John Chu is a "sherpa"--a paid guide to online role-playing games like the popular Call to Wizardry. For a fee, he and his crew will provide you with a top-flight character equipped with the best weapons and armor, and take you dragon-slaying in the Realms of Asgarth, hunting rogue starships in the Alpha Sector, or battling hordes of undead in the zombie apocalypse.

Friends Finn, Liva, Maddy, Carter, and Ever begin a farewell round of the game they have played for three years, but each is hiding secrets and the game itself seems to turn against them.

"Anda loves Coarsegold Online, the massively-multiplayer role playing game that she spends most of her free time on. It's a place where she can be a leader, a fighter, a hero. It's a place where she can meet people from all over the world, and make friends. But things become a lot more complicated when Anda befriends a gold farmer -- a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from...

"Middle school is a dungeon... At least, that's how Jess sees it. Luckily, she and her best friend Olivia know how to escape into the sprawling worlds of their own imaginations. The two friends have always loved making up stories, first with little kid games of make-believe, and more recently with the fantasy roleplaying game, Dungeons & Dragons. When they play, Olivia runs the game as Dungeon Master and Jess is the solo party member, playing a take-no-prisoners,...

"Role-playing game historian Ben Riggs unveils the secret history of TSR- the company that unleashed imaginations with Dungeons & Dragons, was driven into ruin by disastrous management decisions, and then saved by their bitterest rival. Co-created by wargame enthusiasts Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the original Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game released by TSR (Tactical Studies Rules) in 1974 created a radical new medium: the role-playing game....

To pitch her new role-playing game at a European conference, developer Sierra Reid needs to overcome her terror of public speaking. What better practice than competing in a local bar's diary slam, regaling an audience with old journal entries about her completely humiliating college crush on gorgeous Tristan Spencer? Until the moderator says, "Next up, Tristan Spencer..." Sierra is mortified, but Tristan is flattered. Caught up in memories of her...

Losing himself in the fantasy world of his favorite video-game character in order to manage the stress of his mother's illness, which he is certain has been misdiagnosed, 12-year-old Nick finds himself fighting alongside another player who eerily reminds him of someone he knows in real life.

"New-girl Valeria Winters finds new friends in the Table Titans tabletop gaming club, but when the club is threatened, Val must join the wrestling team and make peace with her bully to save her new group of friends"--

"Kick open the door. Kill the monster. Steal the treasure. Screw over everybody you come in contact with. Munchkin Volume one, based on the popular game series, collects stories from the world of the fantasy roleplaying satire. What do Munchkins do? They play for the win. They are rules lawyers. They backstab. They gloat. They whine when someone else backstabs or gloats."--page [4] of cover.