Just a note about my latest book The Elfish Gene - Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange.

It's a memoir of my life in gaming from the mid 1970s onwards, starting with the white box edition.

There should be plenty in there to interest collectors - memories of playing 1e D&D, Empire of the Petal Throne, Runequest, Citadel, Traveller, Metamorphosis Alpha and a whole heap more.

It's mainly comic in tone, covering things such as my attempts to turn myself into a D&D character, egomaniac DMs, over-acting players and my attempts to cast a fireball in a suburban living room.

The book does have a serious side too. I discuss the Satanic scares and also the mental effects of spending six years in a room with 10 other male adolescents.

I think this is the first time anyone has dedicated a memoir to our hobby.
My intention was to write a Fever Pitch for RPGers and I hope I've succeeded.

The book's available in bookshops from Friday or on Amazon now.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elfish-Gene-Dun ... 179&sr=8-2

Sorry if the link hasn't come out in that. I am a technological idiot.

I'd love to hear what anyone thinks of the book if they read it. Do let me know here or on myspace

http://www.myspace.com/markbarrowcliffe

Hope you don't consider this spam, I did check with the webmaster first.
Yours from the mirror of life trapping

Mark Barrowcliffe

Great title!  

Should be interesting to read the UK perspective.

The NBC show Freaks & Geeks had a good episode called "Disco & Dragons".

Daniel is sentenced to audio/visual squad duty as punishment for pulling a fire alarm in an attempt to postpone his math final. The other geeks are terrified by the prospect of having Daniel invade their territory, while Sam insists that he isn't a bad guy. Daniel agrees to join the guys for an evening game of Dungeons and Dragons. He really enjoys it, and asks to play again the next night. Sam, Neal and Bill decide that this doesn't make Daniel a geek, but rather signifies their evolution into "cool guys."

http://epguides.com/FreaksandGeeks/guide.shtml

Great title!  May you outsell Richard Dawkins!

stumbling tiger wrote:Great title!  May you outsell Richard Dawkins!

yay! may everyone outsell that arrogant git.  

FormCritic wrote:Very interesting.   8)

I recognize your new avatar. James Dallas Egbert III. I just read The Dungeon Master for the first time last fall (they still have it at our local library). It was ... depressing.

http://ptgptb.org/0006/egbert.html

The book sounds great.  I'll pick up a copy myself when I get the chance.

Good luck.
Keith

ReggieB wrote:Thanks for all the positive responses. I'd love to hear what people think of the book if you read it.
As I think I said, I doubt if gamers will agree with every word but I think a lot of it will ring true.
What is The Dungeon Master, by the way. Is that a biography too?
M

The Dungeon Master is a paperback book....written by a private investigator who was hired to find a missing boy.

Although the extremely disturbed young man's disappearance had no connection to Dungeons and Dragons, critics of the game used the story as a basis for warnings about satanism, obsession and suicide.

The writer made his money...and the book is still found in used book stores from time to time.

Yes, it's a good one. I bet that bloke can't buy a drink in a pub now - children throw flowers where he walks, women offer to marry him.
There's a review of Elfish Gene in The Daily Mail today, if anyone's interested.

red_bus wrote:
yay! may everyone outsell that arrogant git.  

Easy, Steven.  Now you're making personal attacks on friends of mine.  

Actually, I love the title.  Might pick one up myself.

P.S. Dawkins is a god-send to us biologists; isn't that wonderfully ironic?