What to read once the session ends, with books from the MIT Press.
Tabletop gamers rejoice! The MIT Press is excited to be exhibiting at Gen Con for the first time and showcasing our books on game theory, lore, and history. Come to Booth 268 to browse our books on these topics. For now, here’s a sneak peek of a few titles we’ll have on hand and information on book signings.
1. Playing at the World, Second Edition: The Invention of Dungeons & Dragons by Jon Peterson
In this new, updated edition of the 2012 book Playing at the World, which charts the vast and complex history of role-playing games, Peterson distills the story of how the wargaming clubs and fanzines circulating around the upper Midwest in the 1970s culminated in the seminal role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons.
Join us at Booth 268 on Saturday, August 3 at 3 pm for a signing with Jon Peterson.
2. Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground: A Guide to Tabletop Roleplaying Games from D&D to Mothership by Stu Horvath
A richly illustrated, encyclopedic deep dive into the history of roleplaying games. 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.
Join us at Booth 268 on Friday, August 2 at 3 pm for a signing with Stu Horvath.
3. Fifty Years of Dungeons & Dragons edited by Premeet Sidhu, Marcus Carter and José P. Zagal
In 2024, the enormously influential tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons celebrates its 50th anniversary. To mark the occasion, editors Premeet Sidhu, Marcus Carter, and José Zagal have assembled an edited collection that celebrates and reflects on important parts of the game’s past, present, and future.
4. Playing Place: Board Games, Popular Culture, Space edited by Chad Randl and D. Medina Lasansky
An essay collection exploring the board game’s relationship to the built environment, revealing the unexpected ways that play reflects perceptions of space—and supplemented by a rich trove of photo illustrations that unpack these questions with breadth and care.
5. Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons by Jon Peterson
Game Wizards 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. Peterson—a noted authority on role-playing games—explains how D&D navigated successes, setbacks, and controversies.
6. The Beauty of Games by Frank Lantz
In The Beauty of Games, Frank Lantz proposes that we think about games and how they create meaning through the aesthetic lens. He writes that we should think of games the same way we think of literature, theater, or music—as a form that ranges from deep and profound to easy and disposable and everything in between.
7. Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games by Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson
Board games conjure up images of family game nights and childhood pastimes. Yet in Playing Oppression, Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson apply postcolonial theory to a broad survey of board games to show how these seemingly benign entertainments reinforce the logic of imperialism.
Want more book suggestions? Check out the MIT Press Virtual Book Display. See you at Gen Con 2024 from August 1-4.