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Designers & Dragons: The 80s
- A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry
- Narrated by: Colby Elliott
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
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Designers & Dragons: The 80s
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Publisher's Summary
Part two of a four-volume set!
Everything you've wanted to know about the origins of roleplaying games...
Designers & Dragons: The '80s is a comprehensive picture of the growth of the RPG industry. This second edition expands the original single book into a series of four, and we’ve added over 10,000 new words to this volume alone. Take an in-depth look at ’80s style gaming courtesy of companies like Steve Jackson Games and West End Games, plus an intro to the small (but mighty!) presses of the decade. Regardless of your gaming background, Shannon Appelcline’s meticulously researched history won’t disappoint.
In this volume, you’ll find:
- A foreword by Mike Pondsmith, founder of R. Talsorian and creator of Cyberpunk
- Profiles for 23 1980s gaming companies including Steve Jackson Games, Palladium Books, and Mayfair Games
- The inside scoop behind games like GURPS, Champions, and Battletech
- 10 things you might not know about roleplaying in the ’80s
- An extensive bibliography and index
Meet the characters behind the characters and the gamers behind the games in Designers & Dragons: The ’80s!
What listeners say about Designers & Dragons: The 80s
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rev. Zombie
- 03-30-21
Not For Everyone, But Perfect For What It Is
This second volume in Appelcline's Designers & Dragons gives us an in-depth and incredibly well-researched look at those companies that appeared during the Golden Age of the RPG Industry. Tabletop gamers who want a peek at what actually transpired at the time, why some games and companies failed, where they ended up, the people behind it, the lawsuits, the mismanagement, bad luck, and what trends steered the exploding 80's gaming market should pick this up. It's a must for any gamer who wants the history of the hobby.
I look forward to the release of the 3rd book. I only wish Audible listed this as a series. As of now, it appears like "The 70's" and "The 80's" are two separate books and not Books 1 and 2 of the Designers & Dragons Series.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Richard Bat Brewster
- 03-28-21
Informative and detailed history of RPGs
Continuing the numerous interesting stories about the RPG hobby and industry. Great to have old stories confirmed, clarified, or revealed to be untrue, I learned lots of new things. For those that want a detailed overview, then I recommend this. I appreciate the information being placed into specific company histories with linked recommendations at the chapter end to make for a great approach. It also makes it easier to find information later, as opposed to being like say a history put in to a story/biography style. A high rating because it delivers on its goal and what I wanted. Clear audio, good pacing, a great performance.
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 480
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 469
Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master builds off of the concepts of the well-received GM's guidebook Lazy Dungeon Master, updating that book with five years of new experiences, new approaches, and new observations of the way people prepare and run RPGs. This new book is a completely self-contained work, which does not require anyone to have previously heard the Lazy Dungeon Master. Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master offers a new focused approach for preparing and running our roleplaying games.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A fantastic resource for all GM's
- By Alex on 04-01-19
By: Michael E Shea
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Designers & Dragons: The '70s
- A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry
- By: Shannon Appelcline
- Narrated by: Colby Elliott
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 44
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story5 out of 5 stars 33
Designers & Dragons: The ’70s is a comprehensive picture of the beginnings of the RPG industry. This second edition expands the original single book into a series of four, and we’ve added over 50,000 new words to this volume alone. Learn about the colorful history of TSR and the wave of D&D inspired games (and gaming companies) to follow, and dip your toes into war gaming trivia. Regardless of your gaming background, Shannon Appelcline’s meticulously researched history won’t disappoint.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
the forgotten realm of where RPGs arize
- By RAW-ATX on 01-02-22
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Designers & Dragons: The 90s
- By: Shannon Appelcline
- Narrated by: Colby Elliott
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 14
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 14
Designers & Dragons: The 90s is a comprehensive picture of the heyday of the RPG industry. This 2nd edition expands the original single book into a series of four—beginning with the ’70s and ending with the ’00s—and we’ve added over 10,000 new words to this volume alone. In this volume, we profile an RPG titan—Wizards of the Coast—and cover the rise of storytelling RPG settings like White Wolf’s World of Darkness. Regardless of your gaming background, Shannon Appelcline’s meticulously researched history won’t disappoint.
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Game Wizards
- The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons
- By: Jon Peterson
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
When Dungeons & Dragons was first released to a small hobby community, it hardly seemed destined for mainstream success—and yet this arcane tabletop role-playing game became an unlikely pop culture phenomenon. In Game Wizards, Jon Peterson chronicles the rise of Dungeons & Dragons from hobbyist pastime to mass market sensation, from the initial collaboration to the later feud of its creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Nice and grounded
- By Anonymous User on 06-22-22
By: Jon Peterson
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Slaying the Dragon
- A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons
- By: Ben Riggs
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 154
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 139
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 138
The original Dungeons & Dragons released by TSR (Tactical Studies Rules) in 1974 created a radical new medium: the role-playing game. For the next two decades, TSR rocketed to success. But by 1997, a series of ruinous choices and failed projects brought TSR to the edge of doom—only to be saved by their fiercest competitor, Wizards of the Coast. Unearthed from Ben Riggs’s own adventurous campaign of in-depth research, interviews with major players, and acquisitions of secret documents, Slaying the Dragon reveals the true story of the rise and fall of TSR.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Right blend of business and anecdotes
- By Todd Sharp on 12-03-22
By: Ben Riggs
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Empire of Imagination
- Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons
- By: Michael Witwer
- Narrated by: Sam Witwer
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 817
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 744
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 741
The life story of Gary Gygax, godfather of all fantasy adventure games, has been told only in bits and pieces. Michael Witwer has written a dynamic, dramatized biography of Gygax from his childhood in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to his untimely death in 2008. Gygax's magnum opus, Dungeons & Dragons, would explode in popularity throughout the 1970s and '80s and irreversibly alter the world of gaming. D&D is the best-known, best-selling role-playing game of all time, and it boasts an elite class of alumni.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Story of Bittersweet Successes
- By Sam on 11-16-16
By: Michael Witwer
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Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master
- By: Michael E Shea
- Narrated by: Colby Elliott
- Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 557
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 480
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 469
Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master builds off of the concepts of the well-received GM's guidebook Lazy Dungeon Master, updating that book with five years of new experiences, new approaches, and new observations of the way people prepare and run RPGs. This new book is a completely self-contained work, which does not require anyone to have previously heard the Lazy Dungeon Master. Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master offers a new focused approach for preparing and running our roleplaying games.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A fantastic resource for all GM's
- By Alex on 04-01-19
By: Michael E Shea
-
Of Dice and Men
- The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It
- By: David M. Ewalt
- Narrated by: David M. Ewalt, Mikael Naramore
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,184
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,085
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,081
In Of Dice and Men, David Ewalt recounts the development of Dungeons & Dragons from the game’s roots on the battlefields of ancient Europe, through the hysteria that linked it to satanic rituals and teen suicides, to its apotheosis as father of the modern video-game industry. As he chronicles the surprising history of the game’s origins (a history largely unknown even to hardcore players) and examines D&D’s profound impact, Ewalt weaves laser-sharp subculture analysis with his own present-day gaming experiences.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting Topic, but Terrible Execution.
- By John on 02-11-14
By: David M. Ewalt
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Kobold Guide to Gamemastering
- By: Keith Baker, David "Zeb" Cook, Monica Valentinelli, and others
- Narrated by: Ray Greenley
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
Decades of GMing experience! Whether it’s advice from grognards who were running games at the dawn of RPGs, or suggestions from the new generation of game designers, these 21 essays by experts are here to help you improve your GMing skills and create fun, amazing, memorable campaigns that’ll be talked about for years. In this audiobook, master GMs and storytellers give you advice about solo campaigns, shy players, cell phones, and making rulings on the fly.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Do not buy!
- By Ragnar L on 03-16-22
By: Keith Baker, and others
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Press Reset
- Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry
- By: Jason Schreier
- Narrated by: Ray Chase
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,122
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 988
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 985
Jason Schreier's groundbreaking reporting has earned him a place among the preeminent investigative journalists covering the world of video games. In his eagerly anticipated, deeply researched new book, Schreier trains his investigative eye on the volatility of the video game industry and the resilience of the people who work in it.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Audio Quality is Inconsistent
- By Amazon Customer on 09-14-21
By: Jason Schreier
-
All of the Marvels
- A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told
- By: Douglas Wolk
- Narrated by: Douglas Wolk
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 192
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 162
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 162
The superhero comic books that Marvel Comics has published since 1961 are, as Douglas Wolk notes, the longest continuous, self-contained work of fiction ever created: over half a million pages to date, and still growing. The Marvel story is a gigantic mountain smack in the middle of contemporary culture. Thousands of writers and artists have contributed to it. Everyone recognizes its protagonists: Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men. Eighteen of the hundred highest-grossing movies of all time are based on parts of it. Yet not even the people telling the story have read the whole thing.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A tool buried in performative identity politics
- By Jeffrey on 03-14-22
By: Douglas Wolk
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Sly Flourish's The Lazy Dungeon Master
- By: Michael E. Shea
- Narrated by: Colby Elliott
- Length: 2 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 563
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 488
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 474
You love Dungeons and Dragons. As an experienced dungeon master, you've run dozens, if not hundreds of games. You put a lot of work into making your games great. What if there's another way to look at how you prepare your game? What if it turned out you could spend less time and less energy and have a better game as a result? It's time to unleash the Lazy Dungeon Master.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Helpful tips for Dungeon Masters
- By Goblin Town on 05-02-16
By: Michael E. Shea
-
Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Dungeons & Dragons
- One Woman's Quest to Trade Self-Help for Elf-Help
- By: Shelly Mazzanoble
- Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 55
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 50
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 50
With tongue-in-cheek humor, the creator of the award-winning Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress takes on the self-help section, proving that the benefits of the Dungeons & Dragons game goes far beyond simple entertainment.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A Different Take On Things
- By Ronn McCarrick on 07-13-18
Related to this topic
-
Designers & Dragons: The 90s
- By: Shannon Appelcline
- Narrated by: Colby Elliott
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 14
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 14
Designers & Dragons: The 90s is a comprehensive picture of the heyday of the RPG industry. This 2nd edition expands the original single book into a series of four—beginning with the ’70s and ending with the ’00s—and we’ve added over 10,000 new words to this volume alone. In this volume, we profile an RPG titan—Wizards of the Coast—and cover the rise of storytelling RPG settings like White Wolf’s World of Darkness. Regardless of your gaming background, Shannon Appelcline’s meticulously researched history won’t disappoint.
-
Slugfest
- Inside the Epic, 50-Year Battle Between Marvel and DC
- By: Reed Tucker
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 687
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 613
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 609
The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes audiobook treatment of the rivalry between the two comic book giants. They are the two titans of the comic book industry - the Coke and Pepsi of superheroes - and for more than 50 years, Marvel and DC have been locked in an epic battle for spandex supremacy. At stake is not just sales, but cultural relevancy and the hearts of millions of fans. To many partisans, Marvel is now on top. But for much of the early 20th century, it was DC that was the undisputed leader.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved it, but...
- By Smitty on 05-02-18
By: Reed Tucker
-
Service Games
- The Rise and Fall of SEGA: Enhanced Edition
- By: Sam Pettus
- Narrated by: Tom Racine
- Length: 17 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 209
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 191
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 191
New Edition! More content, images, and corrected text and facts. Monochrome edition. Starting with its humble beginnings in the 1950s and ending with its swan-song, the Dreamcast, in the early 2000s, this is the complete history of Sega as a console maker. Before home computers and video game consoles, before the Internet and social networking, and before motion controls and smartphones, there was Sega.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Story of the Fall of Sega
- By Austin on 01-05-15
By: Sam Pettus
-
Game Wizards
- The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons
- By: Jon Peterson
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
When Dungeons & Dragons was first released to a small hobby community, it hardly seemed destined for mainstream success—and yet this arcane tabletop role-playing game became an unlikely pop culture phenomenon. In Game Wizards, Jon Peterson chronicles the rise of Dungeons & Dragons from hobbyist pastime to mass market sensation, from the initial collaboration to the later feud of its creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Nice and grounded
- By Anonymous User on 06-22-22
By: Jon Peterson
-
Slaying the Dragon
- A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons
- By: Ben Riggs
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 154
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 139
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 138
The original Dungeons & Dragons released by TSR (Tactical Studies Rules) in 1974 created a radical new medium: the role-playing game. For the next two decades, TSR rocketed to success. But by 1997, a series of ruinous choices and failed projects brought TSR to the edge of doom—only to be saved by their fiercest competitor, Wizards of the Coast. Unearthed from Ben Riggs’s own adventurous campaign of in-depth research, interviews with major players, and acquisitions of secret documents, Slaying the Dragon reveals the true story of the rise and fall of TSR.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Right blend of business and anecdotes
- By Todd Sharp on 12-03-22
By: Ben Riggs
-
Stan Lee
- The Man behind Marvel
- By: Bob Batchelor
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 89
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 88
From the mean streets of Depression-era New York City to recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Lee's life has been almost as remarkable as the thrilling adventures he spun for decades. From millions of comic books fans of the 1960s through billions of moviegoers around the globe, Stan Lee has touched more people than almost any person in the history of popular culture. In Stan Lee: The Man behind Marvel, Bob Batchelor offers an eye-opening look at this iconic visionary, a man who created (with talented artists) many of history's most legendary characters.