Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Rpgs: A Player's Handbook for the Game of Life

Jeff Ashworth, author of the bestselling Game Master series of resource books for the world's most popular roleplaying game, combines his depth of knowledge about the mechanics of dice-based RPGs and the universal experiences gathered while playing a campaign to create a ruleset for leveling up your own life.

Featuring invaluable lessons drawn directly from TTRPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Starfinder, Blades in the Dark, Fiasco and other TTRPGs (“Always check for traps;” “Never underestimate the power of a short rest;” “Don’t feed the trolls”) as well as in-depth analyses of the ways in which these games’ character archetypes can be successful models for varying approaches to life (“Rage is My Armor: How to Live Like a Barbarian and Keep Your Job”), this player’s handbook for the game of life also features high concept illustrations of (and strategies for defeating) horrifying real-world monsters like that pile of junk in the garage, the soul-sucking ghost of nostalgia and the many-headed hydra that is the work/life balance.

With more hilarious, practical lessons than you can fit in a bag of holding, and referencing more than a dozen popular tabletop roleplaying games, it’s a self-improvement book for anyone seeking guidance (both the spell and the advice) in their daily lives.

Jeff Ashworth is a writer, editor, storyteller and gamer whose credits include The Game Master’s Book of Random Encounters, The Game Master’s Book of Non-Player Characters and various titles for Disney, Hasbro, Nickelodeon, and World Wrestling Entertainment. When he isn't working on special projects for Newsweek or Media Lab Books, he enjoys playing and designing RPGs with his friends.

Chris Seaman has been an award-winning freelance illustrator in hobby games for more than 20 years. His work can be seen in such properties as Dungeons & Dragons, World of Warcraft, Harry Potter, Pathfinder, Magic: The Gathering and many others. His work has appeared in Spectrum 19, 20, 21 and 22, and won the Silver Award in volumes 23 and 24, the best in contemporary science fiction and fantasy art from around the world.