Rise of the Dungeon Master

Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D

Contributors

By David Kushner

Illustrated by Koren Shadmi

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$11.99

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$15.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around May 9, 2017. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Rise of the Dungeon Master tells, in graphic form, the story of Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, one of the most influential games ever made. Like the game itself, the narrative casts the reader into the adventure from a first person point of view, taking on the roles of the different characters in the story.

Gygax was the son of immigrants who grew up in Lake Geneva, WI, in the 1950s. An imaginative misfit, he escaped into a virtual world based on science fiction novels, military history and strategic games like chess. In the mid-1970s, he co-created the wildly popular Dungeons & Dragons game. Starting out in the basement of his home, he was soon struggling to keep up with the demand. Gygax was a purist, in the sense that he was adamant that players use their imaginations and that the rules of the game remain flexible. A creative mind with no real knowledge of business, he made some strategic errors and had a falling out with the game’s co-creator, his close friend and partner, David Arneson.

By the late 1970s the game had become so popular among kids that parents started to worry — so much so that a mom’s group was formed to alert parents to the dangers of role play and fantasy. The backlash only fueled the fires of the young fans who continued to play the game, escaping into imaginary worlds. Before long, D&D conventions were set up around the country and the game inspired everything from movies to the first video games. With D&D, Gygax created the kind of role playing fantasy that would fuel the multibillion dollar video game industry, and become a foundation of contemporary geek culture.
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Genre:

On Sale
May 9, 2017
Page Count
144 pages
Publisher
Bold Type Books
ISBN-13
9781568585604

David Kushner

About the Author

David Kushner is an award-winning journalist and author. A contributing editor of Rolling Stone, Kushner has written for publications including The New YorkerVanity FairWiredNew York Times Magazine, and GQ. His books include Masters of Doom andAlligator Candy. Kushner is also author of the graphic novel Rise of the Dungeon Master, illustrated by Koren Shadmi.

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Koren Shadmi

About the Illustrator

Koren Shadmi is a Brooklyn-based illustrator and cartoonist; he studied illustration in the School of Visual Arts in NYC, where he now teaches. His graphic novels include Rise of the Dungeon Master, and his work has been published in the The New York TimesThe New YorkerThe Washington PostPlayboy, and Wired.

Learn more about this illustrator