Professional Books

This book presents new frameworks designed by the author to ease integration and facilitation of tabletop role-playing games in an educational setting. The "whats" and "whys" of these games, K-12 educator accounts of implementation, case studies, advice on partnering with game shops and librarians, and practical classroom strategies are covered. Features such as Starting Equipment, Bulletin Board Bard, and Ritual of Reflection describe concrete takeaways and models for emulation, assisting facilitators in synthesizing new information and creating subsequent action steps. This book is a critical tool for educators wishing to integrate their pedagogy with tabletop role-playing games.

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 In this highly-anticipated sequel to Let's Roll, Maxwell takes a closer look into the game of Dungeons & Dragons. It will enable readers to start their adventures with confidence and fun, acting as a guide for aspiring Dungeon Masters. Focusing on 'Plug & Play' D&D sessions, this book includes

•     practical tips for first-time Game Masters and new players;

•     lists of magic items and non-player characters, including their motivations and occupations;

•     examples of safety tools to allow players to stay safe; and

•     ideas on how to establish roleplaying sessions and festivals in your school. 

It will also contain five short tabletop roleplaying adventures to enable first-time Game Masters to start playing right away! 

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 Master all the skills you need to deliver a tabletop role-playing game program in the library!

For librarians or teachers who aren't players themselves, the scope of role-playing games can seem overwhelming. Starting from the basics, Let's Roll is a practical guide to delivering a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) in a school or public library, all within the time constraints imposed on library sessions. Coverage includes:

•     a step-by-step guide to setting up a TTRPG program in your school or public library, including an example of a TTRPG proposal;

•     advice on bringing senior management on board to a TTRPG program;

•     how to attract players, basic table rules, and preparing as a game master;

•     the health and learning benefits of TTRPGs including creativity, teamwork, cooperation, boosting confidence, and encouraging reading; and

•     a comprehensive list of TTRPG games and how to implement them. 

Featuring case studies from librarians around the world focusing on their experiences setting up TTRPGs, Let's Roll will help librarians, teachers, and other educators deliver an engaging program that delivers significant benefits on a budget – and is a huge amount of fun! 

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 Gaming programs offer many benefits: they encourage interaction among patrons, strengthen community bonds with the library, and when done right they can be incredibly popular. Kroski, a bestselling author as well as an avid gamer herself, has gathered more than 50 creative programming ideas from public, school, and academic libraries nationwide. Most will hit your core gaming audience of teens, but you'll also find plenty of options for adults, tweens, and younger children—the mix of tabletop, video, and live-action gaming programs includes something for everyone. Complete with step-by-step instructions for how to prepare and host programs, a materials and equipment list, estimated budget, and recommendations for age ranges, inside this book you’ll find fun ideas such as

•     Instagram or zombie-tag scavenger games;

•     a video game rec league;

•     teaching cybersecurity with Minecraft;

•     STEM with virtual reality and other programs for VR equipment;

•     fostering science literacy with themed board games;

•     a life-sized Game of Life;

•     STEAM with an amazing race;

•     hosting a Gaming Con at your library;

•     video game study breaks for calming students’ nerves during Finals Week;

•     leading enthusiasts in writing an original roleplay or designing a board game; and

•     building your collection of games through donations and grants.

The engaging programs in this book will have people flocking to your library—.

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Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design: An Encyclopedia of Mechanisms, Third Edition compiles hundreds of game mechanisms, organized by category. This book can be read cover to cover and used as a reference to solve a specific design problem or for inspiration and research on new designs. This third edition collects even more mechanisms, expands on and updates existing entries, and includes color images. Building Blocks is a great starting point for new designers, a handy guidebook for the experienced, and an ideal classroom reference.

Each game mechanisms entry contains the following:

•     The definition of the mechanism

•     An explanatory diagram of the mechanism

•     Discussion of how the mechanism is used in successful games

•     Considerations for implementing the mechanism in new designs

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In 1974, the release of Dungeons & Dragons forever changed the way that we experience imagined worlds. No longer limited to simply reading books or watching movies, gamers came together to collaboratively and interactively build and explore new realms. Based on four years of interviews and game recordings from locations spanning the United States, this book offers a journey that explores how role-playing games use a combination of free-form imagination and tightly constrained rules to experience those realms. By developing our understanding of the fantastic worlds of role-playing games, this book also offers insight into how humans come together and collaboratively imagine the world around us.

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How the early Dungeons & Dragons community grappled with the nature of role-playing games, theorizing a new game genre.

When Dungeon & Dragons made its debut in the mid-1970s, followed shortly thereafter by other, similar tabletop games, it sparked a renaissance in game design and critical thinking about games. D&D is now popularly considered to be the first role-playing game. But in the original rules, the term "role-playing" is nowhere to be found; D&D was marketed as a war game. In The Elusive Shift, Jon Peterson describes how players and scholars in the D&D community began to apply the term to D&D and similar games--and by doing so, established a new genre of games.

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