Jon Peterson

Gen Con 2025 MIT Press booth #269

I will be at Gen Con this week - if you’d like to find me here are some places I will be. www.facebook.com/PlayingAtThe...

Hey @chrisperkinsdnd.bsky.social can you ping me at jon at unreason re: Gen Con? Wanted to get you an invite to something...

Hands holding a copy of Jon Peterson's "Playing at the World, 2E Volume 1: The Invention of Dungeons and Dragons." Illustrations of medieval characters and mythical monsters are depicted along the top half of the cover. Along the bottom half is an illustration of two figures are playing a board game under a hanging light.

🎉 Jon Peterson's "Playing at the World, 2E Volume 1" is a 2025 ENNIE Award nominee in the Best RPG Related Product! Voting is open through July 20th. Vote now: vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2025/

Winners will be announced at #GenCon, where you will find us at booth 269. See you there!

(My short essay in the MITP "Fifty Years of D&D" anthology is basically dedicated to identifying what was novel about dungeoneering and experience in Blackmoor vs. early wargames.)

Veterancy systems (units get better by surviving battles) were pretty common in wargames of the 1960/70s. Accumulating points to advance in rank was in other games like Armageddon (German) before D&D. The term "level" though seems connected to dungeoneering and to Blackmoor / Twin Cities practice.

YouTube video by Reading D&D Aloud What was the first RPG? It ain't what you think... Ep 52

Chatting with Ben Riggs about how we might decide what counts as the “first” RPG. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAXV...

Some notes on what is to be found in the new, two volume edition of Playing at the World. playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2025/05/play...

"Playing at the World, 2E" on a white background. Copy below the title reads "Volume 2: Three Pillars of Role-Playing Games." The cover features vivid illustrations of medieval and fantasy characters.

The second volume of Jon Peterson's new edition of "Playing at the World" focuses on the three pillars of role-playing games to provide a deep dive into the history of the setting, system, and characters of Dungeons & Dragons. @increment.bsky.social: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255231...

Taking the question literally, probably Commando (1979): "A role-playing game is a game in which several players assume the role of a character or person in an imaginary (or simulated) world" etc. But lots of descriptions that fall short of formal definitions went in print beforehand.

The best early description I know of is Charles Grant in 1954 Bulletin No. 2, talking about playing by the Bantock-Cass rules in 1952. It singles out how play is "governed entirely by the throw of the dice" and how "each individual in combat is considered," morale rules, and so on.

I haven't looked at any Slingshots that late, so that's news to me, nice find.

I don't think the Bantock-Cass rules were published as such, just widely used in the British Model Soldier Society. I just go by the many accounts published of playing by the rules in the BMSS Bulletin from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s.

Employment-related stuff is mostly relegated to Game Wizards, not PatW. He basically had odd jobs, including doing some painting, working as a ticket taker, and so on. He hoped to open a travel agency, and he ended up reusing its name for his own game company later: Adventures Unlimited.

A few of the projects I was involved with in this 50th anniversary of D&D. As the year draws to a close, happy birthday to one hell of a game. playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-fi...

We can ask @mitpress.bsky.social …