Alzrius
The EN World kitten
So for several years now, I've been reading various nonfiction books about our hobby, both with regard to its history (e.g. Jon Peterson's Playing at the World, Shannon Appelcline's Designers & Dragons, Ben Riggs' Slaying the Dragon, etc.) and in its more general impact (e.g. David Ewalt's Of Dice and Men, Shelly Mazzanoble's Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress, Mark Barrowcliffe's The Elfish Gene, etc.).
However, most of these have either been about the tabletop gaming industry in general (e.g. Elisa Teague's Girls on Games, Ethan Gilsdorf's Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, Joseph Laycock's Dangerous Games, etc.) or have been about D&D/TSR in some regard (e.g. Michael Witwer's Empire of Imagination, Jon Peterson's The Game Wizards, Johnson et al's 30 Years of Adventure, etc.). Very few have been about some other company in particular.
To that end, does anyone know of any nonfiction coverage that focuses on other game companies specifically? I've read through Bill Slavicsek's Defining a Galaxy (which has a large focus on West End Games) and Bill Owen's Judges Guild's Bob & Bill: A Cautionary Tale (Judges Guild, obviously), but other than picking up a copy of Michael Monaco's The Highest Level of All: The Story of Fantasy Wargaming (which is bloody expensive) and Livingstone and Jackson's Dice Men: The Origin Story of Games Workshop (coming out at the end of this month), what else is there?
Are there no books charting the history of White Wolf and the World of Darkness? What about Shadowrun? I know everything is tiny compared to D&D, but in this age of easy desktop publishing and rising interest in tabletop role-playing games, Lawrence Schick's Heroic Worlds and Appelcline's aforementioned Designers & Dragons seem like the best print coverage there is of smaller companies (I've read a lot of blogs and seen plenty of videos about other TTRPG publishers, of course, but I'm looking for something more substantial than just "Aunty Lisa's Story Hour" regarding the rise of Paizo, for instance).
So I'm asking you guys: what print books are out there which cover the smaller, less famous players in the tabletop gaming hobby?
However, most of these have either been about the tabletop gaming industry in general (e.g. Elisa Teague's Girls on Games, Ethan Gilsdorf's Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, Joseph Laycock's Dangerous Games, etc.) or have been about D&D/TSR in some regard (e.g. Michael Witwer's Empire of Imagination, Jon Peterson's The Game Wizards, Johnson et al's 30 Years of Adventure, etc.). Very few have been about some other company in particular.
To that end, does anyone know of any nonfiction coverage that focuses on other game companies specifically? I've read through Bill Slavicsek's Defining a Galaxy (which has a large focus on West End Games) and Bill Owen's Judges Guild's Bob & Bill: A Cautionary Tale (Judges Guild, obviously), but other than picking up a copy of Michael Monaco's The Highest Level of All: The Story of Fantasy Wargaming (which is bloody expensive) and Livingstone and Jackson's Dice Men: The Origin Story of Games Workshop (coming out at the end of this month), what else is there?
Are there no books charting the history of White Wolf and the World of Darkness? What about Shadowrun? I know everything is tiny compared to D&D, but in this age of easy desktop publishing and rising interest in tabletop role-playing games, Lawrence Schick's Heroic Worlds and Appelcline's aforementioned Designers & Dragons seem like the best print coverage there is of smaller companies (I've read a lot of blogs and seen plenty of videos about other TTRPG publishers, of course, but I'm looking for something more substantial than just "Aunty Lisa's Story Hour" regarding the rise of Paizo, for instance).
So I'm asking you guys: what print books are out there which cover the smaller, less famous players in the tabletop gaming hobby?
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