Customer Reviews

Thirty Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D Retrospective)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you are thinking about buying this book, you probably already have an idea on what this book is supposed to be about... the Dungeons & Dragons role playing game. But what KIND of book is it? I don't exactly know, but I am pretty sure about one thing- its execution is a cascade of missteps, as in, "I missed the first step and fell all the way down the stairs and broke both my legs." If this book were a mental patient, it would be classified as schizophrenic (with my apologies to the truly schizophrenic). Maybe this is what happens when you have a committee write a book.

Apparently (or obviously) this book was supposed to be a "collector's item" type of coffee table book- shrinkwrapped, full color slick from cover to cover; jammed with art, anecdotes, and historical features about D&D from 1974 to 2004. Great idea. But it actually is either a poorly produced art book, or a tepidly-written retrospective on the game rewritten from old press releases. This book has fundamental flaws.

Every page is printed with the text angled 15-degrees (to right or left). This might be really eye-grabbing and cute on a soft-drink coupon, but on a fifty dollar book it is downright annoying. Matt Adelsperger & Brian Fraley (interior design) should be designing floor patterns for Congoleum, not books.

The translucent "vellum" dust jacket is nicely done, but the actual covers are ugly faux-gold and white monochrome illustrations that look like wallpaper.

The book is jammed with art, ranging from okay to great, but none of it individually attributed. No captions, no descriptions, and most of it chopped up by slashy borderings. There ARE stories behind art, but this book ain't talking.

There are some celebrity anecdotes, which are mildly interesting one-page pieces (laid out like Monster Manual pages, but at an angle), but not great. Different Worlds magazine (out of print) did a heck of a lot better job illuminating the social dimension of role-playing twenty years ago with their "My Life and Role Playing" series. Instead of photos of the celebrities (what they SHOULD have done), we get drawings of monsters- Sherman Alexie gets a caveman, Wil Wheaton a moss creature, Laurel Hamilton a mummy, David X. Cohen a beholder, etc.; you get the picture (not the photo). Speaking of photos, don't expect to find many. There is a three-page photo collage of a GENCON (no attribution or titles, looks like it came from a kindergartener's scrapbook), a half-page shot of Ed Stark (why him?), and that's it.

A retrospective book about D&D was a great idea- but it hasn't been written yet.

This book is low on content and high on typos and other errors. It looks like it wasn't even proof read before it went to the publisher. It's filled with typos and grammatical mistakes. As far as content three of the chapters are actually interesting. I especially enjoyed the history of the Forgotten Realms. For the most part though this book is atrocious. The bit by Gary Gygax, creator of the game, was written six years ago. I would think for a tribute they could have at least tried to obtain some new content. To sum it up this book is nearly as good as the D&D movie (i.e. Terrible.)

I could barely wait to get my hands on this book. From the first announcement I read about it, the anticipation was brewing. With a release date so close to Christmas, wifely mandate required that I put it on my Wish List rather than purchase it immediately. So I was giddy when I did get it for Christmas. After finishing reading through the whole thing, I am glad that I got it and it was an enjoyable book. The celebrity profiles were nice, the retrospectives of insiders were interesting and overall it left a warm feeling about a much enjoyed hobby. However, there were a few things lacking which could have made the book perfect. For one thing, a little more diversity in the celebrity profiles would have been nice--they were a little over weighted to video game developers. What no one could get in touch with Kurt Schilling? Also, the way two different articles inside would share halves of the page would have been ok, except that all too often the two would not have the same break points so a reader was forced to either flip back and forth as you went or try to follow two different themes from page to page--with one sometimes ending mid sentence before you turned. Editing in general could have been a little tighter as occasionally (enough to be noticeable) you need to read a section over to fit together what was being said. Finally, it ends a little too abruptly--"then there was 3.5 Edition, the end.". One last chapter to tie the whole thing up in a bow would have been nice. With 30 years to put this together, maybe 1 more month to polsh it would have been nice.

I am certainly glad I have this book. There is so much to enjoy, so much nostalgia to experience, so many nice pieces of the puzzle made clear for a long time fan about the inner workings of the game. It will have a special place on the shelf where I will look fondly upon it, but with just a small twinge for what could have been.

I read a lot of negative reviews of the book before I purchased it and I was almost scared off.

The book was exactly what is was supposed to be: a trip down memory lane for a long time player of dnd.

Coffee table books, such as this one, are not meant for a rabid cover to cover reading.

I loved seeing the pictures of/from old adventures, the history of dnd, and seeing famous people who play(ed).

Admittingly, it was a bit costly, but I defrayed that cost by buying from Amazon, so I still think it was worth the money.

"Thirty Years of Adventure" is a coffee table book to celebrate three decades of Dungeons&Dragons. There are celebrity endorsements from the likes of Vin Diesel (author of the foreward) and Wil Wheaton (the annoying wunderkind on Star Trek:Next Generation) There are some great pictures; it's a visual delight. There are some interesting anecdotes about D&D history.

However,the negative aspects outweigh the positive ones. The layout is a challenge to follow (it's easier being a seventh level elf mage) It's like a bad trip. The game isn't given its cultural context either. There's no mention of the infamous anti-D&D Jack Chick tract,nor the "Mazes and Monsters" made-for-TV cheesefest starring Tom Hanks. D&D's initial controversy is mentioned in passing maybe. It would've been interesting to document its growth from "OH NOES, occult game" and Reagan-era hysteria,to something mainstream and acceptable. No mention of the cheesy "Dungeons and Dragons" movie starring Jeremy Irons and Thora Birch either. This book ends up being a plodding bore,you feel like you're stuck in the dungeons,not fighting the dragons. This "homage" ends up being a turgid,naff bore.

This book is not necessarily a chronological history of D&D. Seems more like a digest of the different D&D worlds with the early history and recent Wizards of the Coast acquisition tacked on the beginning and end respectively. The bulk of the book summarizes the different worlds of D&D Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, and Dragonlance. They even have the not so popular worlds like Spelljammer, Mystara (never heard of it before), and the horrific 2nd Edition. All this is good with nice, big illustrations and good testimony from the creators themselves, however, because i have an idea of the true history of D&D it seemed a bit too commercialized almost like plugging their products. I really wanted the "true" history of the D&D franchise including the power struggles within and the controversy created by the public. they touch up a little bit on it but not everything. Then again what do you expect from a book published by Wizards. Regardless, it's a good book for the D&D fan. Good presentation and great illustrations. I recommend it regardless but just know what to expect.

Book-wise, this is a largish, oblong coffee-table book without a hardcover. And this is the first problem. I cannot say that I am overly impressed with contruction values, and this is not a book that will "tent" or sustain a lot of rough handling without showing it. Glossy presentations do not solid books make. So, the buyer should be aware that this is a copy that should be read and shelved, not displayed.

Second, in terms of content, I thought the book was both interesting and engaging, but incomplete. It is very top-heavy on graphics, and sometimes, those graphics became a little too "cute," rather like a high school literary magazine in an experimental phase. This meant that the space devoted to the actual history of the game, both oral-personal and "timeline," could be disappointingly brief, although what history there was certainly piqued a great deal of interest. It provides at least a glimpse of the gaming industry and the "world it made," and why the popularity of table-top role-playing endures even into the computer age. I am hoping, one day, there will be a far more extensive treatment, because "D & D" as an ongoing phenomenon is a pop-culture historical icon that deserves a comprehensive review and analysis. But, on the other hand, the title is "[A] Retrospective." Retrospectives are often very general to give readers a "taste" of a kind of "zeitgeist" surrounding a thing or event, so I cannot fault the authors and art staff who created this book for their obviously hard work and appreciative devotion to this game, even if I think there are a few misfires.

I think the greatest strength of the book is the faithful reproductions of artwork from the original books of so long ago. A nostalgiac treat for those who spent many enjoyable weekend hours in basements or school libraries exploring what the imagination can do.

So, while I am very happy to recommend the book, I think it would give the old "gamer" far more pleasure than the pop-cultural analyst. It is what it is, and like the venerable game itself, how much you enjoy the book will be what you make of it.

I was excited about this book, then i read it at the bookstore. Trust me, you don't want this. It really looks like it was thrown together with no real reverence for the game, the art, the authors, Gygax, etc.

I was excited about seeing this book because I've been playing D&D for 24 of the 30 years they cover. A lot of the artwork you've seen before but you really buy the book to trigger all the great memories you have of the game. It's great to get some background on the various worlds and why they have decided to make the different editions of the game. The interviews with various famous people, some more so than others, are nice to get some other perspectives on the game though most are pretty similar.

Mainly I wanted this book so I could think on all those friends I've played games with over the years, something I still do regularly.

My only warning for those buying the book, the vellum cover may not hold up very well if you're going to handle the book a lot. You may want to store it on a shelf until you finish reading the book.

This book is a wonderful retrospective of Dungeons & Dragons. It goes back over all 30 years of D&D, and has lots of pictures and commentary from many people associated with the game ranging from players (that happen to be famous) to designers.