What came first? The tabletop or the roleplay?

I am not a historian, but I like history. Especially when it comes to history regarding stuff I find interesting. And for running this website for almost 10 years now, it seems I find tabletop RPGs very interesting. Which means at some point, I wanted to learn about the history of the thing.

If you like podcasts, I cannot recommend When We Were Wizards enough. This is a 14-episode masterpiece that goes through the whole life of the pre-TSR and TSR era D&D.

Now, if you like books, I have a few more suggestions.

Empire of Imagination is the first book I read about the history of D&D. It’s a bit more of a biography of Gary Gygax, so a few things may be more romanticised, but it’s still a really interesting book.

Playing at the World is a monster of a book, nearing 700 pages. It also got a 2nd edition that was nominated in the 2025 ENNIE Awards. I think of all the media suggested here, this is the closest to a history book you will find.

Dangerous Games focuses on a very interesting and dark part of the hobby, which is the 80s satanic panic. I must admit, I haven’t finished this one yet, but I still find it a really good read.

Game Wizards comes from the author of Playing at the World. This one focuses on the behind-the-scenes stuff going on in TSR. This is on my to-read list, so I don’t have a solid opinion on it yet, but I tend to like behind-the-scenes stuff.

Art & Arcana is, like its full name suggests, a visual history of D&D. It’s a well-written and high-quality book that shows a ton of older art pieces. It’s not a heavy read but more of a casually flip-through book.

I highly doubt this is a comprehensive list of books about the history of the hobby. I mean, I only touched D&D here, mostly because it is the root of the hobby. I would like more suggestions, however, as I really enjoy books like those. And that’s all for today. Tomorrow’s prompt is “flavour”. I wonder what I’ll come up with for this one.

And until next time, have fun!

P.S.: You can find all of my posts for this year’s RPGaDay here. Thanks to AUTOCRATIK and Casting Shadows for hosting another year of the event.