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Reviews
Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D by David Kushner, Koren Shadmi
novella42's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and War
endpaper's review against another edition
3.0
Aside from some really bad and possibly amateur choices regarding the use of first and second person which really adds nothing to the text, a fun and clear story of D&D. I'm guessing the marketing department decided to put Gygax's name on the cover, because the writer devotes half the book to Arneson.
reickel's review against another edition
2.0
"It was ok" nails it just right, thanks Goodreads for making your star-ratings so clear. The art got the job done, but did nothing to transport anyone into a fantastic world of make-believe. The writing was informative in a detached, impersonal sort of way.
sarag1701's review against another edition
2.0
An interesting history and I see what the point of the storytelling was, but honestly having it in 2nd point of view was a poor move--I think.
Plus the added information about people that, frankly, didn't do much for the history of D&D (at least according to this graphic novel), seemed unnecessary and a mistake as far as storytelling were to go.
Plus the added information about people that, frankly, didn't do much for the history of D&D (at least according to this graphic novel), seemed unnecessary and a mistake as far as storytelling were to go.
aaronberning's review against another edition
4.0
Entertaining and stylish read about the history and origins of the game.
annagoldberg's review against another edition
4.0
There will be a review forthcoming on my YouTube channel. Really enjoyed this one.
helpfulsnowman's review against another edition
3.0
This is a really good, brief primer on what D&D is and how it came about.
It's definitely more a biography of the game than the guy.
I think I'd be willing to take a deeper dive on this one, provided there's more interesting details to explore. I'm not totally sure that there is. Gygax seemed like a nice guy and interesting, but...I don't know that his life up to the point of creating D&D is super atypical or incident-filled.
What's interesting is there's another dude involved in the creation of D&D, and he gets play in the book, but the relationship between the two creators was strained, and there are issues surrounding how much credit each deserves. This is such a classic situation. Stan and Jack, Jobs and Woz. It seems like you can't get a couple of dorks together to make a thing without this happening. Weird.
The big downfall of the book, a lot of it is written in a second person voice, which I think it meant to imitate a dungeon master narrating a dungeon crawl. But it doesn't always work because the you, presumably the reader, is sometimes the reader, sometimes Gary Gygax ("You're X years old, junior in high school..."). It's awkward. I think it could work, but it felt a little ill-fitting in a lot of spots.
It's definitely more a biography of the game than the guy.
I think I'd be willing to take a deeper dive on this one, provided there's more interesting details to explore. I'm not totally sure that there is. Gygax seemed like a nice guy and interesting, but...I don't know that his life up to the point of creating D&D is super atypical or incident-filled.
What's interesting is there's another dude involved in the creation of D&D, and he gets play in the book, but the relationship between the two creators was strained, and there are issues surrounding how much credit each deserves. This is such a classic situation. Stan and Jack, Jobs and Woz. It seems like you can't get a couple of dorks together to make a thing without this happening. Weird.
The big downfall of the book, a lot of it is written in a second person voice, which I think it meant to imitate a dungeon master narrating a dungeon crawl. But it doesn't always work because the you, presumably the reader, is sometimes the reader, sometimes Gary Gygax ("You're X years old, junior in high school..."). It's awkward. I think it could work, but it felt a little ill-fitting in a lot of spots.
shane_tiernan's review against another edition
3.0
I read this in one sitting while at the dentist. :) When I bought it I had no idea it was a graphic novel, and even though I read a lot of graphic novels, I was disappointed because this is the kind of information I would like to learn about in book form. When it started it seemed like it was going to a really bad fictional story that included Gary Gygax as the main character. Instead it turned into the true story of Gary Gygax (and others).
The perspective change was often confusing. They tried to use the "you're in a room, it's 20 x 20" style of a DM speaking, but then they were quoting people, and putting the reader in the place of the characters (I think).
It was kind of like reading a bullet-pointed list of facts and quotes with pictures attached. Luckily I was interested in the facts and I didn't know some of them, so I enjoyed it. I still think this kind of thing would be better in a full book format with a lot more information/details.
The perspective change was often confusing. They tried to use the "you're in a room, it's 20 x 20" style of a DM speaking, but then they were quoting people, and putting the reader in the place of the characters (I think).
It was kind of like reading a bullet-pointed list of facts and quotes with pictures attached. Luckily I was interested in the facts and I didn't know some of them, so I enjoyed it. I still think this kind of thing would be better in a full book format with a lot more information/details.