Books About Roleplaying

[SorroW]

Hello.

I'm in need of some help here. I am writing a paper on Roleplaying and it's role in reading habits. And I need some more books about Roleplaying, critical or positive doesn't matter.

So do anyone have some ideas? Any critical books you love to hate? Some books which takes a deeper look on the social aspects of roleplaying?

Anything?

Thanks for you're help

SorroW

 

[kengar]

I haven't really seen many books about the hobby. Most -of course- have to do with playing, etc.

You might have better luck with articles, etc. IIRC NPR did a piece on D&D's 30th anniversary relatively recently. Someone posted about it but I couldn't find it in a search.

EDIT: here's a realplayer link from NPR's site. (I love Google )

http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/atc/20021026.atc.09.ram

 

[Bard Lucian]

If you can find it, you might get some use out of The Fantasy Roleplaying Gamer's Bible . I think it's not widely available, but I've enjoyed thumbing through it for information on the history of RPGs and the state of the market when it was published.

Also, in the 1st edition player's handbook, there was a list of "Recommended Literature" for role players, and that might be helpful. Maybe EGG will contribute to this thread. I'd love to get his feedback.

 

[Zander]

SorroW,

Three things you could try:

1. Contact CAR-PGa, the Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games - the largest international RPG advocacy group. It has the world's largest archive of information on role-playing games. If CAR-PGa doesn't have something you're after about RPG's, chances are one of its members does. CAR-PGa maintains an active yahoo newsgroup (a link to it can be found at the unofficial CAR-PGa page above).

2. Contact GAMA, the Game Manufacturers Association. This is a professional organization representing the games industry. The best person to contact there is probably Michael Stackpole who is their numero uno gaming advocate.

3. Check out the RPG studies site. It has a huge bibliography of pro- and anti-RPG material. The person who maintains it is a gamer and, I believe, a member of CAR-PGa.

If I can help in any way, just let me know by posting a reply or sending me an e-mail.

Let us know how your study goes.

Zander
(a.k.a. Alexander, CAR-PGa UK National Co-ordinator)

 

[grodog]

Also check out:

On rpg.net:
http://www.rpg.net/252/quellen/stackpole/pulling_report.html
and
http://www.rpg.net/252/index-e.html

On GAMA's site:
http://www.gama.org/gamesed/index.cfm?action=home&nodeID=5

On McFarland & Company's site:
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/