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Game Wizards

The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons

by Jon Peterson

Narrator Chris Andrew Ciulla

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Length 13 hours 38 minutes

Language English

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Summary
About the author
About the narrator

When Dungeons & Dragons was first released to a small hobby community, it hardly seemed destined for mainstream success—and yet this arcane tabletop role-playing game became an unlikely pop culture phenomenon. In Game Wizards, Jon Peterson chronicles the rise of Dungeons & Dragons from hobbyist pastime to mass market sensation, from the initial collaboration to the later feud of its creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. As the game's fiftieth anniversary approaches, Peterson—a noted authority on role-playing games—explains how D&D and its creators navigated their successes, setbacks, and controversies.

Peterson describes Gygax and Arneson's first meeting and their work toward the 1974 release of the game; the founding of TSR and its growth as a company; and Arneson's acrimonious departure and subsequent challenges to TSR. He recounts the "Satanic Panic" accusations that D&D was sacrilegious and dangerous, and how they made the game famous.

With Game Wizards, Peterson restores historical particulars long obscured by competing narratives spun by the one-time partners. That record amply demonstrates how the turbulent experience of creating something as momentous as Dungeons & Dragons can make people remember things a bit differently from the way they actually happened.

Business History Fantasy Nonfiction

Jon Peterson, a leading expert on Dungeons & Dragons and role-playing games, is the author of Playing at the World, Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana (a Hugo Award finalist), the New York Times bestseller Heroes' Feast, and The Elusive Shift: How Role-Playing Games Forged Their Identity.

Chris Andrew Ciulla is a versatile performer with over 50 audiobook credits to his name. The genres of his titles range from mystery/thriller to sci-fi, to fantasy and romance. He also excels at sports-related nonfiction, being a former sports radio host and frequent show guest. He's a boxing expert who is a commentator for professional matches. In addition to frequent film, television, and on-camera commercial work, Chris has voiced characters for the popular video game titles Fallout 4 and Mafia III, and can be heard in national commercial campaigns. AudioFile magazine reviewed a recent performance: "Narrator Chris Ciulla adopts a slight accent to illustrate her Lithuanian roots and adds a slight tremulousness to his timbre so that Ona sounds old but still spry and spirited . . . Ciulla's open performance and slightly hurried pacing for the boy perfectly translate his unfiltered but sweet nature . . . Quinn didn't always fulfill his parental responsibilities but Ciulla makes his fundamental decency and kindness clear to the listener."