Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground

Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground
Author: Stu Horvath
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 457
Release: 2023-10-10
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 0262048221


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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.

Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, Deluxe Edition

Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, Deluxe Edition
Author: Stu Horvath
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 457
Release: 2023-10-10
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 026204823X


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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.

The Routledge Handbook of Role-Playing Game Studies

The Routledge Handbook of Role-Playing Game Studies
Author: José P. Zagal
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 588
Release: 2024-06-27
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 1040029760


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This Handbook provides a comprehensive guide to the latest research on role-playing games (RPGs) across disciplines, cultures, and media in one single, accessible volume. Collaboratively authored by more than 40 key scholars, it traces the history of RPGs, from wargaming precursors to tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons to the rise of live-action role-play and contemporary computer RPG and massively multiplayer online RPG franchises, like Baldur’s Gate, Genshin Impact, and World of Warcraft. Individual chapters survey the perspectives, concepts, and findings on RPGs from key disciplines, like performance studies, sociology, psychology, education, economics, game design, literary studies, and more. Other chapters integrate insights from RPG studies around broadly significant topics, like worldbuilding, immersion, and player-character relations, as well as explore actual play and streaming, diversity, equity, inclusion, jubensha, therapeutic uses of RPGs, and storygames, journaling games, and other forms of text-based RPGs. Each chapter includes definitions of key terms and recommended readings to help students and scholars new to RPG studies find their way into this interdisciplinary field. A comprehensive reference volume ideal for students and scholars of game studies and immersive experiences and those looking to learn more about the ever-growing, interdisciplinary field of RPG studies.

Appendix N

Appendix N
Author: Peter Bebergal
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021-02-23
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 190722274X


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An anthology investigating the influences behind Dungeons & Dragons, the most popular modern role-playing game. Drawing upon the original list of “inspirational reading” provided by Gary Gygax in the first Dungeon Master's Guide, published in 1979, as well as hobbyist magazines and related periodicals that helped to define the modern role-playing game, Appendix N offers a colletion of short fiction and resonant fragments that reveal the literary influences that shaped Dungeons & Dragons, the world's most popular RPG. The stories in Appendix N contextualize the ambitious lyrical excursions that helped set the adventurous tone and dank, dungeon-crawling atmospheres of fantasy roleplay as we know it today. Featuring tales by Poul Anderson, Frank Brunner, Ramsey Campbell, Lin Carter, Lord Dunsany, Robert E. Howard, Tanith Lee, Fritz Leiber, H. P. Lovecraft, David Madison, Michael Moorcock, C. L. Moore, Fred Saberhagen, Clark Ashton Smith, Margaret St. Clair, Jack Vance, and Manly Wade Wellman.

Monsters vs. Aliens: Meet the Monsters

Monsters vs. Aliens: Meet the Monsters
Author: N. T. Raymond
Publisher: Festival
Total Pages: 24
Release: 2009-02-17
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9780061567247


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Get the inside track on what Dr. Cockroach digs for dinner, why B.O.B. is afraid of pool parties, and why Ginormica is so "ginormous," in these breaking news reports. Plus, find out how The Missing Link keeps his scales so clear and shiny! All the answers to your burning questions about Earth's bravest bunch of monsters are inside!

Dark Creatures

Dark Creatures
Author: Tim Ahrens
Publisher: Creative 2 a T, Incorporated DBA Lucid Style Author S
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2019-12-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780996015516


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The gods chose two unsuspecting players as their pawns in what was supposed to be a simple game of Dark Creatures, a game replete with dark things from a world gone mad and forgotten gods that play with life and death for their own amusement. When the rules for winning are ambiguous, the human beings are suddenly caught up in a contest of good versus evil and their game begins to spiral out of control. Now the cost of losing could mean the end of humanity and the very world itself.

Simple Farmhouse Life

Simple Farmhouse Life
Author: Lisa Bass
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2020-02-01
Genre: House & Home
ISBN: 1493042750


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Transform your home into a simple farmhouse--no matter where you live--with this beautiful guide to slow living. Country girl and popular blogger Lisa Bass shares her favorite hearty recipes, handmade projects, and tips for natural living that she uses in her own from-scratch life. Slow down and enjoy the simplicity of a country lifestyle with recipes and projects such as: Natural Kitchen: rosemary lemon foaming dish soap, stonewashed linen apron, market tote Handmade Décor: pillow covers from reclaimed materials, dipped beeswax candles, linen ruffle throw blanket Natural Body: chamomile body butter, lavender calendula salve, relaxing bath soak and body mist Natural Laundry: essential oil spot remover, wool dryer balls, lavender linen spray Natural Cleaning: orange dusting spray, glass cleaner Farmhouse Cooking: cast iron sourdough cinnamon roll, orange cream kefir smoothie, roasted red pepper and tomato soup Gardening: windowsill herb garden, cut flower garden, essential oil pest spray

Artificial Communication

Artificial Communication
Author: Elena Esposito
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2022-05-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0262046660


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A proposal that we think about digital technologies such as machine learning not in terms of artificial intelligence but as artificial communication. Algorithms that work with deep learning and big data are getting so much better at doing so many things that it makes us uncomfortable. How can a device know what our favorite songs are, or what we should write in an email? Have machines become too smart? In Artificial Communication, Elena Esposito argues that drawing this sort of analogy between algorithms and human intelligence is misleading. If machines contribute to social intelligence, it will not be because they have learned how to think like us but because we have learned how to communicate with them. Esposito proposes that we think of “smart” machines not in terms of artificial intelligence but in terms of artificial communication. To do this, we need a concept of communication that can take into account the possibility that a communication partner may be not a human being but an algorithm—which is not random and is completely controlled, although not by the processes of the human mind. Esposito investigates this by examining the use of algorithms in different areas of social life. She explores the proliferation of lists (and lists of lists) online, explaining that the web works on the basis of lists to produce further lists; the use of visualization; digital profiling and algorithmic individualization, which personalize a mass medium with playlists and recommendations; and the implications of the “right to be forgotten.” Finally, she considers how photographs today seem to be used to escape the present rather than to preserve a memory.

Count Scar

Count Scar
Author: C. Dale Brittain
Publisher: Baen Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1997
Genre: Fantasy fiction
ISBN: 9780671878016


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A wizard and a warrior must join forces. Galoran is a scarred soldier who's life takes an unexpected turn when a distant cousin dies leaving him heir to a castle, the title that goes with it, and a holy man named Melchior. At first the two distrust each other--but soon their only hope against treachery and the cold steel that surround them lies in each other.