Di & D Reading Group discussion

Can we start posting comments?

I noticed on the Twitters that you initially listed this with 2 stars but it appears that it was revised to 5, what changed your initial opinion? (or was that just a typo?)

I find myself wanting to remove my copy of the Chainmail rules from its hermetically sealed envelope to really see what is in those rules.

Judging a book by its cover: love the homage to 1e UA!

I read this a year or two ago and really enjoyed getting a sense of the people/personalities. Especially as I was in the middle of working through /Playing at the World/, which can be a bit dry.

What're the dates like on this? Between following the group announcement, listening to DiD on my own schedule, hearing you two talk about things two weeks in the past/future... I'm not sure what year it is anymore. (Maybe the first message in each discussion could summarize the announcement date, target completion date, &c.?)

Should we start discussing now, or does discussion start when the "finish date" hits?

Thanks.

Slow, unengaging and uninspiring.

As a long term player (1980s) of D&D, I remember the plethora of modules, books and articles that Gary Gygax wrote - where are they in this biography? A biography of a writer has to deal with their body of work - its like reading a biography of Patton that doesn't mention the battles he fought.

I endured the young Gary in hopes that I would lern some things about his work, both creative and otherwise, within TSR and all I got was "he made D&D, he got rich, he got fired, he got poor" - this is a man who led and collaberated by some of the greatest RPG creators in the infancy of the genre and we learned next to nothing about any of them.

Further, the research appears to be based entirely on interviews 30-40 years after the fact. Where are the contemperaneous sources? Even if the corporate records of TSR no longer exist or are not publically available, TSR was a defendant and plaintiff is soooo many lawsuits - all of which have public records.

Let's get something better next time.

Only 1 star. Having been gaming for several decades, I was underwhelmed with this book due to its lack of depth in detailing Gary's life or the history of the development of D&D. It added no new insights for me into the development of our hobby.

I have to say I stopped in the middle of it and was waiting for the discussion on di&d if it got any better in the second half.

If I'd want character depth I'd read some fiction where the characters go through some stuff.

I hoped to get some actual information, since I have to write scientific thesis at some point in my media studies and it better be about rpgs. The only thing the book did well is set the setting in which the whole stuff happened.

You're probably looking for _Playing at the World_. Much more compendious, 720 pages, bit of a slog for the casual reader. Not as focused on D&D or Gygax.

Jan wrote: "I have to say I stopped in the middle of it and was waiting for the discussion on di&d if it got any better in the second half.

If I'd want character depth I'd read some fiction where the characte..."

I think this book might have been more effective if the technique of jumping back and forth in time (as the author did from the prologue into chapter 1) had been maintained. The early childhood stuff would have been less tedious, and it could have been dropped when the "action" picked up with GenCons, etc.

I thought the book felt confused - never sure what it wanted to be: a loving homage or an actual biography, and this damaged both its pacing and presentation.

A lot of it was new information to me, so there was some value for my time. The format of the book was pretty weak. Everyone else covered anything I'd say on that very well already. I did like the bit at the end that discussed how many industries were impacted by D&D. Not that literally anyone in the hobby couldn't tell you that, but I'd still expect to get that sort of gratification in a work like this.

There is some new info I didn't know before, but not the best book I ever read. Some of the characterisation of Gary I enjoyed, but the beginning was as said a bit tedious.

Overall I found the book a bit fluffy but charming. I actually quite enjoyed the early boyhood bits. I think everyone has well covered the book's flaws, but despite them I did learn a lot about the man that I didn't know (I'm far from a Gygaxian scholar). I actually didn't like the ending bit - the book had as many or more endings as return of the king, and I found the multi-chapter love-in a bit boring by the ... actual end.

Just listening to the Di&D review now, and at roughly the 1:35 mark I realize what I was trying to say with my review: it's a puff piece.