[OT] The Fantasy Roleplaying Gamer's Bible

[Abdul Al Hazrad]

Has anyone seen this book? I picked it up on the Remainder shelf at the local bookstore yesterday. It's a pretty good intro to RPGS. It's written by Sean Ptrick Fannon.

I'm enjoying thumbing through it, and I'm wonder who else has read it and what your opinions of it are.

 

[Theron]

I've got a copy somewhere, and have seen it at Half-Price Books. I also knew Sean via a couple of BBS's when he was writing it.

It's a good overview and has one of the best histories of the origins of the hobby I've ever seen. When he gets to his game reviews, his biases come through pretty clearly (he was very much a dedicated Hero System guy at the time), but he acknowledges them.

To my mind the best part is that it's at least partially written to someone who isn't a gamer, as a way of explaining the hobby. For younger gamers whose folks don't quite understand the hobby, or gamers with non-gamer girlfriends, etc., it's a very handy and accessible introduction to the hobby.

 

[chatdemon]

It's a great book, I got my copy when it first came out a few years ago. Fannon does a great job of touching all the important bases of the history of the hobby and gives, as Theron pointed out, a great 'dummies book' type introduction to the hobby for the complete gamer newb.

Fannon's lighthearted, humorous approach is nice too, makes reading some of the (admittedly boring) parts of the history of the industry rather enjoyable.

Last I heard, Fannon was negotiating a rerelease of the book with Gold Rush Games, but I can't seem to access their site today to check up on that.