What are these small, insignificant things, these dice, and why do they disturb us so, with their vertiginous surplus of meaning?
— Pat Harrigan, from his essay, “The Unrollable”
The Bones
Edited by Will Hindmarch
Now shipping.
Written by Keith Baker, Jason L Blair, Greg Costikyan, Ray Fawkes, Matt Forbeck, Pat Harrigan, Jess Hartley, Fred Hicks, Will Hindmarch, Kenneth Hite, John Kovalic, James Lowder, Russ Pitts, Jesse Scoble, Mike Selinker, Jared Sorensen, Paul Tevis, Jeff Tidball, Monica Valentinelli, Chuck Wendig, and Wil Wheaton
Including interviews with Irving Finkel, Scott Nesin, and Cardell Kerr
ISBN 13: 978-0-9818840-1-1
ISBN 10: 0-9818840-1-6
6×9 inches • 224 pages • softcover
$18.95
About the Book
This isn’t about math. It’s about unlucky breaks and victory against all odds.
This isn’t about percentiles and probabilities. It’s about late-night game-ending rolls where everything hinges on that climactic moment when one single die skitters across the table and determines the fate of a hero, a city, an empire…
The Bones gathers writing about fandom and family—about gamers, camaraderie, and memories— and ties them together where they meet: our dice. These are essays and anecdotes about the ways dice make us crazy, about the stakes we play for and the thrill we get from not knowing what the next roll will bring.
Step back and look at how we play with dice.
Ordering Information
The standard print edition of The Bones is available for purchase now. Orders placed while the book was at press in June 2010 have been shipped.
Soon, in addition to being able to order it here, you’ll also be able to buy The Bones directly from co-publisher Atomic Overmind Press, from Amazon, from Indie Press Revolution, and from retail stores around the world. At Gen Con 2010, look for it at the Indie Press Revolution and Adventure Retail booths.
PDF and ePub editions of The Bones are in the works, but we’re hesitant to suggest a release date because we’re not sure how long it’s going to take us to assemble the files and push them into channels. If you’re sick of waiting, we’d probably find a gentle e-mail request to get a move on motivational. (Check the sidebar for e-mail addresses.)
The Special Edition
A hardcover special edition of The Bones was available in a limited window in late May and early June, 2010. The special edition run was printed exactly to order; no more are available. All special edition hardcovers were signed and numbered by The Bones editor Will Hindmarch. Those who ordered also received an advance PDF copy.
The Dice-O-Matic Mark II
The interview in The Bones with Scott Nesin, inventor of the Dice-O-Matic, promises a link to the marvelous YouTube video of his marvelous creation. Follow the link, or watch it here. In either case, pick your jaw up off the floor when you’re done.
Although it wasn’t apropos of the topic of dice and so didn’t make its way into The Bones, in the process of interviewing Scott, I read an account he wrote of his then four-year-old son’s drive to… well, that would be telling, and it’d spoil the story. Read “Wood Tape;” it’ll be worth the time.
The Bones Blog Carnival Is Over
To promote the release of The Bones, we ran a blog carnival during the month of June, 2010. Visit the blog carnival page to find blog posts about dice and randomness and how they play with our good times, or to share your own blog posts, because while the carnival is technically over, we’ll never be finished talking about our dice.
[...] happened after our chance encounter 17 years ago. It involves dice, and I recently wrote it up for The Bones, a new book due out early next year from Gameplaywright Press and Atomic Overmind [...]
[...] and I are both a little swamped with upcoming projects (like The Bones), so we’ve been slow to post. Given the time of year, though, I thought I’d toss out [...]
[...] happened after our chance encounter 17 years ago. It involves dice, and I recently wrote it up for The Bones, a new book due out early next year from Gameplaywright Press and Atomic Overmind [...]
We used to “Zen” out our dice. I believe Will had us switch from leaving the dice on 1, so they “knew” what to avoid, to 10 or 20, so they “knew” where they were supposed to go.
This will be an amazing read!
For me it wasn’t necessarily how the dice sat – but which ones I rolled, or how they were rolled.
I could see picking up a copy of the limited edition if you go this route and make one available.
I think if I found out there was going to be a limited edition hardback, I would have to pick it up. I wasn’t quite connected enough to hear about “Things” until long after it had come out, but after having read it, buying The Bones in a limited edition would be obvious to me.
This is a great idea for a book! What’s even cooler, I now have this idea for promoting it: upon release, we get a Blog Carnival going with people writing a post on the same subject. I think it’s a perfect topic for a blog post and it can drive awareness of the book all around.
I’m gonna mosey over to the RPG Bloggers Network to pitch the idea. Once the release date is known, the plan can be put into action.
That’s a great promotion idea, Daniel. I know next to nothing about blog carnivals, but from what I hear, this seems like a good topic for one, and it could really serve to make people aware of the book.
Let us know if, or what, we can do to make this happen. (Other than, you know, hitting you with a release date. That’s something that Atomic Overmind will eventually set. You’ll find out when we find out.)
I will write up a post with the idea and organize the Carnival for the month of release. It’s fairly loose like that. I already put out the idea via Twitter today (http://twitter.com/GamerTraveler/status/6704767917).
[...] your first look at the cover for The Bones. Please note that the final contributor list (if you can make it out) is still subject to change. [...]
I wouldn’t mind being part of the blog carnival if it gets going.
I was not approved for membership in the RPG Bloggers Network, but if you’ve got room, keep Flames Rising in mind.
I’d totally buy a limited version, so find another 49 buyers.
And I’ll totally do the blog carnival. I’ll contact the lot if you later to arrange details.
This sounds like a fun book, and I’d be interested in it as an e-book. Not PDF, but something I could read on my ebook reader such as an EPUB.
What kind of reader do you have, Preston?
I have an “old” Sony 505. It’s an e-ink device like the Kindle, but without wireless. Considering I can load two or three books at once while it’s tethered, I haven’t really missed wireless.
I’m saving my pennies for next year when the next class of e-ink screens come to market. They’ll have even better contrast and support video (still black and white, though).
Will you do two sets of the signed books as you did for Things We Think About Games — one for the USA and the other for Europe?
Not sure what you mean, Pookie. There was just one set of “First Twenty” TWT books, although we did mail them to both continents. Can you clarify?
My memory may be failing me. I thought that last time you had done two sets of books — one for the USA market and another for Europe. Obviously not.
[...] for updates on this topic.Powered by WP Greet Box WordPress PluginInterest in a special edition of The Bones has been strong, so Will and I have just opened pre-orders for a hardcover special edition of the [...]
[...] I bring this up because the special-edition hardcover is available for pre-ordering right now. It’ll stay available to order until June 6th or until they hit about 100 copies ordered, whichever comes first (which for all I know could come fast). The special-edition is being printed to order, come June. It’s available only direct through the Gameplaywright folks, and costs $27 + shipping. As an added benefit, folks who preorder the hardcover will get the PDF within 24 hours of placing the order. Details and purchase widgetry to be found hyunh: http://gameplaywright.net/?page_id=958 [...]
[...] You can pre-order that Special Edition here. [...]
Just an update on epub solutions: We’re still trying to decide on the right approach for us. We want the book to be bug-free and handsome, and that’ll take time. If you have a favorite e-reader or electronic experience that you think the book should accommodate, let us know.
[...] to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.Powered by WP Greet Box WordPress PluginWith The Bones coming out this month, in both special and regular editions, we thought it would be a good and fun idea to promote some more conversation about dice and [...]
[...] week, I finally got my grimy little paws on The Bones: Us and Our Dice. And lo, it is awesome. If you’ll pardon my clumsy attempt at a review, I’m going [...]
[...] Like dice? You must check out “The Bones: Us and Our Dice” when it hits. Here is a link to the page on Gameplaywright about this forthcoming tome of [...]
[...] I read The Bones and saw they were doing a Blog Carnival, I figured I could contribute a story. About fifteen years [...]
I just posted a story I remember with the dice.
http://gmwithadd.com/?p=53
[...] help celebrate the release of The Bones, the new book from Gameplaywright about gamers and their dice, I’m firing up the calliope [...]
[...] amel @ 16:26 Ich halte gerade die wunderschöne, in Leinen gebundene limitierte Ausgabe von „The Bones“ in den Händen. Es ist ein Buch für „Gamer“ (im Gegensatz zu „Spieler“, [...]
[...] second release is a very “heady” essay about dice and divination for THE BONES, which was edited by Will Hindmarch and published through Gameplaywright. What is this book about? [...]
[...] has published a book called THE BONES: Us And Our Dice, a collection of articles and essays celebrating those funny-shaped randomizers that every gamer [...]
[...] Will Hindmarch over at The Gist answers a question about what makes the best supernatural fiction, and his answer gives a lot to think over. Why not ask him some questions on Tumblr, and while you’re at it, buy a copy of The Bones? [...]
[...] of space that I had to tell it. In addition to his other works, Wil had written essays for both THE BONES and FAMILY GAMES: the 100 BEST, two books that I had also contributed to, so I’m familiar [...]
[...] of space that I had to tell it. In addition to his other works, Wil had written essays for both THE BONES and FAMILY GAMES: the 100 BEST, two books that I had also contributed to, so I’m familiar [...]
[...] The Bones: Us And Our Dice is ready to roll. (See what I did there? Ready to roll? Like dice? Like bones? Shut up. No, you [...]
[...] about a dice-centric topic, Gameplaywright is hosting a Blog Carnival to commemorate the release of The Bones. There’s a lot of discussion going on about the role of “just having fun” in [...]
Just FYI: nothing on this page tells me how much either edition costs. I had to click on the Buy Now link to find it. Same with the Things We Think About Games page.
If there were PDF versions of all three books (Things We Think About Games, The Bones, and Hamlet’s Hit Points), I would buy all three, to read on my iPad. I *may* buy these in hardcopy, but I’ll probably wait several months or buy them at a con (Dreamation 2011, at the earliest), so get those digital products cranking!
Thanks for writing, Matthew! I’m happy to say that we’ve got PDF editions of all three books coming soon, and that I’ve corrected the pricing issue on these pages. I hope you’ll be able to pick up your PDF copies of the books soon. Thanks for bearing with us!
Awesome response time, Will! Glad to hear about the PDF editions. I’ll be looking for your tweet, and then you can be looking for my money.
[...] a couple weeks of bus-reading, I’ve finally finished my copy of The Bones, published by Gameplaywright and edited by Will Hindmarch, and behold, it was [...]