GAME WIZARDS

The enduring success of Dungeons & Dragons is one of pop culture’s most inexplicable phenomena. Though tabletop gaming historian Peterson has previously chronicled the D&D origin story, notably in the gorgeous Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana, this book focuses on the game’s creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. When the gregarious and ambitious Gygax and creative but sensitive Arneson launched D&D in 1974, they casually agreed to a 50/50 split of whatever royalties it might generate. In the agreement that they signed with Gygax’s company, TSR, they retained the option to repurchase rights for a paltry amount not to exceed $300 if the game went out of print—a sign of just how little confidence everyone involved had in its success. When D&D sales surprisingly surged and started generating millions in profit, controversy and thorny legal battles ensued. As Gygax and Arneson jousted over credit in print and in court, brothers Brian and Kevin Blume helped Gygax grow and diversify TSR’s business. While subsequent years saw the company thrive despite the game’s unfair association with the “Satanic Panic” of the early 1980s, profligate spending, lack of a cohesive strategy, and rampant nepotism made TSR a case study in corporate mismanagement. Peterson’s in-depth review of legal documents, contracts, and correspondence creates the most insightful account yet of the Gygax-Arneson feud, but the exhaustive level of detail occasionally bogs down the narrative. D&D fans will need to look elsewhere for a crackling account of the game’s evolution, but grognards and business students alike will find something of value.