“With tongue-in-cheek humor, the creator of the award-winning Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress takes on the self-help section, proving that the benefits of the Dungeons & Dragons® game goes far beyond simple entertainment.”
During PAX Prime 2011 NERD TREK met with Wizards of the Coast to discuss their new line of Neverwinter products. Â After the interview we spoke briefly with Shelly Mazzanoble, author of “Confessions of a Part Time Sorceress”. Â Although her first book was intended for a female audience, I had read it in hopes of passing it on to my wife. Â (Everyone wants their wife to play D&D right?) Â When I found out she had a new book entitled “Everything I need to know I learned from Dungeons & Dragons” I just had to read it. Â After a short interview with Shelly she handed me a copy of the book which I stashed in my bag of holding (seriously, a bag of holding!)
and went on my merry way.
Months later I am finally getting around to reading that book and writing this review. Â It may be a little on the late side, but someone with Wisdom 18 once said “better late than never”.
I started out planning to read the book from start to finish and immediately ran into many roadblocks. Â These roadblocks took the form of the author’s overbearing mother who seems to affect not only her writing, but her very life. Â Obviously Shelly takes the incessant nagging her mother throws at her and attempts to wrangle it into something digestible, but fails. Â This caused me to start this book and then toss it back into the pile on my nightstand, playing rotation for many months with other literary works.
A few days ago I decided to give Shelly’s book another shot. Â I skipped the beginning of the book and hopped around from chapter to chapter. Â Ah ha! Â I found the secret passage Shelly… although you shouldn’t have made it so difficult to locate. Â (I had to roll a nat 20 on Perception.) Â The key to this book lies in the varied nature that the author gives each section. Â Little quizzes, personal emails, and other people’s intimate experiences with D&D. Â That is what makes this book great! Â Once I started flipping through and reading bits and pieces I thoroughly enjoyed reading “Everything I need to know I learned from Dungeons & Dragons”.
Shelly Mazzanoble’s writing style sucks you in, I found myself reading more than just the intended blurb when I flipped to any given page. Â The little side stories and hilarious anecdotes give Mazzanoble a unique writing style that is very personable. Â If you enjoy tabletop RPGs of any kind there is something special hidden for you in this book.
PROS:
- Unique Concept
- Fun Layout
- Subject Matter I love
- Describes Places I am familiar with (Seattle)
CONS:
- Too much focus on overbearing mother
- Feeling of treading water in the beginning of the book (hard to keep reading)
CONCLUSION:
This book is an excellent read for anyone looking for additional insight into why people play tabletop role-playing games and what they get out of them.
I think Shelly’s next book should be called “This book is NOT about my mother.”
