Sadly, I missed publishing a new Mechanics & Meeples article again this last Monday, but there’s been a good reason for it. I’ve got a live Kickstarter going for Designers & Dragons, my 4-book history of the roleplaying industry, and it’s been eating up my free time like you’d expect a hungry dragon to do.
If you enjoyed the short historical tidbits I’ve written on the board game industry, I encourage you to take a look, as Designers & Dragons was a model for those articles. More generally, if you’re curious why small hobby companies rise and fall, and how roleplaying publication intertwinces with wargame publication, eurogame publication, and miniatures gaming, Designers & Dragons is a rich source.
The first book, Designers & Dragons: The ’70s is particularly good in this area. It talks about the rise of fantasy and science-fiction board games and of the minigames (with a focus on Metagaming Concepts), and it also talks about how miniatures led to roleplaying games (in the TSR article).
But, the series continues on from there. Designers & Dragons: The ’80s looks at some of the later minigame producers like Task Force Games and Steve Jackson Games, and it also touches upon Mayfair Games’ initial work with eurogames, and how that led to the creation of Rio Grande. The main focus is on roleplaying games, but there’s lots more too!
Someday I’d love to write a whole book on board game history but for now, Designers & Dragons has my primordial thoughts on the topic.
As for me and Mechanics & Meeples, I hope to get my workload under control in the next few weeks, as I’ve got many future articles planned. I’ve started work on an article about El Grande, one of the great ancestors of the industry, and another on the design of card games, and I’m also looking forward to analyzing one of the newest deckbuilders, Eric Vogel’s Zeppelin Attack!
So I’ll see you soon! But in the meantime, spread the word about the Designers & Dragons kickstarter.
