way. The four books don't have to be read cover to cover in order. Rather, readers can peruse individual chapters on specific companies. Where references to other chapters are given, just enough information is provided to allow the reader to understand the context without being over redundant. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this and how much I learned from it. Taken together, the content, the writing, the editorial judgment in finding a balance for including the appropriate amount of detail without being bogged down in minutiae results in a really exceptional book on the subject. One imagines that this four-volume series will become the seminal reference for any study of the RPG industry from 1970-2009. For those readers who think they might have an interest in understanding the history of the RPG industry, this is clearly the definitive work.
October 16, 2016
The epic history of the gaming industry through the d20 boom and bust of the 00s
The fourth volume of this series focuses on the 00s. It was an interesting time for the gaming industry. The release of the 3rd edition of D&D in 2000 revitalized the game, and the new open licenses that went with it created the vast d20 boom of companies creating their own games for D&D (my favorites were Necromancer Games - "First edition feel, third edition rules!" and Goodman Games' "Dungeon Crawl Classics" modules). Eventually the boom busted, destroying much of this third-party innovation, and the subsequent release in 2007 of 4th edition and its much more limited licenses eventually led to the games I play now, from the attempt to keep 3rd edition alive (Paizo's "Pathfinder") to the attempt to retroclone gaming like its 1974 ("The Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG" from Goodman Games). The 00s briefly made D&D king again, but also brought about D&D's downfall after the 4th edition was a disaster (the book does glance ahead to the release of 5th edition, but was written before it was really a thing - and even now that the 5th edition is out, I think the jury is still out on whether or not it can save D&D).
The fourth volume of this series focuses on the 00s. It was an interesting time for the gaming industry. The release of the 3rd edition of D&D in 2000 revitalized the game, and the new open licenses that went with it created the vast d20 boom of companies creating their own games for D&D (my favorites were Necromancer Games - "First edition feel, third edition rules!" and Goodman Games' "Dungeon Crawl Classics" modules). Eventually the boom busted, destroying much of this third-party innovation, and the subsequent release in 2007 of 4th edition and its much more limited licenses eventually led to the games I play now, from the attempt to keep 3rd edition alive (Paizo's "Pathfinder") to the attempt to retroclone gaming like its 1974 ("The Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG" from Goodman Games). The 00s briefly made D&D king again, but also brought about D&D's downfall after the 4th edition was a disaster (the book does glance ahead to the release of 5th edition, but was written before it was really a thing - and even now that the 5th edition is out, I think the jury is still out on whether or not it can save D&D).
January 6, 2015
This and the first volume have the most new content so were the most entertaining for me to read. It's also the least depressing of the volumes as, despite the problems caused by the d20 rise and fall, most of the companies in the history are still around in one form or another.
I was slightly disappointed to see an error from the original printing remain in this one. The book still states that the Classic Battletech Miniatures Rules from FanPro were the first time that Battletech had moved away from its hex grid maps, yet earlier rules compilations from FASA had included optional rules for playing Battletech as a more traditional miniatures game without a hex grid.
The section on Catalyst Games' near implosion also remains tantalizingly vague, requiring google searches to fill in the details. I sympathize with the author on that one though, as the fact that no charges were ever filed on what otherwise sounds like a case of embezzlement might open up the possibility of accusations of libel were he to name names.
Overall, another great volume in the set that's well worth reading for anyone interested in the history of role-playing games.
I was slightly disappointed to see an error from the original printing remain in this one. The book still states that the Classic Battletech Miniatures Rules from FanPro were the first time that Battletech had moved away from its hex grid maps, yet earlier rules compilations from FASA had included optional rules for playing Battletech as a more traditional miniatures game without a hex grid.
The section on Catalyst Games' near implosion also remains tantalizingly vague, requiring google searches to fill in the details. I sympathize with the author on that one though, as the fact that no charges were ever filed on what otherwise sounds like a case of embezzlement might open up the possibility of accusations of libel were he to name names.
Overall, another great volume in the set that's well worth reading for anyone interested in the history of role-playing games.
April 19, 2015
An exhaustive, detailed history of the most recent generation of RPG design companies, including Evil Hat, the Forge/StoryGames-inspired houses, and other innovators. Appelcline's style is conversational yet detailed; you can almost hear a folksy documentary being narrated. Recommended for anyone with a deeper interest in the history of the hobby.
April 29, 2017
This book feels like it tells two stories again and again. First is the d20 publisher who tried to ride the wave of OGL products and either survived or didn't. Second is the indie game publisher who reaches some audience and who produces gaming material at a frustratingly slow pace. Still, a good read for those who are enough into role playing games to find the subject of interest. A lot of readers will probably feel that not enough attention was given to their favorite companies and too much to the ones they don't care about. This book was a huge undertaking and the author is to be commended for giving it a go.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews