Game Wizards Audiobook

Game Wizards by Jon Peterson and narrated by Chris Andrew Ciulla is an audiobook that I have listened to once before, but I couldn't remember if I had. I realized pretty early on that I was engaged in a relisten, but kept going.

As stated on the cover, this is the tale of the creation and battle for control of the Dungeons & Dragons game. Chronicling the games creation and release in 1974 and following the growth and conflicts that arose from it's unlikely success. It's interesting stuff, if like me, you started playing the game when Gary Gygax was still the voice of the hobby and AD&D was stirring up waves amongst the fanbase.

If that's not where you're coming from, well, you may not get near as much out of this book. It's an interesting story of two game designers and the people that helped bring their game to market, and eventually, how they both lost control of that game, but I don't know how relevant it is to the modern game some 3-4 revisions of the rules later.

If you're interested, my take is this: Dave Arneson was an idea guy, probably a disorganized idea guy who felt his ideas were more important than they probably were and who also felt he didn't get enough credit for his ideas. I think this goes beyond D&D. I get the impression this was Dave. I know guys like Dave. Gary was a rules documentation guy, he liked to write stuff down, organize things, send things out to get recognition for his reworking of stuff. He sounds a bit manic, a bit driven, and certainly was a controller. It took both of them to come up with this game, but it was Gary who drove it forward. They got some breaks, had help from a ton of other creatives, and managed to put out a set of game rules that then became bigger than anything either of them could have imagined. And neither of them got the credit or respect for doing so that they deserved in their own minds. But that's just my overly simplified, uninformed opinion.

Obviously I liked it enough to listen to it twice. But I've been playing D&D a long time. I bought my first set of AD&D books from the Sears catalog and I remember reading monthly sermons from Gary Gygax in Dragon magazine. This book is firmly in my wheelhouse and I've found it interesting and enjoyable to take in the history of my all-time favorite game. Your milage may vary.