{"id":163,"date":"2011-09-21T11:56:33","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T11:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=163"},"modified":"2019-01-24T13:24:08","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T18:24:08","slug":"designers-dragons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=163","title":{"rendered":"Designers & Dragons"},"content":{"rendered":"
While perusing the Mongoose booth at GenCon I came upon a large black hardcover book, Designers & Dragons. This is a huge 438 page hardback book that covers the history of the RPG industry. That’s a tall order however the book certainly succeeds. It’s a very readable history of the various companies and trends in the RPG industry from it’s proto-history to the present day. It covers the history of roughly 50 companies in a major way and has 1\/2 to full page histories of quite a few more. The author points out that he is trying to cover the major movers & shakers, either by size or by innovation, and he doesn’t try to cover all of the publishers who released one or two books and then disappeared … unless they had a major impact on the industry.The book is broken down in to seven sections, roughly based on the various trends in the industry. Part 1, at 30 pages or so, covers TSR and the beginnings of the industry. We get all the details of the creation story, the various major staffing and policy changes, and the political issues inside, and how TSR weathered the various storms throughout it’s history. Major products and releases for each company are covered, as is some mention of supplements, however the book is not a catalog of the individual publications. Staff move around and jump from company to company while the companies themselves merge, buy each other, and then break apart again.<\/p>\n

That basic formula is followed through the other six sections of the book: first wave, second wave, third wave, the CCG years, the D20 years, and the Indie revolution. Interspersed throughout the histories are sidebar mini-histories of related game companies and breakouts on other interesting areas. TSR & WOTZ get about 30 pages each, while Yaquinto gets about 2 pages, and mini-histories might get a half page to a page. Some of the interesting breakouts cover the history of RPG fiction, the publication history of Blackmoor , Greyhawk, the Wilderlands, and Kalibruhn, and the role of computer games and the internet on the publishers.<\/p>\n

How the companies used their magazines as house organs or as general product was something I found very interesting. In addition, the issues related with the Canadian & English publishers was very interesting as well. This just came up again recently when I saw a video of an English gentleman railing on D&D and extolling the virtues of Runequest. This book covers the reasons why Runequest, and a few other games, are more popular in the UK than in the US.<\/p>\n

I can’t recommend this history enough. It’s a fabulous read and has absolutely consumed my time for the last week. The author promises more to come at\u00a0http:\/\/www.rpg.net\/columns\/designers-an … ons1.phtml<\/a>. It appears that my copy is a pre-relase for GenCon, and the general printing is still to come.<\/p>\n

This is available as a bundle on DriveThru.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/141205\/Designers–Dragons-The-Complete-Set-BUNDLE?affiliate_id=1892600<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a list of the major sections:<\/p>\n

Part 1 – TSR<\/p>\n

Part 2 First Wave
\nFBI
\nGames Workshop
\nGDW
\nJudges Guild
\nFantasy Games Unlimited
\nMetagaming Concepts
\nChaosium<\/p>\n

P3 – Second Wave
\nSPI
\nSteve Jackson Games
\nTask Force Games
\nFASA
\nGamelords
\nICE
\nHERO
\nPalladium
\nYaquinto
\nMayfair
\nBard
\nAvalon Hill
\nColumbia
\nWest End
\nPacesetter<\/p>\n

P4 Third Wave
\nSkyrealms Publishing
\nDigist Group Publications
\nR Talsorian
\nWhite Wolf
\nLion Rampant
\nNew Infinities
\nCreations Unlimited
\nPagan Publishing
\nAtlas Games
\nAEG
\nPhage Pree
\nDream Pod 9<\/p>\n

P5 – CCG Years
\nWOTC
\nHogshead
\nKenzer & Co
\nLast Unicorn
\nGrey Ghost
\nHolistic Design
\nPinnacle Entertainment
\nImperium
\nGuardians of Order
\nEden
\nFFG
\nMargaret Weis
\nGreen Knight
\nIssaries<\/p>\n

P6 D20 Years
\nNecromancer
\nGreen ROnin
\nTroll Lord
\nPelgrane
\nGoodman
\nPrivateer
\nMongoose
\nAdept
\nPaizo<\/p>\n

P7 – Indi Revolution?
\nEvil Hat
\nCubicle 7
\nCatalyst<\/p>\n

Mini-histories & Breakouts
\nWee Warriors
\nD&D&Computers
\nGreyhawk
\nAdventure Games
\nWorlds of Warhammer
\nEDU-Wares Space Games
\nSettings – Wilderlands
\nDifferent Worlds Magazine
\nDifferent Worlds Publications
\nImpressions Advertising
\nSTrategy & Tactics Magazine
\nFiction of Starfire
\nAmarillo Design Bureau
\nGreat Licenses – SF
\nLittle Soldier Games
\nPhoenix Games
\nGreat License – Fantasy
\nComics
\nMorrigan Press
\nAvalon Hill COmputer Games
\nKelestia Productions
\nEon Products
\n54 40 Orphyte
\nFiery Dragon
\nJefferson Swycaffer & the Rise of RPG Fiction
\nSettings – Kalibruhn
\nEos Press
\nArc Dream Publishing
\nDaedalus Entertainment
\nArs Magica Fanzines
\nCrafty Games
\nNightfall Games
\nD20 Firsts
\nNetbooks
\nDecipher
\nGlorantha Fanzines
\nMoon Design
\nRetroclones
\nRonin Arts
\nHekaforge Productions
\nSettings – Blackmoor
\nStorytelling Games
\nFantasy Heartbreakers
\nIndies of Note
\nOtherworld Creations
\nFred Hicks – Marketeer
\nOne Bad Egg<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While perusing the Mongoose booth at GenCon I came upon a large black hardcover book, Designers & Dragons. This is a huge 438 page hardback book that covers the history of the RPG industry. That’s a tall order however the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=163"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5270,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions\/5270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}