Reading this recent post at Skyland Games last week reminded me that I have a mass-market paperback copy of The Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III, written by private investigator William Dear, somewhere in one of the boxes here in the Kaiju Lair. I may need to do some real-life dungeon delving to find it, although I will avoid the steam tunnels.
The last time I read the book was at least 15 years ago. The two things I remember most about it were the sureness and smugness of the author, and the scene where he plays D&D with some of the college students, packed with an abundance of stereotypical gamer behavior.
Thorynn's post made me think that I should revisit the book and see how it reads with even more distance, and in light of both Forge-style indie-game trends and the OSR. I'd like to give it another read-through now with a critical eye and post my observations here on the blog. This might be a good project for the Christmas break.
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2 comments:
Thanks for the link! While I agree, the authors tone is ludicrous, (it reads like an overblown 70s cop show) it is an interesting window in to the mind set of that time.
Somewhat of a sidenote, I explored the steam tunnels under Appalachian State, but it had nothing to do with D&D. It was just a cool real life adventure. And probably trespassing. :^/
They were like more recent urban explorers, just years ahead of their time.
Thanks for reading!
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