Playing at the World
Explore the conceptual origins of wargames and role-playing games in this unprecedented history of simulating the real and the impossible. From a vast survey of primary sources ranging from eighteenth-century strategists to modern hobbyists, Playing at the World distills the story of how gamers first decided fictional battles with boards and dice, and how they moved from simulating wars to simulating people. The invention of role-playing games serves as a touchstone for exploring the ways that the literary concept of character, the lure of fantastic adventure and the principles of gaming combined into the signature cultural innovation of the late twentieth century.
Stats for nerds
13recommend
18mentions
15people
2013–2026years
89% recommend11% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Jon Peterson's "Playing at the World" is a fantastic book. Highly recommend!
- I have quite a few books on this topic. Perla's was probably the first that I read and it is good, but to anyone interested in the topic I would first recommend Jon Peterson's "Playing at the World" ("A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games"). It's a book about how D&D came to be and covers many topics, but the section on wargames is very well researched and detailed (and I enjoyed the rest of the book as well).
My second recommendation is CG Lewin's "War Games and their History". It is a bit lighter on the history of military professional games, even if there is a chapter or two on that, but the chapters on non-professional wargames are amazing. The author has a personal collection of games going back to the 19th century and the book is full of photos and descriptions of obscure games that I really enjoyed reading about and that I never found in any other source. It covers games up to around 1950, so it does not get into any of the more well-known modern history of wargames (starting with Avalon Hill in the 1950's).
- They don't link to it among the links to Peterson's books (as far as I can tell) and they don't mention it in the interview, but Peterson's doorstop volume Playing at the World treats extensively of the roots of D&D. Looks like this Appendix N would make a great sourcebook (in the academic, not roleplaying, sense) companion to that book, since it mentions and describes lots of D&D's sources in (especially) fantasy fiction, but doesn't include substantial excerpts of those works.
[EDIT] Link (amazon, sorry):
https://www.amazon.com/Playing-at-World-Jon-Peterson/dp/0615...
- The whole blog is a fantastic exercise in documenting the history of CRPGs, describing and evaluating each game, and analyzing how they all influence each other. He'll often put extra effort into tracking down copies of obscure games and contacting authors.
In some ways it reminds me of Jon Peterson's "Playing at the World", which thoroughly documents the origins and early history of D&D, which started the genre.
- If this is your thing, check out Playing at the World by Jon Peterson. It’s a fantastic history of simulation games, including both wargaming and rpgs. Also includes a thorough review of pre-DnD fantasy literature, which I’m sure is appealing to more than a few of us of HN.
- If you're interested in a more detailed survey of rpg theory I highly recommend the recently published "Role-Playing Game Studies: A Transmedia Approach" and specifically the chapter "RPG Theorizing by Designers and Players". For a much broader historical work there's also Playing at the World by Jon Peterson. For something more bite sized (and free) check out http://analoggamestudies.org/
