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Message: <blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 1466899" data-attributes="member: 10201">What he said, more or less. Also, for the sort of general-interest paper you're talking about, i'll cut through much of that bibliography (at the RPG research website) to recommend probably teh best of them:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fine's Shared Fantasy--but good luck getting a copy if your library doesn't have it (don't forget to try interlibrary loan): neither the author, nor the publisher, nor the university behind it have any copies left, and it took me a couple of years to track down a copy. I think Fine's book is still the best scholarly work to date on the general topic of RPGs and RPers (as opposed to some of teh specific psychological or other studies), but it suffers a bit it not being a comprehensive overview of the sub-culture. I don't know if it's the date or the locale, but he pretty much captured one playstyle (gamist-with-simulationist-leanings, in GNS terminology--the typical D&D/GURPS/Hero/RMSS/etc. playstyle, IME), rather than recognizing the spectrum, some of which may not have existed yet when he wrote his book.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mackay's The Fantasy Role-Playing Game. An excellent update to Fine's work, in many ways.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Schick's Heroic Worlds probably won't do you much good. It's got 6pp on "what is an RPG?", 20pp of commercial RPG history, and a comprehensive list of overy RPG product published up to that date. You can probably invent the "what is an RPG" bit yourself, or source any of a number of other works, so unless you need a detailed (and 12 years out-of-date) history of RPG publishing, it probably won't be of much use. Mind you, it's an excellent book, just probably not much help for yoru paper. In yor ucase, i'd check it out from a library if possible, but not buy it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Swan's the Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games is another excellent book that probably won't do you any good. It has about 20pp of "how to RP"--excellent, system-independent guidelines on how to be a player and how to be a GM--and then 200+pp of RPG reviews. And, again, it's more than a decade out of date, so even those aren't necessarily relevant any more.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't bother with Gygax's books (Role-Playing Mastery and, IIRC, Master of the Game)--they might be of some use for someone who plays RPGs, but are probably not of any use when talking about RPGs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fannon's The Fantasy Role-Playing Gamer's Bible is a must-read. However, i suspect it won't be of a lot of use in your paper, unless you want an overview of the history of RPGs and don't have access to Schick's book.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Horsemen of the Apocalypse is another one you should be looking for. Several of the essays are great reads--and all the proceeds go to charity. It's more "about RPGs" in a way that a gamer would appreciate (the origins of Greyhawk and Pendragon are both in there, frex), but some of it is very relevant when talking about RPGs in a more scholarly way.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Assuming you have access to a university library, you should find out if you can get dissertations from the U of Louisiana via interlibrary loan. I think you'll find Jack Holcomb's doctoral dissertation Playing Popular Culture: a Folkloristic Perspective on Role-Playing Games and Gamers really excellent.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Find the CAR-PGa--i don't think they're linked from the RPG Research site linked above. More collected RPG-about-ness than probably anywhere else.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">See if you can get a hold of copies of Interactive Fantasy. It's essentially a scholarly journal for RPGs.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What he said as far as essays. But, for your purposes, i think you won't find much of use outside of Rilstone's, Stackpole's, and maybe Costikyan's essays--most of the rest, while excellent essayists, are writing to RPers, not a general audience, and thus the topics are the wrong sorts for what you want, mostly.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">and a shameless plug: i have a paper online, "Folkspeech Among Roleplayers", at <a href="http://webpages.charter.net/woodelph/Gaming/writing.html" target="_blank">http://webpages.charter.net/woodelph/Gaming/writing.html</a> -- first links. [Sorry about the website in general--i no longer have access, even to delete it, so it's woefully out of date.]</li> </ul>Oh, i know nothing about Performing the Force, so i haven't omitted it because it's poor, but just because i don't have an opinion.</blockquote>

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