Dice Men: The Origin Story of Games Workshop

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Pure nostalgia, although I suspect that if you aren't "of a certain age" where the names and games and atmosphere of this book are directly relevant to your life then you will find this less than exciting. In 1982, with Steve Jackson, he wrote the first of the Fighting Fantasy™ Gamebooks which eventually sold over 15 million copies in 23 languages. There’s a couple of hints as to why they seem so passive in letting it go; they’re overcommitted and exhausted, and Livingstone claims that they didn’t pay themselves much from GW and so the financial rewards of writing more of the now obviously-successful Fighting Fantasy books probably loomed large in the mind – why go through all the bother of the day job when someone else so clearly wanted to do it? The tone is light and the writing agreeably pacy; it’s the kind of thing where if you just want to read the text without stopping to linger over the pictures, you can do so in a single evening.

Initially, it was a distributor for the role-playing games from the US, principally Dungeons and Dragons and Runequest. A minor complaint - the timeline jumps around a bit, focusing on the chapter subject more than the chronology.BUT, as I did read it through in one sitting and didn't want to put it down until I finished then I am "of a certain age" and revelled in the memories. Beautifully illustrated and with plenty of voices in addition to the author's, this is a must for any fan of role-playing games and the FF books. For those with either a nostalgic memory of, or an interest in the seminal era of the 70s and early 80s for role-playing games (TTRPG under current nomenclature) this is a great read. The excuse of a ten-book Fighting Fantasy contract to deliver looks a little thin when you remember that just a few pages ago Livingstone mentions that they’d started subcontracting them out.

If you've come here for dirty laundry, insight into the conflicts between the artistic and commercial, or ruminations on the greater cultural significance of gaming, you're going to be disappointed. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. It’s all interesting stuff in its own way, and adds richness to the tale being told, but in the interests of both brevity and preserving the book’s contents to be read in their own right I am largely skipping over it. More likely it speaks to a culture for which the Nottingham operations were always slightly out of view; what was happening in London was the focus, because that’s where Livingstone and Jackson were. Pure nostalgia, although I suspect that if you aren't "of a certain age" where the names and games and atmosphere of this book are directly relevant to your life then you will find this less than exciting, and probably actually boring.

This plan nearly ends in disaster with the famous video games crash in 1983-84, though that doesn’t stop GW from publishing its own small range of computer games later in the 80s. Of note - the digital/kindle version was very hard to read as the small text from hardcover edition was scanned and could not be adjusted via e-reader.

That isn’t to say they were wrong about it; they clearly have enjoyed enormous success from Fighting Fantasy, and it’s hard to argue with 50+ titles still in publication and a legacy that persists even today. I am more familiar with the history of the Citadel Miniatures side of the story, so it was interesting to see how the London based board games side of the business developed the brand that eventually became the miniatures oriented company that GW now is. When Ian arrived home later that evening we excitedly told him of our plans, but it took him about 10 days or so to come around to the idea, following much cajoling, mainly by Steve. To my understanding the book is now on general sale, but it was originally funded through Unbound, a crowdfunder for boutique publishing like this.We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. You have a significant subsidiary helmed by a bloke who has already resigned twice in the last four years to force your hand in giving him more power, after telling you the reason he quit the last company he founded was because his co-owners lacked his vision and ambition.