Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons by Ben Riggs
While many play Dungeons and Dragons (known more commonly as D&D), not many know much of the company and people that created it. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson co-created D&D and published it through Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) in 1974. This changed the world of gaming as people knew it. For about twenty years, TSR did well despite satanic panic stirring up fears regarding D&D. However, while the creators and the creatives they hired knew how to craft fantastic games and related-products, the leadership of TSR made some fairly poor business decisions causing TSR to fall from grace. That's when Wizards of the Coast, the company that created and produced Magic: The Gathering swooped in and purchased TSR and thus the much-loved D&D.
Through rigorous research, skillful interviews, and educated guesswork, author Ben Riggs masterfully tells the story of the rises and falls of TSR. Readers will learn about the various offices of TSR from a garage to a hotel to more traditional offices while being treated to the inside scoop about company culture, some stories of creativity, and, all too often, disastrous business ideas. While some readers may wish more information on D&D as a concept itself, Slaying the Dragon is an impressive tale of a company that changed the gaming world and then was consumed.
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