Science Fiction Hobby Games: A First Survey - Softcover

Tringham, Neal

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0957657803 ISBN 13: 9780957657809

Publisher: Pseudonymz, 2013

Synopsis

Science Fiction Hobby Games serves as a history and guide to tabletop gaming franchises set in original science-fictional milieux. Its subject is the pen and paper role playing games and model and counter based wargames that preceded modern videogames and still evolve alongside them, as well as the gamebooks, board games, card games and postal games that are their less famous cousins. Included are detailed critical overviews of more than a hundred fantastical universes published between 1969 and 2013, along with essays on popular types of tabletop game and the natures of their settings and stories. Throughout, sf games are treated as an integral part of the long history of science fiction, and as a new way of enabling its explorations of the future and other worlds.

Based on the author's contributions to the Hugo Award winning third edition of the Clute and Nicholls Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, this book contains an extra 20,000 words on additional games and other topics, specially written for this new version of the text.

About this title

About the Author:

Neal Tringham is a former astrophysicist and Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society who has worked in the UK videogame industry as a developer, and occasional designer, since 1994. Games he has contributed to include Rebellion’s Aliens Versus Predator, Empire Interactive’s Taito Legends, and Sick Puppies’ Ghost Master. In prose, he was an editor of the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy (1989) and the contributing editor for games for the third edition of the Clute and Nicholls Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, published online by Victor Gollancz in 2011. His writing has also appeared in the second edition of the Clute and Nicholls Encyclopedia, and in the journal Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction. Currently he is working on Science Fiction Video Games, to be published by Taylor and Francis in 2014.

Review:

"One of the most fascinating books I've read lately has been Neal Tringham's Science Fiction Hobby Games. Released this May, Mr. Tringham has written an astounding survey of the world of science fiction roleplaying, tabletop, card, postal, board and war games - not just a history of the field, but an exhaustive review and analysis of all the most important games." - Jared Shurin, pornokitsch.com

"Neal has done a very credible job, and anyone who found Shannon Appelcline's Designers and Dragons (which is named in the bibliography of this book) of interest should put a copy of this book right next to it." - Jeff Zeitlin, Freelance Traveller magazine.

"It's all highly detailed and, as far as I could tell, incredibly accurate... This functions as a fabulous try before you buy buffet of new/old games." - Baz King, ukroleplayers.com

"The analysis and history of each game that is listed is wonderful, and deep enough for the serious researcher while light enough for the casual reader. The section on Aftermath! alone is worth the price of admission."
- Chris Garcia, Amazing Stories

About this edition

• Publisher: Pseudonymz
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0957657803
• ISBN 13: 9780957657809
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352