FH Presents: Slaying the Dragon with Ben Riggs
Added 2022-07-27 10:01:01 +0000 UTCAnd now for something completely...different? Haha, I just came up with that! Me! Folks, we're headed to GenCon next week (schedule of FH shows and games) and I've got GAME on the BRAIN. Where do TTRPGS come from? What the hell ARE they even? What can we "learn"* from their origin story? Ben Riggs, author of the brand new Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of D&D stopped by the Fortunate Horse studio to answer these questions, and deliver unto you a secret origin that includes
-H.G. Wells
-The Bronte Sisters
-The Prussian Military
-Zeus
and more!
Subscribe to his podcast Plot Points wherever you get your podcasts
and find his great book on game running and adventure design, Encounter Theory, here.
*superficially consider then confidently ignore
Comments
I really enjoyed this discussion about the origins of a brand new genre of gaming and storytelling. I was especially taken back by the revelation that a major step forward was when someone had the idea of playing with individual characters instead of with groups of units... That Gary Gygax had innovated with man-to-man combat rules but it still took another person to realize that should be the focus. It made me think of the mods for Warcraft 3 which focused on the hero units instead of the broader RTS aspects, and from those mods an entirely new and *massive* genre of video games was born: the MOBA. Anyway, would be very pleased to see more content like this on the Patreon feed in the future. Or heck, even the public feed in-between episodes.
Matt M.
2022-08-02 16:37:22 +0000 UTCIt was Branwell who was the Bronte brother! Fun episode and sounds like a fascinating book. I absolutely loved the visual of Gary Gygax hiding behind his furniture like the Wizard of Oz. A lot of megagames are still run that way, albeit with a seperate room rather than a sofa fort.
Nemo
2022-07-27 15:22:27 +0000 UTC
