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Jon Peterson

@increment.bsky.social
1.2K followers 85 following 20 posts

Author of game histories, mostly wargames and role-playing games. Playing at the World, Elusive Shift, Game Wizards, Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana, Making of OD&D, Heroes’ Feast, etc.

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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
This is apparently how I looked doing my Pyrkon talk on gaming in Central Europe this morning - courtesy of Kamila (hopefully getting your name right!) who gave this to me after the talk.
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Reposted by Jon Peterson
Matt Forbeck @forbeck.com · 27/05/2026
Coming this October! The DUNGEONS & DRAGONS by Michael Witwer, Jon Peterson, Kalysta Harmon, Jessica Lee Patterson, and <ahem> me! I had a fantastic time working on this book with this amazing team of writers, and I cannot wait to get it into your hands. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/827366...
penguinrandomhouse.com
Dungeons & Dragons Encyclopedia by Michael Witwer, Jon Peterson, Kalysta Harmon, Matt Forbeck, Jessica Lee Patterson: 9798217305834 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
Pack your Bag of Holding and get ready for an expansive, official tour through the myriad settings of the D&D multiverse. From the familiar fantasy lands of the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance to...
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
At Pyrkon in Poznań, doing the inaugural DEEP. Talking about the evolution of role playing with a great set of panelists. #pyrkon
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Longreads @longreads.com · 29/04/2026
"The wargames market was basically inaccessible to people that were part of the anti-war movement, unless it was couched in a way that wasn’t revisiting the atrocities that people were seeing on TV..." @increment.bsky.social for @asteriskmgzn.bsky.social
asteriskmag.com
Shall We Play a Game?
Historian Jon Peterson traces the route from Prussian military headquarters to Gary Gygax’s basement.
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
I think I might save that image for future promotional use, if that's all right.
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
At Gamehole this week? Feel free to drop by on Friday at 11AM for my talk "Playing at the World - the Teenage Years." PatW is now 13 years old as it enters its second edition. Let's talk about what it did not solve, and what historical work remains. www.gameholecon.com/events/event... #rpg #dnd
gameholecon.com
Gamehole Con - Event Details - Playing at the World - the Teenage Years
Featuring role-playing games, board games, fantasy and historical miniature gaming, and collectible card games, Gamehole Con is for the fantasy and adventure tabletop gaming enthusiast.
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
Maybe someday - up to @mitpress.bsky.social really, but the more demand for it, the better change something might happen...
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
Seen at Faraos Cigarer, Copenhagen.
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Gen Con 2025 MIT Press booth #269
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
I will be at Gen Con this week - if you’d like to find me here are some places I will be. www.facebook.com/PlayingAtThe...
facebook.com
Playing at the World
If you are looking for me at Gen Con 2025, here's a bit of schedule. Thursday: This year at Gen Con we are honoring 50 years of Glorantha, the setting of White Bear and Red Moon (1975) and...
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Hey @chrisperkinsdnd.bsky.social can you ping me at jon at unreason re: Gen Con? Wanted to get you an invite to something...
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Reposted by Jon Peterson
MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
🎉 Jon Peterson's "Playing at the World, 2E Volume 1" is a 2025 ENNIE Award nominee in the Best RPG Related Product! Voting is open through July 20th. Vote now: vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2025/ Winners will be announced at #GenCon, where you will find us at booth 269. See you there!
Hands holding a copy of Jon Peterson's "Playing at the World, 2E Volume 1: The Invention of Dungeons and Dragons." Illustrations of medieval characters and mythical monsters are depicted along the top half of the cover. Along the bottom half is an illustration of two figures are playing a board game under a hanging light.
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
(My short essay in the MITP "Fifty Years of D&D" anthology is basically dedicated to identifying what was novel about dungeoneering and experience in Blackmoor vs. early wargames.)
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Veterancy systems (units get better by surviving battles) were pretty common in wargames of the 1960/70s. Accumulating points to advance in rank was in other games like Armageddon (German) before D&D. The term "level" though seems connected to dungeoneering and to Blackmoor / Twin Cities practice.
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Chatting with Ben Riggs about how we might decide what counts as the “first” RPG. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAXV...
youtube.com
What was the first RPG? It ain't what you think... Ep 52
YouTube video by Reading D&D Aloud
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Some notes on what is to be found in the new, two volume edition of Playing at the World. playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2025/05/play...
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MIT Press @mitpress.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
The second volume of Jon Peterson's new edition of "Playing at the World" focuses on the three pillars of role-playing games to provide a deep dive into the history of the setting, system, and characters of Dungeons & Dragons. @increment.bsky.social: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255231...
"Playing at the World, 2E" on a white background. Copy below the title reads "Volume 2: Three Pillars of Role-Playing Games." The cover features vivid illustrations of medieval and fantasy characters.
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Taking the question literally, probably Commando (1979): "A role-playing game is a game in which several players assume the role of a character or person in an imaginary (or simulated) world" etc. But lots of descriptions that fall short of formal definitions went in print beforehand.
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
The best early description I know of is Charles Grant in 1954 Bulletin No. 2, talking about playing by the Bantock-Cass rules in 1952. It singles out how play is "governed entirely by the throw of the dice" and how "each individual in combat is considered," morale rules, and so on.
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
I haven't looked at any Slingshots that late, so that's news to me, nice find.
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
I don't think the Bantock-Cass rules were published as such, just widely used in the British Model Soldier Society. I just go by the many accounts published of playing by the rules in the BMSS Bulletin from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s.
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Employment-related stuff is mostly relegated to Game Wizards, not PatW. He basically had odd jobs, including doing some painting, working as a ticket taker, and so on. He hoped to open a travel agency, and he ended up reusing its name for his own game company later: Adventures Unlimited.
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
A few of the projects I was involved with in this 50th anniversary of D&D. As the year draws to a close, happy birthday to one hell of a game. playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-fi...
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Jon Peterson @increment.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
We can ask @mitpress.bsky.social …
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