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| Dicing with Dragons, British 1982 edition |
In the first half of the '80s the interest in RPGs was very high and the public was interested in them, not just gamers, so 'how to' guides started to appear in UK, USA, France, Germany and Italy too. Dicing with Dragons, written by Ian Livingstone of Games Workshop and Fighting Fantasy fame, was the very first British book on the subject and it was published not by Puffin Books (an imprint of Penguin Books, then an independent publisher and not a label of a megacorporation) but by Routledge & Kegan Paul, a publisher "particularly known for its titles in philosophy, psychology and the social sciences"to quote Wikipedia. Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson originally pitched to a Penguin Books editor a handbook for understanding RPGs, but the idea became The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and a gargantuan publishing phenomenon was born, still alive today. Dicing with Dragons is perhaps what Puffin Books could have published instead of Fighting Fantasy's first book (perish the thought!).
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| Dicing with Dragons, 1985 'revised edition' |
The British edition is a 216, black and white paperback book priced at £ 3,95 (the 'revised edition' is prices £ 4,95), illustrated by Russ Nicholson, an artist manly noted (among gamers) for his work on Fighting Fantasy books - he illustrated for example The Warlock of Firetop Mountain released in 1982 too. The book is divided in several chapters: an introduction to RPGs, a solo adventure called Fantasy Quest (a virtual clone of a Fighting Fantasy book of course), a listing of games (with in depth descriptions of D&D, Traveller, Runequest and Tunnels & Trolls), accessories for RPGs (including fanzines and magazines), miniatures and miniature painting, a guide to gamemastering, computer games, live action role playing games, how to start and a long list of games, publishers, miniature producers, magazines, stores and mail order companies. A very complete guide.
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| Dicing with Dragons, 1983 US edition |
Dicing with Dragons is a very interesting and well written book, offering a complete coverage of the hobby at the time albeit from a mostly UK point of view (of course). I remeber reading it in his Italian edition many times wondering about the big number of fine sounding games available in English (not to mention miniature producers) and carefully following Ian Livingstone's instructions about painting miniatures. It's not a piece of Games Workshop advertising, albeit the (then) London colossus is of course heavily represented as a publisher, distributor and retailer.
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| Dicing with Dragons, 1986 US edition |
The book must have sold respectable quantities because the publisher released a 'revised edition' in 1985 which updated (for example) magazine listing, shop listing, games available and inserted some more clarifications. I did not know about any revised edition until, by chance, I spotted a copy on eBay and promptly bought it. In the US the book was successful enough, despite having competitors such as Through Dungeons Deep (1982) and The Adventurer's Handbook (1984), to deserve inclusion in the Book Club with a rare, hardback edition with dustjacket. But Dicing with Dragons faced competition in its own market too: Puffin Books released a What is Dungeons & Dragons book in the very same year, 1982, perhaps as a replacement for the original idea of a guide to RPGs.
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| Dicing with Dragons, hardback US edition (date unknown) |
I have searchedthe Net for non English editions of Dicing with Dragons but the only one I have found is the Italian translation published by Longanesi in 1986 and promptly bought by me in a now long closed bookshop. The Italian edition has different graphics, an introduction from 'the' Italian authority about games at the time (Giampaolo Dossena) and an Italian written chapter to 'update' some contents of the books, for example computer games, and an explanation about the difference between AD&D and D&D. This chapter is a very good piece fo work, doing its best in a time when the only RPGs in Italian were D&D (and just the Basic Set, not even the Expert Set), a couple of out of print Italian ones (I Signori del Caos and Kata Kumbas) and The Black Eye.
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| Dicing with Dragons, 1986 Italian edition |
From the collector's point of view the book is quite easy to find on eBay UK: avoid absurd prices, a good clean copy should cost around £ 15 - 20 but if you are ready to accept compromises, nice deals may be found. The Italian edition is quite rare, but absolutely not worthy of the mad requests you can see on eBay IT.