Böcker av Stu Horvath

A richly illustrated, encyclopedic deep dive into the history of roleplaying games.When Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson released Dungeons & Dragons in 1974, they created the first roleplaying game of all time. Little did they know that their humble box set of three small digest-sized booklets would spawn an entire industry practically overnight. In Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, Stu Horvath explores how the hobby of roleplaying games, commonly known as RPGs, blossomed out of an unlikely pop culture phenomenon and became a dominant gaming form by the 2010s. Going far beyond D&D, this heavily illustrated tome covers more than three hundred different RPGs that have been published in the last five decades.Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground features (among other things) bunnies, ghostbusters, soap operas, criminal bears, space monsters, political intrigue, vampires, romance, and, of course, some dungeons and dragons. In a decade-by-decade breakdown, Horvath chronicles how RPGs have evolved in the time between their inception and the present day, offering a deep and gratifying glimpse into a hobby that has changed the way we think about games and play.

A bibliographic deep dive into the subterranean imaginary that traces the fascination of underground spaces.Since that fateful moment in 1974 when Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson decided to title their revolutionary new roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons, a strong subterranean mystique has permeated gaming cultures from the tabletop to the games console and beyond. But what if the caves, crypts, grottos, and dank netherworlds explored by players weren’t only harboring treasures of the fictional variety? What if these spaces of imaginal exploration were capable of calling out to us from deep time, whispering unexpected truths about our unique relationship to the Great Below? In this expansively imagined and deftly edited volume, writer and RPG historian Stu Horvath delves through the various strata of deep time to uncover a vast hoard of literary gems that cast strange new light on the subterranean imaginary. Tracing this fascination with chthonic mystery from the ancient world to the contemporary gaming table, Down Down Down: An Exploration of Literature’s Dungeons from The Bibliothecha To Bastionland gathers together fragments of almost one hundred resonant texts and images, illuminating them with the editor’s own commentary and positioning them in relation to contemporary tabletop roleplaying games.A perfect resource for both games masters and armchair adventures alike, Down Down Down surveys the perennial appeal of underground spaces to writers and artists, and makes their varied works and ideas accessible to contemporary readers, players, and game designers.

A richly illustrated, encyclopedic deep dive into the history of roleplaying games.When Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson released Dungeons & Dragons in 1974, they created the first roleplaying game of all time. Little did they know that their humble box set of three small digest-sized booklets would spawn an entire industry practically overnight. In Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, Stu Horvath explores how the hobby of roleplaying games, commonly known as RPGs, blossomed out of an unlikely pop culture phenomenon and became a dominant gaming form by the 2010s. Going far beyond D&D, this heavily illustrated tome covers more than three hundred different RPGs that have been published in the last five decades.Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground features (among other things) bunnies, ghostbusters, soap operas, criminal bears, space monsters, political intrigue, vampires, romance, and, of course, some dungeons and dragons. In a decade-by-decade breakdown, Horvath chronicles how RPGs have evolved in the time between their inception and the present day, offering a deep and gratifying glimpse into a hobby that has changed the way we think about games and play.The deluxe edition will include a foil-stamped cover and slipcase with a cloth binding, a ribbon, gilded edges, and an 8.5x11-inch card stock poster of the regular edition.