Playing at the World - the Teenage Years


Warning!

This event is not a current year's event. Below is for informational and historical purposes only!

Start Date & Time Friday - 11:00 AM CST
Duration 1.0 hours
Type Seminar
System None
Location Mendota 3 at table 211
Gaming Experience Newcomers Welcome
Age Range All Ages (6+)
Host Jon Peterson
With Michael Witwer

Ticket Information

Cost $0.00
Availability 62 of 75 available

Join authors Jon Peterson (Playing at the World, Elusive Shift, Game Wizards) and Michael Witwer (Empire of Imagination, Legend of Drizzt, Vivan Van Tassel) for a review of the state of historical scholarship about the origins and invention of Dungeons & Dragons. Jon's book Playing at the World turned thirteen years old in 2025, and with the second edition now published by MIT Press, now is a good time to reflect on what we do and do not know about the creation of D&D. What are areas that need future work by scholars? What controversies were resolvable long ago but never seem to settle down - and why? Join us for a look at the achievements -- and limitations -- of historical work on D&D to date.

Special Guest

Jon Peterson

Jon Peterson is widely recognized as an authority on the history of games, best known as the author of Playing at the World, The Elusive Shift, and Game Wizards. He has helped Wizards of the Coast with projects including the Making of Original D&D and the D&D Trivial Pursuit edition. He also co-authored Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana, Lore & Legends, Heroes’ Feast: The Official Dungeons & Dragons Cookbook, and Heroes’ Feast Flavors of the Multiverse. He has contributed to academic anthologies on games, including MIT Press’s Zones of Control and Fifty Years of D&D, as well as Routledge’s Role-Playing Game Studies: Transmedia Foundations.