Designers & Dragons: The '80s by Shannon Applecline

This is second volume of Shannon Applecline's history of the roleplaying industry, this time covering the 1980s - from the boom years to the almost inevitable crash at the end of the decade. I dropped out of the RPG hobby about half way through the 80s, so this was a fascinating history, both for the parts I knew and the bits that I didn't. 

The format is the same as the first volume, being a potted history of the companies that started during the period, the personalities and the products that were released from the blockbusters to the bombs. Particular highlights were the history of Steve Jackson Games - one of the few companies from that era still running in pretty much the same form - and the story of almost being shutdown by secret service agents who thought that the Cyberpunk setting for GURPS was an instruction manual for real life hackers.

It was also interesting to read about how veteran wargaming companies Avalon Hill and SPI dabbled their toes into the RPG industry before the latter was taken over and shut down by behemoth (at the time) TSR., effectively wiping the entire board wargaming hobby for good. There are many stories of takeovers and legal wrangles, showing that just about the only people who were really making money in the end were the corporate lawyers.

There are also positive stories too, with small press publishers making a mark, some continuing today and some being the launch pad for game designers who would go on to other things, such as Jonathan Tweet  who went from founding Lion Rampant with Mark Rein-Hagen and creating the hugely influential Ars Magica to being the lead designer for D&D 3e.

An essential reference work for the era.