Post by GRWelsh on Mar 26, 2024 9:27:41 GMT -5
There was a screening of this at this year's GARY CON but I had to skip it since I had some work to do that day. So, I bought the Blu Ray from Allan at the Black Blade Publishing booth and watched it yesterday. I came down with a horrible flu and I'm taking a sick day today. Yesterday morning I had a scratchy throat. By the afternoon I had the full on aches, shivers, stomach rumblings and congestion of a flu! I must have got it at GARY CON or on a flight, but luckily didn't have the symptoms until I got home. Last night I watched this documentary and I'm still processing it. The best thing might be the sheer number of photos from the old days, which includes many I haven't seen before. Other than that, it was a lot of interviews and didn't really tell me anything I didn't know already. It seemed to shy away controversy such as with the Gygax-Arneson conflict and Jon Peterson not mentioning the Middle-earth battle game by Leonard Patt from 1970 that was so similar to the Fantasy Supplement in CHAINMAIL of 1971. Instead of being a critical study of the development and history of fantasy role-playing and D&D, it comes across as a breezy and light "rags to riches to rags again (sort of)" story with a nice epilogue about EGG connecting with fans on the internet and feeling appreciated. Overall, I didn't learn nearly as much from this as I did from SECRETS OF BLACKMOOR, which I would say is superior.
