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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cadence" data-source="post: 9351788" data-attributes="member: 6701124">Ongoing review part III - Chapters 11-12:  [Off camping for the weekend sans book and computer, hence the delay.  Getting these up before the thoughts are too far in the past.]Ch. 11 by Nikolaidou is about the influence of D&D on speculative fiction (sci-fi, fantasy, etc...).  Going back through the chapter typing this, I find myself wishing the author was given two chapters to cover two of the topics hit in the last (a bit over) half of this one.  (1) The section "Of Dice and Pen"  begins with a list of  25 authors who were gamers.  I really wanted more than one page to go into the specifics of how they were influenced and what changes it made in their works and how it differentiated their works from what came before.  (2) I wonder how my brain would have approached the section "Reclaiming Speculative Narratives" differently if it started with something blunt like  "Unsurprisingly, given that it originated in the 1970s with its main influences being from the 40's to 60's, <bad stuff>", but I like how that section as a whole demonstrates the authors wide perspective.  I would be interested to see what the author could do with more space to parallel the evolution from Appendix N to modern speculative fiction, US Culture from the 1970s to 2020s, and 1e to 5e and play culture.  Finally, I keep feeling like the first five and a half pages were a bit long, but on rereading I guess it all makes important points - maybe my problem is that they just weren't the one I was most interested in.Ch. 12 by Sidhu is on "Learning from Dungeons and Dragons".  It is chock full of references on the benefits of playing games like D&D in general, and on uses of them in the classroom.  I found myself thinking a few times that it all read a bit too positive.  I also wonder if some threads on ENWorld set me up to be a bit iffy about the third and fourth sentences in the chapter: "D&D prioritizes player satisfaction above all else.  The game's flexible rule set, safe play environment, and reliance on imagination give players greater control over the game, allowing for more personalized and enjoyable play experiences" (pg. 179).  I kind of wonder what the reaction of some folks on here who have had many really bad experiences with DMs would be to that statement (not wondering enough to actually go out and ask them!).</blockquote>

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