Designers & Dragons '70-'79 by Shannon Appelcline

Empire of Imagination was my first attempt at reading about the history of RPGs, and it was a big disappointment. This first volume of Designers & Dragons on the other hand is a great read. It's a bit dry, admittedly, but it paints a really interesting framework of the industry in the 70s and its gradual shift from amateurs to pros. It's not light reading at 420 pages but it's really interesting stuff. It reminded me in some ways of the old Rock Family Trees books, mapping the influence of designers accross multiple companies. Good stuff.