The story of the arcane table-top game that became a pop culture
phenomenon and the long-running legal battle waged by its cocreators.
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.
