Andrew Byers (1)

I cannot recommend this one, it was a slog to read. The book is scholarly in its various authors' approaches and I don't mind scholarly works but this book was boring. The text seems directed more at educators with an interest in turning tabletop RPG techniques towards their lesson plans. Other than that I see no other reason to put yourself through this book. The last section of the book had two chapters/essays focused on a Google app Ingress and another the descent of Munchkin from tabletop RPGs. These are really a waste of time unless you have an interest in either of those two things. I really did not like this book not to mention the physical book itself (it was so poorly bound that several page folds fell out when I first opened it).… (mere)

Short version: didn't finish. Also, super male.

If sections 1 and 3 had been longer, or the entirety of the book, I probably would have enjoyed it much more. The title is a little misleading: sections 2 and 4 are mostly about applying games to education, and I am not an educator (even when I was, it was music, so still not helpful). I ended up skipping large swathes of those sections. Also, nearly all of the writers are men, and while I realize TTRPGs were very male until recently, if you're supposedly talking about culture and social change, you need people in marginalized groups to talk about the positives and negatives of being part of a subculture while having those identities.

(Full disclosure: I read this book shortly after receiving it, but only now realized I had not reviewed it. I am working off months-old memories and some scanning of the Google preview.)… (mere)

I was too much of a nerd in high school --in a jock school-- to have the opportunity to play RPGs, and then life got in the way of having fun that required any regular investment of time. But my husband came complete with a couple crates of D&D manuals and old (OLD) Dragon magazines, and now all three of my sons play D&D. My oldest writes his own games with a friend. So this book looked intriguing.
The book's generally academic, with a very wide range of areas represented among the articles. It starts with a little history of the "Satanic Panic" and the push against RPGs, then moves (eventually) to a fascinating article on "Adaptive Choice in Ludic Literature" -- including RPGs and the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. The author discusses these in light of the uncertainties associated with the Cold War era and the US government's distribution of pamphlets telling citizens what they can do to protect themselves from nuclear war. The idea there being that having a plan would keep up morale (even if it wouldn't necessarily help to save your butt). He suggests that RPGs create a proxy world in which you have choice and power and the ability to survive, which provides a sense of mastery and counteracts a sense of hopelessness about the larger world situation (which you are indeed powerless to change). A book I read a while ago, "Dancing at Armageddon" suggests something similar about the survivalist culture: that having a plan and taking steps to prepare for your favorite apocalypse provides a sense of mastery that offsets the alienation and powerlessness people feel in their daily lives.
Since I'm a physics teacher, "The Teacher as Dungeon Master" also caught my eye. Gamifying learning is a thing, of course, and sounds wonderful -- in a world where you have a small enough number of students to manage (what DM would consent to a campaign containing 26 PCs?) and aren't chasing meaningless content standards. The author acknowledges the risk: that the "epic quest" can either uplift the students or kill their intellectual interests.
All in all, an interesting book. Not every article will interest every reader, but I think every reader will find an article that interests them.… (mere)