Post originally by tedehara at 2003-12-25 14:38:42
Converted from Phorums BB System

Gary Gygax represents the origins of role-playing, which came from wargaming miniatures. This is a purely competitive environment.

Role-playing would have remained an obscure off-shoot of wargaming except for the influx of players who were drawn in by the story telling qualities of the game. "Lord of the Rings" brought a whole new crowd that never heard of Avalon Hill or ASL.

This can also be seen from the second generation role-playing games like MERP, RuneQuest, RoleMaster, Fantasy Trip and others. These games became more character oriented to accommodate the theatrical/myth/legend/story telling crowd.

I think that G.Gygax saw this book as a vehicle to promote things he wanted to promote. Things he was familiar with. As the review pointed out, much of the book has lost its relevance, since much has changed since 1987.

BTW there are more recent books out which also discuss how to improve play. "the Munchkin's Guide to Power Gaming" ISBN 1-55634-347-7, "Game Mastering Secrets" ISBN 0-9668106-0-0, "GameMastering Secrets" ISBN 1-887154-11-6 and "Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering" ISBN 1-55634-629-8 are more recent examples.