How Others See Wargaming - And the Misinformed

Because I am not particularly attracted to fantasy wargaming or anything like Dungeons and Dragons, I was initially apt to disregard the title of this Man Cave post. But looking at the book in question and reading the excerpt that had been posted, I was interested in the perspective of the author, " Forbes Senior Editor and gaming and technology expert David Ewalt."

Now, it's easy to be put off by the ignorance of the Man Cave editor, who, in the introduction, characterizes HMGS' Historicon as a "D&D convention, just outside of Philadelphia" - a description which, if widely known, would probably have dozens of  HMGS members on his front lawn with flaming torches and pitchforks. As anyone knows, Historicon--as a serious historical wargaming convention; as a result, they just don't do the fantasy thing there--of which D&D is the penultimate example.

Of course, it's true that D&D originally sprang from Gary Gygax's Chainmail medieval wargaming rules back in the 70's. As a result, I do have to give some credit to Ewalt, who at least understands that to paint a complete picture of his subject, it is necessary to go back a bit further, to research the history and development that led to D&D:

"I knew that if I truly wanted to understand Dungeons & Dragons, I had to first understand the games that gave birth to it..."

The excerpt from the book that follows is brief, and his characterizations of the HMGS convention's locale and attendees are admittedly spot-on. I would be curious to at least read the rest of the chapter, though I doubt I would be interested in the whole book.

Check out the excerpt and let us know what you think.