Slaying The Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons and Dragons by Ben Riggs is, in my opinion, the ultimate history of the TTRPG giant as it grew, and ultimately was taken over. It starts with the earliest days of how Gary Gygax was really the driving force (although not the entire creative team) behind getting this thing moving.
Without those guys the table top role playing game world likely would not exist. They grew the company, they made it the place to be for creators to really just do what it is they wanted to do, which resulted in games we all seemed to want to play.
We know that ultimately Gygax and the early crew were basically forced out of their own company once it grew. This is really something that happens far more often than most people think. Some people are just not wired to run a large company, and that’s fine, it is a much different skillset.
The book also digs deep into what caused the company to essentially be dead. It was headed for insolvency and the game for some set of legal challenges that would likely have doomed it forever. So yeah, we may all curse and get upset with Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro, but they kept it alive, and seems like it is making a huge comeback!
It was a great book, highly recommended. Check out the video for more info.
