Each week for the past seven years, Dragon Talk hosts Greg Tito and Shelly Mazzanoble have sat down with D&D fans and creators to share their love of the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game. Turns out, D&D aficionados come from all walks of life and backgrounds: game designers, actors, streamers, screenplay writers, psychologists, teachers, map- and merry-makers, cosplayers and cosmographers. Each guest has found inspiration, creative freedom and, in some cases, identity and community all from their experiences playing Dungeons & Dragons. Welcome to Dragon Talk: Inspiring Conversations about Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Love to Play It (University of Iowa Press, December ’22) is a collection of essays penned by Greg and Shelly delving into interviews that personally impacted and inspired them.
“Writing this book reinforced what I love about working on the D&D team,” said co-author Shelly Mazzanoble, Senior Brand Manager for D&D who previously published Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Dungeons & Dragons: One Woman’s Quest to Trade Self-Help for Elf-Help and Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl’s Guide to the D&D Game. “Not only do we get to sit down weekly with some of the most talented, passionate, and prolific creators, we get to work every day on this incredible, iconic game that has been such a positive force in the lives of its players and fans. I’m grateful to be a part of this amazing community.
In the book, Shelly and Greg share their personal connection to the game, along with a brief history of the D&D community and the authors’ role within it as hosts of Dragon Talk. Then the spotlight shifts to select guests the podcast has interviewed in the last decade or so through essays that display the breadth and diversity of the people who call themselves fans.
“People who play Dungeons & Dragons have a special quality to them,” said Greg Tito, who is also the Senior Communications Manager for D&D and the author of this press release. “Stepping into the role of a crafty wizard, a brave paladin leader, or an anthropomorphic artificer around a table with your friends allows you all to shape a shared narrative. And though D&D players are having fun in an imaginary world, real social memories are made, and empathy is engaged.”
Welcome to Dragon Talk is the perfect gift for a D&D fan in your life to give them an insight on the inner workings of the D&D brand they won’t read anywhere else. It’s also a fantastic guide for those looking to get into the vibrant, creative community, or those just curious about how and why the fandom has grown to include so many entertainers and storytellers from Hollywood and Broadway to Twitch and YouTube.
Preorder Welcome to Dragon Talk now from the University of Iowa Press, online retailers, and your local bookstore. The official publication date is December 5, 2022, but fans might receive it early if they order now. The unabridged audio edition of Welcome to Dragon Talk, read by Greg and Shelly, will be available everywhere you can download ebooks, including Amazon, Audible, Spotify, audiobooks.com, iTunes, Google Play, Kobo, and OverDrive.
Images via University of Iowa Press and Wizards of the Coast
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