monsters aliens and holes in the ground Experience PointsExperience Points has been nominated for an Ennie for Best RPG Related Product! "The working title for my book was Experience Points but in the end, I wound up calling it Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, a title I think speaks more broadly to the act of playing RPGs, rather than their mechanics. Its not a gigantic guidebook to tabletop RPGs. Rather, it is a small collection of chapters that, for a variety of reasons, didnt appear in the

Experience Points has been nominated for an Ennie for Best RPG Related Product!

"The working title for my book was Experience Points...but in the end, I wound up calling it Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, a title I think speaks more broadly to the act of playing RPGs, rather than their mechanics.

It’s not a gigantic guidebook to tabletop RPGs. Rather, it is a small collection of chapters that, for a variety of reasons, didn’t appear in the final book (and I would invite readers to give these chapters the same sort of charity they might give to the deleted scenes included on a DVD). Nevertheless, I felt, in some way, that they still merit the motivated reader’s attention. They add additional texture and context. They’re a little more relaxed, a little more reflective of my personal interests, a little less concerned with the big picture and what posterity might think."

-Stu Horvath, author 

About the book:

These are the chapters cut from the full MIT Press encyclopaedic history of role playing games, Monsters, Aliens, & Holes in the Ground, written by Stu Horvath, co-host of the Vintage RPG Podcast. 

In this companion zine, readers will find entries "a little more re-laxed, a little more reflective of [Horvath's] personal interests, a little less concerned with the big picture and what posterity might think." You'll find entries on Aftermath! Paranoia, Stonehell and others.

The Team:

Written and photographed by Stu Horvath
“Paranoia” chapter written by Ed Coleman
Cover illustration by Kyle Patterson
Layout and design by Derek Kinsman
Line editor: Orrin Grey
Copy editor: Jamie Springer
Fact checker: Joe DeSimone

40 pages, digest sized saddle-stitched zine. Color throughout, includes PDF.