Of Dice and Men

Review: I just finished reading "Of Dice and Men: the story of Dungeons and Dragons and the people who play it" by David M. Ewalt.  (2013).  Mr. Ewalt is a games columnist/reporter for Forbes magazine.

I would give the book a mixed review.

Positives:  It is a fairly easy read.  It does a better job of being neutral towards the Gygax/Blume/Williams management disputes.  Most other sources of TSR history that I have seen, take a pro-Gygax stance and do not discuss his culpability in the situation where executives were perhaps overpaid to the detriment of TSR.  It also details the origins of D&D with a clarity that I have not seen elsewhere.  Particularly the details about the Gygax/Arneson collaboration and how that went sour.  The book is hopeful about the future of D&D, with 5th edition- D&D Next on the horizon.

Neutral:  The book repeated touches on the nerd-factor and the negative stigma attached to D&D.  At times the author raises interesting points and at times it is a bit too personal and subjective. 

Negatives:  It seems like about 20% of a 276 page book is devoted the author's personal experiences playing D&D.  Some of it is very interesting others of it is not.  (Stories of gaming with legendary figures Frank Mentzer and Ernie Gygax are interesting.  The author's personal campaign, much less so).  I would rather the book avoided the personal as much as possible and focused on the history of TSR/WOTC.  The objectivity of the book slips a bit when detailing the post-Gygax era. 

Overall:  Definitely worth reading for the history and it is fairly easy to skim or skip over the personal campaign details.  3 out of 5 stars.