Steven A. Torres-Roman - Dragons in the Stacks

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Copyright 2014 by Steven A. Torres-Roman and Cason E. Snow

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Torres-Roman, Steven A.
Dragons in the stacks : a teen librarians guide to tabletop role-playing / Steven A. Torres-Roman and Cason E. Snow.
pages cm. (Libraries Unlimited professional guides for young adult librarians series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61069-261-8 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-61069-262-5 (ebook) 1. Young adults librariesActivity programs. 2. LibrariesSpecial collectionsGames. 3. Libraries and teenagers. 4. Fantasy games. 5. Role playing. I. Snow, Cason E. II. Title.
Z716.33.T67 2014
027.626--dc23 2014024062

ISBN: 978-1-61069-261-8
EISBN: 978-1-61069-262-5

19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5

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Copyright Acknowledgments
Portions of this book were previously published as part of the following articles:
Snow, Cason. 2008. Dragons in the Stacks: An Introduction to Role-Playing Games and Their Value to Libraries. Collection Building 27.2: 6370.
Snow, Cason. 2009. Tabletop Fantasy RPGs: Tips for Introducing Role-Playing Games in Your Library. School Library Journal 55.1: 2431.

As always, a book is the product of many people above and beyond the authors themselves. To that end, the authors would like to thank the following:

To Karen, Jennifer, and Lily, for their patience and love.

To the DeKalb Roleplayers Meetup, for sharing our love of the game.

To Angie, Andrew, David, Leif, Matt, Jared, Sam, Vivien, April, Trennel, Rory, Steven, Andrew, Kyle, Julia, Caroline, Tavarras, Sarah, Alex, Owen, and all the teen members of Adventure @ Your Libraryyou are the future of tabletop role-playing gaming.

To Kaylee and Abigail, hoping that soon youll be rolling dice ratherthan chewing on them.

To Sean Patrick Fannon and Jared Nielsen, who kindly gave us permission to adapt their rating system from The Fantasy Roleplaying Gamers Bible, Second Edition for our own use that book inspired the one you hold in your hand.

To all the people weve ever gamed with, and all the gamers we havent met yet.

Most of all, to E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, for the spark of creativity that still burns brightly, and to Frank Mentzer, for making it all comprehensible to youth opening that red box for the first time.

Series Foreword

The idea of gaming as an essential library service has come a long way. Once thought of as only recreational and only for boys, we now know that playing games is beneficial and fun for all ages. It requires literacy, socialization, and strategy, just to name a few skills that can help teens in life. Many of you have successfully implemented video gaming programs in your libraries. But what else is there? Dont know the difference between an RPG and a GPS? No worries! Authors Steven A. Torres-Roman and Cason Snow have written this extremely valuable guide to help demystify the world of table-top role playing games. Their advice will help you understand the teen appeal of this type of gaming as well as show you it can be easily implemented in your library. They offer tips on aspects of library service, from selecting to collecting to cataloging to programming. The bibliography provides an excellent resource list for those new to this type of programming and to those who may be seasoned gamers.

We are proud of our association with Libraries Unlimited/ABC-CLIO, which continues to prove itself as the premier publisher of books to help library staff serve teens. This series has succeeded because our authors know the needs of those library employees who work with young adults. Without exception, they have written useful and practical handbooks for library staff.

We hope youfindthis book, as well asourentireseries,to be informative, providing you with valuable ideas as you serve teens and that this work will further inspire you to do great things to make teens welcome in your library. If you have an idea for a title that could be added to our series, or would like to submit a book proposal, please email us at . Wed love to hear from you.

Mary Anne Nichols
C. Allen Nichols
Series Editors

Introduction

Welcome and well met! Whether youre an old hand at tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) or this is the first youve ever heard of them, we thank you for taking the time to purchase and peruse this book. Presumably, youre a librarian looking for a creative and innovative activity to entertain and involve your patrons, but you might also be an interested gamer looking to start an RPG group and community through your local library. If so, then this is the book for you!

Lets begin by defining what tabletop RPGs areif youre already well-versed in RPGs, then you might want to skip ahead.

Tabletop

The types of RPGs we deal with in this book are typically played at a tabletop, where all the players are physically present. Sometimes players will use virtual tabletops, like Roll20 ( http://roll20.net ), or software applications like Skype and Google Hangouts. Sometimes theyll also use maps as a play space, and miniatures to represent their characters, while other groups imagine and visualize everything in their heads. Either way, tables are handy as a place to put snacks and drinks.