Top all-time · #9717
Playing at the World
Personal blog · playingattheworld.blogspot.comgameshistory
Playing at the World is a personal blog at playingattheworld.blogspot.com about games and history. Since 2014, 8 different Hacker News readers have linked it 9 times. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-05-05, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Jon Peterson's blog, linked alongside his book on wargaming and D&D history. Commenters cite it for D&D's origins, the Arneson and Tolkien influences, and early hobby gaming, and one calls it excellent.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- /2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-08-30
What Hacker News says?
Anyone who wants to learn more about OD&D ought to visit the Original D&D Discussion at http://odd74.proboards.com/ Michael Mornard, who was a regular player in Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson's OD&D campaigns is a regular contributor. He posts under the handle "gronanofsimmerya." Jon Peterson who wrote THE book on the history of D&D also posts there using the handle "increment." Also check out the blog he setup for his…
Comment linking /
on “Happy 40th birthday, Dungeons & Dragons”Submitted How Gaming Got Its Dice (2013) as a story · 51 points
HN discussionPederson's blog is excellent: https://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/
Comment linking /
on “The Eldritch Roots of Dungeons and Dragons”Submitted Fredda Sieve and Her 1963 “Zazz” Dice as a story · 18 points
HN discussionGygax had a habit of erasing some other major influences from history, including co-developer of D&D Dave Arneson, and JRR Tolkien's works. Regarding Arneson, you can find documentaries online and books. Here are some other sources: Rules for Middle Earth by Leonard Patt (~late 1970): https://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-precursor-t... Tolkien was reportedly mentioned in versions of Chainmail (Gygax's pr…
Comment linking /2016/01/a-precursor-to-chainmail-fantasy.html
on “The Eldritch Roots of Dungeons and Dragons”Submitted TTRPG Roots in the Game Battleship as a story · 10 points
HN discussionI dunno, I've been reading the book Playing at the World [0], and while in the 1960s, wargames and miniatures were at the center of hobby gaming, it seems to have more of a small-but-passionate fanbase. There was one major company that went bankrupt, and lots of small, transient publishers, gaming groups, and fanzines, mostly going into and out of business after a couple of issues. Wargames got so baroque, I find it…
Comment linking /
on “The Fall of Avalon Hill (1998)”Submitted Immersion and Role Playing in the 1970s as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Identifying the Dice of the 1970s as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
