Reddit mentions: The best rpg programming books

Yes! I'm a student studying RPG design, so I like to think I have at least a vague idea of what I'm talking about.

Some various sources, some paid and some free:

• Roleplaying Theory, Hardcore, a series of old blog posts by Vincent Baker. A lot of this stuff is boiled-down versions of what the Forge--which others have mentioned--was all about.
  
  
• Second Person by Herrigan and Wardrip-Fruin; it's a bunch of essays about roleplaying and roleplaying games. It covers both digital and tabletop, so it's a little all over the place, but it is quite good.
  
  
• Playing at the World by Jon Peterson. It's a huge history of roleplaying games and related games, which covers less hard theory than it does the evolution of the game itself. Super helpful if you're into the history, less so if you're not.
  
  
• #rpgtheory on Twitter. There's definitely some flak in there, but it's also definitely worth checking on every week or two, to see if there's been any good threads popping up.
  
  
• The Arts of LARP, by David Simkins. This is LARP-focused, but it has a lot of good stuff on roleplaying in general, especially the more philosophical angles.
  
  
• ars ludi, Ben Robbins' blog. He writes about all sorts of stuff, but if you go through the archives and find the green-triangle'd and starred posts, those are the sort of 'greatest hits.'
  
  
• Role-Playing Game Studies, by Zagal and Deterding. This is another collection of essays (which includes some stuff by Simkins and Peterson, too, IIRC) and is kind of the go-to for this sort of thing.
  
  
• And the Forge, as mentioned by others.
  
  That's a pretty good list of theory and texts and stuff.
  
  One of the ways to learn good RPG theory, I've found, though, is to just read good RPGs.
  
  It's also highly worth digging through acknowledgements and credits of your favorite RPGs and then tracking down the names mentioned. If you're reading a big, hefty RPG, like D&D, pay special attention to any consultants, specialists, or other people listed under strange credit areas.
  
  Anyway, when you eventually dig your way through all of this, I'll probably have read some more, so hit me up if you want more suggestions. Those top seven or eight things are probably the best place to start.
  
  Edit: my personal list of games was rather reductive, as several commentators have called me out on, so I've removed it. Go read lots of RPGs.

I both agree and disagree.

I agree that it is unlikely to happen, certainly nowhere near the scale of the BBS scene. But I disagree that all of the conveniences you outline (which BTW are fictionalized quite well in Daniel Suarez' Daemon and Freedom novels) are absolutely necessary to make it big enough to make a difference.

Indra Sinha's book Cybergypsies is an interesting read from the era of the late 80's. Most of it revolves around MUDs, viruses, and the interesting people online at the time, but Indra's BBS connections were very important in supporting his political activism, leading to some influence on real events related to the Kurds in Iraq War I.

> An alternative network like that won't going to matter much if only the technically inclined can use it.

Depends on what you value. If you just want a few dozen people to talk to on a regular basis, the "technically inclined" is still a pretty big pool to find friends in. If you are involved in real journalism or political activism, you only need about a hundred thousand people in the network to make a very strong impact. Look at TOR and I2P today: almost no one relative to the total population use them, yet they are in the news pretty frequently.

I never had this problem until I read "The Passage". If it were just a long, boring book, I could simply put it down. The problem was that I loved it. However, Cronin seemed to go into far too much detail over small things, or too much backstory for insignificant characters, etc. I definitely got the "rambling" feeling quite often in this book, but I was afraid to skim/skip anything, thinking I might miss something important.

When it was all said and done, even though I absolutely loved the book overall, I almost felt cheated at the time spent on what I considered "rambling". It's like I could have read another book entirely with that time, and still not missed any of what made The Passage as good as it was.

So, yeah- Definitely do your research into the author's style first, but there are certainly numerous >400 books you should be enjoying. Suarez's Daemon was 650 pages and I never wanted to put it down for a second.

I find JRPGs fascinating, particularly the early games; they took D&D in an almost retro direction, skipping over a lot of character customization and emphasizing exploration of a huge, monster-filled landscape. It's like they refocused on the games that inspired D&D, making modern fantasy-themed miniatures wargames.

I heartily recommend Jon Peterson's Playing at the World for a deep history of role-playing games. You might also be interested in The Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games, The Fantasy RPG: A New Performing Art, and Gaming as Culture. And my book, of course.

There are definitely games that rely too much on the Tolkien tropes, but overall, I think it's not a problem --there's so many good RPGs that have nothing to do with fantasy at all, and plenty of great sword & sorcery games that bring their own ideas to the table.

Book

All of me, loves all of you

/u/martysthreegirls You're pretty awesome. Thanks for checking on me today. :)

Shared Fantasy: Role Playing Games as Social Worlds by Gary Alan Fine

> This classic study still provides one of the most acute descriptions available of an often misunderstood subculture: that of fantasy role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. Gary Alan Fine immerses himself in several different gaming systems, offering insightful details on the nature of the games and the patterns of interaction among players—as well as their reasons for playing.

The Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity by Sarah Lynne Bowman

> This study takes an analytical approach to the world of role-playing games, providing a theoretical framework for understanding their psychological and sociological functions. Sometimes dismissed as escapist and potentially dangerous, role-playing actually encourages creativity, self-awareness, group cohesion and "out-of-the-box" thinking. The book also offers a detailed participant-observer ethnography on role-playing games, featuring insightful interviews with 19 participants of table-top, live action and virtual games.

Gaming As Culture: Essays on Reality, Identity And Experience in Fantasy Games by J. Patrick Williams

> Since tabletop fantasy role-playing games emerged in the 1970s, fantasy gaming has made a unique contribution to popular culture and perceptions of social realities in America and around the world. This contribution is increasingly apparent as the gaming industry has diversified with the addition of collectible strategy games and other innovative products, as well as the recent advancements in videogame technology. This book presents the most current research in fantasy games and examines the cultural and constructionist dimensions of fantasy gaming as a leisure activity. Each chapter investigates some social or behavioral aspect of fantasy gaming and provides insight into the cultural, linguistic, sociological, and psychological impact of games on both the individual and society. Section I discusses the intersection of fantasy and real-world scenarios and how the construction of a fantasy world is dialectically related to the construction of a gamer's social reality. Because the basic premise of fantasy gaming is the assumption of virtual identities, Section II looks at the relationship between gaming and various aspects of identity. The third and final section examines what the personal experiences of gamers can tell us about how humans experience reality.

Haha well it's more than that. I have listened to more of the best sellers or other series I am interested in. I recommend this one for a tech thriller http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731

Not trying to be a pedant but for anyone trying to find the book the title is spelled Daemon. Definitely second the recommendation though, I loved the book. I'd also recommend the sequel, Freedom^^TM.

There are some decent books out there. I recommend a few (url's below), because, if you don't understand the old-fashioned fixed-format opcodes, you will never understand the free-format style based on them. Try not to get too discouraged. Several of us old dinosaurs (aka "greybeards") can sometimes help.

​

https://www.amazon.com/RPG-IV-Programming-AS-400/dp/0134604113/ref=pd_sbs_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0134604113&pd_rd_r=6ad96bbb-28c6-11e9-9ba3-db60abb02adc&pd_rd_w=NYVrj&pd_rd_wg=Oi3yU&pf_rd_p=588939de-d3f8-42f1-a3d8-d556eae5797d&pf_rd_r=VDGQ57TJA8Z89NR7ZSYW&psc=1&refRID=VDGQ57TJA8Z89NR7ZSYW IMHO, Stanley E. Myers provides the clearest, most-logical explanations out there. Also see his older books like https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q%3Dtbn:ANd9GcToCh_g2Ql4yOGYUjvT6jGTjAHRctxXW8OkUQ7dOMF1SmBQBLd9&imgrefurl=https://books.google.com/books/about/RPG_II_RPG_III_and_RPG_400_with_Business.html?id%3DXEUPAAAACAAJ%26source%3Dkp_cover&h=648&w=481&tbnid=2_szNKB1fDU1jM:&q=RPG+II,+RPG+III,+and+RPG+400,+with+Business+Applications&tbnh=160&tbnw=118&usg=AI4_-kTETP2B6OUU3m50ysKLet9i-9XQNA&vet=12ahUKEwiB8-D7h6PgAhUEVN8KHbpXCQcQ_B0wC3oECAcQFA..i&docid=8LU26klkmRAXKM&itg=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiB8-D7h6PgAhUEVN8KHbpXCQcQ_B0wC3oECAcQFA This one is hopelessly antiquated, but crystal clear, and a lot of the basics have not changed too much.

​

Someone else already mentioned this one: https://www.amazon.com/Programming-ILE-RPG-Jim-Buck/dp/1583473793/ref=dp_ob_image_bk I don't like Meyers as much as I like Myers (yes, it's REALLY easy to confuse the two), but most people prefer Meyers.

​

Re: Indicators. They are built-in logical variables that reflect the status of old-fashioned fixed-format operations. Example:

To fetch a particular record from a file (a specific employee's entry in the Payroll Master File, for example), RPG uses the CHAIN opcode as follows:

Key chain RecordFormat 4142

Key is the key to the Payroll Master File (for example Employee ID Number.). Chain is the opcode that fetches a specific record from a file. RecordFormat is part of the Payroll Master File (Record Format describes the data in each record in the file.) The Indicators tell RPG what happened. They can be ANY number from 01 through 99 inclusive; I chose 41 and 42 at random. The Indicator in columns 71 and 72 (Indicator 41) comes on if the record you are looking for does not exist in the file. The indicator in columns 73 and 74 (Indicator 42) comes on if an error is encountered (someone else has already locked that record, for example, or the Zombie Apocalypse has begun). The important part is what column the Indicator is located in, not what number it is! In Free-Form RPG, Indicators have been replaced by Built-In Functions (aka BIF's).

​

Hope this helps!

I second the midrange.rpg400l mailing list. There are a lot of good people there.

​

Jim Buck has a very good course on getting started in RPG, https://impowertechnologies.com/rpg-class/ but even if you just pick up his book it will help detail how to start a new project and goes into a little of the history of RPG. https://www.amazon.com/Programming-ILE-RPG-Jim-Buck/dp/1583473793/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_2?keywords=jim+buck+ibm&qid=1558024242&s=gateway&sr=8-2-fkmrnull

​

TN5250 is a program that allows a "green screen" connection to a server - it does not host the language on it's own. If you are working on an IBM, I strongly recommend Access Client Solutions for a 5250 connection instead. Or use the Rational Developer trial you already have.

​

Is your class an online class that you have no assistance from an instructor on the setup?

I just read Daemon, and the sequel Freedom(TM) by daniel Suarez and they are both excellent. The deal with corporate control in the government and the future of the internet. It also makes heroes out of WoW players.

Good point, for accuracy I should probably have written "Cyberpunk" however a) I was being a bit facetious/lose b) I see both cypher and cyber punk as one movement these days, probably because i'm getting old c) my preference goes to Daemon by Daniel Suarez.

Littérature Bonus points: Karl Schroeder from "I am the mighty brick" fame is an Ethereum fan.

I enjoyed Daemon by Daniel Saurez. Freedom was worth the follow up as well. Might not be exactly the VR world you have in mind, but I thought it fun.

http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731

That two part series has a lot of things like this. Virtual objects interacting with the real world etc... Definitely a neat idea and a good read.

Please check out the book Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identities. It's the textbook my friend wrote for her class on Role play Theory. It's a good read too

https://www.amazon.com/Functions-Role-Playing-Games-Participants-Community/dp/0786447109

Daemon and Freedom. Great books about a game developer that dies and leaves behind a Daemon that does some cool stuff (no spoilers).

Highly Recommended if you are a tech/geek/science/internet fan. It is based in the real world, current time and technology so it is really believable.

This sounds a lot like Daemon, by Daniel Suarez, a read that I fully recommend. The book was published before even Bitcoin was a thing (late 2006), so the AI had to be a bit more creative about the incentives.

You might pitch the idea to the people over at Evil Hat Productions, who wrote a fascinating series that chronicles the history of RPG companies that started in each decade. The first book starts in the 70's but has a bit of a backstory on how people like Gygax and Arneson began.

You can also check out The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games by Tresca, which also covers some about the history leading into D&D and beyond.

As for a pure book which talks solely about gaming in the 1960's? You'd probably have to look into the wargames and boardgames that were popular then.

Well, he could also turn his mansion into a deathtrap to try to get lots of publicity for his video game company. Have his daemon short buy his own video game company right before issuing a press release indicating that that company has a backdoor in it, tanking the stock and giving the daemon a tremendous amount of money to enact the rest of his plan.
If that story sounds exciting, I suggest reading the novel it's from, Daniel Suarez's Daemon.

Books! Yeah, baby! Here are three:

Daemon and
Freedom

by Daniel Suarez. The first was self-published, became a hit, and the second is the recently-released sequel. Excellent near-future SciFi about a tech billionaire who sets up an internet daemon to take over the world, basically, after he dies of cancer. Violent, thought-provoking, and absolutely worth reading. My wife liked them also.

The Unincorporated Man by the Kollin brothers -- also new authors; also very talented. The chapter on the "virtual reality plague" alone is worth the time and price of the book, but the whole thing is very compelling.

[Edit because I can't type more than a sentence w/o a typo]

Daemon by Daniel Saurez

Might interest you in that case , It's a scifi thriller about a computer software which goes out of control , If I'm not wrong it's 400 pages long with a nice twist punch at the end.

Two books come to mind, though I've not read either so I don't know how useful they'd be for your project:

• The Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity
  
• The Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games
  
  And here are a couple of newcomers:
  
  
• Role-Playing Game Studies
  
• The Postmodern Joy of Role-Playing Games: Agency, Ritual and Meaning in the Medium (Studies in Gaming)
  
  ​

Reminds me of my favorite book in the last 5 yrs http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731/

The follow up is even better http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-TM-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451231899/

Freedom^TM is actually a pretty decent book. Make sure to read Daemon first.

Congratulations, the DAEMON's algorithms have selected you to be an operative of the darknet. Accept, and in your briefcase you will find data overlay glasses biometrically precalibrated to your persona, identification required to infiltrate your corporate target and 50 darknet credits. Should you accept, thr AutoM8 autonomous vehicles in your area will be at your disposal, as will tokens to access and bypass your target's network. Reject this offer, and you will be killed painlessly via gas.

Welcome to the darknet, operative

Daemon and it's sequel Freedom by Daniel Suarez would probably be a good recommendation if you like those two books you mentioned in the title.

You've probably heard this before, but you may enjoy the Loki character explored in Daniel Suarez's Daemon books (he evolves a lot in the sequel).

Daemon by daniel suarez. An excellent techno thriller.

https://www.amazon.com/DAEMON-Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731

Reminds me of the book Daemon by Daniel Suarez. Great read.

Daemon is awesome. One of the few books I've read multiple times.

I just finished Daemon and Freedom (TM), a two-part series by Daniel Suarez. I liked them a lot, and I suspect I would have liked them even more if I were into online gaming.

I was never really interested in AR and then I read these two books. Freed is the sequel and is when you really get into a lot of really cool AR stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731

http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-TM-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451231899

I fully share your interest in trying to find stories, narrative or scenarios featuring cryptocurrency. My personal conclusion is that the future got bigger and different after bitcoin, in ways that were considered practically impossible before, and we will need a new generation of science fiction.

While Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which I have only skimmed, deals with crypto-currency it is NOT the descentralized kind, which is in my opinion the truly revolutionary aspect of bitcoin.

The more suggestive work I can think of is Daniel Suarez's Daemon and the sequel, Freedom, which don't deal directly with cryptocurrency, but the whole conceit of the books --a self-sustaining civilization-altering program unleashed after the death of its author-- is curiously homomorphic to bitcoin.

It's not fiction, but I like David Friedman e-money scenarios in his 2008 Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World. He writes just before bitcoin was unleashed unto the world!

Cory Doctorow's Down and out in the magic kingdom deals with Whuffie, a reputation-based "ambient" currency for a post-scarcity economy. The interesting part is that with colored coins, it could be very much implemented with bitcoins.

have you read daemon by daniel suarez?

http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731/

it's pretty awesome.....

Start here:

http://www.amazon.com/Creation-Narrative-Tabletop-Role-Playing-Games/dp/0786444517

The works cited is a good springboard for further reading.

You might like Daemon by Daniel Suarez.

Have your read Daniel Saurez's Daemon?

If so, do you think we could mistake a 'higher' intelligence for a rogue computer 'virus/system'?

Sounds like some malware writer has had a good read of Daniel Suarez's Daemon (http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731).

So the thing is horrendously complicated, hides in other components firmware (network card was mentioned) and can communicate over ultrasound.

But what can/will it do? How prevalent is it and what's it for? Apart from sending shivers down my spine of course.

This is how the motorcycles with katanas from Daemon are created.

The more I read/watch about Watch Dogs the more I want a Daemon movie.

Elon did say he was a fan of the scifi thriller Daemon, which is essentially about a billionaire tech genius taking over the world...?

Daemon and Freedom™. They're techno thrillers.

You should read 'Daemon' by daniel suarez.

I learned RPG 4 on an AS/400 type system. You could just get an RPG book and go at it http://www.amazon.com/Programming-RPG-IV-Jim-Buck/dp/1583473556/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371482377&sr=1-1&keywords=rpg+programming

DAEMON
by Daniel Suarez
Link: http://amzn.com/0451228731

[Daniel Suarez] (http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731) is considered the heir apparent right now.

Daemon is also very similar.

Daemon and its sequel Freedom, by Daniel Suarez

Suarez is one of us.

you need to get John Dies at the End or maybe [Daemon] (http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377281217&sr=1-1&keywords=daemon+by+daniel+suarez).

ZOMG YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731/

The plot is essentially what you're describing (but without the blockchain); a computer virus that is able to utilize a distributed command & control network and respond to real-world events.

reminds me of something out of the book, Daemon by Daniel Suarez

http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731

Daemon and
Freedom

I believe this is the plot of Danial Suarez's book Daemon:
http://www.amazon.com/Daemon-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260943402&sr=1-1

You should read Daemon. Those are some glasses I could get behind.

Yup, you should read daemon. That's all I can think about with all the hype of PoGo.

https://www.amazon.com/DAEMON-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731

If you are into novels, try Daemon by Daniel Suarez.

https://www.amazon.com/DAEMON-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731

So, an interesting take on this is the book Daemon, by Daniel Suarez. (link to the series if you want them all)

It's about an AI program that goes live after the death of a developer. It is able to blackmail, seduce (non-sexual), and manipulate people to do its bidding.

I think this is right in the neighborhood of what you want.

• Cryptonomicon
  
• Legion of the Damned
  
• Snow Crash
  
• Daemon
  
• Ubik
  
• River of Death
  
• 20,000 Leagues
  
• Halo: The Cole Protocol
  
• Halo: Ghost of Onyx
  
• READY PLAYER ONE

I think you missed my point.

I'm not worried about AI becoming independent. I'm worried about how people will use it as a weapon against other people.

I don't know if you've ever read Dune but that is why Machine Intelligence was outlawed in that Universe. The prequels (Butlerian Jihad) were written by someone else, but based on Frank Herbert's notes. The writing isn't near as good as Herbert's but the outline of the story is what he intended.

Basically human civilization allowed itself to become dependent on AI, and then a group of about 20 people used that dependence, hacked the systems and turned them against everyone, using them to conquer all the dependent worlds.

These two books are science fiction, but they give an idea of how AI controlled cars could be used as weapons.

https://www.amazon.com/DAEMON-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1491424210&sr=8-3&keywords=daniel+suarez

https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-TM-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451231899/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1491424210&sr=8-5&keywords=daniel+suarez