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Afternoon Adventures With Dungeons & Dragons

Check it out…Wizards of the Coast, the current publishers of the venerable Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game have started a “roleplay in the library” system. Looks like they are using libraries as both publicity and marketing tools, while providing the library with a free copy of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Game. I suppose they also hope that libraries will begin collecting more and more D&D products (the reason that a lot of libraries don’t already collect RPGs is that they walk…fast and often).

Blurb from the website:

The Afternoon Adventure with DUNGEONS & DRAGONS program will include everything librarians need to start regular gaming programs in their library with the original pen-and-paper roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D for short). Players assume the persona of fantasy characters and pursue magical adventures, confronting and solving problems using strategic thinking and teamwork.

For librarians interested:

To receive an Afternoon Adventure kit for your library, please call 1-800-613-3791, or send an e-mail with your name, address, the library you’re from, and how you found out about the program to: libraries@wizards.com. One kit per library please and quantities are limited.

As an old-school gamer, I’m all for this. I grew up cutting my teeth on the original D&D boxed editions (how I love thee, red box) and moved on to great games like Star Wars, Cyberpunk 2020, Shadowrun, Call of Cthulhu, and my all time fav, Paranoia. Getting more kids into RPGs is a good thing, as far as I can tell. Go librarians!

By griffey

Jason Griffey is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he works to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise is useful and needed. Prior to joining NISO in 2019, Jason ran his own technology consulting company for libraries, has been both an Affiliate at metaLAB and a Fellow and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and was an academic librarian in roles ranging from reference and instruction to Head of IT at the University of TN at Chattanooga.

Jason has written extensively on technology and libraries, including multiple books and a series of full-periodical issues on technology topics, most recently AI & Machine Learning in Libraries and Library Spaces and Smart Buildings: Technology, Metrics, and Iterative Design from 2018. His newest book, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, will be published by MIT Press in 2024.

He has spoken internationally on topics such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, the future of technology and libraries, decentralization and the Blockchain, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. A full list of his publications and presentations can be found on his CV.
He is one of eight winners of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries for the Measure the Future project (http://measurethefuture.net), an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces. He is also the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (http://librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system.

Jason can be stalked obsessively online, and spends his free time with his daughter Eliza, reading, obsessing over gadgets, and preparing for the inevitable zombie uprising.

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