Role Playing Games Books

	Robotech The Shadow Chronicles Role Playing Game by: Kevin Siembieda publisher: Palladium Books, published: 2008-03-15 ASIN: 1574571338 sales rank: 171965 price: $11.99 (new), $9.95 (used)
	The Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity by: Sarah Lynne Bowman publisher: McFarland, published: 2010-04-06 ASIN: 0786447109 sales rank: 874159 price: $31.50 (new), $43.58 (used)	This study takes an analytical approach to the world of role-playing games, providing a theoretical framework for understanding their psychological and sociological functions. Sometimes dismissed as escapist and potentially dangerous, role-playing actually encourages creativity, self-awareness, group cohesion and "out-of-the-box" thinking. The book also offers a detailed participant-observer ethnography on role-playing games, featuring insightful interviews with 19 participants of table-top, live action and virtual games.
	The Fantasy Role-Playing Game: A New Performing Art by: Daniel Mackay publisher: McFarland & Company, published: 2001-03 ASIN: 0786408154 sales rank: 313802 price: $28.00 (new), $25.79 (used)	Many of today's hottest selling games-both non-electronic and electronic-focus on such elements as shooting up as many bad guys as one can (Duke Nuk'em), beating the toughest level (Mortal Kombat), collecting all the cards (Pokémon), and scoring the most points (Tetris). Fantasy role-playing games (Dungeons & Dragons, Rolemaster, GURPs), while they may involve some of those aforementioned elements, rarely focus on them. Instead, playing a fantasy role-playing game is much like acting out a scene from a play, movie or book, only without a predefined script. Players take on such roles as wise wizards, noble knights, roguish sellswords, crafty hobbits, greedy dwarves, and anything else one can imagine and the referee allows. The players don't exactly compete; instead, they interact with each other and with the fantasy setting. The game is played orally with no game board, and although the referee usually has a storyline planned for a game, much of the action is impromptu. Performance is a major part of role-playing, and role-playing games as a performing art is the subject of this book, which attempts to introduce an appreciation for the performance aesthetics of such games. The author provides the framework for a critical model useful in understanding the art-especially in terms of aesthetics-of role-playing games. The book also serves as a contribution to the beginnings of a body of criticism, theory, and aesthetics analysis of a mostly unrecognized and newly developing art form. There are four parts: the cultural structure, the extent to which the game relates to outside cultural elements; the formal structure, or the rules of the game; the social structure, which encompasses the degree and quality of social interaction among players; and the aesthetic structure, concerned with the emergence of role-playing as an art form.
	The Marvel Universe Role Playing Game: Guide to the Hulk & the Avengers by: Marvel Entertainment publisher: Marvel Comics, published: 2003-11-10 ASIN: 0785111581 sales rank: 881249 price: $5.18 (new), $1.98 (used)	Avengers Assemble. The second supplement to the Marvel Universe Role-Playing Guide delivers Earth's Mightiest Heroes in all their glory... and most of their lineups. You'll find dozens of new super hero and super-villain profiles, as well as a few surprises, including Character Variants for the Hulk, Thor, Giant-Man, and Iron Man. Add to your campaign with Aliens, demi-gods, super-villains, humanoids, androids and robots. Dive into detailed maps of the Avengers' Mansion and technical plans for the Quinjet. Explore new settings for your adventures, from Wakanda to Asgard. Plus a brand new Marvel Universe Adventure, complete with maps. · Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game Guide required to play
	Serenity Six-Shooters & Spaceships (Serenity Role Playing Game) by: Lynn Blackson publisher: Margaret Weis Productions, published: 2009-04-29 ASIN: 1931567816 sales rank: 155358 price: $15.49 (new), $15.48 (used)	They say a ship will bring you work and a gun will help you keep it. Problem is, with all manner of ships sailing the black and more weapons and gear than you can shake a rain-stick at, if you don't know what you're doing you could end up flyin' off in some rust-bucket powered by a Capissen 38 engine, all the while carrying a pistol as like to explode in your hand as shoot straight. But don't fret ... we're here to help. Six-Shooters & Spaceships is an expansion to the Serenity Role Playing Game. You'll find everything you need to get your crew armed, equipped, and flyin' in style. In addition to 26 new ships and pregenerated crews, you'll find mules, robots, guns of all makes and models, and stuff to help you blow things up. Heck, you might even come across some Fruity Oaty Bars!
	Narrator's Toolkit (Star Trek Next Generation: Role Playing Game) by: Pocket Books published: 1998-09-30 ASIN: B000H2MRSE sales rank: 1391877 price: $9.86 (new), $8.66 (used)
	The Game Inventor's Guidebook: How to Invent and Sell Board Games, Card Games, Role-Playing Games, & Everything in Between! by: Brian Tinsman publisher: Morgan James Publishing, published: 2008-11-01 ASIN: 1600374476 sales rank: 205154 price: $10.00 (new), $11.67 (used)	The definitive guide for anyone with a game idea who wants to know how to get it published from a Game Design Manager at Wizards of the Coast, the world's largest tabletop hobby game company. Do you have an idea for a board game, card game, role-playing game or tabletop game? Have you ever wondered how to get it published? For many years Brian Tinsman reviewed new game submissions for Hasbro, the largest game company in the US. With The Game Inventor's Guidebook: How to Invent and Sell Board Games, Card Games, Role-playing Games & Everything in Between! he presents the only book that lays out step-by-step advice, guidelines and instructions for getting a new game from idea to retail shelf.
	Serenity Role Playing Game by: Jamie Chambers publisher: Margaret Weis Productions, published: 2005-09-19 ASIN: 1931567506 sales rank: 132012 price: $35.98 (new), $18.50 (used)	Here’s How It Is… The Earth got used up, and we found a new solar system and used terraforming technology to create hundreds of new Earths. The central planets formed the Alliance and decided that all worlds should unite under their rule. There was some disagreement on that point. After the Unification War, many of the Independents who had fought and lost drifted to the edges of the system, far from Alliance control. Out here, people struggled to get by with the most basic technologies. A ship would bring you work, a gun would help you keep it. A captain’s goal was simple: find a crew, find a job, keep flying. The Serenity Role Playing Game lets you re-create the action of the ‘Verse, the science-fiction setting created by writer/director Joss Whedon. Fly a ship out in the black, take jobs as they come, and always make sure you get paid. Everything you need to get started is right here! All you need is dice, friends, and your imagination. • A self-contained role playing game. All the rules are provided for both players and Game Masters! • Full character creation rules, plus fifteen sample characters—including the crew of Serenity. • Complete details on spaceships, guns, and technology. • Emphasis on story, action, and character development with easy-to-learn rules. • Game details and descriptions of the characters and settings of the film!
	Evolution of Fantasy Role-playing Games by: Michael J. Tresca publisher: McFarland & Company, published: 2010-09-03 ASIN: 078645895X sales rank: 1906800 price: $35.00 (new)	Tracing the evolution of fantasy gaming from its origins in tabletop war and collectible card games to contemporary web-based live action and massive multi-player games, this book examines the archetypes and concepts within the fantasy gaming genre alongside the roles and functions of the game players themselves. Other topics include: how The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings helped shape fantasy gaming through Tolkien's obsessive attention to detail and virtual world building; the community-based fellowship embraced by players of both play-by-post and persistent browser-based games, despite the fact that these games are fundamentally solo experiences; the origins of gamebooks and interactive fiction; and the evolution of online gaming in terms of technological capabilities, media richness, narrative structure, coding authority, and participant roles. (added by author)
	Swords & Circuitry: A Designer's Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games (Game Development) by: Neal Hallford publisher: Course Technology PTR, published: 2002-07-01 ASIN: 0761532994 sales rank: 340614 price: $4.99 (new), $2.54 (used)	Computer role-playing games (RPGs) allow players to assume the role of a hero out to conquer an epic challenge. During the course of the game, the player's character "learns" new spells and skills that, in turn, allow him or her to explore even more of the game world and to solve the quest presented by the game designers. Never in the history of gaming have role-playing titles been more popular. Swords & Circuitry: A Designer's Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games takes the reader on a journey into the arcane world of game development, deciphering the mysteries of the role-playing audience, the history of RPGs, the technical definition of the genre, the roles of a game designer, the fundementals of building good gameplay and interfaces, and last, but certainly not least, the art of professional worldbuilding. Featuring actual design document excerpts from the hit games Deus Ex, Fallout, Nox, and Stonekeep, it also presents in-depth interviews with top role-playing designers like John Cutter (Betrayal at Krondor), Chris Taylor (Dungeon Siege), Trent Oster (Neverwinter Nights), Sarah Stocker (Pools of Radiance II: The Ruins of Myth Drannor), Jon Van Caneghem (Might & Magic series), and Carly Staehlin (Ultima Online ). Game industry artists Shawn Sharp, Jon Gwyn, Jim Wible, and Jeff Perryman also provide exciting and topical illustrations that evoke not only the look, but the feel of the worlds that every role-playing designer strives to create. Co-written by a veteran marketeer and the designer behind role-playing bestsellers Betrayal at Krondor, Planet's Edge, Might & Magic III: Isles of Terra, and Dungeon Siege, readers will discover everything that a role-playing title must have to succeed!

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