If you’re not interested in the product, that’s one thing but this isn’t something that they’re printing 5 million copies of. This is a prestige format book on a niche in industry. I personally paid upwards of $150 for a single history text, so I don’t know what you’re talking about. Not all books are the same.

Definitely NOT outrageous. $20 in 1982 is equivalent to $66 now. SOURCE. (The purchasing power of the US dollar is a third of what it was in 1982.) I have a copy of the book on my desk and it is incredibly well researched and printd and bound on good quality paper with excellent art in four colors. Look at Shannon’s other work on RPG history and you will see some fantastic work.

VTM illustrates all of the pros and cons of the Storyteller milieu. It is still the game that people talk about, even more than WoD.

Shannon’s work on game history is stellar. I ordered it immediately upon publication and it sits proudly on my coffee table.

I’d definitely study the evolution of the hobby using books like The Elusive Shift (Petersen), Role-Playing Game Studies: Transmedia Foundations (Deterding, Zagal) and Designers & Dragons: A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry (Appelcline). Once the students had a grounding in the history I would suggest a unit on Dice and Probability, the Mechanics and influence on settings.

• D&D for level and progression, and contrasting that against Palladium’s approach.
• Traveller for the lifepath concept as well as the developing of universal setting.
• Hero System and the rise of point based mechanics, contrasting with GURPS.
• Interlock (Mekton, Cyberpunk) and the emergence of Unified Game Mechanics, maybe contrast with Atlas Games All Flesh Must Be Eaten, et al.
• Vampire, and the development of Dice Pools and the rise of “splats” as a business model.
• Over The Edge and Amber Diceless as differing approaches to non-traditional RPGs.
• Sorcerer, indie games, The Forge, and the story game movement. See also gamist/narrativist/simulationist as styles of play.
• D&D 3.0 and the OGL explosion.
• Apocalypse World and the New Wave of RPGs as a reaction to OGL. (one man’s opinion).

Sorry, yes, terms are considered ten years IMTU.

Yes, 2013, 2020, and RED are. I am not certain about 3e as I wasn’t a contributor.

Just curious, as a former 2020 freelancer I occasionally check in.

Why just RED? Why not a wider group?

I have never met a dice-pool mechanic I didn’t dislike or despise. What makes your compelling?