Roleplaying gaming got its professional start with the publication of Dungeons & Dragons in January, 1974. This was an expansion of the gaming industry which at the time was composed of board games, traditional card games, miniature games and even outlier games like Diplomacy.
To say roleplaying gaming was a revolutionary idea is putting it mildly. Roleplaying gaming was the first form of gaming to take playing a game off the table and place it directly into theater of the mind, and then into live theater through its stepchild and sibling live action roleplaying. It also played into, and was heavily influenced by, the incredibly strong interest in the new wave of fantasy fiction becoming available at the time, including the Conan stories and the release of “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit”. Within a decade, the explosion of fantasy and science fiction media would drive an increased interest in escapist pursuits such as roleplaying, especially fantasy and science fiction roleplaying systems.
And because roleplaying games need rules and supporting material, there is a need for people to write them. I have dabbled in that, and the following is some of my nonfiction roleplaying gaming writing.
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