Appelcline - Designers & Dragons: The 80s

This book was built from thousands of primary sources including interviews, design notes, reviews, news articles, press releases, catalogs, forum postings, and other non-fiction articles. It was also built with the assistance of hundreds of readers, fact-checkers, and scanners. This bibliography does its best to note the most important resources and thank all the people involved.

Dunnigan, James F. The Complete Wargames Handbook, Revised Edition . William Morrow, 1992.

Fannon, Sean Patrick. The Fantasy Role-Playing Gamers Bible . Prima Publishing, 1996.

Fannon, Sean Patrick. The Fantasy Role-Playing Gamers Bible, 2nd Edition . Obsidian Studios, 1999.

Laws, Robin D. 40 Years of Gen Con . Atlas Games, 2007.

Lowder, James, ed. Hobby Games: The 100 Best . Green Ronin Publishing, 2007.

Palmer, Nicholas. The Best of Board Wargaming . Hippocrene Books, 1980.

Peterson, Jon. Playing at the World . Unreason Press, 2012.

Schick, Lawrence. Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games . Prometheus Books, 1991.

Sterling, Bruce. The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier . Bantam, 1992.

Swan, Rick. The Complete Guide to Role-playing Games . St. Martins Press, 1990.

Numerous magazines and newspapers were consulted. The most important are listed below, while others might be found referenced in individual quotes.

Adventurers Club (Hero Games, ICE), Arcane (Future Publishing), Challenge (GDW), Cryptych (ILM International), Different Worlds (Chaosium, Sleuth, Different Worlds), Dragon (TSR, Wizards of the Coast, Paizo), Fantasy Gamer (Steve Jackson Games), Games Unplugged (Dynasty, Fast Forward), Greater Games Industry , Grey Worlds (small press, ICE), The Insider (self-published), Journal of the Travellers Aid Society (GDW), Kobold Quarterly (Open Design), The Official MECCG Newsletter (ICE), Other Hands (self-published), Pegasus (Judges Guild), Pyramid (Steve Jackson Games), Roleplayer (Steve Jackson Games), Running Rampant (Lion Rampant), Shadis (AEG), Sorcerers Apprentice (Flying Buffalo), The Space Gamer (Metagaming Concepts, Steve Jackson Games), Stardate (FASA), Tales of the Reaching Moon (Reaching Moon Megacorp), The Travellers Digest (DGP), Troll Magazine (Eclipse Studios), Valkyrie (Partizan Press), White Wolf Magazine (White Wolf).

afterglow2.com a site cataloging many classic RPG products

darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg an impressive list of game companies and locations

groknard.blogspot.com all about Star Trek roleplaying

grognardia.blogspot.com the best blog around on the history of RPGs

escapistmagazine.com occasional source of high-quality RPG-related articles

jedinews.co.uk West End interviews

lakegenevaoriginalrpg.blogspot.com Rob Kuntzs newest blog

rpg.net Gaming index, forums discussion, news

rpggeek.com gaming index

tomeoftreasures.com a research site for collectible RPGs

travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss Traveller -related forums

Whenever I finished an article, I tried to get one or more people associated with the company in question to comment on it. In one or two cases where I didnt have sufficient company feedback, I got some help from fans as well. These people helped to make this book considerably more accurate and informative thanks to both corrections and insight generously given. Some were kind enough to comment on multiple editions of these articles over the years. A few of these folks just answered questions for me. Errors remaining are, of course, my own.

Thanks to: Joe Adams (SkyRealms Publishing), Terry Amthor (ICE), Kevin Barrett (ICE), Rob Bell (Hero, ICE), Donald J. Bingle (Pacesetter), Linda Bingle (Pacesetter), Nicholas Caldwell (ICE), Paul Chapman (Steve Jackson Games), Stephen Cole (Task Force Games), Erin Collins (Palladium), Monte Cook (Hero, ICE), Greg Costikyan (SPI, West End Games), James F. Dunnigan (SPI), Peter Fenlon (ICE), Matt Forbeck (ICE, Mayfair Games, New Infinities, Pacesetter), Joe D. Fugate Sr. (DGP), Chris Garland (TimeLine), Allan Grohe (Creations Unlimited, New Infinities), Scott Haring (SJG), Bruce Harlick (Hero), the US Steve Jackson (SJG), Spike Y. Jones (Avalon Hill), Steve Kenson (FASA), Marcus King (Columbia), Paul Lidberg (FASA), Nicole Lindroos (Lion Rampant), Steven S. Long (Hero Games), Jim Lowder (New Infinities), Kim Mohan (New Infinities), Bruce Neidlinger (ICE), Scott Palter (West End Games), Steve Peterson (Hero), Lisa Pondsmith (R. Talsorian), Mike Pondsmith (R. Talsorian), Louis Prosperi (FASA), David L. Pulver (Steve Jackson Games), John Seal (ICE), Mike Selinker (Avalon Hill), Stephan Michael Sechi (Bard Games), Janice Sellers (SkyRealms Publishing), Kevin Siembieda (Palladium Books), Tony Skucas (Hero), Michael Stackpole (FASA), Greg Stafford (Avalon Hill), Lisa Stevens (Lion Rampant), Stephen D. Sullivan (Pacesetter), Craig Taylor (Yaquinto), Jay Tummelson (Pacesetter), Allen Varney (West End Games), Ray Winninger (Mayfair), and Kevin Wong (FASA, SJG).

Collecting covers to illustrate the book was challenging, as even my obsessive gaming collection doesnt cover many companies that I discuss. The denizens of RPGnet (and elsewhere) really came together here, helping me to put together a thousand scans over the course of January and February 2011.

Some people went way out of their way, borrowing books from local game clubs or from friends to scan them, for which Im very grateful. When I asked people to scan companies for me, I asked them to scan the most important books, and thus I sometimes got a book that I hadnt included in a history, but afterward realized I should have, so thanks for that too.

Thanks to scanners: Dave Ackerman, Michael Beekman, Ben W Bell, Marius Bredsdorff, Keaver Bronson, Nick Brooke, Chris Brua, Tim Bryant, Nicholas Caldwell (of Guild Companion Publications), Stephen Cole (of Amarillo Design Bureau), Bob Cram, Walter F. Croft, Grant Dalgliesh, Robert Dean, Rich DeBarba, Charles Dunwoody, Emma Eriksson, Ken Finlayson, Mike Fontana, Andrew Gammell, Garry Gross, Tom Grzeskowiak, Robert Hahn, Shawn Hantke, Joseph M. Jankowski, William H. Keith Jr., James Knevitt, James Koti, Adam Krump, Richard J. LeBlanc Jr. (of New Big Dragon Games), Lee Leggett, Dominic Lund, Jason MacConnell, Andrew MacLennan, Ken MacLennan, Mike Laz MacMartin, Gary McBride, Darth Mauno, Clemens Meier, Noble Knight Games, Alexander Osias, John Poole, Keith Rains, Joshua Robson, Steve Rumney, Robert Saint John, Kurt Sanders, Janice Sellers, Walter B. Schirmacher, Leath Sheales, Tim Soholt, Scott Sutherland, Chris Tavares, Mark A. Thomas, Gary Thompson, and Marsha White.

Thanks to book lenders: Christopher Allen, Mike Blum, and Dave Pickering.

Thanks to stores that let me scan their stock: EndGame, Games of Berkeley.

Since the 80s included the Golden Age of the roleplaying industry, Id like to use this book to specially thank the best game store Ive ever been to, Endgame in Oakland, California. Its been the host of discussions about this book for years, and also did a great job of selling almost 5% of the first edition print run, all on their own.

Particular thanks to Chris Hanrahan, one of the proprietors at Endgame, who provided very thoughtful insight about the industry and talked me through articles I was working on not just once, but many times over the course of this books creation.