A Book Review of Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons

I recently read Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons by Jon Peterson, a nonfiction book about the struggle for ownership of D&D between Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. It was an interesting and surprisingly moving book, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on it. Game Wizards is thoroughly researched and well written. The prose is engaging and would interest someone even outside the hobby of RPGs. Over seven years of research, Peterson was able to get access to legal documents, internal TSR documents, rare fanzines, and personal letters; he interviewed many of the principal people involved, including Arneson and Gygax. I haven’t read other histories of the time, so I can’t check the accuracy of the facts, but Peterson certainly comes across as a reasonable narrator. He shows empathy but not sympathy to everyone involved, quick to put every number in the context of the industry and every decision in the context of understandable motivations. When it’s impossible to reconcile…